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BREAKING: Trump Budget Numbers Make No Sense

Mother Jones

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Jon Chait says the Trump White House has made a $2 trillion mistake:

Trump has promised to enact “the biggest tax cut in history.” Trump’s administration has insisted, however, that the largest tax cut in history will not reduce revenue, because it will unleash growth….But then the budget assumes $2 trillion in higher revenue from growth in order to achieve balance after ten years. So the $2 trillion from higher growth is a double-count. It pays for the Trump cuts, and then it pays again for balancing the budget.

It’s true that the budget summary document includes a line item called “Effect of economic feedback” (in Table S-2) that comes to $2.062 trillion over ten years. Is that the same as the economic feedback that will pay for tax cuts? Who knows, really. It’s all just made-up nonsense anyway. But here’s an interesting thing. In the detailed projections, the Trump budget projects lower tax revenue than the final Obama budget:

What’s up with that? Does the Trump budget not include any economic feedback after all? But even if it doesn’t, why is their projection lower than Obama’s? Is it so they can use this lower number as a new baseline for comparison when they unveil their growth-exploding tax plan later in the year?

I know, I know: who cares? The Trump numbers are just random gibberish plucked from the sky. Still, you’d think they could at least make them agree from one spreadsheet to the next. Where’s the economic feedback in the tax revenue numbers?

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BREAKING: Trump Budget Numbers Make No Sense

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Is Mike Pence Familiar With Donald Trump’s Position on Syria?

Mother Jones

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Throughout the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump has seemed content to cede leadership in Syria to Russia. But at Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence made a stunning about-face from his running mate’s position by saying the United States should stand up to Russia and even be willing to bomb the Syrian military to stop humanitarian disasters.

“If Russia…continues to be involved in this barbaric attack on civilians in Aleppo, the United States of America should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime,” Pence said. It was part of a forceful case that the United States should stand up to Russia, which is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russian aircraft have flown bombing missions in Syria for the past year, killing almost 10,000 people in that time. Russia has also stepped up its air campaign in recent days in the city of Aleppo, killing several hundred civilians and destroying hospitals in the process. “The provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength,” Pence said.

Pence’s comments were by far the most hawkish ones made so far by either the Trump or Clinton campaigns. During the Republican primaries, Trump proposed putting 30,000 troops in Iraq and Syria to defeat ISIS. But he has also said that the US has “bigger problems than Assad” and has repeatedly called for working with Russia on an anti-ISIS campaign. “If we could get Russia to help us get rid of ISIS—if we could actually be friendly with Russia—wouldn’t that be a good thing?” he said at a rally this summer. Confronting the Syrian army and its Russian allies could lead to direct combat between US and Russian aircraft or US jets being shot down by recently placed Russian missiles.

Clinton is also seen as a Syria hawk. She has criticized the Obama administration’s policy on Syria and supports the creation of a no-fly-zone to protect Syrian civilians. That hawkishness has drawn criticism from other Democrats, and Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned last month that a no-fly-zone could drag the United States into war with Russia. Kaine reiterated Clinton’s desire to create a “humanitarian zone” during Tuesday’s debate, but he pointedly avoided saying how a Clinton administration would enforce such safe areas and did not mention Clinton’s support for a no-fly-zone.

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Is Mike Pence Familiar With Donald Trump’s Position on Syria?

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Climate change could put gross worms in your clams

global worming

Climate change could put gross worms in your clams

By on 15 Jan 2015 6:46 amcommentsShare

You know what’s delicious? Shellfish. You know what’s definitely not? Parasitic worms. Unfortunately, that’s a pair that climate change might start bringing together more and more often.

Researchers at the University of Missouri looked at the fossilized remains of ancient clams around the Pearl River delta in China, and found that as sea level rose, infestations of parasitic worms called trematodes increased. It’s hard to say exactly what causes the population boom, except that it’s not related merely to an increase in the population of clams or an increase in salinity.

The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month, bolsters similar findings from the Adriatic Sea, leading scientists to believe it might well be a more general effect of sea level rise everywhere. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

“What we can say is there’s a strong relationship between the first 300 years of rise in sea level and prevalence,” [lead researcher John] Huntley said in an interview.

The fossil record could hold lessons as humans work to adapt to rising sea levels caused by climate change, Huntley said. If another significant flatworm uptick happens, it could affect fisheries and disrupt food systems or lead to higher infection rates among humans.

Here in the present day, I’m sorry to report, trematodes are alive and well. They still get into freshwater mollusks like clams and snails, which are then eaten by birds and other animals, including the very self-interested Homo sapiens. Just so you know, trematode infections are not fun: “Symptoms of infection in humans range from liver and gall bladder inflammation to chest pain, fever, and brain inflammation.”

So if you want to avoid a nasty case of worms AND keep snarfing tasty gastropods, maybe try a little harder on this whole don’t-ruin-the-planet-or-my-plate-of-clams thing?

Source:
Ancient Fossils Reveal Potential Risk of Rise in Parasitic Infections Due to Climate Change

, MU News.

Another reason to fear climate change: You may get worms

, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

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Climate change could put gross worms in your clams

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