Corrente

And so our first season as professional bee wranglers comes to a close. Actually, we now wrangle bees and farm our small holding in Western Washington full time. I believe technically we are now officially bumpkins. Read more about Bee wrangling and so on

On reading this bit

But in setting up non-nationals as parasites, as a burden, as usurpers of national resources, and so on, European governments and their loyal media are generating a dangerous political fantasy.

from Jacobin's piece on Europe's migrant crisis, my reaction was "well, yes, but they also treat their own nationals as 'parasites and a burden' if they happen to be on welfare," and then it hit me. Read more about A Modest Proposal, 2015

1) Kim Davis was well aware that her job might require her to issue marriage licenses to gay people before she was elected and took her oath of office Read more about Two Notes on the Rowan County Marriage Controversy

Take that, Bibi. https://t.co/V9Gn9vP6xN

— gwen ifill (@gwenifill) September 2, 2015

Natanyahu has done incalculble damage to Israeli-American relations. Read more about Three cheers for Gwen Ifill

Bernie for America at this point is like ordering new windshield wipers for a sinking Titanic: we gotta throw the 1% outta the lifeboats! Read more about A Commie critique of Bernie

There is an ongoing general discussion in the field of sustainable energy that does not carry the risk of the destruction of our current industrial society and economy about variable renewable energy.

Renewable energy includes a range of low or no carbon sources of energy - but not all renewable energy is sustainable, and not all is low or no carbon. And not all low or no carbon energy sources are from renewable energy resources.

Among the sustainable, no/low carbon renewable energy resources, the most abundant involve the harvest of variable renewable energy, with windpower and solar PV being the most notable. So one obvious strategy for a no-carbon-emitting energy system is to base it on collecting as much of these affordable variable renewables as practicable, and then use other no/low carbon sources to fill in the gaps.

However, in some quarters, this elicits a counter-argument. The most "successfully de-carbonized" economies of the world today are either those with a very high reliance on reservoir hydropower ... which while very useful in the United States offers nowhere near a large enough economic resource to meet any large fraction of our current consumption ... or those with a very high reliance on nuclear power.

Indeed, near the beginning of this month, Stephen Lacy briefly reported on a report from the Breakthrough Institute that raised an alarm that the new Clean Power Plan may in fact oversee a net increase in GHG emissions. The final plan does not include measures to avoid the decommissioning of substantial numbers of nuclear power plants. And the numbers are stark:

• The 30 nuclear plants at risk by 2030 avoid over 100 MMT of CO2 emissions
• New non-hydropower renewables are expected to avoid 60 MMT of CO2 emissions by 2030
• New nuclear plants under construction are expected to avoid under 30 MMT of CO2 by 2030

So where retention of those 30 nuclear power plants would find us over 80 MMT of avoided CO2 ahead, and in a position to accelerate that in the following decade ... their closure could leave us over 10 MMT below where we are now. Read more about Sunday Train: Can Nuclear and Renewable Energy Be Friends?

Sanders: I wouldn’t end drone program

In an interview on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Sanders indicated that he would limit the use of drones so that they do not end up killing innocent people abroad, but declined to say that he would end the targeted killing campaign completely.

“I think we have to use drones very, very selectively and effectively. That has not always been the case,” Sanders said.

New poll showing Clinton beating everyone is reported as bad news for Hillary

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Hillary Clinton coasting to a crushing victory in a three-way race against Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, winning 45 percent of the vote, compared with 22 for Sanders and 18 for Biden.

And the good news for Clinton doesn't stop there.

From Hugh Trevor-Roper's "Letters from Oxford" (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006) pp. 209-10: Read more about The Republican "Base" in 1956 UK

North Dakota Cops Arm Drones With Tasers and Tear Gas Read more about why local politics is important

[remarked gently by a two-time "Verbal" GRE score maxxer, upon reading above in excellent piece in The Awl]

Note also SLICC aspect,
Read more about I F*CKING KNEW IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Black Lives Matter organizers rallying D.C. to speak out against mayor’s proposed police agenda

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) will hold a press conference Thursday morning to outline her new agenda to reduce crime in the city — and Black Lives Matter organizers will be there to say her approach is wrong.

Senator emailed Illinois Chancellor Phyllis Wise over Salaita firing

The senior US Senator from Illinois privately emailed University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis Wise to offer his backing as she faced a storm of protest over the firing of Steven Salaita.

Pierce Read more about Reagan and Trump

I've already been over Louis Proyect's critical analysis of the chapter on the IT software problem in my new e-book. But in the comments on Proyect's post a significant dialogue occurred between two commenters at NC: Ben Johannson and Clive. Here I analyze and comment on that exchange. Read more about Grexit: Exchanges on the IT Problem Continue