Republic -- "If you can keep it." [Democracy]
Accountability for Jan. 6th insurrection.
U.S. Select House Committee on Jan. 6th Hearing continues in the fall.
U.S. Dept. of Justice and FBI deserving of respect for doing their jobs.
QUESTION: What has happened to the documents missing from the empty file folders marked 'classified' found mixed into personal belongings of the ex-President -- items he allegedly illegally took to his Florida country club resort home -- documents he kept there even after all such records owned by our government his attorneys falsely reported had been returned as required?
"TOO DARN HOT" from the musical film 'Kiss Me Kate' / 1953 Ann Miller dancing and singing Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter Starring: Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Keenan Wynn, Bobby Van, Tommy Rall, James Whitmore, Bob Fosse, Ron Randell
HOT TIME IN THE OLD TOWN ... many days and nights!
HOT is a term describing the climate in many places around the world including my own here in Southern California, U.S. People are flocking to our SoCal beaches to stay cool. Monsoonal thunderstorms with lightning erratically roll through some communities (not mine) dropping short bursts of rain. Bears seek humans' swimming pools in which to cool themselves.
100+ degrees Fahrenheit (38+ Celsius) our thermometers have been recording beginning last week, continuing into this current week only to get hotter in some SoCal communities -- think 105 - 115 F (43 - 53 C).
Earlier in the season, we received in our mail forms to submit encouraging those who can and want to participate in our utility power company's 'flex alert' program for which they give $$$ credits.
We're now on 'flex alert'. We're asked to eliminate using electric appliances like our ovens, clothes and dishwashers, turn off other devices, to not charge electric autos, between 4-9 p.m. This is also the time period during which we are asked to conserve water due to our drought I've described here previously.
Additionally, for several consecutive days we are being advised we could experience 'rolling blackouts'. This usually means our power could periodically be cut off for an hour, then turned back on, during days and nights.
Provision excluding such power outages can be arranged by individuals whose medical conditions require they must have electricity for their life-sustaining equipment.
Our several years drought has aggravated our parched vegetation due to such extremely hot weather in areas here and in northern California creating even greater susceptibility to fire. Our rationed water is also required to combat these fires. The flames have destroyed acres of countryside along with some resident's homes, causing thousands to evacuate, injuring some and threatening, even taking the lives of people as well as other life.
The future our world is predicted to face includes increasing extreme temperature changes which we are just beginning to experience. In simple terms, in each succeeding year to come, our summer days and nights are likely only going to get hotter.
Perhaps being aware of what others experience now may help inform some to think in terms of their own communities -- what they may be able or want to do in anticipation, if or when they have a similar situation.
Los Angeles has taken the actions so far by only two other cities, Miami and Phoenix -- appointing a Chief Heat Officer, Marta Segura, to "oversee the City's response to extreme heat events" described in a city press release. She was previously director of climate emergency mobilization.
The L.A. city plan will include a warning system, interagency emergency response plans, also long-term strategies to reduce exposure. Smithsonian magazine describes "Heat is the leading weather-related killer in the U.S."
"Americans who are over the age of 65, Black Americans, children, patients with cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses and economically disadvantaged populations are more vulnerable to heat and face a higher risk of death, on top of the disparities in mortality reporting" reported by the Environmentally Protection Agency (EPA).
"The idea of Chief Heat Officers isn't exclusive to the US. Since Miami announced its position, Athens, Greece, Freetown, Sierra Leone, Monterey in Mexico, and the Santiago metropolitan region in Chile have all hired in similar positions."
The world in which we live now and will in the future is projected to be quite different from the one into which I was born more than three quarters of a century ago. I think the expectation some seem to have that we can recapture life in the world as we once knew is not at all likely.
Resistance to the changes coming only makes the accommodation more difficult. The complications of too much water, flooding, presents massive threats some in the world have already been experiencing from which we need to be learning, then taking preparatory action now.
Flooding washed out a major connecting freeway (I-10) between L.A.andPhoenix recently, so we are not immune to too much water in some drought areas also vulnerable to the effects of excessive heat. Adaptation to our evolving new world now is our challenge.
Our energy source to power cooling, heating, and lighting our homes, our transportation vehicles, and systems to operate all our devices on which we increasingly depend in most other facets of our lives are central to our existence.
Not all of us are able to incorporate all of the necessary changes into our daily lives but we might best do what we can. Also, I'm no longer a candidate for taking on extra employment to augment costs of some recommended special projects as I might once have done when younger. That situation becomes a fact of life for most at some stage in life.
Meanwhile, I'm keeping cool with air conditioning, doing all I can do in the way of conservation of electric and water usage as necessary. There is more I know would help in overall conservation beyond these immediate special needs I would like to be able to adopt. Some adaptive actions I would take but I'm no longer physically able to perform some of the required tasks that could mitigate upkeep. In other desired actions the cost is prohibitive, considering given the unknowns of what my personal future needs may be I expect is true for others, too.
I wonder .....
..... if others reading here view the future as I've considered it to be?
..... if other readers here have or will be doing all they think could or needs to be done to adapt to this future that is confronting us now?
..... if special action is being taken in your community to prepare and adapt to changing weather and/or environmental conditions where you live -- locally or in your state?
Where I live, India, nothing so far has started other than some well meaning groups doing some conservation work and raising public opinion about climate change, pollution etc.
ReplyDeleteConversation about the issues matters since if weather conditions worsen public opinion may influence government to act. Until then there are actions can initiate individually.
DeleteThe climate situation in Northern Ireland is nothing like as severe as in the US. Temperatures reach a maximum of about 25C, and floods and droughts are very unusual. We have no electricity or water restrictions right now. But the price of electricity, gas and heating oil is rocketing while wages are dropping in real terms, so a lot of people are in dire straits financially.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the price of your energy sources may be influenced by more factors than changes in the climate though not all areas in a country are impacted in the same way we are where I live.
DeleteJoared, I view it as all rather hopeless and far, far too late. Some jurisdictions project 2035(!!) as when they will rid themselves of fossil fuet consumption. I look at Pakistan and Africa at the moment and the dried river beds everywhere and know in my bones we, the peasants, have no say in the matter and we have very little time left. Our individual energy management is not even a tiny drop in what is needed.
ReplyDeleteHere out here on the wild Atlantic, was the hottest summer on record and we had, unbelievably, a massive forest fire in the middle of the island. Evacuations. Hospitals overloaded. I struggled with the 99% humidity. No A/C. Never needed in the past.
I could go on but you have summarized very well. It's a terrible (end?) time on this tiny planet.
XO
WWW
I appreciate your perspective and understand how you could form that view. Our California governor has said 2035 is when no more new gasoline powered cars will be sold in our state with electric vehicles the goal. Projections by some is that timeline will likely need to be extended.
DeleteI'm not ready to accept an "end?" time until the moment comes and hope we'll all keep striving to prevent such a scenario.
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DeleteI will do what little as I can by conserving and voting but I do fear we are doing too little too late. Greed and the dollar will prevent any real changes. Wish we had really paid attention in 2006 when Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" surfaced.
ReplyDeleteIdeally we would have started sooner readying for what we were told we could expect with weather changes as this information was available even before Al Gore's effort to bring to everyone's attention to the matter.
DeleteRegarding climate change effects like lack of rain, heat and fire hazards: individual households so far can cope and so, no restrictions have been issued. As we are going into autumn, we may have avoided this particular step by a small margin. We have fire warnings in place and some forests walkways are officially closed but whether people have been adhering to it and who controls it, that's another matter. Over the past months there has been lots of coverage on all types of media about how to save water and anybody with a lush green lawn gets dirty looks around here.
ReplyDeleteOur bigger issue is of course fuel shortages due to the Russian war mongering and we are possibly looking into a bleak winter with rising fuel prices and even blackouts. There are various government proposals and pay outs and of course, endless debates, with input from labour unions and the various social organisations, churches, etc. In the coming weeks and months our (green, social democrats) government may become an indispensable provider for financial survival. Energy prices are going through the roof and there is little to suggest that this will change any time soon. Many households would be in dire straits if the state did not help them. Without help, there will be civil unrest, not something that Germany wants or needs right now.
Thanks for such an informative overall look at what you are experiencing in Germany. I'm glad you've avoided heat issues with fall's arrival. I've followed general news reports about Russia's manipulation of fuel with concern for how citizens would stay warm when winter arrives. High energy costs any time certainly impair life for most. I hope these challenges can be met with a minimum of complications.
DeleteThe small town where I have lived in Northwest Washington since leaving California when I was 23 in 1973 has as its water source a 14-mile lake fed by glaciers from a volcano 50 miles to the east. This summer the lake level has dropped to the point that what was once a mighty waterfall down the creek from the lake is now profoundly diminished to two small streams of water. Trees, deciduous and evergreen, that are used to substantial rain are extremely stressed. We have had water use restriction during the summer for years. Trees that create cooling shade for homes have tended to be cut down because they block the sun during the winter months when cold weather is a problem.
ReplyDeleteThis year, the Opportunity Council, a resource for low income people, offered free portable air-conditioners, by request, to low income people over 65 and others vulnerable to heat. The response to this went beyond the resources of the Opportunity Council to provide as many portable air conditioners as were requested. Traditionally, houses and apartments tended to be designed to keep out the cold rather than stay cool. Low income (and many people in general) lack the financial resources to make the changes that would make their homes cooler.
This summer, the shelter for the homeless in our community had a "cooling room" for those affected by the heat and an outreach team that handed out 100 bottles of water per day during the hottest days.
The level of the cattail pond that I look out on from my 2nd story porch dropped so low that the beavers got busy at night and blocked the culvert that has normally flowed from our spring-fed pond to the far west end of Lake Whatcom and down the creek to Whatcom Falls.
We are vulnerable here, too, even though the hottest day here this summer was in the low 90s. The cost of living in Bellingham is high and will continue to increase with climate change.
It is good to know that you have been able to stay cool during this time of extremely hot weather, Joared.
Thanks for the extensive description of what you're experiencing in Washington state. Interesting learning your water restriction began years ago. The reality of a cold climate that would predominately focus on staying warm in the fall and winter, but now must begin to need to find ways to be cool due to a rising heat level in the summer. Glad to hear the water needs and "cooling" sites, as we have here, too, are being provided and you are doing well, also,
DeleteI stay cool in my home as, coincidentally, I had to install new A/C and Furnace units last fall due to the aged state of our first units. Of course, if the power would go off I would cease to be cool.
We hadn't needed whole house A/C here until years ago we had to have a shading tree removed due to whose pollens my husband had became allergic. Fortunately, due to high energy efficiency units updated functioning our operational costs for both of these new units remained the same as we had previously had to pay for our old furnace alone.
I agree that this is our New Normal. A lot of time was wasted and warnings and mitigation solutions by great minds squandered. It's not like we weren't aware of the trajectory of climate change.
ReplyDeleteSo much of this comes down to corporate greed.
Misinformation from some corporate leaders, though they knew differently, has been spread all for profits -- just like the cigarette industry foisted on the American people about cancer risk.
DeleteResponse 1. No one else has come close to Ann Miller doing Too Damn Hot. Just watching her performance edges up the temperature by a couple of deg.Celsius (There's fewer of them so they can be thought of as stronger than deg. F.)
ReplyDeleteResponse 2. Excessive temperatures combined with drought, flooding, starvation, and extreme right-wing politicians are almost enough to invoke the existence of an Old Testament God. A vengeful Jahweh devoted as much to punishment as to dishing out blessings. "OK," he says in a world-weary voice, "I've waited just over two-thousand years but, if anything, your behaviour has slipped backwards; re-living what you ironically refer as The Barbaric Age. Now you're going to get it in the neck. And as special torture for all you Liberals I'm going to save a handful of corrupt billionaires and have them playing triangle in The Great Celestial Orchestra. Ha - ha -ha. You thought things just couldn't get worse, didn't you? Verily, I say unto you, they can and I'm the guy to bring about such worseness."
Am I (that's me, RR, not Jahweh) guilty of bad taste? There comes a time when one runs out of outrage and one might laugh at what's happening if there wasn't a high percentage of being stoned. That's with rocks, not Tennessee sipping whisky. I am three years away from becoming ninety and ratiocination makes my head ache. Should I have stood in bed?
Ann Miller was quite a dancer wasn't she! There seem to be few of us left to recall or maybe fully appreciate her performance. My years dancing when very young (that circumstances required I had to give up) are still very strong treasured memories that influence my appreciation for dancers talents.
DeleteAssessing our situation can be done in a variety of ways, often with elements of truth, through sarcasm, irony, other means, so the manner in which you've presented thoughts here would seem to be one of them. We can not always be sure how some may react to the words we use especially when we incorporate certain belief systems into that effort -- some may appreciate, some not, but we'll have no stoning here.
"Ratiocination" is a new word to me which I've learned means: "the process of exact thinking, reasoning". Far be it that I should suggest you should have "stood in bed."
I have been reading about the awful heat in California and the fires, too. Take care. Gigi hawaii
ReplyDeleteStay cool where you are, too.
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