The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Fire

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The good news: Smoke from the Amazon, Central Africa and expected fires out west combined with ash from any number of eruptible volcanoes will blanket the earth and block out the sun cancelling climate warming.

The bad news: No one will be here to see it.

well, maybe a roach or two

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50 thoughts on “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Fire”

  1. NYTimes:   The Amazon is on Fire. So is Central Africa.

    DAKAR, Senegal — As images of wildfires in South America’s Amazon region draw global attention, a large and potentially devastating series of fires is raging in Central Africa and parts of Southern Africa.

    Among the regions at risk is the Congo Basin forest, the second-largest tropical rainforest, after the Amazon, mostly in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The region absorbs tons of carbon dioxide, a key in the fight against climate change, and has been called the world’s “second lung,” following the Amazon.
    At the Group of 7 summit of political leaders this week, amid a global feud over how to handle the Brazil blazes, President Emmanuel Macron of France published a Twitter message acknowledging the Africa burns and saying he was considering an aid program to help.
    Fire experts, however, are cautioning against comparing the situations in Africa and South America too closely. While the fires are racing through environmentally critical rain forests in Brazil and Bolivia, in Central Africa, they are incinerating savanna and scrubbier land, and mostly licking at the edges of the rainforest, said Lauren Williams, a forest expert with Global Forest Watch who is based in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital.

    [continues]

  2. CBS news:

    A day after Brazil rejected aid from G-7 countries to fight wildfires in the Amazon, the Brazilian leader has said Tuesday that his government will accept all foreign aid from organizations or countries — as long as it can decide how to use the assistance. President Jair Bolsonaro originally said he would only accept help if French President Emmanuel Macron apologized to him personally for perceived insults first.

    [continues]

  3. riffing on the gun motto, a message to don the con and his pal jair the jerk: 

    It’s not fires that kill people (and everything else), it’s people like you who start them.

  6. On the debate stage will be:

    -Joe Biden -Pete Buttigieg -Kamala Harris -Bernie Sanders -Elizabeth Warren -Cory Booker -Beto O’Rourke -Amy Klobuchar -Julián Castro -Andrew Yang

  7. Hope Amy Klobuchar will get the focus she deserves.  No other candidate has a 65% favorability rating in their home state.  She must be doing something right.

     

  8. Pogo…   methinks if NH goes for Sanders (as predicted) in the primary…  it’ll amount to a fart in the wind.  I think the real test begins 4 days later in South Carolina.
     
    I also wouldn’t count out Warren winning here either.  I do think the contest here is between our 2 neighboring states.

  9. Renee, that’s sort of what I thought. I could easily see each of the top 3 taking one each of the Iowa, NH & SC races then slugging it out down the stretch.
    So SFB is going to shift disaster funding to border protection just as hurricane season starts to heat up.  I hope Maralago and Doral get blown the fuck off the face of the earth.

  10. Well, another day another poll, or today 2 polls, here and here
    Biden 32% in both polls, so much for yesterday’s theory
    The Quinnipiac poll  does a heads up against 4 Democrats and it looks like that even the ham sandwich will beat Trump. 40% of the country will vote for him and 49% plus will vote for anybody else. 
    Jack

  11. meanwhile across the pond, bojo the bozo pulls a trump (or at least what trump is itching to do) and suspends democracy.

    how some are reacting according to the guardian:

     The former prime minister John Major has said he is seeking legal advice on whether he can challenge Johnson’s decision to prorogue parliament.
    In a statement read out on BBC News, Major said: “I have no doubt that the prime minister’s motive in seeking prorogation is to bypass a sovereign parliament that opposes his policy. As events unfold I will continue to seek advice on the legality of this and other matters, but will be making no further comment.”

    Major said he would be willing to go to court to seek a judicial review to stop Johnson proroguing parliament.
    In June he said this:  […] ‘I cannot imagine Mr Disraeli, Mr Gladstone, Mr Churchill or Mrs Thatcher even in their most difficult moments saying let us put parliament aside while I carry through this difficult policy that a part of my party disagrees with.’

    [continues]

  13. big pressure and spotlight will now shift to Stacey Abrams – candidate for veep or senator?

    wapo:

    Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said Wednesday that he will resign at the end of 2019 due to health problems, setting the stage for two competitive Senate races in Georgia in a presidential election year.

    Isakson, who was reelected to a third term in 2016, said in a statement that he has informed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) of his decision, effective Dec. 31.

    […]

    His retirement means Georgia voters will be asked to choose two U.S. senators next year, as Sen. David Perdue (R) is seeking a second term.
    His departure immediately shifted attention to Democrat Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost the governor’s race in 2018. Abrams said in a statement she will not seek the seat, but she is likely to face continued pleas from Democrats to run.
    “Our thoughts are with Senator Isakson and his family,” Abrams spokesman Seth Bringman said. “Leader Abrams’ focus will not change: she will lead voter protection efforts in key states across the country, and make sure Democrats are successful in Georgia in 2020. While she will not be a candidate herself, she is committed to helping Democratic candidates win both Senate races next year.”

    [continues]

  16. KGC – what does faux news have to say about suspending Parliment?  If they are for it we can expect SFB to do something really stupid.  Maybe enough to get Speaker Pelosi to announce articles of impeachement.

  18. It is important to look inside national polls of democrats at the numbers among liberals because they are the ones who actually show up and vote in primaries, and especially in caucuses

  19. Caucuses and primaries are won by people who can get the most people motivated. People like Biden, but I don’t see him setting their hearts on fire. Bernie! seems to have hit a glass ceiling; he has already excited all the voters he’s going to excite. It looks like Joe will win in SC, but if Warren takes IA and Bernie gets NH, his victory in the palmetto state won’t be very impressive. In other words, we’ll have to wait until the smoke clears on Super Tuesday before we know who is likely to be the nominee – if then. 
    By New Years Day we should know whether or not the Senate rippers will rebel against the polluting, racist, pussygrabbing russian mole and their corrupt majority leader.

  20. the hill:

    The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Wednesday formally condemned President Trump in a statement for his “continued use of the name ‘Pocohantas’ as a slur” when referring to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
    “NCAI condemns the President’s continued use of the name ‘Pocahontas’ as an insult for political gain,” NCAI CEO Kevin Allis said in the statement. “Not only does it disrespect Pocahontas’ legacy and life, it likens her name to a slur.”
    Allis referenced numerous slurs Native people have faced for hundreds of years “that the forces of racism and intolerance deploy to dehumanize our people, mock our cultures, and interfere with our inherent right to control our own lands and destinies.”
    He added that those terms “dismiss our rightful place as this country’s First Americans, and ignore the immense contributions that tribal nations and peoples have made and continue to make to America.”

    […]

    The statement from NCAI concluded with a call to all Americans to “denounce the continued use of such terms and the sentiments they express.”

  22. speaking of native americans, this from NYTimes today:

    For Native American tribes, treaties with the United States government have often led to displacement, removal and outright erasure.
    But now, the Cherokee Nation is turning to treaties signed in the 18th and 19th centuries to push for a delegate to Congress for the first time in history. The treaties, the Nation claims, promised them a seat at the table.
    “These treaties are sacred. They mean something. There’s no expiration date on them,” said Chuck Hoskin Jr., chief of the Cherokee Nation, who last week announced he would fulfill a longstanding legal right to appoint a delegate to Congress. “What I’m asking is for the government of the United States to keep its word.”
    Charles Gourd, 70, the director of the Cherokee National Historical Society, said he and others had wondered with incredulity why no Cherokee Nation delegate had ever been seated in Congress despite assurances to that effect. Mr. Hoskin’s renewed push, weeks after he was sworn in as the new chief, in part reflects how far the Cherokee have come in terms of governance, Mr. Gourd said.
    “We’ve talked about it, yes, but we hadn’t done anything about it because there were other things that had to be done to get to this point,” said Mr. Gourd, who has studied Native American sovereignty. “In a real sense there was not a fully functioning government and there have been some growing pains. I think this is a measure of the maturity of our tribal government.”
    Settled in northeastern Oklahoma after the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee Nation today has nearly 400,000 enrolled members, making it the largest of nearly 600 federally recognized Native American tribes. There are also two significantly smaller, independent Cherokee tribes recognized by the federal government that are based in Oklahoma and North Carolina.
    Their effort to seat a delegate in Congress — albeit, a nonvoting member — comes amid a broader push for visibility and political representation among Native Americans. In November, the Democrats Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna) of New Mexico and Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk Nation) of Kansas became the first Native American women elected to Congress. Congress now has four Native American members, including Tom Cole (Chickasaw Nation) and Markwayne Mullin (Cherokee Nation), both Republicans of Oklahoma.
    The right for the Cherokee to send a “deputy” to represent them in the United States Congress was first codified in the Treaty of Hopewell of 1785, which defined Cherokee borders and promised certain protections in return. The right to send a “delegate” specifically to the House of Representatives was affirmed in the 1835 Treaty of New Echota — which is better remembered for being the legal basis for the Trail of Tears, which removed Native Americans from their homelands.
    The House of Representatives already has several nonvoting delegates. They represent Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands.
    But there has never been a delegate representing a sovereign Native American government.
    It remains to be seen how the plan will be greeted by congressional leaders.
    In his role as chief, Mr. Hoskin has selected Kimberly Teehee as the delegate; she will be considered by the Nation’s legislative branch this week. He said he expected Ms. Teehee to be confirmed easily by the Nation.

    […]

    Dan Lewerenz (Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska), a staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, said seating a Cherokee Nation delegate would be an important step toward more Native American visibility, and be celebrated across tribes. But he added that a Cherokee Nation delegate should not be seen by the public as a Native American delegate at large.
    “The treaty doesn’t say anything about Cherokee being a stand-in for other tribes,” Mr. Lewerenz said. “The treaty affords them a right and they choose to exercise it, which is great. If my tribe had that in one of our treaties, I would hope we’d send a delegate to Congress, too.”
    Mr. Hoskin said the delegate’s primary mission in Washington would be to represent the Cherokee Nation specifically. But he said the delegate would also carry an important symbolic role for all Native Americans, regardless of tribal affiliation.
    “Because this is such a historic and unprecedented action by an Indian nation, I think the delegate will have a broader responsibility to help be a voice for all Indian Country,” he said. “I’ve seen the power of tribes collaborating and standing in solidarity on issues. It is my expectation that Ms. Teehee will be mindful of broader issues in all of Indian Country.”

  23. Yeah, there’s usually not much excitement among the pro-status quo Dems. Occasionally a McCarthy or Mondale will run for President, and then the middle-of-the-freeway people show up in droves, motivated by state pride. However, as half of Minnesota residents are now from Somewhere Else, I’m not so sure that the state pride effect of days gone by still rules.

  25. With the MN and IA corn growers associations coming out against trump, it’s obvious that he can’t flip the former and won’t hold on to the latter. So, the repub’s expressed hope for taking these two states is just another opioid with cocaine  delusion. 

  26. I think Warren needs to go spend major quality time with black voters in South Carolina. She doesn’t need to win them over right now but if she wins Iowa and New Hampshire she needs them to be comfortable with her as a second choice because I don’t think they will ever go for Bernie.

  27. Mr C,
    I’m not disagreeing, just quibbling a bit. If Biden loses IA & NH, I’m sure that he won’t get 50% in SC. In fact, I’d bet Mr Bink’s life on it.
    But, Biden could still win with a razor thin plurality – say B!S32, E33, JB34. His campaign would call it a victory, and no one would believe it.
     
    Btw, remember the play JB ? The Tony Award for ’58 I believe. JB was Christopher Plummer’s 1st role in America. 

  28. craig, and maybe a good word from Stacey Abrams about how warren spent in person time and money helping her GA gov campaign. 

  35. Rep duffy (r-WI) and Sen isakson (r-GA) desert the sinking ship. It’s going to be a mass migration.

  37. SFB upset Morgan Freeman today

    Seriously shut your privileged bullying white pie-hole, you supreme sack of shit. Oh what I wouldn’t do for 10s with your sorry ass.

    SFB tweeted:

    Puerto Rico is one of the most corrupt places on earth. Their political system is broken and their politicians are either Incompetent or Corrupt. Congress approved Billions of Dollars last time, more than anyplace else has ever gotten, and it is sent to Crooked Pols. No good!….

  38. Mr C, I view it the same way. I just hope that she can keep the excitement going for 14.5 months. 
    Now, as to the Veep, how about a black Catholic male farmer from the Midwest with a Spanish surname ?
    (-8>D))< 

  40. Poobah, I have little doubt you are right about the media eviscerating Joe if he fails to win IA or NH, but if he wins NV & SC big – and that’s what current polls indicate would happen if they were held today – he’ll trudge on into Super Tuesday and those results will be the news, then if no clear front runner emerges, into the next Tuesday.  Considering the chaos that is the SFB administration I’m not so sure that a boring centrist might not be just what brings those not firmly in one base or the other out to make sure that we don’t repeat the clown show we’ve had since 2017. And I’m guessing here, but I’m guessing that PA & MI at a minimum ain’t buying SFB’s “I’m bringing back manufacturing” schtick, so “coattails”* shouldn’t be so hard for the Dem candidate to wear.
     
    * Coattails (n) – the ability of a candidate to get voters to go to the polls and to keep his or her supporters voting a straight ticket and getting unaffiliated voters who vote for him or her to vote for his or her party in down ballot races.   [this definition is a work in progress – readers please feel free to slice, dice and julienne it].

  43. jack, denying citizenship to overseas births looks like trump is still afire with vengence on Obama, McCain & cruz

  45. This is a Steven Miller sick idea.  His fingerprints are all over it.  He sits in his lavish office deeply involved in mental masturbation…thinking up this crap and what jack posted above.  The Ghoul is a mixture of Mengele and Goebbels . And the BIG SFB not only approves of this, and not giving flu shots to the folks in the cages at the border, he eats this up. Will the God fearing, Bible thumping, PRO LIFE evangelicals support this???
    I hope that SFB and the Ghoul die long, painful, protracted deaths.

    I hear that the Ghoul walks the streets of D.C.

  48. 18 months is too long to wait to get this cruel, treasonous, criminal, political arsonist out of the White House.   

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