Scant apologies to Barack Obama, who is going to have to deal with this gradually approaching catastrophe, for
the use of his slogan in the post title. How gradually? Well, I probably won't live to experience it, but if
you are young, you will. How catastrophic? Bad enough.
What could be worse than Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)? How about Atmospheric Brown Clouds (ABCs) that have formed
over 13 megacities in Asia? These clouds, formed mostly from particles resulting from burning things, interact
in destructive ways with greenhouse gases, and have additional destructive behaviors of their own. The
interaction is understood well enough for U.N. scientists to have produced a
summary report
(.pdf, 1.5mb, 44pp). The report is well-written and has beautiful illustrations, but the conclusions are
sufficiently complex that they may be regrettably difficult to explain to the person on the street, and they
certainly will not fit in a sound bite. You might want to start by reading Juan Cole's post
"How Now Brown Cloud"
as an introduction.
The short version: GHGs warm the atmosphere and the surface; ABCs warm the atmosphere but cool the surface.
Indeed, ABCs are causing a dimming of available sunlight and a decrease in rainfall to such a degree that
agricultural yields will, with virtual certainty, decrease enough to create serious food shortages, starting in
several parts of Asia. On top of that, the particulates are themselves bad for human health. Within a half
century... yes, this half century... millions of people could die, and long-stable societies could disintegrate.
Here's how the summary report's Overall Findings phrase it:
The build-up of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the resulting global warming pose major
environmental threats to Asia’s water and food security. Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous
oxide, halocarbons and ozone in the lower atmosphere (below about 15 km) are the major gases
that are contributing to the increase in the greenhouse effect.
In a similar fashion, increasing amount of soot, sulphates and other aerosol components in
atmospheric brown clouds (ABCs) are causing major threats to the water and food security of
Asia and have resulted in surface dimming, atmospheric solar heating and soot deposition in the
Hindu Kush-Himalayan-Tibetan (HKHT) glaciers and snow packs. These have given rise to major
areas of concern, some of the most critical being observed decreases in the Indian summer
monsoon rainfall, a north-south shift in rainfall patterns in eastern China, the accelerated retreat
of the HKHT glaciers and decrease in snow packs, and the increase in surface ozone. All these
have led to negative effects on water resources and crop yields. The emergence of the ABC
problem is expected to further aggravate the recent dramatic escalation of food prices and the
consequent challenge for survival among the world’s most vulnerable populations. Lastly, the
human fatalities from indoor and outdoor exposures to ABC-relevant pollutants have also become
a source of grave concern.
Scared yet? I think you should be. Have a nice day!
Tabitha uses my diaphragm as a convenient pillow. Well, convenient for her; the placement of her feet as she
rests at about 45 degrees against the slope of my body... oh, never mind; she did not damage anything, and she
seemed very happy in this position. Of course, Tabitha seems happy in any position, as long as she's
close to one or both of her humans.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday she would consider serving in the Senate if God gave her the opportunity
and Alaskans wanted her to take the job. The state's senior senator, Republican Ted Stevens, fell behind as the
count resumed in his re-election bid.
Yeah, whatever. Here's some advice for Gov. Palin...
Que Sarah, Sarah
God won't want you near the Senate,
Let alone your serving in it,
Nor did God want you as Veep;
Fact is, She don't give a (bleep)!
All your bluster, all your chatter
Won't change this: you just don't matter.
Give it up, Gov, it's no use:
Just go home and shoot a moose.
Steve Bates
(No moose were harmed in the making of this doggerel.)
Most of the stories I could tell about my woes in interacting with the American healthcare system would be
boring indeed. This one, however, seems likely to afflict millions of Americans, so I want to put it out there.
This particular frustration has to do with my genetically atrocious dentition, and I'll say at the outset that
my dentist, bless her, is the hero of the story.
For many years, I neglected my gums, and they declined. For the past few years, I've been extremely diligent in
caring for them, and as a result I've managed to save more of my teeth than I had any right to expect at this
time in my life. My dentist (call her Dr. K) has a good attitude toward her profession and her patients, so
good that one can only dream of finding such a practitioner in every field of medicine one encounters. And she
has perfected the physical skills of her craft to the degree of, say, a fine professional musician... and over
the decades I've been to enough dentists to be able to distinguish excellent work from merely adequate work.
Despite the fact that Dr. K is middle-aged and long since done with any required formal training, she makes
a great effort to stay current in her field. One of the newfangled approaches discovered in her ongoing reading
is something she uses in treating me; it involves the use of a common prescription medication in an unusual
dose. Until a few months ago, the medication was available cheaply in generic form at one of the major
chain pharmacies. For a few months after that, Dr. K was able to supply me samples brought to her by some pharma
rep. Finally, those ran out; Dr. K then prescribed me the same medication as before, and I took it to that same
major pharmacy.
Imagine my surprise and dismay when the pharmacist rang up my prescription... at five and a half times
the former price: $143 as opposed to $26. The pharmacist told me the medicine, as prescribed, is no longer
manufactured, and that the one they must substitute is far higher in price.
I balked. I declined to purchase the filled prescription. I called Dr. K, who tapped some resources she has who
know the truth of the matter. She called me back today with the result of her search. Guess what? The original
medication is indeed still manufactured and readily available in generic form; the price is approximately what
it used to be. Dr. K decided to order some herself and sell it to me at her cost; that's the kind of person she
is, and shows the degree of her commitment to her patients.
Why am I blogging about this? Because it shows that one of the very few major chain pharmacies in the country
is misrepresenting basic facts to its customers about the availability and pricing of a common medication.
I cannot say if it is a deliberate lie on their part, or if they in turn are being stiffed by Big Pharma on
the price of a common medication, by a factor of 5.5; I can only say that you, the involuntary consumer of
pharmaceutical products, are the ones who ultimately take it in the ear. (Well, OK, you take this one by
mouth.)
Rumors abound about whether President-elect Obama will defer healthcare issues or address them early in his
term, i.e., whether the financial crisis will delay his pursuit of healthcare problems. All I can say is that
the healthcare problems I am encountering... the above-described is neither the first or the worst... show that
healthcare is not less in crisis than home mortgages. Something needs to be done about both... quickly.
Stella has one of those, poor soul, and I'll probably catch it soon. Oh, wait... that's completely different
from this article
about Secret Service codenames assigned to the incoming and outgoing First Families. The use of the same initial
for codenames of all members of one family is just toooo cute.
But I have to wonder if GeeDubya's codename is a reference to his skill at bicycle-riding. Or Segway use. Or
horsemanship. Or post-pretzel-consumption activities. Or getting out of bed in the morning...
These are my family's Greatest Generation veterans, my father, William M. Bates (US Navy, gunnery officer on a
troop transport ship) and his brother Wesley W. Bates (US Army, paratrooper, 101st Airborne). The picture was
taken in July 1944. Both men have long since departed this troubled orb.
Modern medicine now makes war more survivable, and regrettably, people like George W. Bush, who never faced
combat any more than I did, feel free to use our troops like tissue paper... "blow, wipe, throw away" (as Ray
Bradbury phrased it in another context). Thus we have many men and women who have come back from Iraq and
Afghanistan, not dead, but with their lives utterly destroyed by injury, yet receiving scant help from the
government that led to that destruction. Whole families disintegrate as a result of Mr. Bush's deplorable misuse
of our military. His abusive disregard for the human value of the men and women who serve leads me to feel that
his questionably legal presidency cannot end soon enough to suit me. How do you ask a woman or man to be the
last to die for a preemptive, invasive war started on the basis of an outright lie?
Who knew I would have strong criticism to offer Obama even before he was inaugurated, but he is already
planning an unacceptable extension of some of Bush's policies.
WSJ:
Intelligence Policy to Stay Largely Intact
By SIOBHAN GORMAN
WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration
intelligence policies, advisers say, an approach that is almost certain to create tension within the Democratic
Party.
Civil-liberties groups were among those outraged that the White House sanctioned the use of harsh intelligence
techniques -- which some consider torture -- by the Central Intelligence Agency, and expanded domestic spy
powers. These groups are demanding quick action to reverse these policies.
...
As always, the WSJ news staff is better than its execrable editorial board, so you can read the article for
details.
The worst of it is that Obama campaigned on some of these matters. (See linked article for examples.)
I did not help elect Obama to the presidency only to see Bush's exceptions to international law
on matters of torture and extraordinary rendition remain in place. To his credit, Obama seems to be leaning
toward closing Gitmo and bringing its prisoners to the U.S., which by all rights would place them under the
constitutional protections of our justice system, civilian and/or military. But it is essential to America's
national security to re-establish our obligations under international law, including treaties the U.S. signed
that were subsequently abrogated by Mr. Bush. The sooner this is done, the more secure we will be. We cannot
continue to be the world's most powerful rogue nation.
UPDATE 6:15pm CT:
Glenn Greenwald
(scroll down to Update III of the linked post) says we should take the WSJ article with a grain of salt:
...
... reports like this should be taken with a hefty dose of skepticism, as
they are often used by people to push a President-elect in the direction they want him to go. If this report is
true, we'll know soon enough. ...
Frank Rich says
It Still Felt Good the Morning After,
and you may agree with him. In any case, it's a good read about his reactions to the election.
For Stella and me, today was, indeed, a day in the park, a strikingly pleasant sunny-bright day in the low 70s,
an opportunity for a walk (not always an easy thing for me these days... a mile now counts as a long walk).
Monday begins a couple of weeks of medical garbage for me, nothing dire, but I never look forward to such
things. I'll try to check in regularly, but my opportunities for widespread reading will be limited. I hope
y'all all* had a splendid weekend and have a grand week after elections!
* "Y'all all" is the plural of "y'all," which is singular. At least it was during my youth in Texas.
Josh Marshall
appropriately quotes a line from one of the Godfather movies as to what Harry Reid should say to Joe LIEberman:
Sen. Reid should take a cue from the one his fictional predecessor once heard in telling Lieberman how it's
going to be: "Here is my offer to you. Nothing."
Yep. LIEberman "demands" his committee chairmanship. What a laugh: Unholy Joe is in no position to demand
anything. He has dug his own pit; now he has to lie in it. Actually, he lies so often about his own party (for
the moment) that lying should seem natural to him. And his recent abuse of the Obama/Biden ticket... not mere
support for McCain, but condoning demonstrable falsehoods leveled against Obama... shows that there is no aspect
of him still aligned with the Democratic Party.
I'd like to make a suggestion to LIEberman, but to do it properly, I will have to resort to an obscene idiom
from my youth in the Sixties: "Senator, you can just fuck off and die." Politically speaking, of course. It
pains me to think that I ever voted for the bastard, even as Gore's veep candidate.
I'm not thrilled with Rep. Emanuel's politics... he's a New Democrat and I'm not... but there's no doubt he's a
can-do kind of guy.
HaloScan is fucked again as I post this. HaloScan tells me that in a few days they will forcibly charge me
another "donation" (yeah, right) for my premium account. For this I get the same lousy, unreliable service I've
gotten for years since the first donation. I don't blame JS-KIT for wanting to make a living, but I have to
observe two things: one, I never signed on to such an agreement; two, if I pay them more money, I want service
a lot more reliable than I'm getting right now. Has anyone out there used Disqus? If so, what is your
experience with it?
President-Elect Obama... I like the sound of that!
I'm partying with some neighbors in the apartment complex (including Stella, of course), so I'll write more
later. For now, I hope all of you are basking in the glow.
Later...
UPDATE Wed. about 11:15am: I haven't forgotten y'all. But I'm too pooped to write
anything coherent. No, I did not get roaring drunk last night; indeed, I didn't consume alcohol or any
other recreational drug at all. But for some reason, I am in no condition to write the post I really want to
write about the state of the nation and the implications of this election. Thanks to all of you who visited.
Have just a bit more patience; I'll be here later.
Later: I'll have to post Thursday evening sometime. Sorry.
LAST UPDATE:
Apparently this is not a time for me to write about the election outcome. Yes, I'm happy with it. No, I can't
produce an analysis at the moment. I'll simply have to postpone my intended post. Yes, there will be cat
blogging in a little while.
... are being distributed regarding the date and place of voting.
TPM
is tracking several of them. Fortunately, a lot of recipients of bogus calls, fliers, emails, text messages etc.
seem to know that today, not tomorrow, is Election Day, and they also know where their polling places are.
Do you get the feeling that
GOPers really don't want everyone to vote, and
Those same GOPers think we're all really stupid and ignorant?
2:54 PM -- Two Republican removed for challenging voters
The removal of two Republican election workers from a Warren Township polling site - for using improper methods
to challenge voters' rights to cast a ballot - has prompted local Republican Party leaders to issue a statement
of regret.
The removal of two Republican election workers from a Warren Township polling site - for using improper methods
to challenge voters' rights to cast a ballot - has prompted local Republican Party leaders to issue a statement
of regret.
The two officials - an official challenger and a clerk - were removed by unanimous vote of the Marion County
Election Board.
The officials were reportedly challenging voters with information obtained through party affiliation reports,
which is not one of the accepted challenges such as a person's address, age or lack of ID.
...
In other words, the GOPers challenged the voters because they were Democrats. Nice going, GOPers... when
your party set out to cast doubt on the legitimacy of this election, I don't think this is what they had in
mind. Or maybe it was; maybe I'm overly optimistic...
It could be a long evening in the presidential race... but according to
FiveThirtyEight.com,
the probability of that is fairly small. You might want to have your TV (or election web site) in front of your
eyes by, say, 7:00pm Eastern time (6:00pm Central), just in case.
Please don't misunderstand me: the networks may not call it that early, for a whole variety of reasons. But if
certain things happen... Nate Silver and Andrew Gelman tell us what to look for in the linked post... an Obama
win may be established very early in the evening.
DownWithTyranny!,
via FDL,
reminds us that the towns that vote at midnight... Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, NH, tiny towns that are
traditionally Republican strongholds not won by a Democrat since Hubert Humphrey... both went solidly for Barack
Obama. May they be the first pebbles in a landslide!
One Day to Go and McCain Is Between Barack and a Hard Place
If you're reading this site, I hardly need to remind you to vote Tuesday. DO NOT assume it's in the
bag for Obama without your vote: he needs your vote, as do all the down-ballot Democrats in your state. Besides,
voting is a right and a sacred duty. Just do it. And take a like-minded friend, or maybe a dozen.
I'll probably appear here from time to time during the day Tuesday, but don't count on my getting to your
comments right away. At best, we'll have an early evening, but again, don't count on it: Obama has to defeat
both McCain and all the Republican secretaries of state in red states, as well as an army of high-powered GOP
lawyers. Still, as of this moment, I believe we will have something to celebrate sometime Wednesday.
If by some rare chance I have any Mormon readers, this will probably offend them. GOOD. Institutional
support of raw bigotry is itself deeply offensive, and direct religious meddling in fundamental human rights
deprivations through the political process should result in their tax exemption being yanked. That will not
happen, of course; the best you can do in this case is to send Prop. 8 down to a resounding defeat. That's not
where it's headed at the moment. Californians, get busy: neither you nor the rest of us need a precedent of
successful religious institutional intervention in our daily lives, through government, to take away our rights.
Everybody who goes trick-or-treating has too many leftovers. I don't trick-or-treat... no kids in my immediate
family... but I do have
this leftover from Halloween
(warning... link goes to a Fox station site):
A Grosse Pointe Farms woman is accused of pulling a political dirty trick. Instead of giving away treats to
every child who knocks on her door, parents say she's only giving them to kids who agree with her choice for
president. [McCain, of course. - SB] FOX 2's Andrea Isom talked with the woman accused of denying children
candy.
While you're on digby's site, take a look at
this post
about how Instaputz's wife, a forensic psychologist, suggests that if Obama wins, everyone should tip
waitstaff less, or not at all, and make the connection explicit by leaving a note. digby has the links.
Y'know, an awful lot of GOPers are just plain bad people. I know I shouldn't generalize, but with examples like
these, in the middle of a campaign like the one McCain is running, it's hard not to. Maybe the title of John
Dean's book Conservatives Without Conscience isn't so far off after all.
(Don't let your Halloween leftovers make you sick!)
I wrote these some time ago, but they're still applicable, despite the best efforts of Congress, and the fact
that the terms "Spring" and "Fall" are no longer strictly applicable in many regions...
Poems to Scare the Daylight
Out of You
and then
Into You Again
I. Spring
There is not a finer thing
Than to travel in the Spring.
As you tote your luggage doorward, SET YOUR CLOCK AN HOUR FORWARD!
II. Fall
Post this notice in your hall:
It is really, truly Fall;
You’ll receive a nasty shock If you don’t SET BACK YOUR CLOCK!
Steve Bates
Of course, you need the second doggerel now. What you do with the extra hour (heh) is up to you!
The Chicago Tribune
has a warm and fitting eulogy. No one... no one... understood the common American people the way Studs did. He
could interview, and he could write, and he gave a damn... what better epitaph could one have. I'm happy to say
he lived to be 96. I wish it could have been a hundred more.
For all the intensity of this awful election, I may nonetheless stay up an extra hour the next few nights
rereading Working.
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Better the occasional faults of a government that lives
in a spirit of charity than the constant omissions of a
government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
- FDR
I belong to the Democratic Party wing of the Democratic Party.
- Paul Wellstone
I am a Democrat without prefix, without suffix, and without apology.
- Sam Rayburn
These are my family's Greatest Generation veterans, my father, William M. Bates (US Navy, gunnery officer on a
troop transport ship) and his brother Wesley W. Bates (US Army, paratrooper, 101st Airborne). The picture was
taken in July 1944. Both men have long since departed this troubled orb.
