Friday, April 22, 2022
The Spring 2022 Forecast in the USA.
NOAA issued it's U.S. Spring Outlook today (click here) and for the second year in a row, forecasters predict prolonged, persistent drought in the West where below-average precipitation is most likely. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center — part of the National Weather Service — is also forecasting above-average temperatures for most of the U.S. from the Desert Southwest to the East Coast and north through the Midwest to the Canadian border from April to June.
“NOAA’s Spring Outlook helps build a more weather and climate ready nation by informing local decision makers and emergency managers of this spring’s hazardous weather, such as extreme drought,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “NOAA’s seasonal outlooks provide advanced warning of the conditions to come, enabling communities to make preparations that boost their resilience to these hazards.”...
Drought in South Asia - May 2021
May 5, 2021
Devastating droughts (click here) are ravaging South Asia just about every year. The countries affected include Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan. All of them are subject to the most damaging outcomes of droughts like agricultural land destruction, an increasingly dehydrated population with little access to clean water and growing social distress.
In cities like Karachi, Pakistan the Water Board can only provide half the required amount of clean water needed to sustain the city. According to research by Sewwandhi S.K. Chandrasekara, over three million hectares of rice fields are destroyed annually in Bangladesh. Nepal suffered a 17 per cent decrease in crop production at a national level in one year. Sri Lanka had a 56 per cent decrease in crop production over 40 years, with acute social repercussions. Lack of water has also brought a growing demand for a black market, creating societal tensions between rich people who buys clean water illegally and people who can’t afford it. The prices are gauged by third-party opportunists and civilians are puncturing governmental water circuits to pump their own water. A remote city could wait almost a week before a water truck shows up and reservoirs are emptying at a rapid rate. The question is, why is this happening?...
Drought Impact for Agriculture of Ethiopia - January 2022
Returning function to the homeless.
This San Jose housing effort could be a model for other cities. Jobs and job training is a part of returning the homeless to function and function well. Affordable housing is a country wide issue and should be addressed in a way that resolves the problem for individuals and families forever.
...Although few places in the United States have escaped recent hikes, rental spikes have been particularly pronounced along the Sun Belt and in Florida. The state is home to the three metro areas where monthly rent jumped the most: Naples, Sarasota and Tampa. Monthly rents in those cities are up between 29 percent and 39 percent in the past two years, according to CoStar....
Housing increases are a two edged sword. On one hand increased values for homes and property is a boom for the owner(s), but, with an increase in value comes an increase in local taxes and that is passed on directly to those that rent. So, should there be rent control? Or should there be a process to determine what is an appropriate increase in rent vs. exploitation leading to inflation in the market place?
By Grace Hase
A 2020 ballot measure approved by San Jose voters (click here) to fund affordable housing and the city’s burgeoning homeless crisis has brought in a surprising bonanza — a $65 million surplus.
Measure E — a real estate transfer tax for properties over $2 million — was estimated to put $40 million a year into the city’s coffers in both fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2022.
But the city’s initial estimates have exceeded expectations, bringing in $50.5 million in fiscal 2021 and $90 million for the current fiscal year.
With the surplus of funds, the San Jose City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to spend some of the dollars to support homeless programs, including the construction of interim, prefabricated homes....
Measure E — a real estate transfer tax for properties over $2 million — was estimated to put $40 million a year into the city’s coffers in both fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2022.
But the city’s initial estimates have exceeded expectations, bringing in $50.5 million in fiscal 2021 and $90 million for the current fiscal year.
With the surplus of funds, the San Jose City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to spend some of the dollars to support homeless programs, including the construction of interim, prefabricated homes....
Lying matters.
Steve Bannon was never "in it" for the goverance, he was always "in it" for the money. It was he that willfully attacked and still attacks democracies through their freedom of speech and expression. He appears to be in favor of a candidate that he will mentor to victory, but, he is a "hire" and not a supporter. He has no value of life in the way democracies seek quality of life.
Trump abused power in pardoning Bannon to protect himself and his friend. Trump assaulted and continues to assault the USA Constitution that he rather see as a weak governance rather than one of the people. The only reason Trump sees democracy as weak is because he is so successful in committing fraud within it. That is a criminal and not a constitutionalist.
April 22, 2022
By Shayna Jocobs
April 22, 2022
By Shayna Jocobs
New York - Brian Kolfage, (click here) a disabled veteran who headed a $25 million fundraising effort for a U.S.-Mexico border wall with the help of former Trump aide Stephen K. Bannon, has pleaded guilty in connection to defrauding donors for his own gain.
Kolfage, an amputee who lost three limbs serving in Iraq, could serve more than five years in prison. He was accused of using more than $350,000 in donations on personal expenses such as home renovations and vehicle payments, after telling “We Build the Wall” campaign contributors that he would not take a cut of the collections or give himself a salary. On Thursday, in federal court in Manhattan, he admitted to siphoning off money for himself and also pleaded guilty to tax crimes for failing to report that income.
The Florida resident told U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres that the organization met roadblocks in carrying out its original mission of subsidizing the construction of a border wall but that he “continued to raise funds and promised I would take no salary and would not take a penny in profits.”...
Kolfage, an amputee who lost three limbs serving in Iraq, could serve more than five years in prison. He was accused of using more than $350,000 in donations on personal expenses such as home renovations and vehicle payments, after telling “We Build the Wall” campaign contributors that he would not take a cut of the collections or give himself a salary. On Thursday, in federal court in Manhattan, he admitted to siphoning off money for himself and also pleaded guilty to tax crimes for failing to report that income.
The Florida resident told U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres that the organization met roadblocks in carrying out its original mission of subsidizing the construction of a border wall but that he “continued to raise funds and promised I would take no salary and would not take a penny in profits.”...
A fatal flaw that is Twitter.
I am sure Elon Musk realizes there is dearly little to replace Twitter with another system that is similar. But, the challenge exists.
Twitter became an instrument of control by the dictator named Donald John Trump. He weaponized it. You know there is a limit to free speech. Free speech is not reckless speech. Reckless speech and hate speech are a problem for the democracies of the world and their national security. It is reckless speech we witness with the Trump Republicans. They turn dictionaries on their head.
Much of the defense of reckless speech and at times hate speech lies in colloquial speech. Words that are used off of their definition in attempts to incorporate emotion into words. I don't think colloquail speech is as well defined as it should be. There is a profound need to understand speech far better than it is understood today.
I think as democratic societies go, there is a profound right to protect the democracy from wrongful use of speech that causes issues related to national security. Free expression is not always free speech. They are different. Free expression demands free speech, but, does it also need reckless speech and hate speech to define freedom of expression?
I think what is being obversed with democracies is saturation of wrongful intent. It is similar to the idea of free access to guns. Gun Violence escalates among the best of democracies and the power of gun violence can and has changed the political face of countries. We have seen countries with free access to guns not only change it's politics, but, along side of that is increased deaths and injuries in a free and open society.
There are emotional dynamics in all these issues. Do free societies/democracies need to understand the danger of deleterious dynamics that oppress them in the name of freedom of expression and/or speech. We already know deleterious racial names and epithets carry with it actions in the physical world resulting in human suffering and/or death. I think members of democracies need to understand themselves better to realize the power of society to have far better outcomes through taming of the emotional end of words. There are consequences when freedom of speech becomes oppressive and elicits adverse outcomes to governance in maintaining its constitution. We witnessed such impacts on January 6th in the USA.
Is a polite society a good society?
Being polite brings with it subtile threatening alarms as well as pause.
Today in the USA is Earth Day.
On April 22, 2022 the CO2 level is 417. (click here)
That is too high.
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