President Donald J. Trump

[Yorkshire pud]

Glacier increases?  Norway, Alps etc, etc.

Nice deflection though.  Changes in weather patterns leads to changes in climate.  They are not mutually exclusive.

This glacier in tne Alps?

http://phys.org/news/2015-09-blankets-swiss-glacier-vain-effort.html

The dusty, white fleece covers stretch out over a huge area near the glacier's edge, some in rumpled piles alongside sand, rocks, a few wooden planks and a ladder on its side.
With a red and white Swiss flag providing the only dash of colour, they looks like tents in a vast deserted refugee camp, out of place in the Alpine setting.
But hiding underneath the blankets is a Swiss tourist attraction: a long and winding ice grotto with glistening blue walls and a leaky ceiling that has been carved into the ice here each year since 1870.
"For the past eight years, they have had to cover the ice cave with these blankets to reduce the ice melt," said David Volken, a glaciologist working with the Swiss environment ministry, poking at a piece of cloth lying near the path that leads to the cave's opening.
The blankets, he said, reduce the ice melt by as much as 70 percent, explaining why the covered cave towers far above the nearby centre of the glacier tongue, which slopes lazily into a pine-green lake.
But while the blankets help slow the melting and allow the ice grotto to remain open through the hot summer, they are a very temporary fix.
'Dying mountain'
"It will slow things down for a year or two, but one day they will have to take away the blankets because the ice underneath will be gone," said Jean-Pierre Guignard, a 76-year-old tourist from the Swiss town of Lausanne.
He recalled seeing the glacier for the first time in 1955. The tongue then reached far down the steep mountainside, which today is hammered by a roaring waterfall pouring from the glacier lake and marking the starting point of Europe's mighty Rhone river.

[SciFiAuthor]

I'm part of the traditional right but frankly I've been fed up with traditional Republican politicians since Bush Sr.  A responsible policy regarding illegal immigration has been one of my bread and butter issues since at least 2000.  Conservative fiscal policy and responsible foreign policy are also my main issues along with enforcing Constitutional rule on our country.  Yeah I voted for Cruz but I see him as an outsider who has bucked the system in DC.  There were a couple other candidates like Paul and Carson that I liked.  I still have reservations about Trump but I like what I'm seeing so far.  So I have to take issue that it is mainly the middle who were fed up this cycle.  You're right about the rust-belt worker and really they were the key this cycle.

I think a lot of that sentiment resonates with the center and the libertarians just as much as the traditional right. It certainly does with me. I think it all sort of came together when we decided this cycle to ignore the old wedge issues like abortion and focused instead on the other things that concern us. Chief among those was immigration. We all felt like were being sold down the river by the Republicans and the Democrats and it allowed an opening for people like Cruz and Trump. Where the GOP establishment screwed up was claiming to be sympathetic to the Tea Party when in fact most of them were just using the movement to get elected. There was no authentic response to the Tea Party's concerns from the party at large, so that sentiment that originally spawned the Tea Party morphed into Trump's populist movement and sort of snapped everyone else up from the center.

Now, all Trump has to do is keep everyone on the same page. So far so good. His picks have been pretty solid and represent the whole of the movement. He's got Bannon satisfying the so called alt-right, he's got plenty of businessmen that satisfy the business Republicans, he's got Carson who most of us at least liked and respected, and then he's got guys like Gen. Mattis that we can all get behind. Now, if Trump heads out and stimulates the economy with tax cuts and we see real growth as a result, he will be a success. I'm confident that he can at least accomplish that.

What the devil were you doing with a bible in your bunker?  Did you get saved?  Is this the end of the agnostic that I've come to know and love (in a straight manly way of course)?

Bible pages make great rolling papers (just kidding). It might surprise you, but I've read the bible multiple times. Not as a religious document but as a literary work. I've also read the Koran for similar reasons. To write books effectively one must always keep their eyes open to everything and read, read, read, read, read. That said, Merry Christmas. We can say that again.

[Yorkshire pud]

Fukushima is another thing entirely.  I have been distressed about the contamination of the sea water and of course that affects sea life.  I'd like to know the brilliant planners who thought of building nuclear reactors on top of an earthquake-prone zone.  Idiots.

How else was Japan going to produce electricity? Thay have no natural rescources. But you knew that, didn't you?

[21st Century Man]

Boy, don't you remember the 'fog' in London being as thick as pea soup?  But, that was not fog, but POLLUTION!  My husband thought the Houses of Parliament were black because he grew up with them that way - until they were cleaned!  England had a great problem with pollution in the atmosphere.

I said the pollution in Britain was terrible.  It was so thick where Whale grew up that most days he couldn't see 5 feet in front of him.  My point is it did not permanently damage the atmosphere.  While we should NEVER go back to such pollutive practices,  that should not mean an end to industry especially when we have the means now to minimze pollution.

[Jackstar]

Subterranean thorium salt fission reactors. This problem was solved in the Fifties.

[21st Century Man]

How else was Japan going to produce electricity? Thay have no natural rescources. But you knew that, didn't you?

They are surrounded by water.  You have heard of hydroelectric plants, right?

[SciFiAuthor]

You, too?  Actually I was visiting relatives in another fly-over-country location.  The baked opossum and turnip greens were quite tasty.  We knocked-off a bottle of Jim Beam and then danced around the potbelly furnace, praising Jesus, and shouting "lock her up!"  It's fun to be a deplorable.

It is fun. Spending Christmas cleaning the guns as a family, stringing lights on the cabin, doing my own dental work with a pair of pliers, keeping the government away by yelling conspiracy theories at the mail man while taking pulls off my moonshine jug. I wouldn't have it any other way.

[21st Century Man]

I think a lot of that sentiment resonates with the center and the libertarians just as much as the traditional right. It certainly does with me. I think it all sort of came together when we decided this cycle to ignore the old wedge issues like abortion and focused instead on the other things that concern us. Chief among those was immigration. We all felt like were being sold down the river by the Republicans and the Democrats and it allowed an opening for people like Cruz and Trump. Where the GOP establishment screwed up was claiming to be sympathetic to the Tea Party when in fact most of them were just using the movement to get elected. There was no authentic response to the Tea Party's concerns from the party at large, so that sentiment that originally spawned the Tea Party morphed into Trump's populist movement and sort of snapped everyone else up from the center.

Now, all Trump has to do is keep everyone on the same page. So far so good. His picks have been pretty solid and represent the whole of the movement. He's got Bannon satisfying the so called alt-right, he's got plenty of businessmen that satisfy the business Republicans, he's got Carson who most of us at least liked and respected, and then he's got guys like Gen. Mattis that we can all get behind. Now, if Trump heads out and stimulates the economy with tax cuts and we see real growth as a result, he will be a success. I'm confident that he can at least accomplish that.

Bible pages make great rolling papers (just kidding). It might surprise you, but I've read the bible multiple times. Not as a religious document but as a literary work. I've also read the Koran for similar reasons. To write books effectively one must always keep their eyes open to everything and read, read, read, read, read. That said, Merry Christmas. We can say that again.

LOL.  I figured you weren't becoming a holy roller anytime soon. Agree with you as I do most of the time.  Spot on about the Republicans and the Tea Party.  Here's to good times ahead!



Merry Christmas back to you too! 

[Kidnostad3]

How else was Japan going to produce electricity? Thay have no natural rescources. But you knew that, didn't you?

Do you mean that solar panels, wind farms, geothermal plants and wave and tide driven generators won't handle the load?  No zero-point energy?  Someone should tell Al Gore.  Might be time for Japan to impose a more stringent cap-in-trade policy so as to stimulate development of alternative energy sources. 

[CornyCrow]

I said the pollution in Britain was terrible.  It was so thick where Whale grew up that most days he couldn't see 5 feet in front of him.  My point is it did not permanently damage the atmosphere.  While we should NEVER go back to such pollutive practices,  that should not mean an end to industry especially when we have the means now to minimze pollution.

Yes, this is the regulation that Trump wants to do away with.  He's appointed at least three fossil fuel proponents.  He's promised to restore coal to its 'former glory' - I doubt that he will.  He promised to rid us of those pesky regulations on business. 

[Yorkshire pud]

Of course the pollution in India and China are terrible and should be immediately reduced.  My concern there is for the lives, human, plant and animal, that are being affected not the Earth's atmosphere though.  You should really read biographies about people like James Whale who grew up in industrial Britain. 

Yeah? So did I. In a far more industrial intensive place than James bloody Whale.

The pollution was just as bad if not worse yet the atmosphere was minimally affected and recovered in short course.

Durrrr, because of the clean air act, and because the industrial infrastructure that once was, has long gone. Mines and heavy steel plants shut. However, in the UK, asthma rose steeply as did heart and  lung deseases. When you get such illness, they don't disappear when the smoke has gone. Trump wants mining back? Watch the chest infections in children rise too. Still, Trump has a good brain, he knows best.

  Bringing back industrial jobs does not mean a resumption of earlier pollution practices.  We have better technology now to minimize factory pollution where it would not be nearly as terrible as it was even 40 years ago and I would insist on minimizing factory pollution.

Reduce, but not eliminate, and CO2 is released instead of huge amounts of SO2 and CO. With coal mining, you get spoil and contaminated water.

[Yorkshire pud]

They are surrounded by water.  You have heard of hydroelectric plants, right?

Yes, I know several in Scotland, built into 2000 foot mountains with a reservior top and bottom.  Where the fuck are Japan going to build a hydro electrc dam? You know, being an earthquake hotspot.

[Dr. MD MD]

I have been distressed about the contamination of the sea water and of course that affects sea life.

Umm...you understand how rain works and that we actually eat things from the oceans, right?

[Yorkshire pud]

Do you mean that solar panels, wind farms, geothermal plants and wave and tide driven generators won't handle the load?  No zero-point energy?  Someone should tell Al Gore.  Might be time for Japan to impose a more stringent cap-in-trade policy so as to stimulate development of alternative energy sources.

PV's weren't as nearly as efficient as they are now; I used to work at DuPont where one of the scientists there invented three of the component materials that go into certain types. Mad as a box of frogs, but brilliant and funny guy.

Japan went for nuclear because it was all the rage, and theoretically limitless juice. Japan uses a lot of juice. 

[SciFiAuthor]

Yes, I know several in Scotland, built into 2000 foot mountains with a reservior top and bottom.  Where the fuck are Japan going to build a hydro electrc dam? You know, being an earthquake hotspot.

There are ways to generate electricity using water other than hydro-electric dams. Scotland was actually going to try that once with the Salter duck wave energy device, but the whole thing got killed by your power companies.

[Yorkshire pud]

https://youtu.be/kdyal_osAts

[Yorkshire pud]

There are ways to generate electricity using water other than hydro-electric dams. Scotland was actually going to try that once with the Salter duck wave energy device, but the whole thing got killed by your power companies.

Oh? I wonder why they did that? Maybe they need regulating to make sure they can't do that?  But the power companies are now foreign owned. Because Thatcher wanted a free market economy. Thats what we got, floated on the stock exchange and bought by foreign investors.

[Kidnostad3]

It is fun. Spending Christmas cleaning the guns as a family, stringing lights on the cabin, doing my own dental work with a pair of pliers, keeping the government away by yelling conspiracy theories at the mail man while taking pulls off my moonshine jug. I wouldn't have it any other way.

After reading your post I was overtaken by a wave of nostalgia and yearning as it brought to mind a Norman Rockwell-esque vision of my happy youth. I would only add to your description the joyous gathering of our large extended family including both sets of grandparents who, interestingly enough, were all related to one another either as siblings or first cousins or both for the traditional Christmas Eve carol sing and mixed gender tobacco juice spitting contest.  Would that it were all still true.

[SciFiAuthor]

Oh? I wonder why they did that? Maybe they need regulating to make sure they can't do that?

Oddly, it was some kind of regulatory board that killed it. It was a matter of the wolf controlling the hen house.

[21st Century Man]

Yeah? So did I. In a far more industrial intensive place than James bloody Whale.

Durrrr, because of the clean air act, and because the industrial infrastructure that once was, has long gone. Mines and heavy steel plants shut. However, in the UK, asthma rose steeply as did heart and  lung deseases. When you get such illness, they don't disappear when the smoke has gone. Trump wants mining back? Watch the chest infections in children rise too. Still, Trump has a good brain, he knows best.

Reduce, but not eliminate, and CO2 is released instead of huge amounts of SO2 and CO. With coal mining, you get spoil and contaminated water.

There was no place more industrially intensive than where James Whale grew up.  If I remember it was several miles west of Birmingham.  He came from a poor family of coal-workers.  Read his bloody biography before you presume to know where he came from.

[21st Century Man]

Umm...you understand how rain works and that we actually eat things from the oceans, right?

Of course but the radiation is much less than what is in the ocean as a direct result of Fuku.

[MV/Liberace!]

You, too?  Actually I was visiting relatives in another fly-over-country location.  The baked opossum and turnip greens were quite tasty.  We knocked-off a bottle of Jim Beam and then danced around the potbelly furnace, praising Jesus, and shouting "lock her up!"  It's fun to be a deplorable.

heh heh

[Dr. MD MD]

Of course but the radiation is much less than what is in the ocean as a direct result of Fuku.

I think you're fundamentally misunderstanding this. This might help:

http://blog.nus.edu.sg/radioactivewastes/2015/04/04/consuming-radiation-radiation-pollution-and-the-food-chain/

[PB the Deplorable]

Actually I'm a proponent of the single-payer system.  Cut out the pimps with their "administrative costs."

So let's put the people like those who run the VA in charge?  Does that sound like a good idea?  Why or why not? 

Does anyone really think government bureaucrats will run things more efficiently while keeping current service and quality levels the same?  I realize it sounds great, it really does, but after 100 years of trying in various industries, various countries, under various leaders, where is the evidence government can run business more efficiently than the private sector?  I'd like to see the proof before handing over my heath care to the people running the post office and DMV.

Remember when this full-of-himself blowhard decreed ''we're the ones we've been waiting for''?  Well, he's been a remarkably lousy president - on all fronts - so apparently there's a bit more to it than ego, good intentions, and strong cheerleading section. 

Why would anyone think the next one up will really be the one we've been waiting for, agree to surrender decisions regarding our medical care to a bunch of politicians, and think we're going to get more and better for less?  What sane person who's been paying attention would agree to this?

[PB the Deplorable]

... You implied in a previous post in your usual patronising way, that political expediency makes opponents forget their differences and work together for the common good...

I think I implied they would do so for their own careers and self interest.  It's just that it's in their best interest to work for the common good, when they convince half the people that's what they're doing they tend to be re-elected. 

[Jackstar]

Of course but the radiation is much less than what is in the ocean as a direct result of Fuku.

[PB the Deplorable]

...  Ordinarily in certain circumstances (my enemy's enemy, etc) you're right. But this isn't one of those times in a couple of ways.
Firstly Trump (like all politicians) had a lot of supporters who are not sophisticated enough to know he's a hypocrite; they took what he said at face value. The wall crap, the deporting in one hour crap, the draining the swamp crap.

Just those three (and there are many more) 'promises' now ring hollow.
Now you know he didn't mean it, that it was just window dressing to sell himself, but the very people who he promised would be helped at the expense of the 'swamp', will be forgiven for feeling they were sold a pup...

Most people vote against someone rather than for someone.  Every once in a while we are fortunate and get a Reagan.

Most people who voted for Trump will be happy if he ends asylum programs for refugees from Muslim countries, deports criminal illegals, does more to secure the border, supports instead of works against border patrol agents, and ends Obama's open door policy of encouraging these people to come here illegally.  I think that's going to be a slam dunk.

As far as ''draining the swamp'', you're unhappy he's appointing mostly non-politicians from outside DC, and you're claiming he's not draining the swamp.  Please make up your mind.

[ItsOver]

Most people vote against someone rather than for someone.  Every once in a while we are fortunate and get a Reagan.

Most people who voted for Trump will be happy if he ends asylum programs for refugees from Muslim countries, deports criminal illegals, does more to secure the border, supports instead of works against border patrol agents, and ends Obama's open door policy of encouraging these people to come here illegally.  I think that's going to be a slam dunk.

As far as ''draining the swamp'', you're unhappy he's appointing mostly non-politicians from outside DC, and you're claiming he's not draining the swamp.  Please make up your mind.

Hell, I'll be happy if he just picks SCOTUS justices that aren't raving leftist loons.

[chefist]

Hell, I'll be happy if he just picks SCOTUS justices that aren't raving leftist loons.

Exactly... I'm amazed at how so many idealogues hand wring themselves into a frenzy...Relax, at least Hillary isn't in there.

[PB the Deplorable]

But this isn't about the Clintons...

Actually, it is. 

That was the other choice, and it was unacceptable