Category Archives: Disasters

Climate, Disasters, Hurricanes, North Carolina, Weather

Debby – Durham Update: The Eye’s Wide Open

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3:10 PM – August 8, 2024

We’re still here, the rain has paused, the wind is light, and sunlight feels close to breaking through.

But . . . . The radar says Debby, or this end of it/her, is west of us, swirling lazily counterclockwise, and could come around and do another dump on us tonight on the way north up the coast.

The weather people are predicting  this.  We had two warnings, now there’s three: besides more heavy rain tonight, thunder & lightning too, with a chance of tornadoes. Did I mention I’m not a fan of twisters?

Our personal forecaster, Ms. Kitty, is feeling cautious. On non-stormy days, she is mostly outside. Right now, she’s keeping a cautious eye out.

We’ve had two power outages, relatively brief.
I’m going to do some editing, if I can concentrate. And stay dry. Then maybe check on the action on the weirdness front.

Arts: Cartoons, Climate, Cross-Generational Issues, Disasters, Science, Signs of the Times

Dyer: Global Heating: Breaking Records, Beating Forecasts; Now What?

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Climate Change: The August Deadline
By Gwynne Dyer — 31 July 2024

When you spend four years writing a book on climate change, you get to know most of the leading players. I have never seen them so dismayed.

“By August, if we’re still looking at record-breaking temperatures, then we really have moved into uncharted territory,” said climate scientist Gavin Schmidt in April. Well, 22 July was the hottest average global temperature ever recorded – and 23 July promptly broke that brand new record. Here we are in August, and it is not looking promising.

Gavin Schmidt is Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He was choosing his words very carefully when he used the phrase ‘uncharted territory’, because that is a frightening place to be. Continue reading Dyer: Global Heating: Breaking Records, Beating Forecasts; Now What? →

"Dog Days" Diversions, “New Normal”, 45, Arts: Punditry, Democrats, Disasters, Election 2024, MAGA, Minority Rule, Signs of the Times, Supreme & Other Courts

Biden In Crisis: What Did Jim Clyburn Say? (And What about Bernie?)

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AP News: Clyburn’s discussion of a ‘mini-primary’ fuels more talk of whether Biden should end his campaign.

[NOTE: My first post on the great debate fallout freakout (After the Debate: Keep Calm. Chill the [Bleep] Out. Head Down, Beat Trump.) was posted on June 29.

That was less than a week ago, but it seems like a month or two. The  key question that came up for me in the immediate aftermath was simple:

What Will Jim Clyburn say?

Clyburn, the senior Black member of the U.S House, essentially saved Biden’s campaign in 2020. Would (and could?)  he do it again?

His first comment was staunchly supportive: On the morning after the debate debacle, he compared Biden’s performance to “strike one” in baseball; not good, but not yet a “strikeout.” He told people to “chill out.” Sounded like he was on board, and I think he was.

But Clyburn didn’t get to be where he is by blind loyalty; his input may be crucial, but it’s not the only factor in a fast-moving political upheaval. He, like other insiders, was watching to see what happened on several other fronts:

Continue reading Biden In Crisis: What Did Jim Clyburn Say? (And What about Bernie?) →

“New Normal”, Arts: Punditry, Black & White & Other Colors, Current Affairs, Disasters, Famine, Fire This Time, Gaza, Haiti, Hamas, Ireland, Israel, Kids, Palestine, Religious Issues & Conflicts, Signs of the Times, War & Peace, Women & Girls

Three Timely Reports from Gwynne Dyer, from Ireland, Sudan, Gaza, Haiti & England

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Gwynne Dyer remains one of my go-to reporter/analysts on the international scene. Here he brings three recent, revealing and concise snapshots.

Three famines: Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti

Gwynne Dyer

Irish Potato Famine

There are three incipient famines in the world today, and politics is at the root of all of them.

That’s not unusual, actually: Famines are almost always political events.

My family is descended from the Catholic Irish diaspora, and when I was a boy in Newfoundland we would sometimes play the game of “potatoes and point” at the dinner table. We’d point at the potatoes (there was always a bowl of boiled potatoes with the main meal) and say, “May I have a slice of beef” or “I’ll have some more carrots, please.” Continue reading Three Timely Reports from Gwynne Dyer, from Ireland, Sudan, Gaza, Haiti & England →

antisemitism, Antiwar activism, Coping, Disasters, Fire This Time, Islam & Muslims, Israel, Israel/Hamas War, Jail & Incarceration, Jews & Judaism, Justice?, Military Matters, Signs of the Times, War & Peace

CNN: “It’s Complicated”— Why Israel’s peace activists are reevaluating their position on the war

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CNN: Why Israel’s peace activists are reevaluating their position on the war

By Tara John and Lottie Beilin

Sun Dec 3 2023

Tel Aviv (CNN) — When human rights activist Ziv Stahl was awakened to the booms of rocket fire on October 7, while staying at her sister’s home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, she did not for a moment anticipate the scale of the terrorist attack unfolding around her. Nor did she imagine the horror she would feel when she later called the police, who “basically told me no one is coming.”

That day saw Hamas militants murder her sister-in-law and several prominent peace activists living in the kibbutz, one of the communities that bore the brunt of the attack on Israel. Continue reading CNN: “It’s Complicated”— Why Israel’s peace activists are reevaluating their position on the war →