EXTREME WEATHER? ...OK! "Climate Change"? no-no

9 Takeaways From the National Climate Report

By HENRY FOUNTAIN and NADJA POPOVICH AUG. 8, 2017    

A scientific report on climate change obtained by The New York Times, part of a regular federal climate assessment, shows that warming is already having a large effect on the United States.

1. It’s hot out there.

It is getting warmer everywhere, but in the contiguous United States, the West is warming the fastest. While temperatures in the country (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) have increased an average of 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900, the Southwest and the Northwest, as well as the Northern Great Plains, have seen a temperature increase of 1.5 degrees or more. A degree and a half may not seem like much, but even slight changes in temperature can have widespread effects.

 

READ MORE >

NY Times Climate Take-Aways

 

4. When it rains, it pours more.

Americans are already experiencing more extreme precipitation. The amount of precipitation that falls in the heaviest storms is higher across the country, when storms from the last three decades are compared to storms from 1900 to 1960. The change has been highest in the Northeast, where 27 percent more rain falls in the worst storms.

"Climate Change" ??? NOT YET APPROVED TO GET PUBLISHED

Unpublished U.S. Government Report: Human-Caused Climate Change Is Real

In Brief

As part of the quadrennial National Climate Assessment, a team of scientists from 13 federal institutions have drafted a special report on climate change in the U.S. A leaked draft of this report very clearly asserts that human-made climate change is real, leaving some scientists concerned that the Trump administration will try to suppress it.

Read more at Source: https://futurism.com

Setting the Record Straight

As part of a congressional mandate, the Global Change Research Program is required to produce a National Climate Assessment every four years. A draft for this year’s report has already been submitted to the Trump administration for approval before it can be made public. In the meantime, a draft copy of one section, “Climate Science Special Report (CSSR),” has been obtained and published by The New York Times.

Prepared by scientists from 13 federal agencies, the CSSR concludes that human-made climate change is real and that its effects are being felt by Americans right now. According to the report, average temperatures in the U.S. have risen dramatically since the 1980s, and the past few decades have been the warmest of the last 1,500 years.

GET CONNECTED LOCALLY: Supply Chain for Building Trade Sub-Contractors

Thanks to Connor @ Local First Arizona for sending this announcement
HAVE YOU HEARD?

LFA For(u)m: Subcontractor Expo

Presented by: Courtesy Fleet & The Construction Zone

Tuesday, August 22nd, 3-5pm
The Shop - Construction Zone, 2221 E Washington St., Phoenix, 85034

What does it mean to build a truly localized supply chain in the building industry?

This expo-style gathering connects local developers, architects, and general contractors with local carpenters, concrete pourers, steel workers, glass manufacturers, designers, and others who truly provide the craft skills for creative development projects.

The Valley's best craftspeople come together to showcase their work to close the development loop between builders and subcontractors. This event is hosted by Local First Arizona's For(u)m program.

Are you an architect or developer looking to connect with local suppliers and craftsmen? Admission as an attendee is $10. Discounts available for LFA For(u)m members by replying to this E-mail.

Featuring: ABC Glass Company , SlabHaus , Western Window Systems , Rocco Designs , Studio 3125 , and more

SAVE YOUR SEAT

For more information, contact: Connor@localfirstaz.com

RUSSIA'S SU-35 FIGHTER HAS A KEY EDGE OVER AMERICA'S F-22 STEALTH RAPTOR...

Who's 'Top Gun'????

Published on Aug 6, 2017

Views: 1,889

America’s F-22 Raptor is one of the world’s most advanced warplanes. But it has several weaknesses. For one, it’s blind in the infrared though several of its potential rivals have infrared-search-and-track sensors, effectively allowing them to scan for enemy warplanes’ heat signatures.

Mesa Mayor John Giles In Washington Last Week

Mesa Mayor John Giles has re-invented himself as 'a street-level politician'

Mayors to Trump: We can be great partners

Monitor Breakfast    Search for solutions

By David Cook Staff writer Christian Science Monitor

Members of the non-partisan US Conference of Mayors, which represents 1,408 cities with a population of 30,000 or more, say they seek solutions based on results – not ideology.

[Complete audio available on C-SPAN]

August 2, 2017 Washington—A delegation of America’s mayors is visiting Washington this week, meeting with senators and arguing that a bipartisan, problem-solving approach is the only way forward on health care, tax reform, and infrastructure.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, president of the non-partisan US Conference of Mayors, said his group searches for policy answers based on results, not ideology. “We want to model good behavior for how you get solutions for people on the ground,” Mr. Landrieu said at a Monitor-hosted breakfast with reporters. The Conference represents the 1,408 US cities with a population of 30,000 or more.
“We are not here to resist. We are here to construct. We are builders. We are not destroyers and [the president] will find great partners in the mayors of America if we are engaged in a constructive and thoughtful way,” Landrieu said.

Thoughts on policing, abortion

At the breakfast, John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Ariz., was asked about President Trump’s Aug. 28 remarks telling police, “Please don’t be too nice” when loading suspects into vehicles. The president added, “You can take the hand away, okay?”

Mayor Giles responded, “As a mayor, I don’t think there is anything he could have said that would have been more disturbing.  He may have said a lot of things I disagree with over the course of his tenure but that has got to be close to the top.”  

The White House later said the president was joking.

Earlier this week Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D) of New Mexico, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said the organization would not withhold funds from congressional candidates who oppose abortion rights. It is a move that angered some abortion-rights supporters.
Landrieu was asked whether support for abortion rights should be a litmus test for Democratic candidates. “It is a bad mistake. On issues like that, both parties should be big-tent parties,” he said.
A score of other subjects and questions asked: NAFTA, CDBG, sanctuary cities, and more  
READ MORE > Christian Science Monitor

Glen Greenwald/The Intercept Play-out The Dark Deep-State Drama

Mil2Mil or Military-to-Military kinetic and covert operations have been the strategies for decades, domestically and internationally. This has been 'an open-secret'
"That the U.S. has a shadowy, secretive world of intelligence and military operatives who exercise great power outside of elections and democratic accountability is not some exotic, alt-right conspiracy theory; it’s utterly elemental to understanding anything about how Washington works. It’s hard to believe that anyone on this side of a 6th Grade civics class would seek to deny that. . . "

What’s Worse: Trump’s Campaign Agenda or Empowering Generals and CIA Operatives to Subvert it?

05.08.2017 08:41 a.m.

". . . Although it is now common to assert – as a form of in-the-know mockery – that the notion of a “Deep State” in the U.S. was invented by Trump supporters only in the last year, the reality is that the U.S. Deep State has been reported on and openly discussed in numerous circles long before Trump. . . "
Blogger Note: and way before what Greenwald mentions in this article from yesterday.

Greenwald continues writing: ". . . Whatever else is true, there is now simply no question that there is open warfare between adherents to the worldview Trump advocated in order to win, and the permanent national security power faction in Washington that – sometimes for good, and sometimes for evil – despises that agenda. The New Republic’s Brian Beutler described the situation perfectly on Friday:
"Where the generals haven’t been empowered to run the show, they have asserted themselves nonetheless. “In the earliest weeks of Trump’s presidency,” the Associated Press reported Tuesday, Mattis and Kelly agreed “that one of them should remain in the United States at all times to keep tabs on the orders rapidly emerging from the White House.”

It would be sensationalizing things to call this a soft coup, but it is impossible to deny that real presidential powers have been diluted or usurped.

" . . . the military triumvirate of Kelly, Mattis and McMaster has been cast as the noble defenders of American democracy, pitted against those who were actually elected to lead the government.
No matter how much of a threat one regards Trump as being, there really are other major threats to U.S. democracy and important political values. It’s hard, for instance, to imagine any group that has done more harm, and ushered in more evil, than the Bush-era neocons with whom Democrats are now openly aligning. And who has brought more death, and suffering, and tyranny to the world over the last six decades than the U.S. National Security State? 
Concluding Paragraph:
"In terms of some of the popular terms that are often thrown around these days – such as “authoritarianism” and “democratic norms” and “U.S. traditions” – it’s hard to imagine many things that would pose a greater threat to all of that than empowering the National Security State (what, before Trump, has long been called the Deep State) to exert precisely the power that is supposed to be reserved exclusively for elected officials. In sum, Trump opponents should be careful of what they wish for, as it might come true."

Link > https://theintercept.com/2017/08/05/whats-worse-trumps-campaign-agenda-or-empowering-generals-and-cia-operatives-to-subvert-it/ 

Hate The Hype + Mine The Data

Here's just one finding in a report from March 11 last year

America’s Shrinking Middle Class: A Close Look at Changes Within Metropolitan Areas

The middle class lost ground in nearly nine-in-ten U.S. metropolitan areas examined

median incomes fell by up to 10% in 95 other metropolitan areas. The New York and Los Angeles areas belong to this group of metropolitan areas. Many of the country’s largest metropolitan areas fall into this category too, including Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX; Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX; Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD; San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA; Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ; and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA.

Source: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org

Warning: This is NOT a quick or easy-read

 

"The American middle class is losing ground in metropolitan areas across the country, affecting communities from Boston to Seattle and from Dallas to Milwaukee. From 2000 to 2014 the share of adults living in middle-income households fell in 203 of the 229 U.S. metropolitan areas examined in a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data. The decrease in the middle-class share was often substantial, measuring 6 percentage points or more in 53 metropolitan areas, compared with a 4-point drop nationally.

The changes at the metropolitan level, the subject of this in-depth look at the American middle class, demonstrate that the national trend is the result of widespread declines in localities all around the country.

This report encompasses 229 of the 381 “metropolitan statistical areas” as defined by the federal government. That is the maximum number of areas that could be identified in the Census Bureau data used for the analysis and for which data are available for both 2000 and 2014 (an accompanying text box provides more detail). ¹ Together, these areas accounted for 76% of the nation’s population in 2014.

With relatively fewer Americans in the middle-income tier, the economic tiers above and below have grown in significance over time. The share of adults in upper-income households increased in 172 of the 229 metropolitan areas, even as the share of adults in lower-income households rose in 160 metropolitan areas from 2000 to 2014. The shifting economic fortunes of localities were not an either/or proposition:

Some 108 metropolitan areas experienced growth in both the lower- and upper-income tiers.

Among American adults overall, including those from outside the 229 areas examined in depth, the share living in middle-income households fell from 55% in 2000 to 51% in 2014. Reflecting the accumulation of changes at the metropolitan level, the nationwide share of adults in lower-income households increased from 28% to 29% and the share in upper-income households rose from 17% to 20% during the period . . .

. . . These findings emerge from a new Pew Research Center analysis of the latest available 2014 American Community Survey (ACS) data from the U.S. Census Bureau in conjunction with the 2000 decennial census data. The focus of the study is on the relative size and economic well-being of the middle class in U.S. metropolitan statistical areas. These areas consist of an urban core and surrounding localities with social and economic ties to the core.

OTHER TAKE-AWAYS:

> The 10 metropolitan areas with the biggest lower-income tiers are toward the Southwest, several on the southern border. Two metropolitan areas in Texas, Laredo and Brownsville-Harlingen, lead the country in this respect—in both areas 47% of the adult population lived in lower-income households in 2014. Farming communities in central California, namely Visalia-Porterville, Fresno and Merced, are also in this group of lower-income areas. With the exception of Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ, Hispanics accounted for more than half of the population in each of these lower-income metropolitan areas in 2014, compared with 17% nationally.

> As the middle of the income distribution hollowed around the country from 2000 to 2014, the movement was more up the economic ladder than down the ladder in some metropolitan areas (winners) while in other areas there was relatively more movement down the ladder (losers).

> Although other factors may also be at work, the 10 metropolitan areas with the greatest losses in economic status from 2000 to 2014 have one thing in common—a greater than average reliance on manufacturing.

> American households in all income tiers experienced a decline in their incomes from 1999 to 2014.

> The decline in household incomes at the national level reflected nearly universal losses across U.S. metropolitan areas.

 

Here in Mesa we get this "economic news"