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March 2, 2020
Climate Change
The Trump Administration Is Just Flat-Out Lying About Climate Change
As the president guts environmental regulations, an Interior Department official has been found sneaking misleading and debunked claims in government reports.
By Eric Lutz
March 2, 2020
Donald Trump has insisted that he’s worked “harder” than any of his predecessors on environmental issues, despite the fact that he’s spent the past three years all but personally taking a blowtorch to the world’s glaciers. “The United States under President Trump’s leadership and policies has made the air, water, and environment cleaner,” an administration spokesperson said last year. But the president and his White House have given ample evidence to the contrary, from his withdrawal from the Paris climate accord to his and Steve Mnuchin’s mockery of teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.
In the latest example of the Trump administration’s reckless climate change denialism, a Trump Interior Department staffer has reportedly been sneaking misleading and debunked claims into the agency’s scientific reports to give the impression that “increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is beneficial” and there is a “there is a lack of consensus among scientists that the earth is warming,” according to the New York Times. Known within the administration as “Goks uncertainty language”—in reference to staff to Indur M. Goklany, a staffer in the office of the deputy secretary—the misleading material has been embedded in at least nine significant reports, including “environmental studies and impact statements on major watersheds in the American West that could be used to justify allocating increasingly scarce water to farmers at the expense of wildlife conservation and fisheries,” the Times's Hiroko Tabuchi writes.
In Interior Department emails, she adds, “Goklany pushed misleading interpretations of climate science, saying it ‘may be overestimating the rate of global warming, for whatever reason;’ climate modeling has largely predicted global warming accurately. The final language states inaccurately that some studies have found the earth to be warming, while others have not.” This is, as the Times notes, a big deal; such reports factor heavily into the department’s decision-making on policies impacting land and water. “Highlighting uncertainty is consistent with the biggest attacks on the climate science community,” Jacquelyn Gill, an associate professor of paleoecology and plant ecology at the University of Maine, told the Times. “They’re emphasizing discussions of uncertainty to the point where people feel as though we can’t actually make decisions.”
The embedding of such misleading information is one of many attacks by the Trump administration on science—and comes amid a broader assault on expertise, whether coming from the intelligence community or the press. Trump has spent his first term rolling back environmental regulations, appointing fossil fuel company executives to environmental positions, and fostering a sense of uncertainty about the facts on climate change. Such deception could further erode public trust in the administration, including its scientific assessments that should, in theory, be apolitical. The Trump administration's fraught relationship to science has recently come to the forefront in its disorganized response to the coronavirus, with Trump’s mixed messages and self-serving politics helping create confusion at a moment in which the public is seeking answers.
The Trump Administration Is Just Flat-Out Lying About Climate Change
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/03/the-trump-administration-is-just-flat-out-lying-about-climate-changeClimate Change
The Trump Administration Is Just Flat-Out Lying About Climate Change
As the president guts environmental regulations, an Interior Department official has been found sneaking misleading and debunked claims in government reports.
By Eric Lutz
March 2, 2020
Donald Trump has insisted that he’s worked “harder” than any of his predecessors on environmental issues, despite the fact that he’s spent the past three years all but personally taking a blowtorch to the world’s glaciers. “The United States under President Trump’s leadership and policies has made the air, water, and environment cleaner,” an administration spokesperson said last year. But the president and his White House have given ample evidence to the contrary, from his withdrawal from the Paris climate accord to his and Steve Mnuchin’s mockery of teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.
In the latest example of the Trump administration’s reckless climate change denialism, a Trump Interior Department staffer has reportedly been sneaking misleading and debunked claims into the agency’s scientific reports to give the impression that “increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is beneficial” and there is a “there is a lack of consensus among scientists that the earth is warming,” according to the New York Times. Known within the administration as “Goks uncertainty language”—in reference to staff to Indur M. Goklany, a staffer in the office of the deputy secretary—the misleading material has been embedded in at least nine significant reports, including “environmental studies and impact statements on major watersheds in the American West that could be used to justify allocating increasingly scarce water to farmers at the expense of wildlife conservation and fisheries,” the Times's Hiroko Tabuchi writes.
In Interior Department emails, she adds, “Goklany pushed misleading interpretations of climate science, saying it ‘may be overestimating the rate of global warming, for whatever reason;’ climate modeling has largely predicted global warming accurately. The final language states inaccurately that some studies have found the earth to be warming, while others have not.” This is, as the Times notes, a big deal; such reports factor heavily into the department’s decision-making on policies impacting land and water. “Highlighting uncertainty is consistent with the biggest attacks on the climate science community,” Jacquelyn Gill, an associate professor of paleoecology and plant ecology at the University of Maine, told the Times. “They’re emphasizing discussions of uncertainty to the point where people feel as though we can’t actually make decisions.”
The embedding of such misleading information is one of many attacks by the Trump administration on science—and comes amid a broader assault on expertise, whether coming from the intelligence community or the press. Trump has spent his first term rolling back environmental regulations, appointing fossil fuel company executives to environmental positions, and fostering a sense of uncertainty about the facts on climate change. Such deception could further erode public trust in the administration, including its scientific assessments that should, in theory, be apolitical. The Trump administration's fraught relationship to science has recently come to the forefront in its disorganized response to the coronavirus, with Trump’s mixed messages and self-serving politics helping create confusion at a moment in which the public is seeking answers.
March 2, 2020
From: Dr. James Robb...
FB=my sister posted..
Philip Proctor
29 February at 16:42
Better safe than sorry!
From: Dr. James Robb, who believes that it will probably be widespread in the U.S. by mid-March/April.�
Dear Colleagues, as some of you may recall, when I was a professor of pathology at the University of California San Diego, I was one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses (the 1970s). I was the first to demonstrate the number of genes the virus contained. Since then, I have kept up with the coronavirus field and its multiple clinical transfers into the human population (e.g., SARS, MERS), from different animal sources.
Here is what I have done and the precautions that I take and will take. These are the same precautions I currently use during our influenza seasons, except for the mask and gloves.:
1) NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.
2) Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove.
3) Open doors with your closed fist or hip - do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors.
4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts.
5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been.
6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home's entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can't immediately wash your hands.
7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more!
What I have stocked in preparation for the pandemic spread to the US:
1) Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when going shopping, using the gasoline pump, and all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas.
Note: This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing. This means that the air will not infect you! BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average - everything that is associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious. The virus is on surfaces and you will not be infected unless your unprotected face is directly coughed or sneezed upon. This virus only has cell receptors for lung cells (it only infects your lungs) The only way for the virus to infect you is through your nose or mouth via your hands or an infected cough or sneeze onto or into your nose or mouth.
2) Stock up now with disposable surgical masks and use them to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth (We touch our nose/mouth 90X/day without knowing it!). This is the only way this virus can infect you - it is lung-specific. The mask will not prevent the virus in a direct sneeze from getting into your nose or mouth - it is only to keep you from touching your nose or mouth.
3) Stock up now with hand sanitizers and latex/nitrile gloves (get the appropriate sizes for your family). The hand sanitizers must be alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effective.
4) Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY "cold-like" symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available.
I, as many others do, hope that this pandemic will be reasonably contained, BUT I personally do not think it will be. Humans have never seen this snake-associated virus before and have no internal defense against it. Tremendous worldwide efforts are being made to understand the molecular and clinical virology of this virus. Unbelievable molecular knowledge about the genomics, structure, and virulence of this virus has already been achieved. BUT, there will be NO drugs or vaccines available this year to protect us or limit the infection within us. Only symptomatic support is available.
I hope these personal thoughts will be helpful during this potentially catastrophic pandemic. You are welcome to share this email. Good luck to all of us! Jim
James Robb, MD FCAP
Here is what I have done and the precautions that I take and will take. These are the same precautions I currently use during our influenza seasons, except for the mask and gloves.:
1) NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.
2) Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove.
3) Open doors with your closed fist or hip - do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors.
4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts.
5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been.
6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home's entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can't immediately wash your hands.
7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more!
What I have stocked in preparation for the pandemic spread to the US:
1) Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when going shopping, using the gasoline pump, and all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas.
Note: This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing. This means that the air will not infect you! BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average - everything that is associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious. The virus is on surfaces and you will not be infected unless your unprotected face is directly coughed or sneezed upon. This virus only has cell receptors for lung cells (it only infects your lungs) The only way for the virus to infect you is through your nose or mouth via your hands or an infected cough or sneeze onto or into your nose or mouth.
2) Stock up now with disposable surgical masks and use them to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth (We touch our nose/mouth 90X/day without knowing it!). This is the only way this virus can infect you - it is lung-specific. The mask will not prevent the virus in a direct sneeze from getting into your nose or mouth - it is only to keep you from touching your nose or mouth.
3) Stock up now with hand sanitizers and latex/nitrile gloves (get the appropriate sizes for your family). The hand sanitizers must be alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effective.
4) Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY "cold-like" symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available.
I, as many others do, hope that this pandemic will be reasonably contained, BUT I personally do not think it will be. Humans have never seen this snake-associated virus before and have no internal defense against it. Tremendous worldwide efforts are being made to understand the molecular and clinical virology of this virus. Unbelievable molecular knowledge about the genomics, structure, and virulence of this virus has already been achieved. BUT, there will be NO drugs or vaccines available this year to protect us or limit the infection within us. Only symptomatic support is available.
I hope these personal thoughts will be helpful during this potentially catastrophic pandemic. You are welcome to share this email. Good luck to all of us! Jim
James Robb, MD FCAP
March 1, 2020
Italy reports 50 percent increase in coronavirus cases in just one day
By Justin Wise - 03/01/20 02:19 PM EST
Italian authorities said Sunday that the country has confirmed 1,694 cases of a potentially-deadly coronavirus, representing a 50-percent increase in the last 24 hours alone.
Officials added that five more people have died from the disease, bringing the total to 34 in the country, according to The Associated Press. Health officials reportedly noted that a marked increase in coronavirus cases was expected because it can take up to two weeks for containment measures to take effect, and because of Italy's sizable elderly population. Giovanni Rezza, director of the infective illness department at the National Health Institute, said that it would take up to 10 more days for the outbreak to become less severe.
The announcement arrived following a week in which U.S. health officials warned that a coronavirus outbreak within the country's border was likely inevitable, and as the Trump administration created a task force designed to combat its spread.
more...
https://thehill.com/policy/international/485375-italy-reports-40-percent-increase-in-coronavirus-cases-in-just-one-day?fbclid=IwAR3OxSlQDgUvu0HNNANwwPBrfAwQkoV4DRttsiI80BXRPWwvh74s-Vw1vfQ
Italy reports 50 percent increase in coronavirus cases in just one day
Italy reports 50 percent increase in coronavirus cases in just one day
By Justin Wise - 03/01/20 02:19 PM EST
Italian authorities said Sunday that the country has confirmed 1,694 cases of a potentially-deadly coronavirus, representing a 50-percent increase in the last 24 hours alone.
Officials added that five more people have died from the disease, bringing the total to 34 in the country, according to The Associated Press. Health officials reportedly noted that a marked increase in coronavirus cases was expected because it can take up to two weeks for containment measures to take effect, and because of Italy's sizable elderly population. Giovanni Rezza, director of the infective illness department at the National Health Institute, said that it would take up to 10 more days for the outbreak to become less severe.
The announcement arrived following a week in which U.S. health officials warned that a coronavirus outbreak within the country's border was likely inevitable, and as the Trump administration created a task force designed to combat its spread.
more...
https://thehill.com/policy/international/485375-italy-reports-40-percent-increase-in-coronavirus-cases-in-just-one-day?fbclid=IwAR3OxSlQDgUvu0HNNANwwPBrfAwQkoV4DRttsiI80BXRPWwvh74s-Vw1vfQ
March 1, 2020
The other side: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would not directly address Ghani's comments in an interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday, instead saying that the U.S. "will work with all relevant parties to build on confidence, to create confidence-building measures amongst all of the parties, the Afghan government, non-Taliban, and others in the Afghan."
Afghanistan president rejects Taliban prisoner swap in blow to U.S. deal
That's some negotiating there. 
https://www.axios.com/afghanistan-ghani-taliban-prisoners-peace-talks-2960c950-21e9-43e2-9e70-f50d349d43f2.html
2 hours ago - World
Afghanistan president rejects Taliban prisoner swap in blow to U.S. deal
Jacob Knutson
Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani during a press conference on March 1. Photo: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday that he will not release 5,000 Taliban prisoners ahead of peace talks next week, as laid out in a peace agreement that the U.S. signed with the Taliban on Saturday, according to AP.
Why it matters: Ghani’s public disagreement with the contents of the agreement presents the first major hurdle in its implementation, which is crucial to ending America’s longest war.
What they're saying: Ghani said in a news conference that the U.S. could not promise a prisoner swap because it is his government's sovereign right to release and accept prisoners. He said he is not ready to release prisoners before negotiations begin.
“The request has been made by the United States for the release of prisoners and it can be part of the negotiations but it cannot be a precondition,” Ghani said.
The other side: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would not directly address Ghani's comments in an interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday, instead saying that the U.S. "will work with all relevant parties to build on confidence, to create confidence-building measures amongst all of the parties, the Afghan government, non-Taliban, and others in the Afghan."
"No one is under any illusion that this will be straightforward," Pompeo said. "We've built an important base where we can begin to bring American soldiers home, reduce the risk of the loss of life of any American in Afghanistan, and hopefully set the conditions so the Afghan people can build out a peaceful resolution to their, now what for them is a 40-year struggle."
March 1, 2020
How Trump 'sabotaged' this country's ability to respond to a coronavirus pandemic
Dartagnan for Community Contributors Team
Community
Friday February 28, 2020 · 11:49 AM EST
Less than a month ago, the prospect of the deadly coronavirus spreading throughout the country as part of a worldwide pandemic was just a hypothetical proposition. In those heady times, so recent yet seemingly so long ago, important administration officials such as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross let their whims and fancies run free, even suggesting that the COVID-19 epidemic might turn out to be a net positive that would “accelerate the return of jobs to North America." At about the same time, a stupefyingly ignorant Donald Trump preemptively claimed that “we have it under control,” and promised that “it’s going to be just fine.”
Following this week’s blunt warning from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) telling Americans to prepare themselves for a pandemic, the administration’s rose-colored glasses have yet to come off. “We have contained this,” said former television host Larry Kudlow, now director of Trump’s National Economic Council. ”I won’t say ‘airtight,’ but pretty close to airtight.” Earlier this week, Trump accused the media and Democrats of feeding a sense of panic in the financial markets, while also demonstrating that he didn’t even know how to spell “coronavirus” correctly.
Things would only get worse.
During a cringe-inducing press conference on Wednesday, accurately described by a former World Health Organization official as “incoherent,” Trump struggled to correctly count the number of American citizens confirmed to be infected with the virus, just before he summarily punted the entire issue to Vice President Mike Pence. The financial markets that Trump pays such close attention to were not reassured, promptly tanking at the sound of Thursday’s opening bell.
Meanwhile, in the reality-based world, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, stated that “it’s not so much a question of if this will happen in this country anymore, but of when this will happen.” Echoing the CDC’s grim assessment, Messonnier further warned that the public should “prepare for the expectation that this might be bad.”
At this point, faced with such a seemingly contradictory barrage of information, it is probably a good time for Americans to know exactly how ill-prepared the United States finds itself to meet a challenge as daunting as this potential pandemic, all due to the actions of the Trump administration. That lack of preparedness may also explain why the administration has relentlessly downplayed the seriousness of the outbreak: As pointed out in this cogent piece by Frank DiPrima, whatever happens as a result of this nascent pandemic, the Trump administration is going to own it—good, bad, or horrific.
In late January, Laurie Garrett, writing for Foreign Policy (not exactly a left-wing publication) authored a disturbing article, titled “Trump Has Sabotaged America’s Coronavirus Response.” At that time, the virus’s spread was limited to certain parts of China and thus must have seemed rather “exotic” to someone with as limited a comprehension of global geography as Donald Trump. But the article makes the strong case that, thanks entirely to Trump’s own malfeasance in deliberately neutering the response mechanisms put in place by President Obama, our country has never been in a worse position to handle a global pandemic. Garrett’s article vividly illustrates just how serious and consequential Trump’s arbitrary cuts within the federal government—in the guise of “streamlining” functions and cutting so-called “wasteful” budgets—really can be when actual American lives are on the line.
more...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/28/1922204/-How-Trump-sabotaged-this-country-s-ability-to-respond-to-a-coronavirus-pandemic
How Trump 'sabotaged' this country's ability to respond to a coronavirus pandemic
How Trump 'sabotaged' this country's ability to respond to a coronavirus pandemic
Dartagnan for Community Contributors Team
Community
Friday February 28, 2020 · 11:49 AM EST
Less than a month ago, the prospect of the deadly coronavirus spreading throughout the country as part of a worldwide pandemic was just a hypothetical proposition. In those heady times, so recent yet seemingly so long ago, important administration officials such as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross let their whims and fancies run free, even suggesting that the COVID-19 epidemic might turn out to be a net positive that would “accelerate the return of jobs to North America." At about the same time, a stupefyingly ignorant Donald Trump preemptively claimed that “we have it under control,” and promised that “it’s going to be just fine.”
Following this week’s blunt warning from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) telling Americans to prepare themselves for a pandemic, the administration’s rose-colored glasses have yet to come off. “We have contained this,” said former television host Larry Kudlow, now director of Trump’s National Economic Council. ”I won’t say ‘airtight,’ but pretty close to airtight.” Earlier this week, Trump accused the media and Democrats of feeding a sense of panic in the financial markets, while also demonstrating that he didn’t even know how to spell “coronavirus” correctly.
Things would only get worse.
During a cringe-inducing press conference on Wednesday, accurately described by a former World Health Organization official as “incoherent,” Trump struggled to correctly count the number of American citizens confirmed to be infected with the virus, just before he summarily punted the entire issue to Vice President Mike Pence. The financial markets that Trump pays such close attention to were not reassured, promptly tanking at the sound of Thursday’s opening bell.
Meanwhile, in the reality-based world, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, stated that “it’s not so much a question of if this will happen in this country anymore, but of when this will happen.” Echoing the CDC’s grim assessment, Messonnier further warned that the public should “prepare for the expectation that this might be bad.”
At this point, faced with such a seemingly contradictory barrage of information, it is probably a good time for Americans to know exactly how ill-prepared the United States finds itself to meet a challenge as daunting as this potential pandemic, all due to the actions of the Trump administration. That lack of preparedness may also explain why the administration has relentlessly downplayed the seriousness of the outbreak: As pointed out in this cogent piece by Frank DiPrima, whatever happens as a result of this nascent pandemic, the Trump administration is going to own it—good, bad, or horrific.
In late January, Laurie Garrett, writing for Foreign Policy (not exactly a left-wing publication) authored a disturbing article, titled “Trump Has Sabotaged America’s Coronavirus Response.” At that time, the virus’s spread was limited to certain parts of China and thus must have seemed rather “exotic” to someone with as limited a comprehension of global geography as Donald Trump. But the article makes the strong case that, thanks entirely to Trump’s own malfeasance in deliberately neutering the response mechanisms put in place by President Obama, our country has never been in a worse position to handle a global pandemic. Garrett’s article vividly illustrates just how serious and consequential Trump’s arbitrary cuts within the federal government—in the guise of “streamlining” functions and cutting so-called “wasteful” budgets—really can be when actual American lives are on the line.
more...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/28/1922204/-How-Trump-sabotaged-this-country-s-ability-to-respond-to-a-coronavirus-pandemic
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