Make America Competent Again

Every day in every way, our country gets dumber and dumber. It's an overwhelming task to present so many facts to support this claim of generalized inept behavior, so let's just take a peek at the following recently curated examples:

Six days after Hurricane Maria plowed through it, our President proclaimed Puerto Rico to be an island. Puerto Rico, it seems, is way out in the middle of the ocean and people living there and in US Virgin Islands are even American Citizens, many people do not even know that:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/09/26/the-very-big-ocean-between-here-and-puerto-rico-is-not-a-perfect-excuse-for-a-lack-of-aid/?utm_term=.86dfb1b2a169#comments

During the nearly six days of silence about Maria, the Football-Fan-In-Chief was busy tweeting, just not about the Caribbean disaster. He finally got around to it, though. Here is one of his first Puerto Rico tweets, followed by an able rebuttal by an unimpressed Puerto Rican:


Being President can be hard and kinda confusing. Thinking ahead to anticipate problems can be difficult. And though the impact of Maria on Puerto Rico had been anticipated for a week or so, it seems to have eluded the Great Minds of Team Trump:

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/26/trump-us-funding-puerto-rico-aid-243166

Got it, the WH says that money won't help in the short run. OK, how about having an armada of international aid steam up to the island with food, water and diesel fuel? Errr... well, there's this thing called "The Jones Act" that prevents non-US ships from performing this sort of function for Puerto Rico. It's a vestige of pre-World War 1 American colonialism. So... waive it, for heaven's sake! Hold on there, the Trump Administration refuses to waive it. Yep, not even for emergency food and water and such. Even though there are nearly 2 million American citizens there without potable water and thousands in hospitals dependent on generator fuel... because, you know, it's about Yankee Greenbacks:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-storm-maria-puertorico-shipping/u-s-denies-request-for-puerto-rico-shipping-waiver-idUSKCN1C12UI

Holy Moly. It's like there's some sort of Ice-9 brain freeze happening in the West Wing. Which leads to this wonderful Trump impression by a member of the DC Illuminato:

Many people don't know it but "oceans" are just water, okay? I mean you hear "ocean" and you think it's a big Irish foot or something, but it's water. Lot's of water. More than even the swimming pool in the Whitehouse and let me tell you that is a big beautiful pool. Really one of the best, well, you know, not as good as some of the other ones I have up in New York, Dubai, Florida, everywhere really, some really stunning pools and did you know that girls like pools? Let me tell you. You want to see girls? Put in a pool. And I mean they're there walking around and they're wearing almost nothing and it's just you've got to have a pool, right? It's beautiful so beautiful. America needs more pools. More pools and the women will get prettier, I guarantee it. They'll get a nice swimsuit, maybe lose some weight, and they're right there and you know what's really great? A really great pool, there's a guy who'll bring you a sandwich, or taco bowl, whatever you want, right there and you can just eat your food and a soda, he'll bring you a soda and you're at the pool and it's just wonderful.

It is funny, even if it hurts. Then last week, our President decided again that the Iran Deal was bad. Really bad. He gathered up his very best sources (the voices in his head?) and discovered something that somehow eluded everybody else - a big, bad missile launch test that the Iranians did, while sneering at us and making rude comments about small hands. Except they didn't:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/hayesbrown/it-looks-like-trump-angrily-tweeted-about-a-fake-iranian?utm_term=.dnLdANE39#.boz2B3jbn

Dopey and ill-considered behavior has not been monopolized by our Chief Executive. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin compounded his honeymoon plane fiasco and marriage to a total Marie Antoinette by suggesting on Sunday that NFL players can "do Free Speech on their own time." His boss was pleased, no doubt.


HHS Secretary/Grifter Tom Price apparently decided to join in the Administration's Dumb Fun action early on. He's been identified as a connoisseur of charter flights and seeks them out, even when a quick train from DC to Philly would do the trick, time-wise:

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/26/tom-price-private-jets-243176

And then there's our old friend, EPA head Scott Pruitt. He's involved with expensive private air travel, too. But what is notable for him is his apparent paranoia. He has increased his security detail from the larger-than-standard three to a swollen figure of 18. (There must be a lot of angry and aggressive tree-huggers out there.) In addition, he has installed a special $25,000 soundproof phone booth in his office:

http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/26/epa-spent-25k-on-a-secure-phone-booth-for-scott-pruitt-to-prevent-eavesdropping/

This leads us to the much-anticipated Comedy Section of today's post!! It has been revealed that a Brit nicknamed the "Email Prankster" has been wreaking havoc in the Administration. We will focus first on his most recent foray, in which he impersonates Jarod Kushner and sends emails to Kushner's WH lawyer, Abbe Lowell. Hilarity ensures:

http://www.businessinsider.com/jared-kushner-lawyer-email-prankster-private-2017-9

The full prankster transcript to Abbe Lowell

Previously, Email Prankster posed as WH social media director Dan Scavino complaining to WH lawyer (and self-professed "only adult in the White House") Ty Cobb about the reporter Natasha Bertrand. This is Comedy Gold,  the stuff for which Yippie Abbie Hoffman would stand and cheer, if he weren't dead. He'd take a knee, at the least:

http://www.businessinsider.com/ty-cobb-emails-prankster-drone-reporter-2017-9

And earlier, Email Prankster mashed the Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity chief Tom Bossert, who freely gave up his personal email address. He impersonated Reince Priebus to an infuriated Anthony Scaramucci. And much much more:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/31/politics/white-house-officials-tricked-by-email-prankster/index.html

All this leads to the thought - where is any secured email for this kinda thing? Oh, Kushner and at least six other top aides continued to use personal email accounts for WH business... This is Epic Dumb.

Then there is idiotic Ty Cobb again (yes, it is his real name), this time speaking out loud at a public lunch spot about the Mueller-led Russia Investigation to fellow WH lawyer John Dowd! Lucky thing that the neighboring table was only occupied by Ken Vogel of the New York Times:

http://abovethelaw.com/2017/09/maybe-ty-cobb-just-doesnt-get-this-whole-client-confidentiality-thing/

Sheeesh. Trump hires only the best. What a bunch of maroons. Good thing we seem to exist in a Kakistocracy or else we'd really be in trouble.

Speaking of trouble, the big wind blowing in from Alabama has the Outlaw Theocrat, Roy Moore, poised to become a US Senator. He is adored by the Trump base who think that Trump isn't Trumpy enough. Especially revealing is the quote from the "Hillary" voter who went with Moore because she believes the Bible is predicting the end of the world:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/moore-vs-strange-polling-opens-in-alabama-republican-primary/2017/09/25/9c7192f8-a253-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html?utm_term=.f663b95ecf95

Much can be explained by the 29% rule. There are simply this amount of obtuse nimrods out there, always. The key to electoral success in Deep Red States is to build your base upon that group. Here is an example of their clear-headed thinking:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/obama-hurricane-katrina_n_3790612.html

and this wonderful bi-partisan chestnut:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/02/25/most-democrats-dont-know-it-takes-a-year-for-the-earth-to-go-around-the-sun/?utm_term=.05539df49ae1#comments

Oh, Science! Oh, Education! Oh, Separation of Church and State! What would Jesus say?

Then there's the utter nonsense regarding taking a knee during the National Anthem. Too much has already been sputtered about all this. Aside from the kneeling issue, our Nitwit-in-Chief blathered on about how namby-pamby the NFL is for calling penalties on excessive hits. While he often speaks like a concussed player, Trump has no idea why CTE is a huge issue in sports.

For a first-rate reaction to the Anthem issue, let's listen to NFL great Shannon Sharpe deliver a terrifically competent series of thoughts on the matter. Please watch the first 8 minutes:

Finally, here is the undisputed master of unlocking the Zeitgeist, Randy Newman. This song, "Rednecks", came out in 1974 and was ostensibly about then-Georgia governor Lester Maddox. But, as usual, Newman had a much bigger target in mind: All Of Us. It is as relevant today as it ever was. Every time I hear it, I laugh and then by the end I cry because it is True. It doesn't get more powerful than this:

What I Learned On My Summer Vacation

It was a smokey, hazy, hot and exceptionally dry time at Glacier National Park. The air was often shrouded with a screen of wildfire smoke. Fires within the park, and outside, created havoc for all life. Whole portions of this vast park were closed down because of poor air quality and fire threat.

There had been no rain for two months. Temperatures ranged from 10 - 15 degrees above normal. A crispy-crunchy quality was evident in much of the vegetation there. This was a tinder box.

These conditions were replicated throughout the Pacific Northwest, Rockies, and California this summer. Not surprisingly, it has been a record-setting season for wildfires throughout these regions. In fact, the smoke trails generated by these fires have created a sort of pall across the entire country!

Forecast: Dry, Smokey and All Fogged Up

Mr. and Mrs. Daily Kibitz had been planning this trip for over a year. So it was with much disappointment that we arrived there to witness significantly less than the usual exceptional clarity of air and unlimited vistas.

But we learned much about the park, and about our society. There used to be 150 glaciers in the park, but now there are 25 small-to-almost-gone ones. Grinnell Glacier, one of the park's largest, in 1850 was about 1000 feet thick. Not so today:

It is normal for glaciers to come and go. It's all part of the ongoing warming and cooling cycles of Earth, known as the Glacial-Interglacial Cycle. For millions of years, the mountains of Glacier National Park were covered by ice sheets that were miles thick. They finally melted by the end of our last Ice Age (between 100,000 and 15,000 years ago). The smaller glaciers that filled the park when White Explorers first arrived were products of "The Little Ice Age", a mini-climate-cycle that lasted from roughly 1400 to 1800. It chilled Northern Europe and North America and artists painted what they experienced:

But Human-Affected Climate Change, as represented by greenhouse gases released by us in the act of living our lifestyles, serves as an accelerant to these normal warming/cooling cycles:

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/abrupt-climate-change/Glacial-Interglacial%20Cycles

Annually adding 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air and oceans creates additional warming that affects weather patterns, ocean currents and dependent life on land and sea. Regions become arid... or moist. Ocean temperatures rise, killing coral reefs and their diverse ecosystems. Fish habitats change and become reduced, affecting their populations. Here's a useful look at where all the greenhouse gases come from:

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data

As human-effected carbon dioxide/greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere (and absorbed into the oceans), the overall air temperature increases. These gases are heat-trappers and they don't go away quickly - think multiple centuries. And in fact, they have caused record temps for 16 of the last 17 years:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/2016-was-the-hottest-year-on-record/

Yes, that is a trend all right! So... when air temps soar, weather patterns change. In particular, regions like the Arctic begin to experience warmer winters (and summers). Massive glaciers in Greenland are now in full-melt mode. Here's an example in a brief video form:

Hoo-boy! When Greenland glaciers melt away, they add a gazillion mega-gallons worth of cold, fresh water into the ocean, in particular into the "conveyor belt" known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). In the Earth's past, this has created long-lasting climate changes:

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/crippled-atlantic-currents-triggered-ice-age-climate-change

and

https://phys.org/news/2017-02-greenland-ice-sheet-cool-subtropics.html

Wowzers. So, increased temperatures can create climate change that makes life absolutely bone-chilling as well as sweltering! Who knew climate change could be so conflicted? Meanwhile, in other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, higher temps are creating significant changes in Siberia, Alaska and Northern Canada. The deep, thick layer of perm-frost there contains oodles of methane gas and other greenhouse gas goodies accumulated and frozen over hundreds of thousands/millions of years worth of decayed organic material. It will thaw naturally, to a minor extant, as the Glacial-Interstatial Cycles occur. But with Humans adding accelerants into the Climate Change equation, the tundra will rapidly yield vast stores of Methane into the atmosphere, thus severely compounding the heat-trap uptick level. This is the worst-case scenario for many climate scientists:

http://www.thearcticinstitute.org/climate-change-arctic-security-methane-risks/

Another consequence of accelerated Climate Change is increased sea levels. Scientists are back and forth on this, but the consensus seems to be a general rise of up to 3 feet by the end of the century, based on how things are today. Ha-ha, say climate deniers, that's nothing - just back up a few steps up from the beach!

But as our friends in Texas and Florida now know, the difference 3 feet can make is all the difference in the world. A major hurricane approaches the coast, throw in a high tide and low pressure surge, and you have sea water flowing up and over seawalls/dunes/rivers and far into your neighborhood and home! Add many inches or feet of rain, and we have a real soggy situation, as played out recently in Houston:

(Houston: When your land-based home becomes the Titanic)

And this from Irma in Jacksonville and other Florida points. Increased heat and water trapped in the atmosphere, along with increased ocean temps, means larger and more powerful hurricanes. Imagine how this changes for the worse over the century...

Well. Mankind is possessed with self-awareness. Scientists around the world have been waving the red flags for some time now. Where is the USA, the traditional leader for global issues? How are we as a nation responding to this incipient existential crisis? Uh, it's complicated.

You see, in 2016, the Democrats nominated a woman who had a problem in getting people to trust her. She ran against a man who had even worse trust problems than her. In fact, he had myriad other problems. But she was depicted as being especially untrustworthy because while she had been Secretary of State she used a personal email server that had a possibility of being hacked by enemy states like Russia. So even though such a hack never happened to her server - as opposed to virtually every other government and political organization - she lost to the Bad Guy (who had been aided by an enemy state), even though she won by 3 million votes. The End. For now.

Up until that time, the USA was leading the world in ways to respond to this crisis. But our new President had declared Climate Change to be a hoax, mostly perpetrated by the Chinese government. He removed the USA from the Paris Climate Accord, leaving us with Syria and Nicaragua as the only earthly countries to not support it.

Trump appointed Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt was formerly the Attorney General for the State of Oklahoma. He helped defend the people against the entrenched Oil and Gas interests in Oklahoma as the phenomena of Fracking created hundreds of destabilizing earthquakes and fouled ground water reservoirs. Oh, right! He didn't do any of that. But his passionate stance for Big Business over the Environment landed him the EPA job.

"I won't evacuate, not when I'm having the best game I've ever played in my life!"

In addition to being a leading voice in the Trump Administration for denying Climate Change, he is also a bit of a prick. Just came across this fine article and it says everything I've been attempting to say, only much better:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/09/07/at-a-moment-climate-change-is-hard-to-ignore-the-epa-is-being-pointed-elsewhere/?utm_term=.5566dc9143b8

What a pud. In addition to throwing out regulations, weakening the efficacy and moral of the very organization meant to defend our air and water quality, and being a general shill for Fossil Energy interests, Pruitt demonstrates a mean-streak shared by his boss. Check out the "EPA" response to a negative AP story about Hurricane Harvey:

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/09/this-epa-statement-reads-like-something-youd-find-in-breitbart/

Yuck-o. Are there ANY elements within our federal government that understands what is happening and how it will affect us for years to come, and can do something about it? Why, yes, yes there is!!

Hooray for our Armed Forces! They have been studying Climate Change for years now. They can project how destabilizing all this is becoming globally. They know what an enormous National Security Threat it is:

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/06/02/trump-may-doubt-climate-change-pentagon-sees-it-looming-threat.html

In the end, we might be saved by the professionals in the Pentagon. Maybe. Or maybe the amoral money guys in this Administration will triumph in a Pyrrhic victory for Big Oil and Gas. All the more reason to remain actively engaged in this time of civic calamity. If these guys are willing to sell out their own families' futures, they are willing to do anything.

To help us with our ongoing resolve, let's give a listen to Spirit perform their great and ever-relevant song, "Nature's Way" from their 1970 masterpiece, "The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus":