Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Today seems like one of those days … the world is on fire; at least southern n California is on fire, but it just seems to be a flair up of a deeper problem. Sadly, there are too many that don’t see fires and predictable mud slides that will happen as soon as there is a heavy rain are all symptoms of the climate crisis that the upcoming administration will whitewash and completely ignore.

I realize that my generation and the one before me are very much to blame for the climatic future that we set in motion and have ignored. The passing of President Jimmy Carter has for some of us brought that into focus, I know I was only 13 when he left office but there were so many things in his legacy that will only reside in the history books. The tragedy of his passing, even at 100 years old, is even more heightened by the knowledge of the person that is going to take the office in 10 days. Carter was probably the most honest person to hold the office in my lifetime and did more post Presidency than anyone else in history so far. Now the person taking the office is without question the anthesis of Carters legacy, a 34-count convicted felon, who from all count has never thought about anyone but himself and I don’t foresee a Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge Christmas Story turn around in his future. Cruelty and self-aggrandizing are not BUGs in Trumps personality they are features that those features are something that I sincerely hope our Democracy can survive.

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

So we have reached another milestone… DJT is officially convinced felon and in 10 day will be inaugurated as 47th President. With that blaring fact being now a thing… every person applying for job that has a non-violent felony on their record should either not have that held against them or they should not have to even disclose it.

Not only is the worst possible human on the planet going to get the nuclear codes again he is spreading lies about the fires in California. President Biden has promised 100% federal assistance for the next 180 days but I have no doubt that once Donald is in the oval office he will try and curtail that help because California is a blue state. The transactional presidency is about to start again… “ I’ll help you out but what are you going to do for me….”

I honestly have lost all confidence in a good percentage of my fellow Americans. I hope that we haven’t sacrificed the soul of our nation on the altar of TRUMP…😢

Earth’s climate in 2024 is “in a major crisis with worse to come if we continue with business as usual,” a team of 14 climate scientists warned in “The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth.” The report did not sugarcoat their view of the dangers humanity is facing.

“We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster,” the report begins. “This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis.”

The report is the latest such annual peer-reviewed paper published in the journal BioScience by an international team of scientists led by Oregon State ecologist William Ripple. 

The authors found that 25 of 35 “planetary vital signs” reached record levels last year, including global temperatures, human climate pollution, fossil fuel subsidies, heat-related mortality rates, meat production, and loss of forest cover. 

After decades of warnings from climate scientists and efforts by some policymakers and activists, “the world has made only very minor headway on climate change, in part because of stiff resistance from those benefiting financially from the current fossil-fuel-based system,” it says. “We are currently going in the wrong direction and our increasing fossil-fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are driving us toward a climate catastrophe. We fear the danger of climate breakdown.”

They did note a few positive indicators like clean energy production.

“Of course, the situation is not hopeless,” wrote Harvard science historian and study co-author Naomi Oreskes via email. “What we want people to understand is that, while there has been progress – particularly in the price and deployment of renewables – it’s not nearly enough. And the atmosphere does not respond to our intentions. It responds to chemistry.”

The report calls for “rapidly phasing down fossil fuel use” by ratcheting up the carbon price in wealthy countries and using some of the proceeds to fund policies to stop climate change and adaptation programs to reduce damage from climate disasters. It also urges sharp reductions in emissions of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas, to “slow the near-term rate of global warming, helping to avoid tipping points and extreme climate impacts.”

Without a course correction, the report warned, “climate change could cause many millions of additional deaths by 2050.”

While human activity is responsible for long-term global warming, 2023 and 2024 were also influenced by an El Niño in the Pacific Ocean, which drew warm water up to the sea surface and contributed to short-term surface warming and associated climate impacts like droughts and wildfires in some regions.

Nevertheless, the report warned that human influence on Earth’s climate kept growing. Global fossil fuel consumption and associated climate-warming pollution reached record levels in 2023. So did the number of meat and dairy cattle and other ruminant livestock whose digestive processes generate planet-warming methane pollution, along with global per-person meat consumption.

The report also referenced a recent survey of climate scientists conducted by the Guardian in which more than three-quarters of the 380 respondents believed humanity will miss the target set in the Paris climate agreement of limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures.

There is some encouraging evidence of such decisive action, albeit at insufficient levels so far. Expert organizations like the International Energy Agency project that based on current climate policies, the world is headed toward around 2.5°C global warming by 2100. That’s not enough to meet the Paris climate targets, and yet implementing additional climate policies and solutions in the coming years could improve that outcome even further to levels below the worried expectations of three-quarters of climate scientists.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

    The most depressing part of the Trump era has been and will continue to be, the anger. His attitude has spilled over into everyday life like cancer, it invades and destroys everything in comes in contact with. His ego is so shallow, his need to be liked or appreciated is so great, that anything less than total adoration seems to be unacceptable. It makes one wonder if he ever experienced any love as a child from family. With his attitude does he know how to bestow love to his wife or children, because it would appear that his life is all about self.
    That attitude is yet another reason that makes it so unbelieveable that as many people as supposedly did voted for him. The limited time it took to get the points he needed to win indicates a great deal of less than honest vote counting. He claimed fraud in the 2020 election and it apprears that he used fraud to win this one. If it could be proven then all those involved should be shown the door and sent out of the country and they would have to hope someone was willing to give them a home because they would arrive with nothing at all.
    It seems at the moment even though Trump has not yet been sworn in that the majority of the republican party have all dutifly gone and had their ball removed. They will be allowed to sing in the chior as long as they keep daddy happy but if they make him angry they will suffer. So will we see a change when they reach the last two years of this mistake we have called an election? Hopefully either they will again turn into full function people or they will be replaced by ones that do not feel beholden to his holy dip shit. The way he carries on you just know he was the kid that sat in the shopping cart and screamed to get his way. When he was a little boy he could still suffer a public spanking but probably never got one. 
    With luck we will survive this next 4 years and not suffer more than scourched earth. The destruction of all that we as American's have held in trust for the future is very likely, especially if someone says there is gold in them thar hills. The walking hemroid is only interested in lining his pockets and if we have to sacrafice national parks, waterways, or anything at all for him to get richer then so be it. If the story of MIdas were true then we could hope that his attempts to become rich would mean that he would somehow make a wrong move and turn himself into a lump of gold, that would be one less jackass we have to deal with. Let that fate befall all the rich that are on their knees sucking up to him or Musk. 
    With noone to stop this petty tyrant we are probably going to be embarrassed in front of the entire world for no reason other than stupidity. His ego is giving him ideas of conquest and expansion, he has to go after countries now he no longer can make a conquest with women. The only expansion he will see is his gut from all the McDonalds. He has described the Jan 6 incident (insurrection) as a day of love. Those that showed up and stormed the capitol were doing what he asked, and to him that is an act of love. He is worried no one will show up for his swearing in, that would mean they don't love him and he will have a fit. His parents must have had a very twisted way of expressing emotions or his inability to separated wrong and right have caused him to be the total jerk that he is. 
    He is sick, his mental capacity is screwed from the word go, and his outlook is even more of mess. The many thousands of people that voted (?) for him could not have taken the record of his first term or his rantings into account. The real question is did they vote for him or against Harris because of some other bias? The abolute stupidity of the leaders of the republican party that stood by and watched as he took over in 2016 and allowed him to keep pumping poison into the political system even when not in office as well as the apathy of those that marked their ballot for him will pay a price for this. We all are going to suffer for this mistake, but some of us at least know that we did not bring it on ourselveds.

In the world of archaeology, advancements in technology have enabled discoveries that may never have happened otherwise, including that of an ancient Maya city. Located under dense jungle canopy in the southeastern Mexican state of Campeche, the lost city was rediscovered in October 2024 using lidar, a laser radar technology.

Lidar works by sending out laser light pulses from an aircraft and measuring how long they take to bounce back — not unlike how some animals use echolocation. The information helps create detailed maps of the Earth’s surface, showing things such as land shapes and structures. The site was discovered by researchers at Tulane University, but they didn’t deploy the radar themselves; they found a 2013 lidar survey of the area several pages deep into a Google search. The survey was initially done to measure carbon in Mexico’s forests, and the results had never been studied by archaeologists before. Once the research team processed the data, it was clear to them what they were looking at. 

The city, which the researchers named Valeriana after a nearby lagoon, had all the markings of a capital city. It’s thought that upwards of 50,000 people may have called Valeriana home at its peak between 750 and 850 CE — a population second only to that of Calakmul, one of the largest ancient Maya sites. The researchers determined that Valeriana was once home to pyramids, ball fields, dense housing, causeways connecting distinct districts, and amphitheaters. The exact reason for its eventual abandonment isn’t clear, but archaeologists suggest that, not unlike other Maya cities, its dense population could not be sustained when faced with challenging conditions such as drought. 

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

    The people that have been put forth as possible heads of departments within our government seem to be some of the worst qualified and most deviant of individuals. The report so far has named 3 that were or are sex abusers, one with a drinking problem and two with drug problems. Trump is so unconnected from th job he was elected that he seems to believe that all these positions are just gifts for friends and that there is no need to be capable to do the job. There so many reason to keep him out of the White House. I keep hoping that something will happen that shuts him down. Don't want Vance either but that also goes for Johnson and probably for who ever is after him. This has to be the election with the worst possible outcome you can think of.
    It is known that Trump has no respect for laws, he has been violating them all his life and getting away with it because he has money. The fact that he is willing to surround himself with people of low or no character should come as no surprise, he may even think of these issues as assets to be expoloited. The intended use of the Department of Justice to go after his enemies is just another example of a reason he should not have been elected. The half of the nation that put him back in office have an awful lot of penence to pay when this 4 years is up, if we survive that long. 
    President Biden needs to explore every option he has as a setting President to insulate the nation from what can only be described as a full frontal assault of gross stupidity. For all that voted that way thinking that the changes he is going to make will somehow benefit them they need to be in the top 1% to see that happen. Again we are at the point of asking, when you have so much that you cannot begin to spend it in a 1000 lifetimes, why do you need more, and how is paying a fare amount of taxes going to hurt your bottom line?
    Biden has accomplisheed many things in the last 4 years, far more than the previous person who will be the next person to hold the office of President. Somehow all that he has done is negated by his commuting death sentences. This is a narrow minded  position of someone that has revenge not thought on their agenda. Yes the crimes committed were terrible and punishment is due, but death is a release from punishment. The body is gone and those that feel they got revenge have not considered the consequence of living everyday in a cage with little more than their own thoughts to keep them company. To not walk free and see the people you care about or enjoy anything at all has got to be punishment, far more punishment than having the life taken from your body, because that will happen at some point anyway.
    More of the consequence of the new administration. Some of the choices for cabinet members are obvious no goes, others are turning out to be very much the oppisite but not better choices for our national well being. When they are aligned with Trump and his programs and have no problem doing whatever he asked they are just dangerous. Trump is after revenge of those that have opposed him. He feels that they should be locked up, and yet he has been convicted of crimes and has yet to be locked up. If he makes it through this term hopefully what awaits will be what he dreads the most, if not time in jail, then the inability to do anything at all. The first thing that he should lose physically is the ability to talk, his lies are incessant and his voice is irritating.
     The billionares have successfully lied their way back into the positions of power that they believe are rightfully theirs. We, the poor or middle class citizen have less rights than we had before. That begins on the day Trump or Vance get sworn in. The US is at a turning point and because of the absolute stupidity that prevailed in Nov we are on the verge of having a rigid class society with the rich having all the priveleges and the rest of us being treated as servants or slaves. 
    Putting known felons in charge of cabinet positions, or people that know nothing of the job they are being given, it is just a pay off for supporting a fool. The person nominated for head of the FBI wants to gut the program and open the doors for more terrorist activity. He feels that the agency is much to big, bigger than he can manage. Zeor qualifications, zero knowledge of the job, and a oh so superior attitude, just like Trump.
   These events that have occurred recently may not be linked but there is still a concern that the message they are sending is not being received by the people that can do anything about it. Two veterans dead and in one incident seeveral others as well. It has to mean something but what. Were these two supporters of the MAGA movement or were they opposed to the idiocy of the movement. 
    If anyone is paying attention Trump is always holding up his fist as a sign of what, like Hitler and the outstretched arm, or the raised fist of Black Power. Why is it necessary to make such a movement, does it come from his days of being the bully on the playground at school and when he made the sign those that responded indicated they were on his side? Another way to separate the loyal from the intelligent.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

So let's move on to the economic reality of what has been going on for years. Since we had the mass betrail of our economic stability by those that were only interested in personal wealth we as a nation have been in decline. We have denied this as truth and looked to the hope that we are going to be saved by the convicted felon, sex abuser, liar that got elected for the second time. He isn't going to save anything except self as that is the only item he is concerned with.
     Our fortunes have been in decline for at least the last 50 years. The people that have been in charge of our nation all had the idea that if we prop up the wealthy somehow that will benefit the lower part of our society. It didn't, doesn't and won't do any such thing. The only way we can possibly get back into the game is to start making deals with the countries that our wealthiest citzens sold out to years ago. 
     Minimum wages have not kept up with the rise in prices of anything. In the 1950's and through the 60's minimum wage was one dollar an hour. You could buy a loaf of bread for 20 cents or less and a gallon of gas for about the same price. My first tour of service in the Army began with basic pay for a recruit being less than 90 dollars a month. The basic pay now is around 3000 a month and gas is over 4 dollars a gallon. One of my fellow recruits was upset when the price of cigarettes went to 19 cents a pack, today the prices are more like a dollar per cigarette. The minimum wage is now 7.25 per hour which is way behind the cost index.
    Just using the cost of cigarettes as an example, then they were 1 cent each, now they are 1 dollar each which is a 100 times greater cost, wages are way behind on this score. So our economy is going down hill and will continue to do so unless someone gets very smart and starts cooperating with our competion instead of what we are doning today. Trump wants to build walls both literally and finacially and neither effort is going to stop anything. The wall on the border may slow some down but it won't stop all from crossing and the tariffs will only cost us money with higher prices that what we are paying now. 
    The anger and frustration that has and is being demonstrated by Trump is in large part a result of him being caught at the crimes he has committed and being held accountable for some of them. He is the ever present victim, just like most of the people that voted for him. Someone is always picking on them, they have it in for me, I never get a break, or stand a chance. Victim mentality produces many things, none of them positive. We have had to watch what we say because the words of yesterday are offensive. We have stopped trying to get society to defend our children from idiots entering schools with guns blazing and killing teachers and students. This has been brought about by the victims that claim the right to have those guns and with the help of the NRA and the purchase of Congressinal support and that of the Supreme Court, also bought and paid for by the gun lobby.
    The denial of global warming, the value of vaccines, the right to determine our personal health, and common sense in general not to mention the decline of our economic worth keeps us in the tailspin of decline and ultimately we will crash. Empires have fallen before and we have the proof of that in Greece, in Rome, from the Egyptains and the Aztecs and others from around the globe. Most of the nations of Europe have tried to be mighty at one time or another and all have lost. We went through Manifest Destiny and once we had gone from sea to sea decided to stop, and now Trump wants to put that back in play to annex Canada, and Panama and Greenland, and we can only guess at what else he has his eye on.