Category: Climate / Environment
OK, So There Is Bad News Within,
but the reason I’m posting it is so we can be aware, and be better able to help our own neighbors locally. It may not be ours to start writing letters and calling on ACLU or any of those things, but maybe simply keeping our eyes open for the regular people we know or interact with. So here is this, which came to me from Death Penalty Action. It’s the first 10 EO’s issued today, plus some policy info.
All of the Day 1 executive actions Trump has announced so far
Updated January 20, 20251:50 PM ET By Lexie Schapitl Franco Ordoñez
For updates, context and analysis of Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, check out NPR’s live blog throughout the day Monday.
President Trump is expected to sign a flurry of executive orders, memorandums and proclamations after his inauguration on Monday, reversing many of his predecessors’ policies and reinstating actions from his first term in office.
The actions are expected to address a range of issues, including campaign priorities like border security and culture war issues like DEI policies.
Here’s what we know so far:
Immigration
Trump is expected to declare a national emergency at the U.S. southern border, designate criminal cartels as terror groups and end birthright citizenship for children born to immigrant parents without legal status, according to incoming White House officials who spoke to reporters on a call on condition of background.
Trump will also reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which would require some asylum seekers at the southern border to wait in Mexico for their hearings in U.S. immigration court, the officials said.
The moves are some of 10 sweeping executive actions on border security that incoming officials say Trump plans to sign on Monday:
- Declare a national emergency at the border: The officials on the call said this action will allow U.S. armed forces to finish the border wall and allow the secretary of defense to deploy members of the armed forces and National Guard to the border.
- “Clarify” the military’s role in border security: This action “directs the military to prioritize our borders” and protect territorial integrity “by repelling forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking and other criminal activities,” the officials said.
- End “catch and release,” continue building the wall, and end “Remain in Mexico”
- Designate criminal cartels as terrorists: This will allow the U.S. to more easily remove members of groups like Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal organization from Venezuela, and MS-13.
- Suspend refugee resettlement: The official said the U.S. would suspend refugee resettlement for at least four months.
- End asylum and close the border to those without legal status via proclamation: Officials said they are planning to end asylum entirely and close the border to those without legal status via proclamation, “which creates an immediate removal process without possibility of asylum.”
- End birthright citizenship: The officials said the White House plans to end birthright citizenship, which is enshrined in the 14th Amendment. They argued the amendment does not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to parents without legal status. This action is likely to see immediate legal challenges.
- Enhance vetting and screening: The officials said they are going to “enhance vetting and screening of illegal aliens.”
- “Protect American citizens against invasion”: Officials said this “equips agents and officers of ICE and CBP with the authorities” they need to deport people from the U.S.
- Restore the death penalty: “This action in particular, directs the Attorney General to seek capital punishment for the murder of law enforcement officers and capital crimes committed by illegal aliens. It encourages state agencies and district attorneys to bring capital state charges for these crimes,” the officials said.
Read more from NPR’s Ximena Bustillo.
Defining ‘sex’ and ending DEI programs
Trump will sign an executive action on Monday that says it’s the policy of the United States to recognize two biologically distinct sexes — male and female — an incoming White House official speaking on background told reporters Monday.
“These are sexes that are not changeable, and they are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” the official said.
The change will require government agencies to use the definitions on documents like passports, visas and employee records the official said. Taxpayer funds will not be allowed to be used for “transition services,” the official said.
A second action will end diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government, the official said, giving as examples environmental justice programs in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as diversity training.
National energy emergency and “electric vehicle mandate”
Trump intends to declare a national energy emergency on Monday, aiming to cut red tape and regulations for the energy industry, and a second one specific to Alaskan resources, an incoming White House official told reporters on a background conference call.
“That national energy emergency will unlock a variety of different authorities that will enable our nation to quickly build again, to produce coal and natural resources, to create jobs, to create prosperity and to strengthen our nation’s national security,” the official said. The official said energy prices are too high, but declined on the call to name a lower target price.
The action will end what incoming Trump officials call the “electric vehicle mandate” and will end “efforts to curtail consumer choice on the things that consumers use every single day, whether it be showerheads, whether it be gas stoves, whether it be dishwashers and the like,” the official said.
Trump has long railed against energy efficiency standards on the campaign trail, and specifically taken aim at “electric vehicle mandates,” a term he uses to encompass all policies designed to encourage a transition to battery-powered cars. Rules actually requiring 100% of vehicles to be electric do not exist on the federal level.
Inflation
Trump will sign a presidential memorandum on inflation Monday, an official from the incoming administration said. The official did not provide additional details.
NPR correspondents Tamara Keith, Ximena Bustillo and Camila Domonoske contributed to this report.
A.M. Poetry
MAGAers Mad at Trump for Moving Inauguration Indoors
By Amethyst Martinez, 1 days ago
The Washington Post via Getty Im
MAGAers are angry after Donald Trump announced his inauguration is to be moved inside, causing many to be left out of the ceremony.
Although the president-elect announced that some attendees can go to the Capital One Arena for a viewing party, many were prepared to brave the cold.
Freezing cold temperatures and strong winds are expected to hit D.C. on Monday. The last time an inauguration was moved inside was for Ronald Reagan in 1985 under similar forecasts.
NBC Washington went out to break the news to Trump supporters who planned to attend the inauguration.
“I don’t like it,” Trump fan Ken Robinson told the outlet. “We came all the way from… Oklahoma and now we’re not getting to see it. We might as well have stayed home watching on TV.”
Jorge Gonzalez, another supporter who traveled from Florida, said that the news “sucks.”
“We’re prepared for the weather, it’s not a problem,” Gonzalez said.
“We have farms,” said Harry Troyer, another Oklahoma resident visiting D.C. “And we don’t get to not feed the cows because it’s cold.”
Others posted to X to express their dismay with the decision as many who were planning to attend having already traveled to D.C. in advance. Thousands of chairs were seen outside the Capitol on Friday, set up before the event was moved inside.
“We have coats and will wear them. Already bought expensive hotels, rental cars, subway tickets etc etc,” one user wrote on X. “We the people were prepared for the cold. We want to see Trump in person. Rain snow sleet warm cold it don’t matter.”
“Spent thousands of dollars on a hotel room and now they aren’t having an Inauguration for the public,” another wrote. “Wtf.”
On Monday, officials were beginning to give out more than 220,000 tickets. On Friday, they were then told to tell attendees that their tickets are now “commemorative.” The arena only has a capacity of 20,000.
“A Brilliant Ray of Light”
Peace & Justice History for 1/18
An example of actual “cancel culture” within, plus more.
| January 18, 1919 The peace conference to negotiate the end of the Great War (now know as World War I) opened in Paris, France. President Woodrow Wilson spent several months in Europe personally negotiating details of what became the Treaty of Versailles with heads of the allied powers or their foreign ministers. |
| January 18, 1962 The U.S. began spraying herbicides on foliage in Vietnam to eliminate jungle canopy cover for Viet Cong guerrillas (a policy known as “territory denial”).The U.S. ultimately dropped more than 20 million gallons of such defoliants, sparking charges the United States was violating international treaties against using chemical weapons. Many of the herbicides, particularly Agent Orange, manufactured by Dow Chemical, Monsanto and others, were later found to cause birth defects and rare forms of cancer in humans.  Agent Orange: An Ongoing Atrocity |
| January 18, 1968 Invited to a Women Doers luncheon at the Johnson White House, Eartha Kitt, singer and actor, spoke out about the effect of the Vietnam War on America’s youth. Lady Bird Johnson had convened 50 whites and Negroes to discuss President Lyndon Johnson’s anti-crime proposals. Ms. Kitt first asked the President, “what do you do about delinquent parents, those who have to work and are too busy to look after their children?” He said that there was Social Security money for day care, and the group should discuss such issues. Later, she told the women that young Americans were “angry because their parents are angry . . . because there is a war going on that they don’t understand . . . You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the street. They will take pot . . . and they will get high. They don’t want to go to school because they’re going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam.”  Eartha Kitt and Lady Bird Johnson Eartha Kitt’s career took a severe downturn after this; for years afterward, Kitt performed almost exclusively overseas, while being investigated by several federal agencies. “The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth – in a country that says you’re entitled to tell the truth – you get your face slapped and you get put out of work,” Kitt told Essence magazine two decades later. |
| January 18, 1971 In a televised speech, Senator George S. McGovern (D-South Dakota) began his anti-war campaign for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination. He vowed to bring home all U.S. soldiers from Vietnam if elected. McGovern had served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, earning the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross.  George McGovern “. . . we must have the courage to admit that however sincere our motives, we made a dreadful mistake in trying to settle the affairs of the Vietnamese people with American troops and bombers . . . . “ But while our problems are great, certain steps can be taken to recover the confidence of the nation. The greatness of our nation is not confined to the past, but beckons us to the future. |
| January 18, 1985 Though a member of the World Court since 1946, the United States walked out during a case. The Court had charged the U.S. was in violation of international law through its support of paramilitary (Contra) activities against the Nicaraguan government. Efforts to undermine the Sandinista government in Nicaragua had been a keystone of Pres. Reagan’s anti-communist foreign policy from its inception. Congressman Michael Barnes (D-Maryland) said he was “shocked and saddened that the Reagan Administration had so little confidence in its own policies that it chose not even to defend them [in the World Court].” The Court still heard Nicaragua’s case and decided against the United States, and ordered it to pay reparations to Nicaragua in June 1986. |
| January 18, 1996 The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and the Mexican government reached an agreement in San Andres to recognize and guarantee the constitutional, political, social, cultural, and economic rights of indigenous peoples in Mexico. Treated as second-class citizens since the first colonial entry into their country, the document guaranteed the autonomy and right to self-determination of native communities within the pluricultural Mexican nation. The Zapatistas took their name from Emilano Zapata who played a major role in the Mexican Revolution early in the 20th century.When they began their revolt in Chiapas state on New Year’s Day of 1994, They wrote: “We have nothing to lose, absolutely nothing, no decent roof over our heads, no land, no work, poor health, no food, no education, no right to freely and democratically choose our leaders, no independence from foreign interests, and no justice for ourselves or our children. But we say enough is enough! We are the descendants of those who truly built this nation, we are millions of dispossessed, and we call upon all our brethren to join our crusade, the only option to avoid dying of starvation!” The Mexican government, despite their signature on the agreement, refused later to implement it.  More background on the Zapatistas |
January 18, 2003 In frigid temperatures, 500,000 converged on Washington, D.C. There were also joined by many more elsewhere around the world to oppose the threatened U.S. war on Iraq.  Anti-war protesters march past the U.S. Capitol during the start of an anti-war protest that will culminate by a march to the Washington Naval Yard.Egyptian riot police and anti-war demonstrators face off in Cairo, Egypt. Banners at top read, ” Iraq . . . Another war for oil and American supremacy. “This was the largest U.S. peace demonstration since the Vietnam era.   < Pakistani peace activists hold a rally in Karachi. > Crowds estimated at 80,000 fill the civic center of San Francisco, California |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january18
Arctic Blast: Inauguration Day To Be Coldest In Decades
So fitting for what is coming to the US and maybe the world. Hugs.
==================================================================
Axios reports:
A powerful Arctic outbreak tied in part to the polar vortex is set to send temperatures by next week tumbling down to as cold as 25 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit below average for mid-January, forecasts show. The hazardous cold could endanger public health, stress electricity grids, damage crops and make for a frigid Inauguration Day.
Mother Nature’s refrigerator door looks to open, with cold air spilling southward out of northern Canada beginning Friday night and lasting for at least a week. Through Sunday, about 81 million people are predicted to see temperatures plunge to below-zero Fahrenheit, and the number affected will increase from there.
Read the full article. In 1985, Reagan’s inauguration parade was canceled and the ceremony was moved inside when wind chills were as low as -20 degrees.
Grrr; US Media Suck
Wonkette does this better than I.
Politico Demands Karen Bass Explain How She’ll Make Politico Stop Smearing Her
Oh, the balls on these assholes. The BALLS!
Tuesday afternoon, Politico ran a very good story about media and political attacks against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her response to the ongoing wildfires. The piece, by reporter Melanie Mason, points out that much of the criticism has been unfair and often baldface lies. It also notes that Bass’s public persona as a detail-oriented consensus builder has in part led to the perception that she’s not an action-oriented take-charge leader in this crisis. It’s one of the better discussion of Bass and the wildfires we’ve read, in addition of course to our own, ahem.
The money quote for the story comes from Rob Quan, an organizer with good-government nonprofit Unrig LA. Says Quan,
“Nationally, there’s just a pile-on. […] If you look at her replies [on social media] now, she could be posting a video of her literally running into a burning building and taking a child out of there, and people would still be replying ‘resign!’”
Mason’s piece is a smart, thoughtful look at how an accomplished politician is being dragged in the media, and how her own political instincts and strengths aren’t proving to be much help in countering the overwhelmingly negative coverage. Kind of like having a municipal water system that’s perfectly capable of handling building fires, but not designed to contain a fire hurricane made far more catastrophic by climate change. By all means, you should read it!
But because we are doing a Doktor of Rhetoric post today, we’re only going to discuss Mason’s very good reporting and analysis in the context of how Politico distorted its own goddamn coverage for the sake of adding more cheap shots to the shitstorm of belligerent bellyaching with which Bass is contending.
Later yesterday afternoon, Politico’s “California PM Playbook” column took Mason’s thoughtful, nuanced reporting and ran it through a bullshit filter, resulting in a column that mentions the pile-on of disinformation that Bass has faced, but ultimately paints Bass as responsible for her own unfair coverage, darn her.
California Playbook editor Lindsay Holden quotes and paraphrases Mason liberally, but hypes up the negatives almost to the exclusion of all else, leaving the reader with the impression that Bass, as Holden’s headline puts it, “has lost the plot.”
Mason depicts Bass as a competent leader whose substance-over-style political instincts aren’t necessarily a great match for a crisis where cable news and rightwing social media are driving the narrative:
Bass has also been hampered by instincts she honed as a deal-making legislator and coalition-building community activist. Never someone to actively seek the spotlight, her unflashy demeanor now comes off as uninspiring for people seeking a leader projecting command.
An unnamed Democratic consultant says that right now, LA needs a media hero, “someone to stand up in the middle of the Pacific Palisades or the middle of Sylmar or the middle of Hollywood every day and say, ‘This is our community, and we will rebuild.’”
The consultant added, “I want her to show some emotion, that she’s tapping into the fear and anxiety that so many people feel, and not reflect this soft brand of optimism that she’s been known for.”
Soft optimism bad, Henry V filtered through Independence Day good. But Mason also notes that after the widespread devastation of the first horrible hours, when high winds kept water bombers grounded and blew the fires out of control,
firefighters have been remarkably successful in halting additional damage — despite new fires cropping up throughout the week.
“All of those could have been massive conflagrations had they expanded, and they didn’t,” said Doug Herman, a Democratic strategist who works with Bass.
That note doesn’t make it into Holden’s version, which instead seems to be cheering on style, and the hell with substance. After noting that Elon Musk’s attacks on Bass are “often half-baked or outright false,” Holden adds in an anecdote that wasn’t in Mason’s piece, bizarrely framing a dishonest video clip as somehow one more example of Bass’s “painfully poor messaging strategy” (a phrase Mason does not use):
The latest example came Tuesday afternoon, when CBS News sent out a misleading tweet suggesting its reporter asked Bass whether she “regrets” taking an overseas trip while the wildfires erupted. The accompanying video clip showed Bass answering “No.”
In fact, CBS’ Jonathan Vigliotti asked Bass whether, looking back, she still would’ve taken the diplomatic trip to Ghana.
CBS News subsequently revised the tweet to get the question right, and added a note to clarify that Bass was saying no, on reflection she wouldn’t have taken the trip. For all the good it did.
Here’s where we lost our patience with the Playbook piece: Holden went right ahead and insisted that Bass had fucked up:
The episode served as a mini illustration of Bass’ problems — specious information, followed by her own unwillingness to provide a fuller explanation, let alone a broader acknowledgement of her mistake. The narrative about her trip might have been put to bed last week, but Bass’ resistance to engage on it has allowed her enemies to continue painting her as an absent and ineffective leader.
Apparently, Bass should have anticipated that CBS would send a tweet distorting what she said, and she should have pre-debunked it, too. Shame on her! She really has lost the plot, all right.
Perhaps Mason should update her own piece with a close look at how her own outlet indulged in the kind of bullshit she was analyzing, but that might be a little too meta. And god knows Meta has enshittified itself plenty already.
Good Environmental News, Too!
(Not to take away from the Love good news post.)
How Plankton Poop Could Hold the Key to Slowing Climate Change
December 19, 2024 · Written by Matthew Russell
In the fight against climate change, every small action counts. From renewable energy to forest conservation, many solutions are on the table, but one of the most unexpected contributors could be plankton poop. This tiny marine byproduct, aided by a unique natural process, could help the world combat rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
The concept hinges on the “biological carbon pump,” a natural process in the ocean where microscopic marine life absorbs carbon dioxide and stores it in the deep sea. However, much of this carbon is returned to the atmosphere before it can reach the ocean floor, where it could remain sequestered for centuries. But what if we could enhance this process?
Photo: Pexels
Plankton poop could significantly enhance carbon sequestration in the ocean.
The Role of Plankton in Carbon Sequestration
Phytoplankton, tiny organisms that float in the ocean, are responsible for capturing a significant portion of atmospheric carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. As NASA Earth Observatory points out, these organisms form the base of the marine food chain, feeding zooplankton, small fish, and other sea life. As phytoplankton die or are consumed, some of their carbon sinks into the ocean, but a large portion of it is recycled by marine bacteria, eventually returning as CO2. This cycle presents a challenge in efficiently storing carbon in the ocean’s depths.
However, researchers from Dartmouth College and other institutions are exploring how to enhance the efficiency of this biological pump. Their solution involves adding clay dust to the surface of the ocean. This seemingly simple intervention could significantly boost carbon sequestration by aiding the formation of dense particles that sink rapidly, carrying carbon along with them.
Photo: Pexels
Adding clay dust to ocean waters can help carbon-rich particles sink deeper.
Clay as a Catalyst for Faster Carbon Sequestration
The Dartmouth team’s experiments demonstrated that when clay minerals are added to the ocean’s surface, they bond with organic carbon, forming sticky balls known as “flocs.” These flocs are irresistible to zooplankton, which feed on them, The Debrief, reports. As zooplankton ingest the flocs, they excrete carbon-laden feces, which sink deeper into the ocean. This process not only prevents carbon from escaping back into the atmosphere but also speeds up the ocean’s natural carbon sequestration process.
This enhancement could have profound implications. By accelerating the process by which carbon is transported from the ocean surface to the depths, this method offers a new, scalable approach to mitigate climate change. The addition of clay to phytoplankton blooms could significantly boost the amount of carbon trapped in the ocean, as demonstrated by the increased concentration of sticky organic particles—up to ten times more than usual—following the clay treatment.
Photo: Pexels
The biological carbon pump is the ocean’s natural system for removing CO2.
How Plankton Poop Becomes a Climate Solution
Plankton poop might seem like an unlikely hero in the climate crisis, but its potential is undeniable. Zooplankton, the tiny creatures that feed on plankton, play a crucial role in the ocean’s carbon cycle. Normally, only a small fraction of the carbon captured by phytoplankton makes it into the deep ocean for long-term storage. However, by feeding on clay-enhanced carbon particulates, zooplankton can create fecal pellets that sink faster, ensuring that the carbon is stored more effectively in the ocean’s depths.
The use of clay dust to enhance this process could be a game-changer. According to Oceanographic Magazine, the addition of clay allowed carbon to be captured in feces and sequestered at depths where it can stay for millennia, potentially reducing atmospheric CO2 levels significantly.
Photo: Pexels
Zooplankton ingest carbon-laden particles, trapping CO2 in their feces.
The Promise of Clay in the Fight Against Climate Change
As scientists continue to explore this technique, there’s growing optimism about its potential. The use of clay is particularly promising because of its low cost and abundance. Unlike other carbon capture methods that rely on expensive technology, clay dust is a natural material that could be dispersed across ocean regions with phytoplankton blooms.
The team is currently focused on identifying the best regions for applying this method, particularly areas with high primary production, such as the California Current and the Mediterranean Sea.
Looking Ahead: A Sustainable Solution?
Though the technique is still in its early stages, it holds promise as a sustainable and scalable solution for reducing atmospheric CO2 levels. The process, which relies on the ocean’s natural mechanisms, could complement other climate mitigation strategies, such as reforestation and direct air capture. Moreover, by enhancing the biological carbon pump with a simple addition of clay dust, the oceans could play an even greater role in addressing the climate crisis.
The next steps involve testing the method in real-world ocean settings. If successful, this approach could become an essential tool in the global effort to combat climate change, one tiny poop at a time.
https://shop.freetheocean.com/blogs/news/plankton-poo-climate-change
Boy republicans and wealthy simply don’t stop do they
“But I don’t know. I can make all kinds of horrible theories up in my head, conspiracy theories and everything else, but it just seemed a little convenient that there was no water and that the wind conditions were right and that there are people ready and willing and able to start fires.
“And are they commissioned to do so or just acting on their own volition?” – Mel “Horse Paste Cures Cancer” Gibson, last night on Laura Ingraham’s show.
The QAnon nutbags are applauding.
Ogles last appeared here in August 2024 when the FBI raided his home over allegedly fraudulent campaign finance reports.
Weeks earlier, he appeared here when he filed articles of impeachment against Kamala Harris hours after she formally announced her bid for president.
Also last year, he introduced a bill that would ban gag orders for all federal defendants.
Shortly after he was elected, Ogles was found to have lied about his education and background, drawing comparisons to George Santos.
Recent federal disaster aid to Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Georgia contained no conditions or “strings attached.”
Lucky the above guy who destroyed expensive public property did not get caught buying weed or being a doctor saving a woman’s life by giving them a needed abortion. Hugs
Despite the action noted above, the cult – led by Libs Of TikTok – is now attacking Lara for being gay.
Scottie's Playtime 