March Clipboard

Obama Choice of Popular Centrist Merrick Garland Puts GOP to the Test

"Judge Garland is just the kind of candidate we would have advised President Bush to nominate if he had been in this situation." Here

March Miracle Eases California Drought

What we’re doing to the Earth has no parallel in 66 million years, scientists say 

Obama and President Xi of China Vow to Sign Paris Climate Accord Promptly 

Ben Carson: Republicans Would Not Wait to Replace Supreme Court Justice

LA City Council Approves TWO High Rises in Hollywood

Here Whoa! I guess the City Council members do not drive in LA. And are not aware of how bad they are screwing the pooch (LA residents) by cramming more traffic and density into a city already way too overbuilt and overcapacity, a city becoming brutally hard to live or move in because of traffic. Not real sustainable growth, that's for sure.

As Coals Future Grows Murkier, Banks Pull Financing - New York Times

Here Yep. The asbestos industry had its run too. Progress is included in sustainability.

Obama: Merrick Garland qualified to serve on Supreme Court immediately

Obama: Merrick Garland qualified to serve on Supreme Court immediately 

Seems like a reasonable pick. We'll see if the GOP can proceed professionally.

"During his introduction of Garland, Obama cited Sen. Orrin Hatch,
R-Utah, who voted to confirm Garland in 1997 and who called him a
"consensus choice" for the court opening in 2010 that went to Elena
Kagan.

"The one name that has come up repeatedly from Republicans and Democrats alike is Merrick Garland," Obama said Wednesday."

"Adding the Supreme Court to the nation's divisive politics," Obama said, "would be wrong."

"The reputation of the Supreme Court will inevitably suffer," he said, and "our democracy will ultimately suffer as well."

Colby's Facebook Blog Repost on Bernie Sanders and Progress

Here

Colby's Facebook Blog Post on Bernie Sanders and Progress

Repost below - https://berniesanders.com/?nosplash=true/

Make no mistake – Bernie Sanders and his campaign are crucial to the substance of America’s government moving forward. This post is more support than fundraising appeal – but [spoiler alert] it does go there in the middle. Regardless of Hilary Clinton being a capable and flawed (as all candidates are) mainstream Presidential candidate, and in some eyes being a better candidate for the general election.

Too much power is consolidated at the top in the U.S. As you’ve heard, and Bernie reminds us repeatedly and importantly, the top handful of billionaires and their companies are running top candidates that cater to their special interests.

This may still remain appealing in some ways to some careful and perhaps meek ‘middle-class voters’ – and perhaps one may think, “the U.S. is safe because we have big businesses and rich people that will protect our way of life.” Which is a secure and mild way of allowing the status quo, and we don’t want to be challenged with change.

But for how long can we let 158 super-rich families and mega-businesses run the budgets, priorities, and candidates in our country? (More on that below). Not much longer, unless we want a society with two classes: (1) a Mitt Romney class and, (2) the 98% rest of us, people who only get 2 weeks off vacation, 75% of whom are living paycheck to paycheck, and 62% of whom have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts. 62%!!! !!! http://www.marketwatch.com/story/most-americans-have-less-than-1000-in-savings-2015-10-06    http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/24/pf/emergency-savings/ 

We just can’t support the Mitt Romney party politics much longer. We just can’t.

If that weren’t enough (and it really probably should be) here are a couple of other interesting examples of problems of too-centralized power: the U.S. electrical power grid, which is dominated by centralized power sources. Big coal plants and let’s say nuclear power plants. Lots of power is produced, stored and owned in one very profitable source. This is a liability – security analysts show that a terrorist attack, or a Fukushima-type event, knocks out power for hundreds of thousands of people. For an unknown amount of time. (Have lots of propane for your back-up generator for the winter, or lots of battery-powered fans for the summer? Fancy life without the internet or TV?) Decentralized power – when there are more rooftop solar panels on people’s homes, more small wind farms, more small local solar gardens – creates a more stable and resilient grid in the faces of such ‘incidents.’ Plus, importantly, the capital (money) and ownership is spread out over more people, which is good simply at face value, and also so a lot more people have a say in the way things run. Not just an elite wealthy few in the totally centralized grid case, a hogtied-by-profit wealthy few who already make too much profit, but are also forced by shareholders to always try to still increase profit – which leads to other bad things. Bad things like Halliburton using cheap well parts and resulting in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster across most of the Gulf of Mexico, and things like the San Bruno gas line explosion where PG&E sat on millions in maintenance funds from regulators, which increased profits and company bonuses – while knowing their lines were aging and had systemic weaknesses – resulting in the loss of a dozen lives, etc.

The most systemic weakness of Capitalism is that profit comes first, not people. Then it must compound and re-invest its interest in the small cell of apex predator returns, and the majority actually finds their musical-chairs behinds in the 62% group above.

Our Constitution and Democracy dictate that people come first. There is without question a most strong sense fighting the centralization of power in our Founding Father’s documents – and they were right. Look at the separation of branches of government. They were smart. They saw the ugliness and squalor of the masses in what existed in Europe and what Bernie says is pretty well happening here -- an ugly oligarchy. Gorging itself.

There are alternatives. It can be done. Canada and the United Kingdom have single payer healthcare. We can have socialized health care and education and free markets and entrepreneurial capitalism – wielded smartly.

Decentralizing power – literally, as in the electric grid sense – and more so down the line with banks, lobbyists, campaign contributions and limits as per Bernie will make the country stronger. More input points, a broader ownership of smaller banks, better incomes in the mid-range of the economy – the middle class – and less consolidation of money, power, and influence at the top.

These are all crucial moves moving forward. And again make no mistake some of this is already happening – California is one of the leaders in the country in rooftop solar installation rates. The grid will become a smart grid – with more inputs, and be more safe from singular disruptive events.

This would be true for the economy as well. So supporting Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and similar efforts to rein in Wall Street and keep banks from getting too big is smart. The biggest banks should be ‘broken up’ – not like closed, but diversified into separate affiliates so public money is not used in the greediest speculation hedge fund schemes that risk the entire bank. And therefore major repeats of 2008 recession / contraction-type events become much less likely.

Decentralization of assets has a heavy ring to it. Many people, even me, probably think there is something wonky and regressive and don’t want to think about decentralization a lot. Well I’m thinking it’s easier and more accurate to say ‘more widely dispersed and widely shared.’ ‘More widely dispersed and widely shared’ energy sources, and assets. That as a concept sounds more straightforward, and is easier to grasp and support.

I just sent Bernie Sanders $27. The New York Times reports the average donation to his campaign https://berniesanders.com/?nosplash=true/  is about $27. More than 1.3 million supporters have contributed so far.

And this “in an election cycle when just 158 families provided half of the early money for the presidential campaign.”

It sucks that we as ordinary citizens have – with our pocketbooks - to fight the Super Pac / Citizens’ United Super-Slush Funds supporting candidates. But that’s where we’re at. For the record, I have donated to Hillary also.

It bears repeating: for how long is it smart to let 158 super-rich families and mega-businesses run the budgets, priorities, and candidates in our country? Not much longer I’m thinking.

The higher and more strongly Sanders runs, the more Hillary and the Democratic Party will see people want more from their government – and will have to adopt more of his ideas to their platforms. No matter the results next November.

No matter the results next November – we’ll always remember Bernie and his message. Did we buy in, did we help?

And it’s February. This is today. There is definitely time for - if not a revolution as Sanders says (although maybe there is time?) - more significant developments, attention and progress on these fronts. Be aware, be involved. If you already are liking, or are thinking you like him, tell someone you like Bernie Sanders, and his ideas. Each of us should post just a little something to feel good about feeling, even if - yechh! - it’s about politics, something you are hopeful about and would like to see. Even brevity, like ‘Bernie is right!’ or “Bernie is good!’ is fantastic. Haha, brevity finally, after a post like this. I’m going to do that with a first post.

But make no mistake - this is change and this is progress. I like Bernie, a lot.

Bacteria Can Eat Plastic - Could This Make Oceans Cleaner, or Worse Off?

Here Great discovery/invention. Now scientists have to work on the 'application.' A thought comes to mind: putting the bacteria into the giant plastic trash heaps in the ocean sounds good, but perhaps breaks down the plastic to smaller levels where it gets diffused through the the water table. Perhaps creating more problems than it sitting in state, where perhaps eventually it can be collected and dropped off somewhere, like in a dump featuring the bacteria?

2015 Environemental Legislative Scorecard

Here

Sierra Club California Releases 2015 Legislative Report Card

Environment fares well, but oil industry influence evident

SACRAMENTO – Nearly twice as many California Senators as Assembly Members scored a 100 percent on Sierra Club California’s 2015 legislative report card.

“When you look at the votes, it’s pretty clear that many Democratic Assembly members who might vote well on other environmental issues, held back on votes that would have required them to challenge the oil industry to pollute less,” said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California.

Eight Assembly members received 100 percent scores on the report card. That meant they voted with the Club’s recommendations on a list of priority bills that would protect the environment and public health. Fourteen Senators received 100 percent.

The Assembly members receiving 100 percent scores are Richard Bloom, Susan Eggman, Marc Levine, Patty Lopez, Adrin Nazarian, Anthony Rendon, Mark Stone, and Phil Ting. Other Assembly members who scored 89% or above  are Toni Atkins, Rob Bonta, Ed Chau, David Chiu, Kansen Chu, Matthew Dababneh, Jimmy Gomez, Rich Gordon, Reginald Jones-Sawyer, Sr., Kevin McCarty, Kevin Mullin, Bill Quirk, Miguel Santiago, Tony Thurmond and Jim Wood.

Assembly member Das Williams, who was absent from voting on the last two nights of the legislative session to attend to the birth of his daughter, missed voting on three bills he co-authored that were priority environmental bills. Had he been there to vote, he would have scored a 90 percent on the report card.

“Getting 89 percent or above in the Assembly is a good score this year,” said Phillips. “Anything lower than that means your constituents are not getting the representation on the environment and public health that virtually every public opinion survey indicates Californians want.”

The state Senators receiving 100 percent scores are Ben Allen, Marty Block, Kevin de Leon, Loni Hancock, Jerry Hill, Hannah-Beth Jackson, Mark Leno, Carol Liu, Mike McGuire, Holly Mitchell, William Monning, Fran Pavley, Bob Wieckowski, and Lois Wolk.

“Generally, if you got less than a 100 percent in the Senate, it was because you took a walk or voted against the environment on at least one bill the oil industry overtly worked to defeat,” said Phillips.

Ten bills were scored in each house. Several bills made it to floor votes in each house and are included in the report card for Assembly members and Senators. Some bills died in their house of origin and are only included in that house’s score tally.

“One of the things we looked at this year, too, was campaign finance reports. Thanks to the new system online at the Secretary of State’s website we could quickly research who received oil money in their last campaign and through the summer,” said Phillips. “It was disappointing—not surprising—to see how many legislators who had low scores received a lot of oil money.”

The lowest score among Democratic Assembly members was garnered by Jim Frazier, Adam Gray, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas and Freddie Rodriguez. They each received a score of 46 percent. The highest score among Assembly Republicans was 60 percent, which was garnered by David Hadley.

In the Senate, the lowest score among Democratic members was earned by Cathleen Galgiani, who scored a 50 percent. The highest score among Republican members was thirty percent, earned by five members, Jeff Stone, Sharon Runner, Bob Huff, Anthony Canella, and Tom Berryhill.

“Anything below 60 percent would earn an F grade in most schools,” said Phillips.

The report card is available on the Sierra Club California website at http://www.sierraclubcalifornia.org.    http://www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/sce/sierra-club-california/PDFs/FINAL%202015%20Score%20Card_0.pdf

Sierra Club California is the legislative and regulatory advocacy arm of the 13 Sierra Club chapters in California, representing more than 380,000 members and supporters statewide.

Florida Today March 11, 2016: (1a) Marco Rubio a Complete Idiot, Worse Than a Robot; (1b) Florida Nuclear Reactor Leaking; (2) Fukushima 5 Years Later: They Still Haven't Gone Into Core! Radioactivity Fries Robots, Radiactive Water and Soil Piling Up in Containers Across the Province

Water, Soil And Radiation: Why Fukushima Will Take Decades To Clean Up : The Two-Way : NPR 

FPL nuclear plant canals leaking into Biscayne Bay, study confirms 

And Marco Rubio is an idiot. Complete fail on addressing climate change drags down debate rating.  

Climate Change Is Undeniable. So Why Is the GOP Still Denying It? Foreign Policy‎

This is not sustainable. This is quite horrible. These aging, leaking nuclear power plants are near the coast - most threatened by storms and sea level rise. While idiots like Marco Rubio, presumed Senator of Florida, denies that man contributes most significantly to climate change or that any laws can help reduce it. As if laws about ozone and asbestos didn't work (what an idiot; they did.). One must guess his unawareness of how naive and bumbling he comes off is complete. It's like a 4th grader trying to lie in front of the teacher making all kinds of stuff up he thinks is going to let him slide. He cannot guess how stupid he looks. And what's far worse is the jeopardy he puts us and our future in by not admitting the most basic and pressing of issues* and his not trying to help right now.

* “They can’t dismiss it. It’s high tide in Miami, and water is coming
into their front yards,” said Inglis, the former congressman. “But
hopefully experience is going to take us out of that tissue-rejection
phase.”

Google.org Thinks It Can Engineer a Solution to the World’s Woes | WIRED

Google.org Thinks It Can Engineer a Solution to the World’s Woes | WIRED 



Technology industry, software, and the new economy have to help pull the rest of everyone else up.

U.S., Canada agree steps to fight climate change | Reuters

U.S., Canada agree steps to fight climate change | Reuters 



This is good cooperation, between good people. Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau. Hope this is built on, and then built on.

LA Times Article: Eesential California: The Fight for Clean Air

Here by Reporter Alice Walton More helpful content and updates here as well.

Can we pause the Bernie-Hillary wars for a moment? Major Carbon Monoxide Explosion West Coast

Here