"Ohio State Football Is Canceled. Will Trump Take the Hit?" by Reid J. Epstein and Nick Corasaniti New York Times, August 13, 2020
CENTER OF THE WORLD, Ohio — As he stood outside the Dollar General store, loading groceries into his pickup, Dennis Kuchta pondered what it will mean not to have an Ohio State football season this fall.
“The bars here will all take a real hit when there aren’t games on Saturdays,” said the 69-year-old retiree, whose son-in-law played on the offensive line for the Buckeyes. “It’s a huge loss, and I don’t think people realize that yet.”
How will the bars take a hit when they are all closed?
That play result means Trump just turned it over on downs.
The Big Ten Conference’s decision to cancel its football season reverberated this week across Ohio, where the Buckeyes’ football program looms larger than that of any of the state’s major league sports franchises. A pillar of autumn Saturdays will be missing, and Kuchta and others in this football-mad corner of the state were looking for someone to blame.
“Trump just blew it,” Kuchta said, alluding to President Trump’s mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic. “He just didn’t handle it. He could have shut things down for five or six weeks and figured out what he was doing, but he never had a plan.”
Just drawing plays up in the sand, huh?
For Trump, the cancellation of big-time college football in the Midwest and the West — the Pac-12 Conference also canceled its season Tuesday — serves as yet another unmistakable sign of how fundamentally the pandemic has transformed American life and cast a spotlight on his administration’s handling of the crisis. Critics point to South Korea, where fans have been attending professional baseball games for weeks, and to parts of Europe, where some soccer and tennis matches are open to spectators, and like the closings of schools, bars, restaurants, and churches, the loss of tailgating, jammed stadiums, and marching bands felt as if yet another piece of fabric was being torn from American life.
It crossed a line for me.
In a hotly contested election year, the loss of college football seems almost certain to seep into politics as well. No conference covers as many presidential battleground states as does the Big Ten, the Midwestern behemoth with schools in seven states that are being fought for by both Joe Biden and Trump.
In crucial battleground states such as Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, where college football serves as an autumn religion not just on campus but in the rural areas where Trump’s support runs deepest, losing football may be a political stain that the president is unable to blame on the Democratic Party or the media.
He doesn't have to; we already know that, and that isn't factoring into the equation at all other than to his benefit.
No football?
Democrats did that.
“As great as politics is — it’s a sport that so many people enjoy watching — it’s not as important as college football in Ohio, in Georgia, in Alabama,” said Paul Finebaum, who hosts a nationally syndicated college football radio show for ESPN, “and without it, people will be lost and people will be angry. There are layers of blame to go around, and, in the end, this transcends sports.”
Finebaum predicted that the loss of the college football season would damage Trump even among his most faithful supporters.
“I’ve always tried desperately to keep politics out of our program, and this summer I’ve failed miserably,” he said. “We don’t have a day that doesn’t pass where someone doesn’t call up and blame the president. Even from the South, I’ve heard more anger directed at the president than I thought.”
Finebaum, you say?
Covers SEC football, does he?
So what is Trump supposed to do, do the dictator governor goose step and shred any pretense of a republic governed by a constitution?
The ties between college football and Trump have long been deeper than the ones he has with other major sports, excluding golf. The feeling has been mutual. Some college football luminaries have expressed their support for the president, and Hall of Fame coaches including Lou Holtz and Bobby Bowden campaigned for Trump in 2016.
Trump will take the early lead on election night before being baffled by it being called blue later.
As word of decisions to cancel the fall football season began to leak this week, Trump and his top Republican allies began a pressure campaign aimed at keeping the sport in business. Both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence tweeted admonitions that college games should be played, using the #wewanttoplay hashtag employed in recent days by a loose confederation of players.
The players want to play, of cour$e. Their whole lives have been spent in pursuit of this moment, and it has been yanked away from them so some sick, psychopathic, genocidal globalists can execute their cull and plan for world control.
For years, the college football season has been an enticing advertising canvas for both parties, recently dominated by Republicans. In the 2018 midterms, Republican candidates spent $6.5 million on ads during college football games, while Democrats spent about $4.1 million, according to Advertising Analytics.
I don't know if a 26-16 or 39-25 game is domination. Depends on the ebb and flow of the game and the momentous turning points for the quality to truly be judged.
Trump, who is enthralled with advertising during live sporting events in part because of their high ratings, spent roughly $1.3 million on ads during college football games in his 2016 campaign.
The overall audience of college football skews Republican. A study from Columbia University in 2012 found that college football fans skewed as heavily Republican as NASCAR fans.
Everything is about November.
It’s far from clear how much support, if any, Trump might lose because of the absence of college football.
Chris Spielman, an All-American linebacker at Ohio State who is now a television analyst for NFL games on Fox, said fandom in Ohio cuts far across party lines.
“There are people on both sides of it,” he said. “There are Democrats who want football and there are Republicans saying we better shut it down even more,” but Danny O’Connor, the Franklin County recorder who in 2018 campaigned for Congress in the Columbus suburbs wearing an Ohio State polo shirt, saw things differently. He predicted before the season’s cancellation that Ohio State’s Buckeyes would finish the year undefeated.
Losing the season means that Biden will carry the state “because that will be one person’s fault: Donald Trump,” O’Connor said. Trump won Ohio by 9 percentage points in 2016.
Trump fumbled the ball away, huh?
I thought football was a team sport.
--more--"
Might as well mail it in, Don:
"Trump admits he’s blocking postal cash to stop mail-in votes" by Deb Riechmann and Anthony Izaguirre Associated Press, August 13, 2020
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s statements, including the false claim that Democrats are seeking universal mail-in voting, come as he is searching for a strategy to gain an advantage in his November matchup against Joe Biden. He’s pairing the tough Postal Service stance in congressional negotiations with an increasingly robust mail-in-voting legal fight in states that could decide the election.
For Democrats, Trump’s new remarks were a clear admission that the president is attempting to restrict voting rights.
And thus their planned fraud.
Negotiations over a big new virus relief package have all but ended, with the White House and congressional leaders far apart on the size, scope, and approach for shoring up households, reopening schools, and launching a national strategy to contain the coronavirus.
States are $crewed.
Memos obtained by the Associated Press show that Postal Service leadership has pushed to eliminate overtime and halt late delivery trips that are sometimes needed to ensure mail arrives on time, measures that postal workers and union officials say are delaying service. Additional records detail cuts to hours at post offices, including reductions on Saturdays and during lunch hours.
A spokesman for the Postal Service, David Partenheimer, said in a statement that “certain deadlines concerning mail-in ballots, may be incompatible with the Postal Service’s delivery standards,” especially if election officials don’t pay more for first-class postage.....
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Related:
"The US Supreme Court has rejected a request by the Republican National Committee and Rhode Island Republicans to block a federal district court order relaxing the witness requirement for absentee ballots. Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Rhode Island, the Campaign Legal Center, and the law firm Fried Frank filed a lawsuit in US District Court to have the state waive the witness requirement because of the coronavirus. The vote was 6 to 3, with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch in the minority....."
This next election will probably wind up there, and Trump is losing on that scoreboard as well.
"Facebook will urge voting by mail as Trump continues attacks" by Nick Corasaniti New York Times, August 13, 2020
Facebook has already set a goal of registering more than 4 million new voters. Though the hub will be its own self-contained landing page on Facebook, the company will feature prompts and reminders at the top of Facebook and Instagram feeds to highlight key deadlines, including for vote-by-mail.
I thought they were not supposed to allow interference this time.
Facebook has often shied away from any confrontation with President Trump over his rhetoric and use of the platform, but the promotion of vote-by-mail is likely to set up a clash with the president. Trump routinely condemns voting by mail, falsely labeling it as corrupt, in a relentless attempt to politicize the method.
Facebook’s new “voter information hub,” will be based on the company’s tool for tracking information regarding the coronavirus. Information will come directly from election officials, often secretaries of state, and the tool will allow election officials to send “Voter Alerts” to users with important new information.
They want to use the contract tracing for total surveillance!
Voting experts lauded the efforts by social media companies to promote relevant information, particularly before the fall deadline crunch.
“I’m grateful that they’re doing it on Aug. 12 and not Oct. 21,” said Amber McReynolds, a former election official from Colorado and the current chief executive of the National Vote at Home Institute, which promotes voting by mail. . . . I absolutely think it will make a big difference.”
I'll bet it will.
--more--"
That also explains the eat-shit grin that was on the front page:
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/J5X6TLEVG5NNDZ2XOIJBLJ5QTM.jpg)
"Biden raises $26M in 24 hours after Harris VP announcement" by Brian Slodysko and Will Weissert Associated Press, August 13, 2020
WILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden raised $26 million in the 24 hours after he named Kamala Harris as his running mate, doubling his previous one-day record and signaling enthusiasm among Democrats following the selection of the first Black woman on a major party’s presidential ticket.
“It’s really palpable, the excitement,” Biden said Wednesday.
The campaign hopes the haul is the beginning of a prolific fund-raising push in the final stretch before Election Day. Democrats are close to matching, if not surpassing, the massive $300 million cash stockpile President Trump and Republicans reported in July.
Harris is expected to play a key role in that effort. With large in-person events out of the question because of the pandemic, the campaign has an aggressive schedule of online fund-raisers planned for Harris. That could play to one of her political strengths and offset an area where Biden has sometimes struggled.
Harris already has a robust network of donors in her native California, a state that has long been referred to as the ATM of the Democratic Party. She can rake in cash from Wall Street, and Harris, who is also of Asian descent, has the potential to bring new money into the Democratic fold because of the historic nature of her candidacy.
That's odd because just yesterday the Globe said she pushed back on Wall Street after the 2008 financial crisis.
“To have someone on the ticket whose mother is from the south of India is a dream come true,” said Swadesh Chatterjee, a businessman from North Carolina who also raises money for political candidates. “You will see more fund-raising from the Indian American community.”
Lisa Hernandez Gioia, who was a deputy finance director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, called Harris a “fund-raiser’s dream. Donors already have an eagerness,” she said. “She adds the star power that will be like an afternoon shot of espresso to the campaign’s fund-raising.”
Before it was clear he would win the Democratic nomination, Biden was never a particularly successful fund-raiser. As a longtime senator from Delaware, a small, solidly blue state, he never had to cultivate a national network of donors, and party fund-raisers have long grumbled that he lacked the same touch with donors that he has shown when working a rope line.
Biden’s campaign was virtually broke by the time he won the South Carolina primary, which revived his prospects and powered his way to the Democratic nomination, and while his clinching of the nomination has led to a flood of campaign contributions, some believe Harris can juice totals even higher, yet Harris, who dropped out of the Democratic primary last year, has had her own struggles with fund-raising. Her campaign hemorrhaged money, and while she wowed well-heeled donors, she struggled to develop a competitive base of grassroots contributors who chip in small amounts online, a phenomenon that fueled the fund-raising success of rivals Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, but there are also big differences between a primary and the general election, where agreements struck between the nominee and the party enable massive checks to be raised from individual donors.
Who can afford to buy a president?
Already there are signs that suggest Harris is seeing some success.
Act Blue, the left’s online fund-raising arm, reported taking in almost $11 million in the hours after the Harris announcement, and Biden aides later said the flood of money generated by the Harris announcement broke the online fund-raising platform’s all-time one-day record for a campaign.
It's based in Bo$ton.
“The primary campaign folding early was not indicative of a lack of fund-raising ability,” said Bakari Sellers, a CNN commentator and prominent Harris supporter from South Carolina. “Kamala is going to raise money and it’s going to be money that wouldn’t otherwise be raised.”
The connections Harris makes fund-raising now will serve her well in the future. At 55, she has years left in her political career.
That could give her a leg up on the competition in 2024 or later.
OMG! They are already talking 2024.
Steve Westly, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who has known Harris for more than 20 years, said her dynamic presence serves her well in the staid world of political fund-raising.
“She’s animated, she’s smart, and she’s lively, and this is in a world of bland, cautious, older Caucasian men,” said Westly. “She is going to do very well.”
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Related:
Trump adviser promotes theory Harris may not be US citizen
What the AP won't tell you is that kind of stuff was begun by the Clinton's in 2008 and it’s only been two days since Joe Biden announced Kamala Harris as his running mate, and President Trump’s attacks on her are already boring (just like his columns which is why I never read them).
Also see:
"Protesters and police clashed in downtown Portland in a demonstration that lasted into the predawn hours of Thursday, with some in the crowd setting a fire and exploding commercial grade fireworks outside a federal courthouse that’s been a target in months of conflict for Oregon’s largest city. Officers used tear gas to break up the crowd of several hundred people who gathered near the Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse, the neighboring Multnomah County Justice Center, and a nearby police precinct station. Protests have been held nightly in the city since the police killing of George Floyd in May, who died after a white officer pressed a knee to his neck. Protesters hurled rocks, bottles, and paint at officers during the demonstration that started Wednesday night and went into Thursday morning, Portland police said in a statement. One officer suffered a hand wound described as serious, several other officers suffered nonspecified injuries, and two people were arrested, the statement said. The protests in Portland reached their apex last month outside the federal courthouse, with demonstrators clashing nightly with federal agents dispatched to the city to protect the courthouse. The demonstrations dwindled after a drawdown of the agents, who were replaced by Oregon state troopers, but protests turned violent over the last week, mostly near a police union headquarters building miles from the federal courthouse."
"For 61 straight days, protesters have camped outside the Tennessee Capitol in Nashville, demanding a meeting with the governor to discuss racial inequality and police brutality. On Wednesday, the GOP-dominated legislature responded — by passing a bill making camping on state property, including the capitol grounds, a felony. The bill’s backers described the legislation, which also stiffens penalties for protesters who spit on police, block streets, and disrupt meetings, as a necessary tool to battle violent demonstrations. ‘‘It is to prevent what has happened in other cities like Portland and Washington, D.C.,’’ Republican Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally said Wednesday after the measure passed. ‘‘If people . . . knowingly thumb their nose at authority and don’t do what authorities have requested they do, they should be charged with a serious crime,’’ but protesters disputed claims that they’ve been violent. When a Democratic lawmaker asked during a Wednesday debate on the bill whether anyone has been injured at the capitol during the weeks of protests, no one produced an example. ‘‘There was no violent behavior by the protesters, but there was violence by the state troopers who dragged us down the capitol stairs,’’ protest organizer Justin Jones, 24, told The Washington Post. ‘‘This is all about criminalizing peaceful protesting.’’
Looks like the end of Antifa and protest in general.
"Two Indianapolis police officers have been charged with assaulting two women at a protest, the authorities said Wednesday, the latest officers to face criminal charges that they used excessive force against protesters demanding an end to police violence. The officers, Jonathan Horlock and Nathaniel Schauwecker, were indicted after videos showed officers repeatedly striking one woman with their batons and shoving another to the ground on May 31 in downtown Indianapolis, the authorities said. At the time, global demonstrations had erupted after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, and Indianapolis had been placed under an 8 p.m. curfew."
They will soon look like New Zealand.
"Three men who are members of a Milwaukee group that’s marching to the nation’s capital for a national commemoration of the 1963 civil rights March on Washington were arrested in northern Indiana after police said they were blocking traffic on a highway. Frank David Sensabaugh, 30, Eric Ajala, 20, and Tory Lowe, 44, were arrested Wednesday on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of traffic, Indiana State Police said. Lowe was also arrested on a misdemeanor charge of resisting law enforcement, police said. All three Milwaukee residents were taken to the Kosciusko County Jail and later released, The Times-Union of Warsaw reported. State police spokesman Sergeant Ted Bohner said all three are Black men. Sensabaugh told the newspaper after their release that they planned to sue Kosciusko County. “You treat Black people differently than you do white people,” he said. “So let’s play the game to see who loses more money.” State police said in a news release that the county’s prosecutor “will review this case for all appropriate charges.’’
Go complain to the chief of police, and who do you think will have to fork over that money, taxpayers?
Meanwhile, the US Conference of Mayors recommends policing changes such as banning choke holds, mandatory body cams, and limits on police union powers because the new FBI database has plenty of holes.
Police used force on a protester in Boston on May 29 (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images).
Is one of them spraying mace?
Former Boston police union head charged with yearslong sexual abuse of young girl
There is a shark you can trace and track and out on Twitter if you see him!
Woman struck and killed by car
Revere man arrested for woman’s death in hotel
Only some Black Lives Matter:
"An Africawide study of antibodies to the coronavirus has begun, while evidence from a smaller study indicates that many more people have been infected than official numbers show, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Specialists are eager to know the real number of COVID-19 cases in Africa, as confirmed cases, which topped 1 million last week, and deaths have been relatively low on the continent of 1.3 billion people. Poor data collection, however, has complicated efforts, but recent surveys in Mozambique found antibodies — proteins the body makes when an infection occurs — to the virus in 5 percent of households in the city of Nampula and 2.5 percent in the city of Pemba. That’s while Mozambique has just 2,481 confirmed virus cases. Further studies are underway in the capital, Maputo, and the city of Quelimane. Africa’s young population, with a median age of 19, has been called a possible factor."
Time to close the border:
"Mexico plans to extend the closure of its shared border with the United States for another month to nonessential travel, Mexico Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Thursday. Mexico has reported about 500,000 confirmed COVID-19 infections and about 55,000 deaths, both considered to be significant undercounts due to very limited testing....."
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Better put your mask on before you cross:
"Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, urged Thursday to wear face masks while outdoors during the next three months in an effort to save 40,000 lives from the COVID-19 pandemic during that period. “Every single American should be wearing a mask when they’re outside for the next three months at a minimum," Biden said, emphasizing each word. “Wearing a mask is going to get our kids back to school sooner and safer. It’s not about your rights, it’s about your responsibilities," Biden said. "This is America. Be a patriot. Protect your fellow citizens. Do the right thing."
He's parroting the USA Today editorial, and wearing one out in the fresh air is insane!
"Biden and Harris, called on governors to issue mandatory mask orders after receiving a briefing from health officials including: Dr. David Kessler, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Dr. Nicki Lurie, former assistant secretary of Health; and Dr. Vivek Murthy, a former U.S. surgeon general. President Donald Trump at a news conference later Thursday accused Biden of politicizing the pandemic while showing “his appalling lack of respect for the American people.” Trump said the administration would continue to recommend wearing masks and encourage social distancing, but leave decisions on mandates to governors. “We do not need to bring the full weight of the federal government on law-abiding Americans to have this goal,” Trump said. “Americans must have their freedoms and I trust the American people and their governors very much.” Trump also said wearing masks is patriotic, even as he questioned their efficacy. “Maybe they’re great. Maybe they’re just good. Maybe they’re not so good,” Trump said, “but frankly, what do you have to lose?”
Oxygen?
"Harris said Biden also proposes to distribute tens of millions of testing kits nationwide, hiring 100,000 workers to trace the contacts of people who become infected and $25 billion to support manufacturing and distribution of an eventual vaccine for the virus. She urged voters to ask President Donald Trump's administration when they would receive a vaccination. "That’s what real leadership looks like," Harris said of Biden's recommendation. The pair left the Wilmington, Del., hotel where the briefing took place without taking questions from the media."
That was the best I could in patching the WaComPo crap as the web Globe substituted the Associated Press in its place.
"The presumptive Democratic nominee said he would require masks if he were president and "I would insist that everybody out in public be wearing that mask. Anyone to reopen would have to make sure that they walked into a business that had masks," he said. The former vice president said he would use the power of the executive branch to do everything possible to make mask-wearing in public a requirement."
Isn't that a form of discrimination and segregation, Joe?
"Biden described that simple act as a civic responsibility, comparing it with giving blood or donating food to those in need, although masks can be uncomfortable, he said, they are key to getting life back to normal..... and pointing to the nation's death toll from the coronavirus, Biden said that "a lot of people are dying. We’re up over 160,000 people dead so far." Biden emphasized that "it didn’t have to be this way." He aruged that if the president had acted earlier in responding to the coronavirus, lives would have been saved. "I hope we learned a lesson. I hope the president has learned a lesson, but again, this is not about Democrat, Republican, or independent. It’s about saving America’s lives," Biden stressed."
He is not only disgusting, but disingenuous!
What does the CDC say about masks?
"In guidance updated late last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned against wearing masks with exhalation valves or vents, a type of face covering made for hot and dusty construction work that has become a popular pandemic accessory because of its seemingly high-tech design. “The purpose of masks is to keep respiratory droplets from reaching others to aid with source control,” the agency’s guidance reads, “however, masks with one-way valves or vents allow air to be exhaled through a hole in the material, which can result in expelled respiratory droplets that can reach others. This type of mask does not prevent the person wearing the mask from transmitting COVID-19 to others; therefore, CDC does not recommend using masks for source control if they have an exhalation valve or vent.” 3M, which makes valve masks for construction work, illustrates on its website how they work: inhaled air is filtered through the fabric part of the mask, and hot, humid exhaled air goes out through the valve. The system may be what you want when tearing out a kitchen for remodeling, but the valve defeats the purpose when you’re trying to slow the spread of a virus......"
The director is warning that Redfield: this fall could be the ‘worst’ we’ve seen, and he would never lie about such things.
"Across the United States, at least 200,000 more people have died than usual since March, according to a New York Times analysis of estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is about 60,000 higher than the number of deaths that have been directly linked to the coronavirus. As the pandemic has moved south and west from its epicenter in New York City, so have the unusual patterns in deaths from all causes. That suggests that the official death counts may be substantially underestimating the overall effects of the virus, as people die from the virus as well as by other causes linked to the pandemic. When the coronavirus took hold in the United States in March, the bulk of deaths above normal levels, or “excess deaths,” were in the Northeast, as New York and New Jersey saw huge surges. The Northeast still makes up nearly half of all excess deaths in the country, though numbers in the region have drastically declined since the peak in April, but as the number of hot spots expanded, so has the number of excess deaths across other parts of the country. Many of the recent coronavirus cases and deaths in the South and the West may have been driven largely by reopenings and relaxed social distancing restrictions. New York City in the first few months of the pandemic was the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, and it was plagued by staggering death totals, which peaked at more than seven times normal levels. Other areas of the Northeast, including New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut also saw early surges. Over all, rates have decreased significantly since then in much of the region.... "
The truth is the effects of the virus are being overestimated by tyrannical government and its mouthpiece media.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Smarten up, kids:
"East Carolina University police say about 20 parties, including one with nearly 400 people in attendance, were shut down during the school’s opening weekend. Lt. Chris Sutton of the East Carolina University Police Department told McClatchy News the parties were held last week and over the weekend at the school. Nearly 5,500 students began moving into their dorm rooms at the university last Wednesday. Sutton says most of the parties that campus authorities have shut down since then were “manageable,” with between 25 and 50 people. Sutton says the party with 400 people was held a few blocks from the school in an area dominated by off-campus student housing. They dispersed once authorities arrived."
You guys need to find a SpeakEasy and keep the noise down, and not at a hotel.
Put a ball game up loud so there will be a surreal murmur in the room, and you won't have to worry about cheering because Bo$ton $port$ teams now suck, ha-ha-ha-ha, and the games are boring, ha-ha-ha-ha!!
Does that clear the air for you, ha-ha-ha-ha!?
It's right in front of your face:
"As communities throughout the state scramble to craft back-to-school plans that prioritize public safety and academics, some officials have lauded hybrid schooling — which includes some variation of both in-school and at-home learning — as a solution that seems to strike an ideal middle ground between the remote-only and full-time camps, but some infectious disease experts call it a potential public health disaster..... "
“It sounds initially like a good idea, but the virus can spread,” said Dr. William Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, as hybrid models have emerged across the country as a palatable answer to a politicized and volatile dilemma that at face value provide students with some much-desired in-person instruction while lessening the burden on parents who are either working from home themselves or are essential employees who cannot work remotely, but the data on school reopening and whether and how to reopen is a fluid decision, responsive to changing conditions and an evolving understanding of COVID-19.
The teachers union organized a caravan to City Hall Thursday as it pressed for Boston's public school buildings to remain closed this fall (Barry Chin/Globe Staff).
I agree with the sentiment, but not with the hand signal.
Related:
Dr. Marc Siegel details risks to children if schools don’t reopen
He's the guy who wants children to wear yellow badges going back to school saying "no hugs please"... until there is a vaccine when they can throw their yellow badges in the garbage.
Do your kids and yourselves a favor and skip the middle step.
DOJ investigation finds Yale discriminates against Asian Americans, white applicants
They are woke to the brainwashing regarding the most effective methods to manipulate minds that Yale University is running research to determine the best way to sell the public on a mass vaccination campaign, and don't worry, they will still be awarding you a posthumous degree if you don't survive.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Trump scraps rule on methane pollution, even as leaks worsen" by Coral Davenport New York Times, August 13, 2020
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration formally weakened a major climate change regulation Thursday — effectively freeing oil and gas companies from the need to detect and repair methane leaks — even as research shows far more of the potent greenhouse gas is seeping into the atmosphere than previously known.
Good thing most frackers are shut down due to limited demand due to the lockdowns.
The rollback of the last major Obama-era climate rule is a gift to many oil and gas companies, which have seen profits collapse from the pandemic, but it comes as scientists say the need to rein in methane leaks at wells nationwide has become far more urgent, and new studies indicate methane pollution could be driving the planet toward a climate crisis faster than expected.
Andrew Wheeler, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, which completed lifting the methane regulation Thursday, has justified the move by citing EPA data showing that leaks from domestic oil and gas wells have remained steady over a decade, even as oil and gas production boomed; however, numerous recent studies show the opposite: that methane emissions from US drilling sites are far more extensive than the EPA’s official numbers. Levels are climbing steadily nationwide, according to the research, and have reached record highs globally, in part because of leaks from fossil fuel production.
“Over the past few years there has been an explosion of new research on this, and the literature has coalesced — 80 percent of papers show that methane from oil and gas leaks is two to three times higher than the EPA’s estimates,” said Robert Howarth, an earth systems scientist at Cornell University who last year published a study estimating North American gas production was responsible for about a third of the global increase in methane emissions over the past decade.
“It’s crazy to roll back this rule,” Howarth said. “Twenty-five percent of the human-caused warming over the past 20 years is due to methane.”
Scientists say the new data mean that, even if the world’s governments were somehow able to meet targets in the 2015 Paris climate agreement — in which every nation agreed to lower carbon dioxide pollution — those achievements could be wiped out by the heat-trapping power of all the previously uncounted methane.
Already, the Paris pact is imperiled, since President Trump has withdrawn the United States, but environmentalists hope it could be restored if Joe Biden wins the presidency.
President Barack Obama sought to use executive power to fight climate change with EPA rules that targeted three sources of planet-warming pollution: carbon dioxide emissions from cars and coal-burning power plants, and methane leaks from wells. At the time, the methane rule was seen as slightly less consequential than the other two rules.
Trump last year rolled back the rule on coal-plant pollution, and this spring he weakened the rule on auto pollution, but now, as he rounds the final turn of his unraveling of Obama’s climate legacy, scientists say the importance of reining in methane has become far greater.
According to the EPA’s annual inventory of emissions, oil and gas wells emitted about 7 million tons of the heat-trapping gas annually from 2014 to 2018. The more recent studies, however, show the real number could be twice that.
Several scientists said the key reason for the discrepancy between their studies and the EPA numbers is the thoroughness of the methods used to detect methane. The EPA relies on a mix of self-reported data from companies and on-site testing.
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Related:
"German automaker Daimler said Thursday that it had agreed to pay $2.2 billion to settle accusations that Mercedes-Benz cars and vans sold in the United States were programmed to cheat on emissions tests. The sum, which covers federal fines and a class-action suit brought by owners of Mercedes vehicles, is a substantial financial hit to the company as it deals with plunging sales because of the coronavirus pandemic. It is also humbling for a company that has been a symbol of German luxury automaking. The penalty is only a fraction of the more than $20 billion that Volkswagen paid in the United States to settle criminal charges and civil suits by owners and state governments after it was caught using software to dupe regulators. Daimler may have received more lenient treatment because it cooperated with authorities after questions were raised about its emissions systems. Volkswagen misled US investigators for more than a year before it admitted that diesel vehicles sold in the United States were programmed to illegally cloak high emissions. The federal government and the state of California will receive $1.5 billion from the settlement, while owners in a federal class-action suit will receive $700 million, Daimler said. The agreement between the company and car owners and several government agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency, still requires approval by US courts. Daimler, which had previously disclosed that it was under investigation, has already set aside money to cover the anticipated penalties. Still, the settlement will have a financial impact, the company said. Like most carmakers, Daimler suffered a steep decline in sales in recent months. The company, which is based in Stuttgart, reported a loss of 1.9 billion euros, or $2.2 billion, for the quarter that ended in June....."
Storm coming:
"Tropical Storm Josephine formed in the Atlantic on Thursday morning, becoming the earliest J named storm on record and marking the 10th named storm in a season that’s already been brimming with activity. The Atlantic hurricane season only looks to become more active in the coming weeks, with a possible barrage of tropical cyclones not out of the question as a highly favorable atmospheric setup for tropical cyclones looms. Tropical Storm Josephine beats out Jose, which formed on Aug. 22, 2005, as the earliest-named J storm in the Atlantic basin on record. The average date for a season’s 10th named storm is Oct. 19. The ongoing hurricane season has already been twice as active compared to average....."
Related:
"Behind Josephine, there’s no immediate next system to watch — for now. That may change late next week as a series of weather and climate cycles conspire to bring about a dramatically increased risk of Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes, and perhaps a slew of storms. Among the systems is a convectively-coupled Kelvin wave. This may sound complicated, but the concept is simple — it’s a large overturning circulation, sort of like a wave, that meanders about the tropical atmosphere. On one side of this wave, air is more prone to rise, while on the other side, it sinks. The Atlantic is beneath the sinking branch now, which squashes the prospects of tropical development, but that will reverse in about 7 to 10 days’ time, when the ‘‘enhanced’’ branch of the Kelvin wave drifts overhead.
As if the forces of nature could conspire (man could with a weather weapon, though).
Around that same time, the Madden-Julian Oscillation, another large-scale cycle, will begin to bolster shower and thunderstorm activity across the Atlantic, enhancing the Kelvin wave’s effects. The combination of the two features will likely result in more storminess, and with a Bermuda high pressure system a bit stronger and farther south and west than usual, there is an increased probability that any of the tropical storms and hurricanes that do develop could wind up tracking close to the United States. Storms that do form this season are likely to be made stronger and wetter thanks to anomalously warm sea surface temperatures, which are in part the result of human-induced climate change. The period of robust activity could extend from much of late August into the first half of September. A NOAA outlook issued last Thursday anticipates the remainder of hurricane season will be so busy that meteorologists may run out of names to assign storms, and be forced to revert to Greek letters for only the second time on record....."
Time to punt.
