"Winter -- Vivaldi" (opens in separate window)
as climate experts warn of...
friday, april 14th, 2023
Humanity only has a few years to act before the world may irreversibly plunge into an environmental catastrophe of global proportions, climate experts warned in a recent report. Their calls are muffled, however, by a ballast of dozens of past dramatic predictions that have failed to pan out.
[FULL TITLE: "As Climate Experts Warn of Looming Catastrophe, Past Bad Predictions Hurt Their Message".]
Environmental experts have been predicting upcoming doom for many decades. Most, though not all, of the prognostications involve climatic cataclysm that appears to be just around the corner, only to fizzle out as the deadline approaches.
As the failed predictions pile up, climate experts appear to be more cautious in making their predictions too specific. The current general consensus among climate change proponents is that extreme weather events, such as droughts and storms, will become more prevalent or intense.
The recently released short-form report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that unless carbon emissions are cut drastically and promptly, the planet will warm roughly an additional 1.1-2.4 degrees Celsius by 2100 (pdf). That would lead to “high” or “very high” risk of wildfire damage, permafrost degradation, biodiversity loss, dryland water scarcity, and tree mortality on the land, and loss of warm-water corals in the sea. Most of the severe risks are asserted with moderate or low confidence, meaning that underlying evidence is lacking or inconclusive.
The full IPCC report hasn’t been released yet.
One of the most famous climate experts, Michael Mann, criticized the IPCC for being “overly conservative” in predicting catastrophic consequences of climate change, “including ice sheet collapse, sea level rise, and the rise in extreme weather events,” Inside Climate News reported.
But it’s been exactly these kinds of bold predictions that have undermined experts’ credibility in the past.
Environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg has collected some such failed predictions in his book, “False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet.” Geologist and electrical engineer Tony Heller, who frequently criticizes what he considers fraud in current mainstream climate research, has made it a recurring theme of his climate science blog to point out failed and dubious predictions.
Examples are plentiful, stretching far into the past:
December 1939
“All the glaciers in Eastern Greenland are rapidly melting,” the Harrisburg [Pennsylvania] Sunday Courier reported.
“It may without exaggeration be said that the glaciers—like those in Norway—face the possibility of a catastrophic collapse,” the paper quoted Prof. Hans Ahlmann, a Swedish geologist, saying from a report to the Geographical Society after his Arctic expedition.
In fact, arctic ice was seen receding since 1918, according to a 1923 New York Time article.
“Last Winter, oceans did not freeze over even on the north coast of Spitzbergen,” article said.
By comparison, this winter, sea ice did reach the shore of Spitzbergen, though in low concentrations.
Back then, however, the meltdown seemed nowhere near done.
May 1947
“The possibility of a prodigious rise in the surface of the ocean with resultant widespread inundation, arising from an Arctic climate phenomenon[,] was discussed yesterday by Dr. Hans Ahlmann, a noted Swedish geophysicist at the University of California Geophysical Institute,” an article in The West Australian read.
“The Arctic change is so serious that I hope an international agency can speedily be formed to study the conditions on a global basis,” Ahlmann said.
February 1952
“The glaciers of Norway and Alaska are only half the size they were 50 years ago,” said Dr. William Carlson, an Arctic expert, according to a newswire run by The Cairns Post in Australia.
March 1955
“There are now six million square miles of ice in the Arctic. There once were 12 million square miles,” said Arctic explorer Adm. Donald McMillan, according to Rochester, New York’s Democrat and Chronicle.
October 1958
“Some scientists estimate that the polar ice pack is 40 percent thinner and 12 percent less in area than it was a half-century ago, and that even within the lifetime of our children, the Arctic Ocean may open, enabling ships to sail over the North Pole,” The New York Times reported, noting that the Arctic ice sheet was about 7 feet thick at the time. Currently, the ice is about 7 feet thick, too.
By the 1960s, it appears that worries about a melting Arctic became not as immediate, only to be supplanted by other environmental concerns.
November 1967
“It is already too late for the world to avoid a long period of famine,” The Salt Lake Tribune reported, citing Paul Ehrlich’s prediction of famines by 1975.
Ehrlich, a Stanford University biologist and author of “The Population Bomb,” proposed lacing staple foods and drinking water with sterilizing agents to cut the growing population of the United States, according to the report.
April 1970
“Scientist predicts a new ice age by 21st century,” The Boston Globe reported, saying that pollution expert James Lodge predicted that “air pollution may obliterate the sun and cause a new ice age in the first third of the new century.”
October 1970
Ehrlich went on to predict that America would be rationing water by 1974 and food by 1980, California’s Redlands Daily Facts reported.
July 1971
“The world could be as little as 50 or 60 years away from a disastrous new ice age,” said atmospheric scientist S. I. Rasool of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Columbia University, The Washington Post reported.
January 1972
“We have 10 years to stop the catastrophe,” said Maurice Strong, then-U.N. environmental secretary, regarding world’s environmental problems, according to a Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
December 1972
Two Brown University geologists wrote a letter to President Richard Nixon, reporting that a conference attended by “42 top American and European investigators” concluded “a global deterioration of climate, by order of magnitude larger than any hitherto experienced by civilized mankind, is a very real possibility and indeed may be due very soon.”
“The present rate of cooling,” they said, “seems fast enough to bring glacial temperatures in about a century, if continuing at the present pace.”
January 1974
“Space satellites show new Ice Age coming fast,” The Guardian reported.
June 1974
“Another Ice Age?” a Time Magazine headline asked.
“Telltale signs are everywhere—from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest,” the article said.
January 1978
“An international team of specialists has concluded from eight indexes of climate that there is no end in sight to the cooling trend of the last 30 years, at least in the Northern Hemisphere,” The New York Times reported.
A year later, the paper was reporting the opposite.
February 1979
“There is a real possibility that some people now in their infancy will live to a time when the ice at the North Pole will have melted, a change that would cause swift and perhaps catastrophic changes in climate,” The New York Times said.
May 1982
Mostafa Tolba, then-executive director of the U.N. environmental program, said that if the world didn’t change course, it would face “an environmental catastrophe which will witness devastation as complete, as irreversible, as any nuclear holocaust’’ by the year 2000, according to The New York Times.
September 1988
The small island nation of Maldives was threatened to be completely covered by “a gradual rise in average sea level” in 30 years, Agence France-Presse reported, noting that “the end of the Maldives and its people could come sooner if drinking water supplies dry up by 1992, as predicted.”
Maldives are still nowhere near under water. In fact, despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s decimation of tourism, the nation still attracts new developments. Just last week, Emirati development company awarded a $148 million contract to build 120 luxurious over-water and beachfront villas on Maledives’ South Male Atoll, Hotelier Maledives reported.
June 1989
“A senior environmental official at the United Nations, Noel Brown, says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the earth by rising sea levels if global warming is not reversed by the year 2000,” California’s San Jose Mercury News reported.
“Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of ‘eco-refugees,’ threatening political chaos,” said Brown, then-director of the New York office of the U.N. Environment Program.
March 2000
“Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past,” The Independent wrote. “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” said David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit of England’s University of East Anglia, noting that within a few years, winter snowfall would become “a very rare and exciting event.”
While snow is rare in southern England, it still comes pretty much every winter.
December 2001
“The changes in climate could potentially extirpate the sugar maple industry in New England” within 20 years, according to George Hurtt, co-author of a 2001 global warming report commissioned by the U.S. Congress, according to Albuquerque Journal.
Today, New England still produces plenty of maple syrup.
February 2004
The Guardian reported on a secret Pentagon report that predicted climate change will lead to nuclear war, major European cities will sink into the ocean, and Britain would descend into “Siberian” climate by the year 2020.
January 2006
“Unless drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gases are taken within the next 10 years, the world will reach a point of no return,” The Associated Press wrote, paraphrasing Al Gore, a prominent global warming advocate.
November 2007
This year was the “defining moment” of the climate change fight, according to Rajendra Pachauri, then-head of the U.N. climate panel. “If there is no action before 2012, that’s too late,” the official said, according to The New York Times.
November 2007
“The Arctic Ocean could be free of ice in the summer as soon as 2010 or 2015—something that hasn’t happened in more than a million years,” Canada’s Canwest News Service reported, paraphrasing polar researcher Louis Fortier.
December 2007
“Arctic Sea Ice Gone in Summer Within Five Years?” said an Associated Press headline.
“At this rate, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012,” said Jay Zwally, a NASA climate scientist, according to the article.
December 2007
“Artic summers ice-free ‘by 2013’” the BBC reported.
“Our projection of 2013 for the removal of ice in summer is not accounting for the last two minima, in 2005 and 2007,” a researcher from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, told the BBC.
“So given that fact, you can argue that maybe our projection of 2013 is already too conservative.”
March 2008
“If Norway’s average temperature this year equals that in 2007, the ice cap in the Arctic will all melt away, which is highly possible judging from current conditions,” said Olav Orheim, head of the Norwegian International Polar Year Secretariat, according to Xinhua, China’s official propaganda mouthpiece.
Norway’s average temperature did slightly increase from 2007 to 2008. The ice didn’t melt.
April 2008
“North Pole could be ice free in 2008,” reported New Scientist.
“There is this thin first-year ice even at the North Pole at the moment,” said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, according to the article. “That raises the specter—the possibility—that you could become ice free at the North Pole this year.”
June 2008
“We’re actually projecting this year that the North Pole may be free of ice for the first time [in history],” said David Barber, of the University of Manitoba, according to National Geographic News.
June 2008
“In five to 10 years, the Arctic will be free of ice in the summer,” The Associated Press reported, paraphrasing James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Sciences.
December 2009
“The Arctic Ocean may be nearly ice-free in summer as early as 2014,” Al Gore said, according to USA Today.
September 2012
“Enjoy snow now … by 2020, it’ll be gone,” The Australian reported. It still snows in Australia. Last year’s snowfall was, in fact, significantly above average.
July 2013
“Ice-free Arctic in two years heralds methane catastrophe—scientist,” The Guardian reported.
February 2014
“The End of Snow?” asked a New York Times op-ed headline, talking about declining snowpack in Western United States. The past decade overall has marked no significant snowfall decline in the region.
July 2017
After then-U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the U.N. Paris Climate Agreement, physicist Stephen Hawking said, according to BBC: “We are close to the tipping point, where global warming becomes irreversible. Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of 250 degrees [Celsius] and raining sulfuric acid.”
August 2017
“Snowy retreat: Climate change puts Australia’s ski industry on a downhill slope,” The Sydney Morning Herald reported. It’s been snowing quite as usual in Australia in recent years, weather data indicates.
January 2018
“The chance that there will be any permanent ice left in the Arctic after 2022 is essentially zero,” said James Anderson, a Harvard University professor of atmospheric chemistry. Elementary, high school and college students gather in front of the Parliament building in Oslo on March 22, 2019, to rally for the climate and against politicians who they dont think are doing enough to halt climate change.
July 2020
“The end of snow,” said an Australian Geographic headline. “Could a warming climate be putting Australia’s magnificent alpine landscapes at risk?”
There was no particular lack of snow in Australia in either 2021 or 2022.
December 2021
The Los Angeles Times ran a story headlined, “A ‘no snow’ California could come sooner than you think.”
A few weeks later, the UC Berkely Central Sierra Snow Lab announced that California just had the snowiest December on record.
August 2022
“The End of Snow Threatens to Upend 76 Million American Lives,” Bloomberg reported, referring to predictions of snow disappearance in the western United States.
A few months later, Sierra Nevada mountains would see its second snowiest winter on record.
March 2023
“Arctic ice has seen an ‘irreversible’ thinning since 2007, study says,” The Washington Post reported.
The ice hasn’t thinned much over the past decade.
Since 1979, the summer minima have seen a record low every 5-7 years. Since 2012, however, there has been no new record, the data shows.
© 3.29.2023 by Petr Svab, "The Epoch Times". (H/T Pastor Tom).
A Day In The Life.
Up at 8:30a on Friday, I went thru my finger stick to check my BSL (Blood Sugar Level) and recorded it on my Diabetes 2 chart, made coffee and breakfast, took a Tylenol 500mg Extra Strength for various pains, had a couple smokes in the semi-cool garage and checked the leftover errands list. It was 49°, and forecast to hit 59°, with rain showers on the way, mostly south of us. Today is Good Friday, but not as I remember it was, back in the 1950s, when our Family went to Church, after dinner.
Good Friday: The saddest, yet most hopeful, day of the year.I tuned into the Chris Plante Show, from 9-12, and all I heard were bad news stories. I checked the day's to-do list, and I had two errands to get done: the car wash and Rite Aid Pharmacy. No biggie, on this Good Friday. I left at 12:15p. Wow, 45mins to get a full service interior/exterior was at Mister Car Wash, and no Rx ready at Rite Aid. Damn, at least My Jeep looked great for Easter. Tree pollen is everywhere, and I always garage the Jeep in the Spring. Same in the Fall, with wet Pin Oak leaves incessantly raining down.
"White Lightening"
Back home by 1:30p, I made Easter cards w/ MS-Publisher v2007, had Lasagne for lunch and finished coffee from the morning. It was a dreary day, but at least no rain. Sherry stopped by around 5p, after she worked all day in her Daughter's unique Shop, in nearby Hallam, and closed for the day. We had 2 nice hours together, exchanged Easter cards, and she left around 7p. I closed the condo as the sun set.
So-called "trans people" are mentally-ill and need to be institutionalized.Watch this hilarious "Bud Light Commercial" (Click Skip Ad on screen), on Rumble; the URL was emailed to me by several friends. If you've been following the news, you'll know about this mentally-ill, asshole, punk moron. No, I've never drank any A-B Budweiser pisswater products.
After a light dinner, I watched Watters, Tucker and switched-over to some old "Gold Rush" episodes from earlier year series, until 11:30p, and then bagged it for the night.
Sleeping-in until 8:30a on Saturday -- also known as Holy Saturday, also known as Great and Holy Saturday, the Great Sabbath, Hallelujah Saturday, Saturday of the Glory, Sabado de Gloria, and Black Saturday or Easter Eve, and called "Joyous Saturday" -- it was a sunny, crisp 40° start to the day, forecast to be mostly cloudy and around 53°. I checked the weather and news on my desktop. I listened to Friday's "CP Show" Podcast, which I missed, and just lounged around until lunch, and then had to make a run to Rite Aid Pharmacy.
There are only two genders. Men are men, women are women. If you think otherwise, you're delusional.Due to lower back and hip pain, I took two 50mg Tramadol, left for Rite Aid to p/u 2 Rxs and TRAFFIC WAS EXTREMELY HEAVY. Worse than I've seen it since just before last Christmas. I spotted some tar spots on the underside panels of my Jeep, so when I returned home, I used Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol and paper towels to clean it off. Where it came from, I have no idea. I decided to forgo any more errands in that heavy traffic, and put them off until Monday, or so.
All of a sudden, my 2009 HP Compaq Pro 6000 MicroTower Industrial/Commercial-Grade computer slowed to a crawl, even with 8GB of RAM Memory, so I shut down and restarted. Then my email IMAP (Incoming) server kept rejecting my long-time password, and I tried for 15-20mins to fix it. No luck, so far; something weird is going on. No notifications from either Norton 360 Premium or MalwareBytes Premium, that any virus, or whatever, has infected my 'puter or server, so I closed the email and will check it later, after another restart. Damn. I checked with Speedtest.com, and was getting 922.17 Mbps Download and 21.04MBps Upload. Good damned numbers.
No auto races on until Sunday at 7p, and it's a lousy TRASHCAR 3/4 mile track, boring as hell as top speeds hit 89mph on the oval dirt track. I'll pass. I'd rather watch reruns of "Hazel". I went out on the back patio for a smoke.
pResident Bidet's approval rating ranks right up there with "jock itch".If you're black, don't do this stupid shit.
PJM 'Elegans'
Temps started dropping around 6p, so I buttoned-up the condo, had dinner and watched Fox News, more old episodes of "Gold Rush" and a replay of last week F1 GP Race in Austyralia. Lights out at 11p.
Up at 6a on Easter Sunday morning, it was a cold 30° and second night in a row for a ***FREEZE WARNING*** being posted. I didn't see any damage to my existing gardens, and have not installed any new plants, since I'm having the existing 3 PJM Rhododendrons 'Elites' (pink) replaced in front with new PJM Rhododendron 'Elegans' (purple), and having the front & back re-mulched. I went out to Mt Rose Cemetery, to visit Mom & Dad, recheck the new sidewalk-to-be's measurements, and then out to Lyndon's Diner, and then back home. I took a 3hr snooze in the afternoon, after getting a load of laundry done. Happy Easter. He Is Risen!
Full from a large lunch at the diner, I skipped dinner, watched the news, and some F1 race highlight reruns of previous years on the F1-TV Channel, and called it a night at 10.
Up at 7:30a on Monday, it was a sunny, cold 30° and forecast to make it up to the mid-50s. After firing-up the furnace, making Kona Coffee, I scanned the news and weather, and checked my day's to-do list. Not much; in fact, the week was clear, except for a mid-week haircut, and Sherry and I doing some walking tomorrow. I have a lot of medical crap coming-up over the next few weeks, and I'm not looking forward to it, but it needs doing.
I tried to tune into the Chris Plante Show with my Opera v95 browser, but WMAL FM and iHeart Radio weren't working. I switched to Brave browser and all was OK. FR was working on Opera, but several other radio stations I also tried were experiencing connectivity problems. The markets were already taking a dump, by 10a. Breaking News: A mass shooting in downtown Louisville. More "gun violence"? No, it's "mentally-ill" and "deranged people" violence. By 11:301, temps were up to 56°, the garbage and recycle trucks had come thru, and I moved my neighbor's Trash Bin up to his garage, and moved my Recycle Bin into my garage. I left for DeVono's Cleaners, some 10 miles south in Red Lion, around noon.
On the way home, I stopped at Thornton Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep, to see what they had on the huge sales lot. I don't like the '21-'22-'23 Jeep GCs, at all; none compare with my '19 "White Lightening" HEMI V8 Grand Cherokee. After getting near home, I refueled at Royal Farms for $4.30/gal -- up from $4.05/gal last week -- unloaded the Jeep, garaged it due to the yellow pollen falling from the next door Pin Oak, got my last week's mail, and tried for 2½ hours online to pay my quarterly $50 Twp Sewer Bill, and kept getting "500 Internal Server Error" messages, until I got the Twp Finance Dept Director to clear-out their server's cloggage, and get my CC payment thru. My BP had spiked a couple of times. I had a massive Lasagna Sandwich on Rye for a late lunch, rechecked the news and money markets -- markets are either up a little or flat -- and took a short nap on the LR couch.
Do you feel "surrounded" by all the shit -- and I do mean SHIT -- that's going on everyday-week-month-year? Well... No, the murderer in the Louisville bank is a mentally-ill, gender-confused, disgruntled ex-employee, not a normal man or victim. No, the trans shooter in Nashville isn’t a victim. She’s not a he. She’s a mentally ill murderer. No, Tennessee lawmakers who shut down a legislative session -- silencing debate and business on the House floor, and then got the boot aren’t victims. No, you're not normal if you're gender dysphoric. No, you can’t just ignore and not enforce federal judges’ rulings because you don’t like them. No, women are not forbidden from abortions. No, we don’t control the weather or the sea levels. No, you're not human if you're a subhuman transgender piece-of-shit. No, men in dresses who make up 1/10th of 1% of the country don’t belong on beer cans and in Nike ads. No, we aren’t the fascists. Fascists use government and corporate America to silence speech and attack those who won’t comply. Cheer-up; all that stuff is transitory BS, and it will pass.
Diversity is perversity.High for the day was 67°, and forecast to get into the mid-to-upper-70s/lower-80s, for the rest of the week, here, as a high pressure front slowly moves thru the area. I'll take it. After watching Fox News, I stayed with it for Jesse Watters and Tucker Carlson, and switched-over to the F1 TV Channel, to watch some of 2022's GP Races, until 11p. Lights out.
Awake at 7:15a on Tuesday, to another sunny, 41° morning, i upped the heat from 70° to 74°, made coffee, fired-up the desktop computer and scanned the news and weather. Yesterday's bank massacre in Louisville is still being blamed on "gun violence" -- instead of mental illness -- and shit-for-brains Joey Bidet&Co are all over it, as usual. On a lighter note, it is "National Cheese Fondue Day". Enjoy the goo.
I got ready for the day, and called Sherry around 10, to change from meeting at the enormous York Galleria, to Springettsbury Twp Park, to do some walking at 1p. I had hip and lower back pain, so I took a 50mg Tramadol and a 300mg Gabapentin, plus my regimen of 19 other Rxs & Vitamins. Sucks to be me.
I will keep the Jeep garaged for another 1-2 weeks, until the pollen has finished, and the pollen sacs have dropped, so the vehicle isn't discolored or stained. There are 4 coats of Arctic White and a Clear Coat on the Jeep, plus polish, but that pollen and the sacs are damaging to a car's paint finish.
My CPA just called, and my 2022 Tax Returns -- Federal & PA -- are ready, so after my haircut at 10:30a, tomorrow, I'll drive to Dallastown, and then back to East York to Weis Market, and then, back home. I'll cover some territory, tomorrow. The FBI hatched a plot this year, to cultivate sources inside Catholic churches to investigate SPY on 'religious extremism'; more Leftist, mentally-ill BULLSHIT. I'm glad I'm a Recovering Methodist. Heh.
My personal website, John Shelley's Journal", has been under 'surveillance', for years, for many positions I've taken on various subjects. We've found US Gov't browser tracks (IP addresses) on the server; same with my now closed, 23 year (1989-2012) Garden Center & Nursery. BFD. Come get me, JBTs!
My biggest concern right now -- aside from the coming AI (Artificial Intelligence) -- is the coming CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency), or "Digital Dollar" we're going to be subjected to -- read "FORCED" -- to endure, later this year, or early 2024. OUR MONEY WILL NOT BE OUR MONEY, ANYMORE. E.O. 14967 has already been signed by Bidet&Co, to implement it. It's a done deal in the near-to-mid future. How does that sit with you? the US Dollar isn't going to collapse anytime soon, but the World Bank, WEF and US Govt sure want to control all of our money. IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN SOON.
Sherry and I walked fort about an hour at the park, and then drove back to my place to sit and talk. She had errands to do, so left around 4, to get them done before the traffic got too heavy. I had condo chores to do, and make some dinner. I grabbed a short snooze on the LR couch. I had my "to-do list" for tomorrow made-up, and it'd be a busy day. After watching the remaining unwatched 3 old episodes of "Gold Rush", I quit at 10p.
Up at 5:45a on Wednesday -- Zero Dark Thirty -- it was already 63° and forecast to be a sunny, windy and a very warm 79° day. While scanning the news and weather -- it's bone-dry here -- we haven't had any measurable rain in weeks -- I saw this posted:
*** WILDFIRE -- RED FLAG WARNING ***
AFFECTED AREAS: Warren, McKean, Potter, Elk, Cameron, Northern Clinton, Clearfield, Northern Centre, Southern Centre, Cambria, Blair, Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, Somerset, Bedford, Fulton, Franklin, Tioga, Northern Lycoming, Sullivan, Southern Clinton, Southern Lycoming, Union, Snyder, Montour, Northumberland, Columbia, Perry, Dauphin, Schuylkill, Lebanon, Cumberland, Adams, York and Lancaster Counties.
• TIMING: Midday Wednesday through Wednesday evening.
• WINDS: From the west 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph.
• MINIMUM RELATIVE HUMIDITY: 20 to 25 percent.
• MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES: 80 to 90 degrees.
• IMPACTS: Critical fire weather conditions possible. Increased risk for rapid wildfire growth and spread. Prescribed burns may get out of control. Outdoor burning is not recommended.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS:
A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring or are imminent due to a combination of strong winds, low relative humidity and dry fuels. Any fires that develop may quickly get out of control and become difficult to contain. Rapid wildfire growth and spread expected. Outdoor burning is not recommended.
For more information about wildfire danger, burn restrictions, and wildfire prevention and education, please visit the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources website at http://dcnr.pa.gov/Communities/Wildfire.
• Issued By State College (Penn State) -- PA, US, National Weather Service.
I had bad back and hip pain, so I took a 50mg Tramadol, a 50mg Flexor amd a 300mg Gabapentin, made Kona Coffee and tuned into the Chris Stigall Show, from 6-9a. From the weather forecast, the next couple of days will be abnormally warm, for this time of year, and will push the flora into bloom quickly -- many prematurely. Showers and t-storms are forecast for Sunday, and we need it, badly. I'll be getting my front and back hoses out this coming weekend.
I decided to put-off food shopping at Weis Market until tomorrow, and just get the three primary errands done today: haircut, p/u 2022 my Tax Returns and get the Rxs at Rite Aid. If my back's not hurting by the pharmacy stop, I'll run over to Weis and get it done; otherwise it can wait a day. My HP Desktop automatically started its weekly system back-up, via Norton Premium 360. After getting ready for the day, I tuned into the Chris Plante Show until 10, and left for the first of the morning's app'ts & errands.
If there are "Women's Studies Depts", "Black Studies Depts", "Native American Studies Depts" etc etc etc... why aren't there "Mens' Studies Depts"?
Happy Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day!
Hells bells, I decided to get the Weis Market food shopping done, after the other three errands, and finally got home at 12:45p. Temps had hit 85° by 2p -- breaking records for this time of year -- and were forecast to get to 90°+ tomorrow. I unpacked the Jeep, garaged it to shield from Pin Oak pollen, had Ricotta-Stuffed Shells foe lunch, and took a 2hr snooze on the LR couch. I had the AC on at 70°, to remove the humidity and cool the place down a bit. Life is good.
The markets are in the red, at the close. Natch. I skipped dinner, still full from a late lunch, watched the news, Jesse & Tucker, and switched-over to an old Discovery Channel show I haven't seen in years, since first getting ROKU Streaming: "Homestead Rescue", and caught-up on last year's episodes. Light out at 11p.
Awake at 8:15a on Thursday, it was another sunny and already 71° and headed into the upper-80s/low-90s; more records to be broken. I turned-off the AC -- using it to get rid of the humidity -- made coffee, went thru my usual routines, had breakfast and tuned into the "CS Show" until the "CP Show" came on at 9a. Heh; how do I keep track of all those Talk Radio Shows? Beats me. I got ready for the day, had breakfast and waiting until Rite Aid notified me that the Rxs were ready.
*** RED FLAG WILDFIRE WARNING *** notices were posted all over the 3 weather websites I use: AccuWeather.com, The Weather Channel/ York, and local WGAL-TV 8.com weather. I spent some time checking their daily forecasts, and as usual, it all changed from last night.
Have you heard about this shit? "International criminals have been targeting wealthy homes on America’s coast, but now those same thieves are moving into the heartland. Thieves from South America are making their way to the U.S., renting expensive cars to fit in with high-end neighborhoods, and then striking when homeowners are away." Article here. IMO, every home is a target for those criminal scum. Be armed at home, too, as I am, always.
It’s not therapy when you tell a mentally-ill person, that their delusions are real.I scanned the news and weather, as usual, and kept with my Kona Coffee, all morning. I called Rite Aid and got the news that 2rxs were ready but the one I really needed and another, wouldn't be in until tomorrow.
Breaking: "On Wednesday, Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a report on Substack that alleged the CIA was aware of widespread corruption in Ukraine and the embezzlement of US aid. The report said the Ukrainian government has been using US taxpayer money to purchase diesel from Russia to fuel its military. Hersh said Zelenskyy “has been buying the fuel from Russia, the country with which it, and Washington, are at war, and the Ukrainian president and many in his entourage have been skimming untold millions from the American dollars earmarked for diesel fuel payments.” Story is here. Surprised? Not me.
Watch this (0:57secs): "Conservative Dad's Ultra Right 100% Woke Free American Beer Announcement."
I drove over to the Rutter's Convenience Store, got 2 cartons of Marlboro®s -- one to go into my basement stockpile shelves -- and one to use, and then over to the Rite Aid Pharmacy. Of course, they only one 1 or 3 Rxs ready, and were "out of stock" (from China) on the other 2; hopefully I'll get them tomorrow or Saturday. I MUST have the Combivent® Respimat® Emergency Inhaler, due to my COPD. Don't say it: I should have quit smoking years ago -- and I did several times going into so many hospital stays -- but I enjoy a Marlboro or 3 with my Kona Coffee.
I got back home, had to get 2 packages inside a neighbor-friend's garage, and I unpacked and had 2 banannas for lunch. I had a big breakfast, so I wasn't all that hungry, yet. Around 2p, I drove over to the local SKH Garden Center operation, and found 3 1qt Stella D'Oro Ever-Blooming Daylilys, and got another jug of Osmocote Fertilizer, for the perennials. I'm too tired to install them today, and the ground is parched, since I haven't hooked-up the timer for my drip irrigation system, so I'll wait until after we get some rain, hopefully this weekend.
iN my back patios small gardens, I found another Jap Maple seedling, and will ease it out of the ground, after we get some rain. It's a very delicate and quick process to transplant something that small and fragile, but I've done it so many times over the past 35-40 years, it's a no-brainer. After it gets some size, I'll transplant from the half-pint container to a quart pot, and give it to Sherry for her gardens, or lawn. Her choice.
High for the day was 87°, and mildly humid, as the southern front comes thru, with poor air quality, and more of the record-breaking temps, for tomorrow. After dinner, I caught the news, watched the two 'Fox Guys", and switched over to Discovery+ for some more old episodes of "Gold Rush". An old friend of mine, Frank, whom I worked at the BSA with in Miami, called and we talked for almost 45mins. He and his wife of 40+ years, Dian, are doing fine. Glad to hear it, and from him. I've got to remember to stay-in-touch. I unplugged at 11p.
Tomorrow starts a new week here in the "Journal", and nexy week's very busy with medical Dr viosits, lab tests, scans etc. And so are the next 3-5 weeks; it's "that time of year".
What Happens To A Country That Loses Its Mind.
To see biological males win “woman of the year” awards and others compete against women in sports, and at least one paid to promote sports bras, it’s obvious the American mind has slipped a few gears. But our current troubles are about more than celebrating what is clearly a mental illness that needs to be treated. We have lost our way almost entirely across the board.
The locus of our insanity, one could argue, is Washington, D.C. The federal government developed a habit long ago of spending beyond its means. But the foolishness has reached new levels.
The federal debt is heading to $31.7 trillion like a freight train at full throttle with no brakes. Spending is outpacing revenue by more than $1.5 trillion. Social Security is headed for collapse sooner than its appointed guardians had expected, but the collective vision among our “leaders” on the Potomac doesn’t go beyond the next election. So nothing is done.
Despite the obvious problems, the Democrats want to tax higher and spend more. The supply of vacuity seems endless.
Washington is also at the axis of weaponized government. Free speech is being crushed, dissent from the left’s political agenda is considered an imprisonable offense, and court rulings are to be ignored if they offend progressive sensibilities (yes, we know, two words that don’t belong together). The Democrats see the IRS not as just a revenue collector but also as a truncheon with which to discipline those who refuse to live under their boots. Parents who grouse at school board meetings? They are of course terrorists who must be watched.
It’s no coincidence that we’re living in riotous times. The damage seems to build with every news cycle. But to listen to the Democrats and their communications department, also known as the mainstream media, the only riot in U.S. history was on Jan. 6, 2021. In their twisted minds, rampaging, killing, burning, and looting in the name of George Floyd, or some imagined resistance to fascism, are just benign elements of mostly peaceful protests. Democrats have even contributed money to bail out the “protesters.”
Western and American culture has also been perverted by global warming zealots who are determined to silence heterodox voices, pandemic tyrants who think rights are theirs to give and take, modern segregationists committed to unwinding a half-century of racial progress, and elected lawmakers who think taking over legislative proceedings and occupying chambers is “democracy.” All have stirred up “the crazy” in our nation.
Our descent into madness was evident to many of us long before it became de rigueur to demand that everyone must confess that it’s just fab for boys to dress as girls; to proudly proclaim there is no distinction between men and women and force others to parrot the lie; to expose children to drag queens; and to form mobs for no reason but to satisfy the lusts of the depraved.
The left, which has marched through our institutions, won’t rest until the civil society we have flourished in has been replaced with a political society. It craves a societal breakdown, to bury the political and social norms that stand in its path to unchallengeable power.
America’s deranged, many of whom are prominent members of the ruling class, want the rest of the country to be as mentally and emotionally infirm as they are. It’s their dream to take the rest of us down in their ship that’s sinking under the weight of their lunacy. If we let that happen, we’ll have no country at all.
© 4.11.2023 by I&I Editorial Board, "Issues & Insights ".
Is the Digital Dollar Coming Soon?
The United States is considering issuing a digital dollar, which would be backed by the nation’s central bank and could help reinforce the U.S. role as a leader in the world financial system. Several financial institutions, including Citibank and Mastercard, announced this week that they’re testing the idea in a 12-week pilot with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The interest in launching a digital currency is motivated by many factors, such as enabling faster, safer, and cheaper payments. But mostly it is an effort to keep up, as China and other countries have already issued—at least in pilot form—digital currencies backed by their central banks, and cryptocurrencies have become increasingly popular, says Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at The Fletcher School and executive director of the Institute for Business in the Global Context. For now, the interest in such currencies has persisted even after the spectacular meltdown of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX earlier this month.
“If we don’t have a digital dollar and other central bank currencies take off—particularly if the yuan, the Chinese currency, takes off—the dollar will definitely lose its supremacy in international settlements,” says Chakravorti, who chairs the Digital Planet program at Fletcher. International settlements are the way that banks in different countries facilitate payments across borders.
Consumers won’t be using digital dollars right away. Although President Biden issued an executive order on the responsible development of digital assets in March and the White House in September released a comprehensive framework for the development of a central bank digital currency, the government is still studying the issue.
If the U.S. does move ahead, this new form of currency probably won’t be put into wider use for several years, Chakravorti says. The very limited 12-week pilot involving the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will be rolled out soon using simulated digital tokens and data.
Tufts Now spoke with Chakravorti to learn more about the digital dollar. He details how it could help consumers and businesses, and addresses concerns about privacy, security, and inclusion—and what comes next.
Tufts Now: Many people rarely use paper money these days. What is the difference between digital dollars and the electronic payments we now use?
Bhaskar Chakravorti: A digital dollar is a digital form of the physical currency—in paper or metal form—that we used to keep in our pockets or in our wallets. Because it is meant to mimic traditional currency, the dollar, it is also a claim on the central bank. So the basic difference is, instead of actually printing physical money, the central bank will be issuing a cryptographic representation of money issued in electronic form, and it will be backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
That’s very different from electronic payments that we make today. Whether it is using credit cards or Venmo or even cryptocurrencies, each one of them is a somewhat different mechanism by which we pay people without pulling out physical cash.
None of these latter kinds of payments are backed by the U.S. government. Essentially, they are payments enabled between commercial banks or by a payment transactions provider.
What are the potential advantages of a digital dollar?
One of the most basic advantages is that you get rid of the inconvenience of physical cash. Of course, we have alternatives to physical cash already, here in the United States, through all these other electronic forms, such as credit cards or digital payments systems, such as Venmo.
But there are many people—roughly 4.5% of households—even here in the United States who don’t have a bank account, so they don’t have the luxury of being able to connect a digital wallet like an Apple Pay or a Venmo to a bank account. A digital currency could enable people in that category to also have the convenience of being able to make and receive electronic payments. Someone without a bank account could get paid in digital dollars, for example, and avoid the high fees of a check-cashing facility to convert a paycheck into cash.
For merchants, too, there are advantages. They could receive payments instantly and they could avoid the fees they normally pay credit card or payment transactions companies or the money they have to spend to safely transport physical cash from cash registers to their banks.
Another advantage is in terms of international settlements. This is the primary driver of governments like the United States looking at digital currency.
Thinking about establishing a digital dollar is really a defensive move, because China is issuing a digital currency and a lot of other countries around the world are considering digital currencies. If the U.S. government does not consider its own version of a digital dollar, it will be left behind.
How would digital currencies affect international transactions?
Almost 50 percent of international bank loans are dollar-denominated and it may be a little less prevalent in other areas such as trade invoicing and payments, but 90 percent of foreign currency trading involves the dollar on one side of the transaction.
Today, if I have to send money from my bank account to somebody who is in a different part of the world, I can use a financial transaction system such as the SWIFT system, where essentially the payment is made from one currency to another. International financial transactions rely on “reserve currencies,” which are widely held by governments, central banks, and private institutions to conduct such transactions. Countries like to hold reserves for many reasons, as economic buffers, making payments and moderating the value of their own currencies. There are a couple of issues with this status quo: the dominant international reserve currency is the dollar, and there are delays in making those international payments.
A number of other countries are wondering: Why do we rely on the dollar being the dominant international reserve currency? Instead, if we were to just have electronic currency backed by our respective central banks, then we can make these international transactions a lot faster, almost instantaneous.
Which other countries are moving toward digital currencies backed by their central banks?
Among the major economies, China is the first country out of the gate with its own digital currency. It’s moving to displace the dollar as the central currency being used for international transactions.
Currently there are about 11 countries that have launched digital currencies. There are 15 that are piloting them. There are 26 countries that have them in development, 45 countries that are studying the issue. And 19 out of the 20 G20 countries are exploring a central bank digital currency.
So basically, the United States has no option but to consider a digital dollar. If we don’t have a digital dollar and other central bank currencies take off—particularly if the yuan, the Chinese currency, takes off—the dollar will definitely lose its supremacy in international settlements.
The dollar’s status as the dominant reserve currency offers many advantages to the U.S., apart from global prestige and an acknowledgment of its political and economic stability. It allows the U.S. to borrow money abroad at a lower cost and it gives it power to impose sanctions by cutting off the ability to transact in dollars. Of course, this dominance is not guaranteed to last forever. If the U.S. share of the global economy declines and other currencies rise, this dominance is vulnerable.
If the U.S. were to create a digital dollar, would it be dominant as the main international currency?
If the U.S. government issues an electronic dollar, at least there is a fighting chance for the current dominance to prevail in case digital currencies become widely used.
However, there’s one big complication. So many of the transactions that happen internationally are over systems like the SWIFT system, which is essentially drawn from dollar-based transactions, or countries or currencies that are friendly to the dollar. If we go to electronic transactions facilitated by digital currencies that displace the SWIFT system, you could end up with a complete reset of the status quo and the beginning of an entirely new regime where the dollar and, say, the yuan might be duking it out for dominance.
What are the anticipated disadvantages or concerns about a digital dollar?
A big concern is privacy. Currently, if I give you a dollar in physical form, there is no record of it anywhere. There is a degree of anonymity in the payment. And for a lot of people, there’s a lot of value to that.
But the U.S. government wants to make sure that a digital currency is not used for making illegal payments. They have concerns about how to put in safeguards so that you can prevent things like money laundering or if an illegal payment is made, you can retroactively go back and trace who made a payment to whom. How do you do that, while simultaneously maintaining the privacy-respecting characteristics of the physical dollar? That hasn’t been resolved.
Another big thorny issue has to do with potential cyberattacks. Anything that is digital is vulnerable to outside attack. It could open up a significant vulnerability if bad actors—and these could be enemy governments or non-state actors—could figure out a way to break into the digital currency systems and create havoc.
Another concern is what happens if people don’t have access to the internet or don’t have access to smartphones or even regular phones. How do we give them the ability to use digital currency, maybe in an offline mode? We still don’t have good answers to these questions.
How would a digital dollar help or hinder U.S. businesses?
The idea is that it could help business by speeding up international settlements. If a payment is made across political borders, that can happen instantaneously when everything is done using an electronic currency.
As a lot of economic transactions move to cryptocurrencies—peer-to-peer systems developed without any oversight from the government—having the digital dollar would allow businesses to use something that is more stable and backed by the U.S. government. It could bring a sense of stability and businesses wouldn’t have the worry associated with cryptocurrencies, which can be highly volatile. Of course, now with the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, we are likely to see a chilling of interest in cryptocurrency until there is more transparency and regulation in place.
If the U.S. decided to move forward with a digital dollar, how long would it take to happen?
It would probably be at least a couple of years before we go beyond limited pilots using simulations. Even when it is rolled out, you’re going to see it in limited settings before it becomes more widely available—probably in international settlements first and in retail consumer use later, if at all.
What concerns you about how digital central bank currencies are being developed?
There’s a lot of curiosity and interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and in recent months, those cryptocurrencies have dived in terms of their credibility and value. But the presence of these cryptocurrencies is pushing central banks to come up with their own version of currency that is electronic and uses the same distributed ledger technology.
To some extent these decentralized market forces are pushing the central banks into a space that they’re not entirely comfortable with. We are watching a phenomenon that is largely happening for defensive reasons. And to my mind, that’s always a recipe for some concern, because when you do things defensively, sometimes you do it too quickly and sometimes you don’t have all the relevant safeguards in place.
What I find fascinating is that the very factors that central banks are defending against are themselves works-in-progress and can hide numerous embedded risks. In fact, the recent implosion of FTX should be a warning to everyone about how little even so-called experts understand about this emerging phenomenon of decentralized finance that has caused central banks to wake up and consider issuing their own digital currencies.
© 11.18.2022 by Heather Stephenson, "Tufts Now".
GOD WANTS US TO KNOW HIS VOICE.
Some time ago, I had an unusual experience while in meditation with the Lord. His still, small voice asked me, “Do you still believe? Do you still believe I love you unconditionally…that you are right now being led by the Holy Spirit…that I bottle every tear you shed…that you are right now in this place, in the perfect will of God?
(Anonymous email).
