Reason enough, he reckons

What’s Driving the Republican Party to Climate Murder-Suicide?

At what point will the body count become intolerable for them?

William Debuys for TomDispatch

In the annals of national suicide, the present dismantling of the American state will surely rank high. It may not reach the apogee attained by Russia in its final Tsarist days or by Louis XVI in the run-up to the French Revolution, but Great Britain’s Brexit hardly smolders compared to the anti-democratic dumpster fire of the Trump regime. 

Countless governmental, scientific, educational, medical, and cultural institutions have been targeted for demolition. The problem for the rest of the world is that the behavior of Trumpian America is more than suicidal—it’s murderous.

The deaths are mounting. By one accounting, the disruption of overseas food and drug shipments from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), including life-saving HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria treatments, has already caused nearly 350,000 deaths (and they continue at an estimated rate of 103 per hour). 

Here at home, cuts to Medicaid, as contemplated in the absurdly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” would lead to more than 21,600 avoidable deaths annually. And those numbers pale next to the levels of mortality expected to arise from the effects of climate change—a worsening catastrophe that the Trump regime is dead set against doing anything about. Indeed, with an array of policies under the rubric “Drill, baby, drill,” President Donald Trump and his officials seem intent on worsening matters as quickly as possible.

Worrying about how future generations will cope with a savagely inhospitable climate is for losers.

If the World Economic Forum is to be believed, deaths from flood, famine, disease, and other nonmilitary consequences of a hotter, more violent global climate might reach 580,000 per year, or 14.5 million by 2050. And that may be a lowball estimate, according to the American Security Project. Its models assert that warming-induced fatalities are already running at 400,000 annually and are heading for 700,000.

Any way you cut it, that’s a lot of misery. Given that the Trump regime is opening new areas for drilling; aggressively curtailing funding for climate-related programs; purging mention of climate change from government websites and publications; and disassembling the government’s capacity to track, let alone predict climate-change impacts, it makes sense to wonder WHY?

Loony on the loose

Then and now

Nothing to see here

Magaziner Introduces Bill to Stop Trump from Invading Greenland, Canada, and Panama

Hope Seth can force a vote 

Given Trump's instability, he might just order troops to invade

Agence France-Presse

Rep. Seth Magaziner (RI-02.) introduced the No Invading Allies Act, legislation to prohibit President Trump from invading Greenland, Canada, or Panama without a vote of Congress. 

Rep. Magaziner introduced the bill in response to President Trump’s repeated threats to seize territory from allies and refusal to rule out the use of military force for territorial expansion. 

Such actions would needlessly cost American lives and resources, embolden our enemies and destroy the alliances that have kept our nation safe since the end of the Second World War. 

The bill prohibits funds available for the introduction of U.S. Armed Forces to invade or seize territory from Canada, the Republic of Panama, and the self-governing territory of Greenland without Congressional authorization. 

Under the U.S. Constitution, only Congress has the authority to declare war. Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, Congress has allowed Presidents to engage in temporary hostilities for up to 60 days without Congressional approval.. 

However, President Trump’s reckless rhetoric on territorial expansion makes clear that he cannot be trusted with unchecked war powers. The No Invading Allies Act reinforces Congress’s constitutional role in matters of war and ensures that no president—Democratic or Republican—can unilaterally drag the U.S. into an unnecessary conflict with our allies. 

“President Trump should not be allowed to put American servicemembers into harm’s way by starting unnecessary wars with our allies,” said Magaziner. “My bill, the No Invading Allies Act, makes clear that Congress will not allow the President to unilaterally drag us into unnecessary conflicts that do nothing to make Americans safer.” 

Read the full text of the legislation here.

Greenland’s rapidly melting ice and landslide-prone fjords make the oil and minerals Trump covets dangerous to extract

Trump's plan to take Greenland by force if necessary is foolish on so many levels

Paul Bierman, University of Vermont

Since Donald Trump regained the presidency, he has coveted Greenland. Trump has insisted that the U.S. will control the island, currently an autonomous territory of Denmark, and if his overtures are rejected, perhaps seize Greenland by force.

During a recent congressional hearing, senators and expert witnesses focused on Greenland’s strategic value and its natural resources: critical minerals, fossil fuels and hydropower. No one mentioned the hazards, many of them exacerbated by human-induced climate change, that those longing to possess and develop the island will inevitably encounter.

That’s imprudent, because the Arctic’s climate is changing more rapidly than anywhere on Earth. Such rapid warming further increases the already substantial economic and personal risk for those living, working and extracting resources on Greenland, and for the rest of the planet.

Arctic surface temperatures have been rising faster than the global average. Arctic Report Card 2024, NOAA Climate.gov

I am a geoscientist who studies the environmental history of Greenland and its ice sheet, including natural hazards and climate change. That knowledge is essential for understanding the risks that military and extractive efforts face on Greenland today and in the future.

Trump's Old-School Brand of Imperialism

MAGA-Fest Destiny

William Astore for the TomDispatch

A few years ago, I came across an old book at an estate sale. Its title caught my eye: “Our New Possessions.” Its cover featured the Statue of Liberty against stylized stars and stripes. 

What were those “new possessions”? The cover made it quite clear: Cuba, Hawaii, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. The subtitle made it even clearer: “A graphic account, descriptive and historical, of the tropic islands of the sea which have fallen under our sway, their cities, peoples, and commerce, natural resources and the opportunities they offer to Americans.” 

What a mouthful! I’m still impressed with the notion that “tropical” peoples falling “under our sway” offered real Americans amazing opportunities, as did our (whoops — I meant their) lands. Consider that Manifest Destiny at its boldest, imperialism unapologetically being celebrated as a new basis for burgeoning American greatness.

The year that imperial celebration was published — 1898 — won’t surprise students of U.S. history. America had just won its splendid little imperial war with Spain, an old empire very much in the “decline and fall” stage of a rich, long, and rapacious history. And just then red-blooded Americans like “Rough Rider” Teddy Roosevelt were emerging as the inheritors of the conquistador tradition of an often murderously swashbuckling Spanish Empire.

Of course, freedom-loving Americans were supposed to know better than to follow in the tradition of “old world” imperial exploitation. Nevertheless, cheerleaders and mentors like storyteller Rudyard Kipling were then urging Americans to embrace Europe’s civilizing mission, to take up “the white man’s burden,” to spread enlightenment and civilization to the benighted darker-skinned peoples of the tropics. 

Yet to cite just one example, U.S. troops dispatched to the Philippines on their “civilizing” mission quickly resorted to widespread murder and torture, methods of “pacification” that might even have made Spanish inquisitors blush. That grim reality wasn’t lost on Mark Twain and other critics who spoke out against imperialism, American-style, with its murderous suppression of Filipino “guerrillas” and bottomless hypocrisy about its “civilizing” motives.

After his exposure to “enlightened” all-American empire-building, retired Major General Smedley Butler, twice awarded the Medal of Honor, would bluntly write in the 1930s of war as a “racket” and insist his long career as a Marine had been spent largely in the service of “gangster” capitalism. Now there was a plain-speaking American hero.

And speaking of plain-speaking, or perhaps plain-boasting, I suggest that we think of Donald Trump as America’s retro president from 1898. Isn’t it time, America, to reach for our destiny once again? Isn’t it time for more tropical (and Arctic) peoples to be put “under our sway”? Greenland! Canada! The Panama Canal! 

These and other regions of the globe offer Donald Trump’s America so many “opportunities.” And if we can’t occupy an area like the Gulf of Mexico, the least we can do is rebrand it the Gulf of America! A lexigraphic “mission accomplished” moment bought with no casualties, which sure beats the calamitous wars of George W. Bush and Barack Obama in this century!

Now, here’s what I appreciate about Trump: the transparent nature of his greed. He doesn’t shroud American imperialism in happy talk. He says it just like they did in 1898. It’s about resources and profits. 

As the dedication page to that old book from 1898 put it: “To all Americans who go a-pioneering in our new possessions and to the people who are there before them.” Oh, and pay no attention to that “before” caveat. 

We Americans clearly came first then and, at least to Donald Trump, come first now, and — yes! — we come to rule. The world is our possession and our beneficence will certainly serve the peoples who were there before us in Greenland or anywhere else (the “hellhole” of Gaza included), even if we have to torture or kill them in the process of winning their hearts and minds.

Go nuke yourself

How are we doing so far?

For more cartoons from Tom Tomorrow, CLICK HERE

Operation Lower Egg Prices

Yeah, ,another four years of this shit

Check out time

Is Trump serious about invading Panama, Greenland, Canada and Mexico or just crazy?

Trump escalates vow to seize Greenland during wild press briefing

Donald the Conqueror?

By Oliver Willis, Daily Kos Staff

At a press conference on Tuesday, Donald Trump said that it’s possible that he’ll use military force to control Greenland and the Panama Canal once he’s president.

A reporter asked Trump if he could assure that he would not use military or economic coercion to assume control of the two territories, of which he previously said he wants to seize control.

“No. I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this: We need them for economic security,” he said, later adding that “it might be that you’ll have to do something.”

Trump can’t seem to stop bringing up the potential purchase of Greenland, which his son Donald Trump Jr. is currently visiting to reportedly record a podcast.

“Don Jr. and my Reps landing in Greenland. The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Time for war with Denmark over Greenland?

Vote for a fascist moron and this is what you get

Atlantic Ocean is headed for a tipping point

When disaster movie plots get real

René van Westen, Utrecht University; Henk A. Dijkstra, Utrecht University, and Michael Kliphuis, Utrecht University

Too much fresh water from Greenland’s ice sheet can
slow the Atlantic Ocean’s circulation.
 Paul Souders/Stone via Getty Images

Superstorms, abrupt climate shifts and New York City frozen in ice. 

That’s how the blockbuster Hollywood movie “The Day After Tomorrow” depicted an abrupt shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean’s circulation and the catastrophic consequences.

While Hollywood’s vision was over the top, the 2004 movie raised a serious question: If global warming shuts down the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which is crucial for carrying heat from the tropics to the northern latitudes, how abrupt and severe would the climate changes be?

Twenty years after the movie’s release, we know a lot more about the Atlantic Ocean’s circulation. Instruments deployed in the ocean starting in 2004 show that the Atlantic Ocean circulation has observably slowed over the past two decades, possibly to its weakest state in almost a millennium. 

Studies also suggest that the circulation has reached a dangerous tipping point in the past that sent it into a precipitous, unstoppable decline, and that it could hit that tipping point again as the planet warms and glaciers and ice sheets melt.

In a new study using the latest generation of Earth’s climate models, we simulated the flow of fresh water until the ocean circulation reached that tipping point.

The results showed that the circulation could fully shut down within a century of hitting the tipping point, and that it’s headed in that direction. If that happened, average temperatures would drop by several degrees in North America, parts of Asia and Europe, and people would see severe and cascading consequences around the world.

We also discovered a physics-based early warning signal that can alert the world when the Atlantic Ocean circulation is nearing its tipping point.

62 Things Trump Did That You Forgot About To Preserve Your Sanity

Donald Trump's running for president again, so you can look forward to more of his "fun" ideas — like the time he tried to buy Greenland.

By Ryan Grenoble, HuffPost

Donald Trump has returned to the news cycle amid a deluge of stories about a dinner meeting he hosted with a white supremacist and Ye, the rapper previously known as Kanye West.

It’s a reminder of the chaotic years of his presidency, as well as a foreboding ― though hopefully instructive ― warning about how he would wield power if elected again.

If past is prologue, let’s take a moment to remember just how unsettling things got during the Trump administration, with this not-even-remotely-exhaustive list of weird and bad stuff he attempted while in office:

Future Sea-Level Rise May Be Much Higher Than Thought

Ice Loss in Greenland “Vastly Underestimated”

By TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF DENMARK 

Ice is continuously streaming off Greenland’s melting glaciers at an accelerating rate, dramatically increasing global sea levels. New results published in the journal Nature on November 9 indicate that existing models have underestimated how much ice will be lost during the 21st century. Hence, its contribution to sea-level rise will be significantly higher.

By 2100, the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream will contribute six times as much to the rising sea level as previous models suggested, adding between 13,5 to 15,5 mm (0.53 to 0.61 inches), according to the new study. This is equivalent to the entire Greenland ice sheet’s contribution in the past 50 years. Scientists from Denmark, the United States, France, and Germany carried out the research.

“Our previous projections of ice loss in Greenland until 2100 are vastly underestimated,” said first author Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Professor at the National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Space).

“Models are mainly tuned to observations at the front of the ice sheet, which is easily accessible, and where, visibly, a lot is happening.”

Sea level will rise faster than previously thought

Physicists predict rising temps will speed up ice melt

Niels Bohr Institute 

There are two main elements to observe when assessing sea level rise. One is the loss of the ice on land, e.g., melting mountain glaciers and inland ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica, and the other is that the sea will expand as it gets warmer. 

The more its temperature increases, the faster the sea will rise. Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen have constructed a new method of quantifying just how fast the sea will react to warming. 

The level of the sea is monitored meticulously, and we can compare the responsiveness in models with historical data. The comparison shows that former predictions of sea level have been too conservative, so the sea will likely rise more and faster than previously believed. The result is now published in the European Geosciences Union journal Ocean Science.