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Today in Trump

by CassieRZJyu Posted on January 23, 2017

Mother Jones

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Here’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press this morning, asking White House “counselor” Kellyanne Conway why President Trump’s press secretary started his first day in office by going out and lying repeatedly on national TV. Her answer: Sean Spicer was merely providing “alternative facts.”

I don’t want to pick on Todd, who pressed Conway hard on this, but it was almost painful watching him try so hard to avoid using the obvious word here. Over and over, he wanted to ask why Spicer had lied, which would be the usual way of phrasing his question. On a couple of occasions he even stuttered a bit while he searched for another word. He just wouldn’t say it. So what’s the best response to Conway’s dogged unwillingness to answer questions in even a debatably truthful way? I think Jamelle Bouie has it right:

There’s a limit to how much TV networks should tolerate staffers who have a consistent history of viewing airtime merely as a way of promoting lies. Kellyanne Conway blew past that limit before Trump even took office. It’s hard to see what the value of having her on a news show is at this point.

In other developments, hold on to your jaw—or maybe your stomach—as you watch Trump blow a kiss to FBI Director James Comey and then give him a big hug:

Jeet Heer has the proper take on this:

Trump won because of Comey. Period. Without Comey’s letter of October 28, Trump would have lost by 8 million popular votes and a few dozen electoral votes. And Comey knew exactly what he was doing. Published reports suggest that literally every single person he talked to advised him that writing his letter would be an unprecedented violation of rules against letting ongoing investigations interfere with elections.

Finally, in other news from Kellyanne Conway, we learned officially what’s been obvious for a long time: Donald Trump is never going to release his tax returns.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You mentioned a couple hundred thousand people who sent in petitions on health care, talking about health care, you also have more than 200,000 who petitioned the White House calling on President Trump to release his full tax returns with all information needed to verify emolument’s clause compliance. Whenever 100,000 petition, that triggers a White House response. So, what is the White House response?

CONWAY: The White House response is that he’s not going to release his tax returns. We litigated this all through the election. People didn’t care. They voted for him.

The “audit” was just a ruse all along. I don’t think that will surprise anyone with a room-temperature IQ, and I guess Trump decided to stop playing the game.

1,458 days to go. I can hardly wait for the Spicer/Conway description of Trump’s tax cuts and Trump’s replacement for Obamacare.

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Today in Trump

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Uplifting, Heartbreaking, Enormous Crowds at Women’s Marches Around The World

by JaxonChong7701 Posted on January 20, 2017

Mother Jones

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Dramatically larger than expected crowds showed up Saturday at women’s marches in Washington, DC, and more than 600 cities around the world. Mother Jones reporters have been on the scene all day, interviewing protesters and gathering photos and video. In this roundup we’ve collected some of what they saw, as well as highlights from across social media.

10:46 p.m. EST: And with that, we’re signing off for now.

9:00 p.m. EST: Safe travels home everyone!

7:40 p.m. EST: Another large crowd in San Francisco:

5:50 p.m. EST: President Trump, speaking at CIA headquarters in Langley, insisted (falsely) that his inauguration drew the largest crowd ever for such an event. “As you know, I have a running war with the media,” the president noted. His press secretary, Sean Spicer, followed up by warning that the press would be held “accountable.” Neither man mentioned the massive marches around the nation.

4:50 p.m. EST: From the march in Oakland, California:

4:09 p.m. EST:

3:55 p.m. EST: Here’s footage of women marching in five states where Donald Trump won:

3:45 p.m. EST: Even more signs (and chants!):

3:40 p.m. EST:

3:20 p.m. EST: Updates from New York City’s march:

3:16 p.m. EST: Lol.

3:07 p.m. EST: The Associated Press reports that city officials have said that because the planned route for the march in Washington, DC, “is filled with protesters, a formal march is no longer possible.” Marchers have been diverted along a different route.

2:34 p.m. EST: We’re hearing reports that attendance at marches nationwide has far surpassed predictions:

1:30 p.m. EST: Signs, signs, and more signs:

Hair made of Cheetos. Jeremy Schulman

1 p.m. EST: More than 500,000 marchers are now in Washington, DC, according to new estimates:

12:45 p.m. EST: Crowds swell at marches around the world:

12:25 p.m. EST: Well, this happened.

12:15 p.m. EST:

11:29 a.m. EST:

11:05 a.m. EST:

10:04 a.m. EST:

9:57 a.m. EST: The DC Metro is packed with attendees headed to the march.

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Uplifting, Heartbreaking, Enormous Crowds at Women’s Marches Around The World

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Climate Change Means Fewer Days of Perfect Weather

by Jane Adams Posted on January 19, 2017

Mother Jones

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Picture the perfect picnic day: It’s neither too hot nor too cold, neither too humid nor too dry. The sun is shining, and there’s little chance of rain. For many of our outdoor activities, these are the days we care about and plan for. And yet, in the last few decades of climate research, scientists haven’t spent much time researching these “mild weather” days.

“In standard climate science research, we either focus on changes in the mean climate—what is the average annual temperature globally and how does that change in time, or what is the average annual rainfall amount and how does rainfall amount change in a region—or we look at extreme weather and storms, so hurricanes or floods or droughts,” says Sarah Kapnick, a climate scientist at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But today, Kapnick, along with two colleagues at NOAA and Princeton University, have released the very first study on global shifts in “mild weather” over the next century, and the results are not looking good.

Annual number of mild weather days right now.

Changes in annual mild weather days in years 2081-2100.

Using a climate simulation model to analyze mild weather days worldwide, the scientists found that today a person, on average, experiences 89 mild days—but by 2100 she will only experience 78. Moreover, though the latter half of the century will see the fastest decline in mild days, we will begin to see the effects within the next twenty years. The model projects that by 2035, our global average of mild days will fall by four. To put this into perspective, El Niño—one of the largest natural climate-changing events—only chips off one mild weather day per year from the global average.

Of course, these mild weather changes are not evenly distributed around the world. For example, the majority of Africa, as well as, parts of Asia, eastern Latin America, and northern Australia—regions most hard-hit by other studied climate change impacts—will also suffer the greatest losses in mild weather, upwards of 25 fewer days, over the next century. That isn’t to say that the US will ride through the upcoming decades unscathed. A table published along with the study shows exactly what key American cities should expect within the next twenty years. Take two examples: Miami, which currently experiences 97 mild weather days per year, will lose 16 of those days by 2035; DC, currently tallied at 81, will lose 7.

Changes in annual mild weather days for key cities in the US. Karin van der Wiel, lead author of the study

Ticking off a couple of days here and there doesn’t sound too bad when you’re planning for picnics or hikes. But, as Kapnick points out, mild weather days also affect critical economic activities, including construction, infrastructure projects, agriculture, and air and rail travel. Such shrinking and shifting of mild weather could lead to significant negative economic consequences, not to mention a threat to our global food supply. Even for the handful of regions around the world where mild weather is predicted to increase, there could be unexpected consequences. “People in sunny California know that just because you have sunny, lovely weather, mild weather, doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily a good thing for your water resources,” says Kapnick.

Now that a model exists for studying the everyday impacts of climate change, Kapnick hopes other scientists will build off of her team’s work. She says, “We have started with mild weather, but future work can look at other ranges of climate that interest people for specific purposes or activities.”

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Climate Change Means Fewer Days of Perfect Weather

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Heading to D.C. this week? There’s a climate-themed protest for you.

by DanielaGalvan Posted on January 18, 2017

At his final press conference on Wednesday, the president said that some issues — for example, “how concerned are we about air pollution or climate change” — are just part of the “normal back-and-forth, ebb-and-flow of policy.”

Other issues, though, might get him riled up enough to speak out after he leaves office. “[T]here’s a difference between that normal functioning of politics and certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake,” he said. He listed a few things that he would see as threats to those core values: “systematic discrimination,” “obstacles to people being able to vote,” “institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press,” and deportation of so-called Dreamers.

It sounded like an articulation of his priorities in the Trump era, and global warming didn’t make the cut. Likewise, in Obama’s farewell address last week, he mentioned climate change and clean energy, but his more passionate points were dedicated to sustaining a healthy democracy.

In September, Obama talked about focusing on climate change after he leaves office, but at that point, he thought Hillary Clinton would be succeeding him. Now that Donald Trump is moving into the Oval Office, Obama seems to be indicating that he’ll focus on other problems instead.

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Heading to D.C. this week? There’s a climate-themed protest for you.

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Get those Instagrams in now: Climate change is going to mess up good weather days.

by damioncio68 Posted on January 18, 2017

At his final press conference on Wednesday, the president said that some issues — for example, “how concerned are we about air pollution or climate change” — are just part of the “normal back-and-forth, ebb-and-flow of policy.”

Other issues, though, might get him riled up enough to speak out after he leaves office. “[T]here’s a difference between that normal functioning of politics and certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake,” he said. He listed a few things that he would see as threats to those core values: “systematic discrimination,” “obstacles to people being able to vote,” “institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press,” and deportation of so-called Dreamers.

It sounded like an articulation of his priorities in the Trump era, and global warming didn’t make the cut. Likewise, in Obama’s farewell address last week, he mentioned climate change and clean energy, but his more passionate points were dedicated to sustaining a healthy democracy.

In September, Obama talked about focusing on climate change after he leaves office, but at that point, he thought Hillary Clinton would be succeeding him. Now that Donald Trump is moving into the Oval Office, Obama seems to be indicating that he’ll focus on other problems instead.

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Get those Instagrams in now: Climate change is going to mess up good weather days.

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The Dakota Access fight is moving to Louisiana.

by JorjaHartigan Posted on January 17, 2017

On the first day of the state’s legislative session, nine Republican lawmakers filed legislation that would bar utilities from using electricity produced by large-scale renewable energy projects.

The bill, whose sponsors are primarily from the state’s top coal-producing counties, would require utilities to use only approved energy sources like coal, natural gas, nuclear power, hydroelectric, and oil. While individual homeowners and small businesses could still use rooftop solar or backyard wind, utilities would face steep fines if they served up clean energy.

Wyoming is the nation’s largest producer of coal, and gets nearly 90 percent of its electricity from coal, but it also has huge, largely untapped wind potential. Currently, one of the nation’s largest wind farms is under construction there, but most of the energy will be sold outside Wyoming. Under this bill, such out-of-state sales could continue, yet the measure would nonetheless have a dampening effect on the state’s nascent renewable energy industry.

Experts are skeptical that the bill will pass, even in dark-red Wyoming, InsideClimate News reports.

One of the sponsors, Rep. Scott Clem, is a flat-out climate change denier whose website showcases a video arguing that burning fossil fuels has improved the environment.

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The Dakota Access fight is moving to Louisiana.

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Will this massive iceberg collapse soon? Get your bets in now.

by MiltonREGwamjz Posted on January 14, 2017

On the first day of the state’s legislative session, nine Republican lawmakers filed legislation that would bar utilities from using electricity produced by large-scale renewable energy projects.

The bill, whose sponsors are primarily from the state’s top coal-producing counties, would require utilities to use only approved energy sources like coal, natural gas, nuclear power, hydroelectric, and oil. While individual homeowners and small businesses could still use rooftop solar or backyard wind, utilities would face steep fines if they served up clean energy.

Wyoming is the nation’s largest producer of coal, and gets nearly 90 percent of its electricity from coal, but it also has huge, largely untapped wind potential. Currently, one of the nation’s largest wind farms is under construction there, but most of the energy will be sold outside Wyoming. Under this bill, such out-of-state sales could continue, yet the measure would nonetheless have a dampening effect on the state’s nascent renewable energy industry.

Experts are skeptical that the bill will pass, even in dark-red Wyoming, InsideClimate News reports.

One of the sponsors, Rep. Scott Clem, is a flat-out climate change denier whose website showcases a video arguing that burning fossil fuels has improved the environment.

Continued: 

Will this massive iceberg collapse soon? Get your bets in now.

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A Firestorm of Protests Will Take Aim at Donald Trump’s Inauguration

by Paisley154 Posted on January 14, 2017

Mother Jones

On Friday, president-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated into office. The day will begin with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery followed by several celebrations, including galas and inaugural balls, throughout the weekend.

But if Trump’s critics have anything to do with it, the inauguration won’t entirely be festive: Dozens of groups have announced rallies and protests leading up to the historic event, including the Women’s March on Washington, which is expected to draw as many as 200,000 attendees. Washington, DC officials say they’re preparing for at least a million visitors to the city for the inauguration and protests. And it’s not just the capital that’s bracing for January 20. Hundreds of cities expect local rallies to take place.

Here are some of the major events planned across the country over the next few weeks:

January 14: March for Immigrants and Refugees

Organized as part of the We Are Here to Stay campaign, immigrant and refugee rights groups plan to organize on this day to show solidarity for immigrants and other vulnerable communities and to stand up against hateful rhetoric against immigrants. The grassroots campaign, led by United We Dream, a youth-led immigrant justice group, and other immigrant justice groups, urges local groups to start their own chapters to protest Trump’s immigration proposals, and events are slated to take place in numerous cities, including Tucson, Albuquerque, Chicago, and Houston.

January 14: We Shall Not Be Moved March on Washington

Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network says it will hold a march on Washington to call for Trump to continue protecting civil rights. “Protecting the civil rights of citizens and the voting rights of people that have been excluded, providing health care for all Americans and equal opportunity should supersede any of the beltway partisan fights that we are inevitably headed into,” says the group.

January 15: Our First Stand: Save Health Care

Led by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Democratic members of Congress and other health care groups will protest the potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act by holding rallies across the country. House leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will hold an event in San Francisco, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) will be in Los Angeles, and Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), along with Mayor Marty Walsh will be in Boston, Massachusetts. Sanders made headlines recently when he brought a giant banner of a Trump tweet to Congress (Trump tweeted last May that he would not make cuts to social security, Medicare, and Medicaid).

January 15: Writers Resist rallies

Launched by poet Erin Belieu, Writer’s Resist calls itself a national network of writers “driven to defend the ideals of a free, just and compassionate democratic society.” The group has asked writers to independently organize local events where writers will read from historic and contemporary texts on democracy and free expression. More than 75 events have been planned, including in Seattle, Portland, Omaha, London and Hong Kong, according to its website. The flagship event will be held in New York City, where writers will gather at the steps to the New York Public Library for readings, performances, and a pledge to defend the First Amendment.

January 19: Reclaim Our Schools Day of Action

Several teachers unions and education groups, including the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, have organized under a newly-formed group called the National Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools. They plan to stage a national day of action to “defend” schools from Donald Trump and his calls to dismantle the public education system. Educators have called Trump and his secretary of education pick, Betsy DeVos, an “existential threat to public schools.”

January 19: Busboys and Poets Peace Ball

Described as an alternative to anti-Trump protests, the Busboys and Poets Peace Ball will be a “gathering to celebrate the accomplishments and successes of the past four years” at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Notable attendees include celebrities, authors, and organizers such as Solange, Alice Walker, Amy Goodman and Alicia Garza. The event had room for more than 3,000 people and has already sold out, founder Andy Shallal told ThinkProgress.

January 20: #InaugurateTheResistance

The Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition secured a permit to stage a “mass protest” against Donald Trump, starting at 7 a.m. at DC’s Freedom Plaza. Other groups holding marches include the Occupy Movement, the Democratic Socialists of America, and #DisruptJ20, a group which says it wants to shut down the inauguration.

Separately, the DCMJ, a lobbying group focused on marijuana legislation, says it will distribute free joints to celebrate pot legalization in D.C.

January 20: Student walkouts

College students across the country are planning campus walkouts, organized by groups including Socialist Students and Students for a Democratic Society.

January 21: Women’s March

The Women’s March on Washington, which started as a Facebook page after the election, will be by far one of the biggest events after the inauguration. The march’s organizers say up to 200,000 people could attend, and the event has drawn such enthusiasm and support that additional Facebook pages have been set up for parents who are bringing their children, as well as a “MarchBnb” website for people in need of housing.

Other marches inspired by the Women’s March are also being held in other cities in the US and worldwide. A full list can be found here.

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A Firestorm of Protests Will Take Aim at Donald Trump’s Inauguration

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Trump’s pick for CIA director tried to weasel out of questions on climate change.

by JeffryBueche Posted on January 13, 2017

The Obama administration announced on Thursday that it will create national monuments at three sites that are important in the history of African-Americans in the South and it will protect two areas on the West Coast to bolster climate resilience.

Two of the sites are in Alabama and will commemorate terrorist attacks by segregationists on African-Americans and civil rights activists. Another, in Beaufort, South Carolina, honors the history of African-American educational advancement during Reconstruction.

These are just the latest of the Obama administration’s many acts to celebrate locations of civil rights struggle and advancement. Last year, Obama created a national monument at the Stonewall Inn in New York City to honor gay rights history. Earlier this week, the Department of Interior established Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, where the Underground Railroad conductor lived in Auburn, New York.

Obama’s announcement on Thursday also included expanding the California Coastal National Monument, where increasing the expanse of undeveloped land on shorelines will help the area better cope with rising sea levels and more severe storms. And the president is expanding the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Oregon.

Obama has protected more land under the Antiquities Act than any other president, by far.

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Trump’s pick for CIA director tried to weasel out of questions on climate change.

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Even business titans are getting awfully worried about environmental threats.

by Rosie94Qth Posted on January 13, 2017

New California Sen. Kamala Harris grilled Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo about his views on climate change during a Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday.

She asked if he has any reason to doubt current CIA director John Brennan’s assessment that climate change is a contributing factor to rising instability in the Middle East and other areas. Pompeo, a prominent tea partier, said he was unfamiliar with the analysis Harris mentioned. When Harris followed up, asking about whether or not he believes climate change is even happening, Pompeo was equally noncommittal.

Pompeo essentially argued that climate change isn’t relevant to the job he’s being vetted for: “Frankly, as the director of CIA, I would prefer today not to get into the details of the climate debate and science,” he said.

In the past, Pompeo has directly denied the reality of climate change. He has also called President Obama’s environmental agenda “radical” and “damaging,” and said that Obama’s signature climate change initiative, the Clean Power Plan, would not provide “any measurable environmental benefit.”

Unsurprisingly, Pompeo is friendly with the Koch brothers and has deep ties to the oil and gas industry, which has donated over a million dollars to his campaigns.

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Even business titans are getting awfully worried about environmental threats.

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