Eric Cantor: Smirking and Idiotic

Usually this blog has focused on Rumsfeld, who was the smirking-est, most self-congratulatory right-winger out there for many years. And one of the most dangerous, in terms of putting people in harm's way, manufacturing made up crises, and wasting lots of resources. He would gleefully invade countries, resulting in thousands of dead and injured Americans, and wasting trilions of dollars, and think he was so gosh darned smart the whole time! But now there is a new smirker. Watch out for this guy. There he was, giving an interview on CNN, smirking about how he was so clever. Eric Cantor, House Majority Leader, and one of the idiots behind the government shutdown and debt ceiling default debacle, had orchestrated a vote to fund veteran's services and maybe one or two other things. Then when Democrats voted against it, because it didn't restart the whole darn government, and picking and choosing only what Republicans want to fund is stupid, because there are also Democrats in Congress, and you have to work with them, Cantor, Cantor gleefully told CNN, "Oh, the Democrats just hate Veterans." What a douche! Of course, Cantor is not the only idiot in Congress, there are a whole slew of them now, and they have shut down the government and pushed us to the brink of debt default. Ted Cruz is a moron, and I believe we already skewered Paul Ryan. Gilligan! I almost forgot about that one. But Cantor, like these other douches, is so pleased with his own ideological inflexibility. That wouldn't be a problem if his ideology included helping people and the planet. But no, his ideology is to hurt people and the planet. Starting with the most vulnerable. What about science? What about climate change? What about helping people who are poor? Social justice! That is why I an annoyed at these guys. They have a cover story that helps them justify to themselves why hurting people is good for them. Builds backbone, stiff upper lips, pulling up from bootstraps (bullshit!). But that is nonsense, and these guys, like the chickenhawks that Rumsfeld hung out with, are all hypocrites when held up to a mirror of their own beliefs. So, my call to Cantor is (and I'm sure he'll be receptive to my wish list after I trash him online): Fully fund food stamps, restart Head Start after it got defunded by the sequester, get the Repugnicans to stop trying to disenfranchise voters, pass a carbon cap and an escalating carbon price that returns revenues back to people as a per capita dividend, and support health care for all - universal health care - brought to you by a repentant Eric Cantor! Repent! And start helping people, not hurting them, use your power for good not evil. Good luck with your internal transformation. We await your apologies, and we'll see about forgiving you for your transgressions...at some point.

Worried about wet bulb temps

I'm still grieving that we're over 400 ppm CO2. It happened a few weeks ago but it is still sinking in, at least with me. The rest of the country doesn't seem to mind, except for the brave few environmental bloggers. Alert, alert! Yawn. So now I'm reading some depressing societal collapse stuff and I looked up wet bulb temprature, which I heard Jim Hansen talking about not long ago. So here are a few excerpts from a blog: "To function normally, we have to maintain a core body temperature of around 37 °C. If it rises above about 42 °C, we die...for every 1 °C that the global average temperature rises, maximum wet-bulb temperatures will rise by about 0.75 °C (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 107, p 9552)." When will this happen? It depends on climate sensitivity to CO2. It could be within the century. "Most of the discussion has been about the 21st century, but warming isn’t going to stop in 2100 unless our emissions have fallen almost to zero by then, and that would require heroic efforts,” says Sherwood. “If you consider that carbon releases might be a little higher than the most likely value and that the climate might be quite sensitive to inputs of energy, it’s not too hard to get up to 10, 12 or even 15 °C by the 23rd century.” This, along with the paleontologist research into the PETM, the previous thermal maximum that occurred millions of years ago, should be enough to finally shut James Inhofe up, and let Congress start debating solutions to this catastrophic climate trajectory. That is, assuming that facts are meaningful, which is a questionable assumption.

Monetary Reform to facilitate Transition to Steady State Economy

Good comment from Jason Dow on the Post Carbon Institute blog: "The issues as I see it is the macro economic model that the energy system supports is based on constant growth in consumption. It is the primary headwind slowing transition for this model to keep the lights on and to keep people employed must pay their bills from their revenues. So today we have technology capable of reducing consumption yet still not capable of completely taking over. This brings me to my point, when we look at the systemic factors blocking the transition one of the primary pillars is growth, and one of the primary drivers of growth is the way money comes into existence as debt so logically if we can transform money to debt free money,( the government creates credit and spends this into the economy) this has the potential to act as a pressure valve over time to absorb some of the rougher edges of transitioning off consumption based economics towards a steady state economic paradigm where progress is measured by a multitude of factors and not just the gross volume of money changes hands across the economy. So if we want this energy revolution, we will need to revolutionize how money comes into existence that will enable the policies to absorb as much of the shock of the transition as possible for people will not tolerate being thrown into poverty, or mass chaos, we will need a mechanism that allows us to transition from a consumptive based system to a cradle to cradle circular economic system and money will play a fundamental role."

The Five Stages Of Grief In Reverse

Joe Romm has a good post about how the five stages of grief are reversed for people who care about climate change. The typical five stages are: 1. Denial 2. Anger 3. Bargaining 4. Depression 5. Acceptance But actually, climate science activists (a.k.a. climate hawks) experience THE FIVE STAGES IN REVERSE. Climate hawks begin with accepting the science. What else can one do? Science is the reason so many of us survived childbirth and childhood, science has fed the world, science is the reason computers and the blogosphere exist at all. And yes, science gave us our fossil-fueled wealth. I’m a scientist by training, but I just don’t see how anyone can pick and choose what science you’re going to believe and what not. The scientific method may not be always be perfect in single studies — since it is used by imperfect humans — but it is the best thing we have for objectively determining what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen. It is testable and self-correcting, unlike all other approaches. Once climate hawks accept the science, many quite naturally get depressed. The situation is beyond dire, and we aren’t doing bloody much about it, in large part because of the successful efforts of the deniers and delayers. Climate science offers a very grim prognosis if we stay anywhere near our current emissions path. After depression comes a serious effort at bargaining. Climate hawks try to figure out what they can do to stop the catastrophe. Taking actions and making bargains at a personal level and a political level — depending on their level of activism. Then comes anger. Once you’ve been at this for a while, you get very very frustrated by how little is happening — by the status quo media, the many anti-science politicians, and especially the deniers, the professional disinformers. Finally, you end up in a kind of denial. It just becomes impossible to believe that the human race is going to be so stupid. Indeed, my rational side finds it hard to believe that we’re going to avoid catastrophic global warming... -end of excerpt- Please note that I appreciate this article by reposting it, and I am trying to be nice to Joe Romm, even though he was not nice to Theda Skocpol. OK, let's be serious, he was a jerk. Oops, I forgot, I was trying be nice, sorry.

Oppose the Virginia Hybrid Car Tax

So ridiculous! If you live in Virginia contact your state legislator and tell them to oppose the hybrid tax and keep or raise the gas tax, or check the Chesapeake Climate Action Network website for more details. Grr!!!

A Good Rant on the Mainstream Media's Failure to Cover Climate Change

This was posted by a user named wndrdog on HuffPost: CLIMATE CHANGE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STORY IN HUMAN HISTORY. Period! It is unconscionable, bordering on criminally negligent, that YOU THE MEDIA, catalyst of opinions worldwide, aren't ambitiously covering this topic every day. This is a challenge HUMANS HAVE NEVER FACED BEFORE, TIME IS CRITICAL, and we are NOT AT ALL PREPARED TO FACE IT. So how do we save ourselves from ourselves? One critical tool is YOU, the MAIN STREAM MEDIA!. You MUST pro-actively illustrate the seriousness, urgency, and precariousness of our current state. You MUST IMMEDIATELY RAISE AWARENESS of the impending tipping points of Global Warming. And if the click-thru ratings from your web viewers seem to indicate that they're more interested in J Lo's dress at the Grammy's, then IT IS YOUR JOB TO INFORM THEM that there is something a little more pressing to pay attention to. A fully informed public will demand change from their leaders, and in turn fully-supported politicians will rise to their mandate by strategizing an ambitious path to sustainability. On the other hand, if the MSM continues to feed the public a diet of empty-calorie infotainment, your FAILURE TO INFORM is unforgivable complicity in what is unfolding as the gravest crime in history — humanity marching naively past tipping points that will end civilization as we know it. Here is a link to a petition where you can rant too.

Alito As Indicator for State of the Union Speech

Alito shook his head like a partisan at a previous Obama State of the Union speech. For tonight's speech, Obama is expected to mention climate change. If, at the end of that section, Alito is clawing his eyes out and running screaming from the room, then Obama will have likely made a few good points, and there will be reason for ecological optimism for the first time since before Copenhagen. If all we get is an eye roll from Alito, then that's probably bad news for the global climate. It means the speech was something like blah blah blah solar is great blah blah blah all of the above blah let's drill and frack blah oh and we may still approve the Keystone pipeline blah I'm a moderate gimme a break enviros Romney was worse so here's a few million for R&D blah I wish I could do more but Congress is blocking me blah there now let's get back to drone striking.

No A/C for Congress until Climate Bill Passes

Senator Boxer introduced the Government Shutdown and Default Prevention Act that would prevent Members of Congress and the President of the United States from being paid during a default or shutdown of the federal government. I would like to encourage her and other Senators to introduce a climate change bill similar to it. It would mandate no air conditioning for House and Senate office buildings or the Capitol until a climate change bill is passed. Hopefully it will be a good bill, not a big giveaway to polluters. In 2009-10, I was a supporter of the Cantwell-Collins CLEAR Act.

Climate but not Carbon Price in Obama's Second Inaguration Speech

Quoted from Pres. Obama's Second Inaguration Speech: "We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries - we must claim its promise. That's how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure - our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That's what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared." Are these the words of a "climate hawk" as Joe Romm would say? Only if they are backed up by actions, the first of which is the Keystone Pipeline. I presume Obama would wait until John Kerry is confirmed, then let John Kerry take the heat from denying the pipeline. Everyone already knows that Kerry cares about the environment. Then Obama can preserve his cherished public stance of ambivalence on the issue. Oh wait, he mentioned climate in the inaugural speech, I forgot. I just don't see the words "carbon price" in there. We need to educate people about a carbon price, or alternatively, we need to just start charging a fee (or permit price) for carbon, and then returning the money to people, and when people receive the money, then you say, oh yeah, I don't know if you've heard about the carbon price, but here's your dividend.

Obama's Speech Introducing the $60 Trillion Dollar Coin

Ah, wishful thinking, I just can't get enough. Suddenly, I'm not just a fan of a One Trillion Dollar Coin, now I want a $60 Trillion Dollar Coin. Too greedy? Don't tell John Boehner, but I'll still settle for just a Trillion. Actually, given Obama's negotiating skills, we should ask for $60 Trillion. Well, my intended audience for this is a White House Staffer wondering what to do when the Trillion Dollar Coin petition hits 25K signatures, or when Jay Carney has his next press conference, or when the debt ceiling fight comes to a head. So I apologize for insulting your boss, please read this blog anyway. You can invite me to dinner at the White House too, if you want more info. I'm vegetarian. You can find the original, with additional commentary and background here. My Fellow Americans: 1) Until now the Treasury has been borrowing the money the Government created back from the private sector, in order to cover our deficit spending, so the national debt has been steadily growing. 2) That’s silly! According to the Constitution, this Government, of the people, by the people, and for the people, is the ultimate source of all US money. So why should we ever borrow US money back and pay interest on it, since we can create it any time by the authority of the Constitution and Congress? 3) Congress has also imposed a debt ceiling, so, if and when we reach it, we can’t borrow back our own money without Congressional approval, anyway, and lately Congress has been using the need to raise the debt ceiling as an excuse to extort cuts in safety net and discretionary programs that the majority of Americans support. 4) So, on my order, and in accordance with legislation passed by Congress in 1996, and with the US Code, the US Mint has issued $60 Trillion using a single 1 oz. platinum coin, and deposited it at the NY Fed. It’s legal tender, so the Fed credited the Mint’s Public Enterprise Fund (PEF) account with $60 Trillion in US Dollar credits using its unlimited authority from Congress to create them. 5) This is not inflationary because the Fed will put our coin into its vault, and keep it there permanently out of circulation, and the Treasury will use the $60 T in USD credits only to pay back the national debt and to spend what Congress has already approved, which is only a small fraction of these credits and far from the amount needed to cause inflation. 6) My action ends any possibility of a debt ceiling crisis in February or March, because we have no further need to borrow our own money back in the markets, and that’s why we don’t need the tea party or other Republicans, or even my fellow Democrats to agree to raise the debt ceiling any more. 7) Now the Treasury, has plenty of money, much more than we need, in fact, to pay for all appropriations Congress has already approved for 2013, and may approve in March, including all deficit spending and, again, we won’t have to borrow our own money back, either to repay debts or to implement future deficit spending. So, we will pay all Government debts which will come due in 2013 and 2014. Treasury securities and all other debts included. We will also pay back all debts held by other agencies of Government and the Federal Reserve. When we do this we will lower the national debt by about $12 T, reducing the “debt burden” by about 75% by the end of 2014, and creating an actual Social Security trust fund with 2.7 T in cash reserves in it; and again, to do this we don’t have to borrow any of our own money back, and we will also reduce our interest costs on the outstanding national debt all through the remainder of 2013, 2014, and beyond until it is all paid off. 9) None of the $60 T in new credits created by our actions is “money” in the private sector economy until the Treasury spends it. For now it is just capability to spend awaiting the appropriations of Congress to mandate deficit spending, should it need to compensate for the reduction in demand, probably close to 10% of GDP right now, caused by your own desire to save (which we want to do our best to facilitate), and your desire to import goods from foreign nations. 10) We have created $60 Trillion in new credits even though we probably needed less than that to cover anticipated deficit spending and debt repayment until at least 2028. The reason for this, is that I wanted to have enough capability created in the Treasury account, so that the national debt could be completely paid off (except for a small amount in very long-term Treasury debt still not mature by 2028), and all projected Federal deficits covered over the next 15 years, even extraordinary deficit spending needed to be performed without further borrowing over this period. 11) Of course, we can always make new coins if our projections about future deficits turn out to be wrong; but I thought it would be best to ensure that all $16.4 T plus of the “debt burden” can be completely eliminated from our political concerns; and also to provide enough funds in our spending account at the Fed, so that it would be very clear to Congress and all newly elected Representatives and Senators, that even though they, as required by the Constitution, continue to control the purse strings, the national purse is very, very full, and that we would be able to cover from the Treasury General Account whatever deficit spending for the public purpose, including for full employment, Medicare for All, infrastructure, education, and other things, that Congress, in its wisdom, chooses to appropriate now, before the next election, and for some elections to come. Good night, my fellow Americans! Rest well knowing that our beloved country won’t be defaulting on any of its debts when the debt ceiling is reached, and that I’ve prevented this without going over the legal debt ceiling, or borrowing any more, by providing money for spending mandated appropriations, in compliance with the laws authorizing Platinum Coin Seigniorage, while supporting the Constitution’s prohibition against our Government ever defaulting on its debts. I hope that, in the future, everyone in Congress will obey the 14th Amendment’s prohibition against questioning the validity of Federal Government debts, and think twice before they indulge themselves in loose talk about the possibility of the Federal Government defaulting on its obligations. America will always pay its debts in US Dollars according to the terms of the contracts it has concluded, and in line with the pension payments and other obligations that it owes. Neither you, nor the rest of the world need ever doubt that again! Nor need you ever think that our Government is running out of money for the things we must do. We can never run short of money unless Congress refuses voluntarily, to use its unlimited constitutional authority to make more of it. But as long as it delegates to me the authority to create high value platinum coins to cover our needs, you can be sure that running out of US money will never happen!

Trillion Dollar Coin Video

The Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin could be a big deal

What a great opportunity to have a mainstream discussion about monetary reform! Here are some links to recent articles about the Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin: My favorite one so far is from a Modern Monetary Theorist on how most bloggers are looking at these issues through a constrained lens only related to the debt ceiling: "small ball versus big issues." Mint the Coin says that the US Treasury Secretary has the power to have the U.S. Mint create a $1 trillion coin. Then he can walk it over to the Federal Reserve and deposit it in the Treasury’s account. Then the government can keep paying its bills, regardless of how Congress votes on the debt ceiling issue. Banks and lending institutions must be required to maintain some percentage of the value of loans they issue and brokers must be prevented from profiting from the losses of their clients. Pre-empting commenters: Comparisons to a business or family budget fundamentally fail to understand how the modern monetary system works. Some sarcastic commenters on other blogs ask not cancel all debts: a Global Jubilee as in Biblical Times...sounds like something to consider. (Jokes below attributed to comments on DailyKos and here) That coin is the change we can believe in. Pres Obama: "When I said there would be no negotiation on the debt ceiling, well I mint it." Suggestion to put President Andrew Jackson's face on the coin since he was the only President to have retired all U.S. debt. The coin is/could be a blow against the Fed's private monopoly on issuance of public debt.