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Jon Walker, out in the noonday sun
It was 72 degrees fahrenheit yesterday in the nation’s capital. It was so warm I was actually able to enjoy an outdoor dinner party in the middle of December. To say this is unusual for the District of Columbia would be an understatement — the average temperature for this time of year is normally 20 degrees lower. The weather in DC is downright freaky.
I found it both interesting and very sad that just weeks after an “unusual” devastating hurricane and during an “unusual” winter heat wave, the only long-term issue Congress is debating is actuarial projections from a budget office that has a rather poor track record of predicting the future.
While the east coast is directly experiencing the effects of climate change in both minor and highly destructive ways, there is almost zero focus on trying to address the issue from our political leaders. It shows how completely hollow the rhetoric about “addressing the deficit” truly is when they say it’s all about helping the younger generation.
While Congress fights about just how much more they should force old people to pay for basic health care in 2024, the world is slowly burning. Our real long-term problems are ignored in favor of focusing on the fake ones.
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I’m sure the politicians are banking on time-honored wisdom: take the money from the 1%, fool everyone else, hold a few sham elections, and stay in the club.
The pattern is changed when we elect people to high office who are not in the club.
Tut, tut now. Peter Orszag of Citigroup had a busy day, watching 11,000 associates get laid off, then publishing this editorial advocating for slashing their safety net and chanting ‘There is no alternative.’/s
While we are definitely seeing climate change, as someone who grew up in the DC area, 70+ degree weather in December happens every once in a while; I remember 79 degrees just after Christmas once in the 80s. We do seem to be getting more of it these days though.
Amen to the OP. The cliffs we should be worried about going over are not fiscal, but ecological.
Ah, yes, “progressive” reforms to “entitlements” will help cure the deficit problems. Let us recall for mr. orszag how much SS contributes to the federal deficit or debt, whichever he wants to look at; the answer is $0.00. Correcting the M&M problems wouldn’t take much more than putting everyone on Medicare and making some adjustments. Even my BIL thought that the catfood commission was on the right track and he feels that he stays up to date on politics and economics.
I’ve been following the damage man is doing to the Earth since I was 14 years old. to see this happening in my lifetime due to sheer laziness and greed is…..well there are no words.
But let’s force women to have as many babies with birth defects as will satisfy the Xians!
Obama has taken Social Security “off the table”
Jill Stein’s take on that very subject is here.
BC, isn’t it funny that everybody seems to have a BIL like yours???
That is not what he will look at for a long term solution.
You say that like HE’S actually in charge.
Don;t get me wrong. I prefer him that the dastardly, despicable, black-hearted bastards (TM) that are today’s republican party. But, I am not a fan of his prior constant capitulations to the GOP.
I can remember very warm days in Dec when I lived back east, myself, and that’s going waaaay the heck back into the mists of time.
that said, the warmer weather is more frequent & long lasting.
Sad to say, however, that most of my East coast pals LOVE it when it’s warm like this back east. I don’t totally blame them; that’s why I moved to Calfornication. That said, there’s no connecting the dots between such warm weather and SuperStorm Sandy… which caused damage to several of my friends’ summer homes at the Jersey shore.
And so: on it goes…
Beware when politicians spout words like “deal with that separately…” or “strengthen…”
Obama may claim SS is off the table, but if past experience is our guide, he’s saying one thing, but will do another.
Jay Carney said, when he said the president preferred to deal with Social Security at a later time, this is what he meant:
“Social Security is not currently a driver of the deficit,” Carney said. “That’s an economic fact….The president supports engaging with Congress on a separate track to strengthen Social Security for the long term.”
It’ll be Democrats who allow cutting SS. Take it to the bank.
Yeah, but O, per Geithner wants to put SS on a separate table where it can be carved up on its own.
I’m sorry you’re having weird weather but anything that gets me a pic of Jon in shirtsleeves is A-OKay with me.
/perv
Republicans driving America off the fiscal cliff if the wealthiest don’t keep their tax breaks? Debt-ceiling hostage taking planned by Republicans again if they don’t get their way? Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) wanting to keep the word “lunatic” in mental health legislation?
And yet at the same time, our nation, and the rest of the world, is literally driving off the global warming, severe climate change cliff…and no one, but especially no Tea Party Republican, is paying attention, or even gives a damn, about what world is being left for the children and grand-children of America and the rest of the world. Yeeehaaa, off the climate change cliff…and apparently the wealthiest, the oil executives, the elites believe all the money they are amassing will somehow save them. Yeah, right.
When growing up in Massachusetts, I looked forward to a 50-50 chance of enjoying ice fishing and skating on Xmas vacation. But my father would not let us out on the ponds until he could cut test holes of 2 inches of ice. Just 1 inch was safe but he did not trust differences with unpredictable moving water channels underneath.
Do you know how many weeks of sustained temps below freezing is required to build 2 inches of ice on the ponds? Even for a 50-50 chance?