WAITING

Published July 13, 2024 by Nan Mykel

W A I T I N G

Old, tall and alone, he sits

in Outpatient Surgery’s

waiting room amidst many,

neither speaking nor spoken to;

no eye contact nor observation

of those around him. For

hours, impervious to his setting,

staring ahead at his hopes or

memories? Though drawn,

I remain afraid to reach out.

Later, while getting the car,

I see him heading down the

sidewalk among many, still

alone.

What was I afraid of?

He has followed me

home to this page.

Nan 7/13/24

Whatever Happened to the Lie Detector Machine?

Published July 5, 2024 by Nan Mykel

I know, I know–liars got too good at out-maneuvering them. But wouldn’t it be great if fact-checking could be speed of lightning, during debates?

BIDEN DID GET THROUGH three different points in discussing most topics in the Debate, but the childish faces made by the ex-president posed great difficulty in attending to President Biden’s words. The distraction was incredible. Trump must have prepped long hours for the debate in front of a mirror–Or has his face just grown that way, as mothers often warn.?_______________

DEAR HEARTS — It was earlier known that Navy Seals who died of suicide had brain damage, but the results were not shared with the Seals.

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Supreme Court upholds ban on sleeping outdoors in homelessness case: nothing new there: LOCK EM UP! LOCK EM UP!

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WHERE do elephants most likely get their apparent names from? Google, in reporting: “their Moms.”

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ALTHOUGH NOT MY FAVORITE ENDEAVOR…

Our two stranded…hopefully temporarily…spacepersons pull at my heartstrings. No, the powers that be say they’re not stranded, only…”What was supposed to be roughly a week-long test flight to the ISS is now probably going to last months, as NASA and Boeing continue to delay Starliner’s return to Earth. They say they want to better understand a series of technical issues the spacecraft experienced since launching June 5 on its first crewed test flight to space.

–Bloomberg

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SIMILAR EMPATHIC EMOTIONS are felt regarding the Biden Democratic election situation. And as for the Supreme Court, my recent experience on almost all fronts with dishonesty has me shamefully wondering if a Supreme Court judge has hopes of running as Trump’s vice president.

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LIBERTY?

The cries for Liberty by those against covid mask wearing appear to be inaccurate. As discussed in a Time article this month, The “modern fixation on ‘give me liberty’ as a license for unbounded personal freedom is a historic lie, and symptomatic of a broader problem. The freedom that patriots fought for was not a ticket to do whatever one wanted, but the right to participate in a community that governed itself.” –The True Meaning of “Give Me Liberty” by John Ragosta:Time 7/15/24

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A NEW CLIMATE CHANGE WORRY?

Severe turbulence on an Air Europa flight to Uruguay from Spain on Monday injured more than two dozen passengers, officials said, leaving several with neck and skull fractures, in at least the second case of severe injuries from turbulence worldwide in two months. —

My Limits

Published June 27, 2024 by Nan Mykel

My silence on weapons of mass destruction is only because I am so frightened.
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More than 1,300 people have died during the hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage, in Saudi Arabia’s heat. The temperature there recently passed 120 degrees.
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- If I were moderating the upcoming presidential debate, I would make climate a major part of the questioning—that and the future of democracy. Both are, in fact, intertwined because, in each case, the Republican candidate for president and large swaths of the party he has molded to his will all deny basic, undeniable truths.
  
  Climate and democracy are the most significant threats we face because if we don’t fearlessly tackle them, we will cease to have the means to address all else that ails us. The repercussions will echo for generations to come.
- Thanks to Jill Dennison for the referral to…lost it.
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LGBTQ+ veterans who were discharged from the military due to their sexuality got a win this week when a judge denied the Department of Defense’s motion to dismiss the case.The lawsuit represents gay and bi veterans who were discharged because of rules like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell that barred them from serving in the military. The federal complaint, which was filed last year, said that 35,081 veterans were discharged or otherwise separated from the military “because of real or perceived homosexuality, homosexual conduct, sexual perversion or any other related reason” from 1980 to 2011.
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MAJOR FLOODS IN THREE MIDWEST STATES–Hey, I live in the midwest! Enough’s enough.
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LIFE IN SMALL TOWNS TODAY: No traffick crush. You meet folks you know at the farmer’s market, the Scottish dance class, and my daughter’s doctor’s brother used to live in my basement when he was a student.

GOOD NEWS

Published June 24, 2024 by Nan Mykel

TAKE NOTE of 50 things President Biden has done to combat Climate Change as listed by 3chickspolitico and chris evans (@notcapnamerica)

1. Rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement

2. Hosted the Leaders Summit on Climate

3. Committed to reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030

4. Pledged to achieve a 100% clean energy economy and net-zero emissions by 2050

5. Established the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy

6. Appointed John Kerry as the first-ever U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate

7. Directed federal agencies to procure carbon-free electricity and zero-emission vehicles

8. Launched the American Jobs Plan with significant investments in clean energy and infrastructure

9. Proposed the Build Back Better plan with substantial climate and environmental provisions

10. Paused new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters

11. Directed federal agencies to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies

12. Restored and strengthened vehicle fuel efficiency standards

13. Set a goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030

14. Committed to conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030

15. Restored protections for Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monuments

16. Revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline

17. Halted oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

18. Reversed rollbacks to the National Environmental Policy Act

19. Reinstated the ban on logging and road construction in the Tongass National Forest

20. Proposed stronger standards for methane emissions from oil and gas operations

21. Initiated the process to reverse rollbacks of the Clean Water Act

22. Supported the PFAS Action Act to address “forever chemicals”

23. Proposed funding for clean energy research and development

24. Directed agencies to incorporate climate change into national security considerations

25. Reestablished the federal flood risk management standard

26. Reinstated California’s authority to set stricter vehicle emission standards

27. Committed to electrifying the federal vehicle fleet

28. Proposed plans to build a nationwide network of EV charging stations

29. Accelerated the permitting of clean energy projects on federal lands

30. Launched a government-wide environmental justice initiative

31. Established the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council

32. Pledged to deliver 40% of clean energy investment benefits to disadvantaged communities

33. Proposed funding for energy efficiency and clean energy in low-income households

34. Launched the Justice40 initiative

35. Signed an executive order on tackling the climate crisis domestically and abroad

36. Established the Civilian Climate Corps

37. Initiated development of new emissions standards for cars, light trucks, and heavy-duty vehicles

38. Directed U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to prioritize climate in investments

39. Committed to ending international financing of carbon-intensive fossil fuel-based energy

40. Pledged to work with Congress to eliminate fossil fuel tax preferences

41. Directed agencies to identify new opportunities to spur innovation in clean energy technologies

42. Established an Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities

43. Launched the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act to phase down hydrofluorocarbons

44. Reversed Trump-era rollbacks to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act protections

45. Initiated the process to establish national limits on PFAS in drinking water

46. Proposed the U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan

47. Launched a government-wide strategy for advancing nature-based solutions to climate change

48. Committed to creating a new multi-agency scientific integrity task force

49. Started development of new energy efficiency standards for buildings and appliances

50. Established the first-ever White House Office of Climate Policy

Posted in 2024 Elections, Breaking News, Environment, Open Thread, Politics| Tagged2024 Elections, 3Chics Politico,

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On his first day in office, Biden also ordered federal agencies to reinstate or strengthen over 100 environmental regulations that Trump rolled back.

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The Supreme Court said a Texas man under a domestic violence order may be disarmed, narrowing a key 2022 ruling that vastly expanded gun rights.

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Your Weather Today is…

In 2010, the National Science Foundation and George Mason University started a program called Climate Matters. The goal of the effort was to bring data-driven climate news to local audiences, and the appetite for such material has been tremendous.

Climate Matters is now in more than 245 cities and media markets and is working with thousands of reporters and editors around the country.

Bernadette Woods Placky, who runs the program, said that, across the board, more TV meteorologists are talking about global warming in their reporting.

“Our weather has so fundamentally changed because of climate change that it is now part of the story,” she said.

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Two beluga whales were rescued from an aquarium under bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and flown to Spain. (I love whales, but more valuable than people?)

TO RHYME OR NOT TO RHYME

Published June 22, 2024 by Nan Mykel

Image Pinterest by Gabriella Trimble

TO RHYME OR NOT TO RHYME?

Aye, that is the potent query.

The problem is that deep felt thoughts

have little patience with theory.

To hold a thought in obeyance

’til a rhyme offers conveyance

feels sophomoric and needless,

and carves my own rep as heedless.

I confess to a transgression

of our upright profession

of rigid rules to guide us all

on the straight road of protocol.

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PRACTICING

Practicing to rhyme so that I fit in;

prose poems I guess are nearly a sin.

Far be it for me to rock the boat,

so I need to keep mundane verses afloat.

The rude and the crude,

they rhyme every time.

So why did I leave the rhyme

so sublime?

THINGS and INSIDE

Published June 20, 2024 by Nan Mykel

POEM

Published June 5, 2024 by Nan Mykel

From the Rehab Center 11/4/2021:

Halloo, outside world.

Nan here, reporting from The Laurels.

No one’s reading this. Oh well,

I’ll keep it secret, then.

It all started when my planet began

shedding its alternate universe,

and I emerged with intent

to return to an enlightened

old-fashioned hymn singing

religion, in lieu of

anything more promising.

I rapidly found myself

unable to steer without

ending in hog slop;

I could “Wash my sins away

and study war no more.”

Animal kind has comforted itself

forever, maybe, with bedside tales

to bear the basically

uncontrollable roiling desert

(sometimes misspelled dessert).

Since I have a choice I’ll take the

New Testament, not the old. nan 2022

Consciousness in animals?

Published June 3, 2024 by Nan Mykel

A sensible history and current news/discussion of the topic from 3 Quarks Daily:

Has Science Discovered Animal Consciousness?

From https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2024/05/has-science-discovered-animal-consciousness.html

Who’s Manning the Golden Gate?

Published May 27, 2024 by Nan Mykel

HOW MANY gateways are there to Heaven?

WHAT’S on the other side of each one?

WHO has the best chance of admittance?

CAN WE mingle there without threat?

WILL the jig saw pieces ever fit together?

WHAT’S the password(s) at the Gate?

WILL good atheists be admitted? And is there such a thing?

WILL the Happy Hunting Ground admit pit bulls?

CAN Grandfather God keep all the uncles together up there?

WHAT if we lie at the Golden Gate and make threats?

CAN we choose mid-terms instead of finals at the Golden Gate?

OLD NEWS

Published May 25, 2024 by Nan Mykel

A FAMILY MAN and…WHAT DOES HE THINK OF YOU?

What he thinks of us, from The Week via Google:

“It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” [2005]

“Look at her ass”

“26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military — only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?” [May 7, 2013]

“You never get to the face because the body’s so good.” [Sept. 23, 2004]

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I hate to discard tid bits that haven’t made it to my blog, and since I’ve been on an ignorance hiatus, I thought–lazily–that I’d just catch up a little:

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(For years, studies have found that undocumented immigrants have much lower crime rates than citizens born in the United States and legal immigrants across a variety of offenses, including violent crimes, drug crimes and property crimes.)

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On the other side of the chamber, Mr. Santos was greeted more warmly than he ever had been when he was a member of Congress, back when his colleagues wanted nothing to do with him. Before the speech, he sat and chuckled with Representatives Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida….. It was fair to say that Mr. Santos, who is scheduled to go on trial in September on federal fraud charges that include accusations of stealing money from campaign donors for personal expenses, was holding court. From <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/08/us/politics/biden-state-of-the-union-rowdy.html>

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Energy: Companies like Shell are expanding offshore oil and gas drilling into deeper and deeper waters, especially in the Gulf of Mexico. What will it take?

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May 1, 2024 — Starting today, the window in which a person can get an abortion in Florida was reduced from 15 weeks to six. Critics of the ban channeled their efforts into gathering petition signatures to put an amendment on the ballot that would directly ask Floridians if they wanted to expand abortion access, and bring it back up to about 24 weeks. They had begun that effort after the 15-week ban was enacted, but it really ramped up after the six-week ban was signed. They were successful, and that question will appear on the ballot in November. https://kffhealthnews.org › morning-breakout › floridas…

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