Greenland's massive ice sheet may have melted by a record amount this year, scientists have warned. 

During this year alone, it lost enough ice to raise the average global sea level by more than a millimetre.

Researchers say they're "astounded" by the acceleration in melting and fear for the future of cities on coasts around the world.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49483580

When US President Donald Trump gave a brief update on Hurricane Dorian Wednesday, his map graphic of the storm’s path showed what appeared to be a hand-drawn addition that included Alabama - a state Trump said for days the storm could hit, despite meteorologist statements otherwise. One expert noted he might have broken federal law by doing so.

“We got lucky in Florida, very, very lucky indeed,” Trump said in a video shot in the Oval Office and tweeted out on the White House account Wednesday afternoon. “We had actually, our original chart was that it was going to be hitting Florida directly,” he said, motioning for a large visual aid of a National Hurricane Center map.

“It was going to be hitting directly, and that would have affected a lot of other states,” Trump said. “But that was the original chart. And we see it was going to hit not only Florida but Georgia, it was going toward the Gulf, that was what was originally projected.”

However, while he noted the storm “took a right turn … and it’s heading up the coast,” the president never showed a graphic for meteorologists’ present projections for the storm’s track in the coming days - which the president had retweeted just hours before. Instead, it seems the purpose of the video was to show the outdated projection, which observers quickly noted had a curious addition...

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https://sputniknews.com/viral/201909041076724876-weatherman-not-required...

Readers of TAC are no doubt familiar with the truism that “politics is downstream of culture.” This maxim, which is undoubtedly true, should not, however, only be applied to social issues. In fact, culture shapes our public policy very broadly, far more than do dispassionate “policymakers” exercising careful reason and judgment. The nature of our governance tends to reflect the cultural and philosophical orientation of our elites, and this orientation is increasingly debauched.

When talking about politics, we should be careful not to define “debauched” too narrowly. While debauchery is typically associated with over-indulgence of the sensual pleasures, a more fitting political definition is a general loss of self-control. All the great religious and philosophical traditions understood that there is a part of our nature that can get out of control and a divine part that can exert control. A culture thus becomes debauched when elites lose the sense that they need to rein themselves in, that “there is an immortal essence presiding like a king over” their appetites, as Walter Lippmann put it. In the political realm, debauchery is less characterized by the sensual vices than by an overzealous desire for power.

The ghost of Jeffrey Epstein is all one needs to see that many elites are very debauched as regards social mores. Yet how might a debauched culture be reflected in the realms of domestic and foreign policy?

Let’s start with domestic policy. How would debauched elites govern a democracy at home? One might surmise, for example, that their lack of self-control might cause them to spend federal money as a means of keeping themselves in power. They might also attempt to bribe their constituents by promising a variety of domestic programs while also pledging that the programs will be funded out of the pockets of others. If they were really debauched, they might even borrow money from future generations to pay for these incumbency protection initiatives. They might run up staggering debt for the sake of their expedient political needs and promise that “the rich” can provide for it all. In short, the hallmark domestic policy of a debauched democracy is, and has always been, class warfare.

It should be pointed out that class warfare is not simply a creation of demagogues on the left. Class warfare tends to resonate most broadly when the wealthy become self-indulgent and unworthy, and dissolute plutocracies are oft times defended by “conservatives.” In the terminal phase of a democracy, this can portend domestic revolution.

While most conservatives might agree about the dangers of class warfare, it is on the foreign policy front where they seem most debauched themselves. They remain stuck in a vortex of GOP clichés, with standard references to Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill, leaders who were closer in their time to the American Civil War than we are to them now. For many of these “conservatives,” every contemporary authoritarian leader is the progeny of Hitler and any attempt to establish cordial relations is a rerun of Munich 1938.

As with domestic policy, the true sign of a debauched foreign policy is a loss of self-control and an excessive will to power reflected in attempts to exert dominion over others with no particular nexus to the national interest. A debauched foreign policy might just look like the decision to invade Iraq—a war whose supporters offered numerous justifications, including alleged weapons of mass destruction, democracy promotion, and anti-terrorism. Yet in hindsight, its real cause seems to have been the simple desire by our leaders to impose their will. In a debauched democracy, class warfare is the paradigmatic domestic policy and profligate war making is the paradigmatic foreign policy.

Given that self-control and restraint are the hallmarks of a genuinely conservative foreign policy—because they remain humble about what human nature can actually achieve—one should receive the recent conference on national conservatism with some skepticism. The retinue of experts who spoke generally espoused a foreign policy that sought dominion over others—in other words, a continuation of the belligerent interventionism that characterized the second Bush administration. This may be nationalism, but it seems not to be conservatism.

Read more:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/a-debauched-culture-lea...

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Oh sweet God make it stop. This weekend, Trump stayed home to "monitor" Hurricane Dorian - aka play golf - rather than join a mournful, 40-nation ceremony in Poland marking the 80th anniversary of the September 1, 1939 Nazi invasion that launched the bloodiest war in history. A highlight of the events was a public apology by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier for their "crime against humanity in Poland." "I bow my head before the Polish victims of Germany’s tyranny," he said in German and Polish. "And I ask forgiveness.” There is much to forgive: Poland suffered some of the worst horrors of World War II, with nearly six million Poles, close to a quarter of the populace, killed in the conflagration. From the start, the Nazis undertook a campaign of terror against what they deemed the racially inferiorPoles; under a "Germanization" plan aimed at eliminating 85% of the population, they systematically murdered members of the "leadership class" - teachers, priests, intellectuals - most likely to resist. At least two million non-Jewish Poles were publicly hung, shot, or killed en masse by gas; another roughly three million Jewish Poles, most of the country's Jews, were also killed, many at Auschwitz and other camps on Polish soil. The stated German goal, achieved to a chilling degree: "When we finish, nobody is left alive."

Faced with the weighty task of acknowledging and commemorating this unspeakably brutal piece of history, our dear leader rose to the occasion with his usual eloquence, gravitas and insight. Asked by the press if he had any message for the long-suffering Polish people, he brightened and eagerly announced he had a "great message." It was: "I just want to congratulate Poland." There was more. Poland is "a great country with great people," even though almost a quarter of them were murdered during the wonderful occasion he's congratulating them for. Also, "We even have some Polish people in our country," and they're white, which is cool. "We love our Polish friends," he said, "and I look forward to being there soon," even though he just cancelled his trip, has no plans for another being so busy with golf and all, and couldn't find Poland, like Alabama, on a map if all our lives depended on it, which they might - but at least he wore a cap reading "USA" so for now he knows what country he's in. Still, his subjects were suitably confounded. Did he really not know what happened on Sept 1. 1939? Did he think some nice Polish lady was celebrating a birthday, or Poland just bought Denmark? Would he suggest there were good people on both sides? What's next - congrats to Japan for Hiroshima? As the republic crumbles, notes Chris Hedges, Trump is the collective face of our undoing, our slack-jawed, sputtering "king of the idiots." Be afraid. After your 7,486th facepalm, be very afraid.

Read more:

https://www.commondreams.org/further/2019/09/03/village-idiot-offers-con...

Trump releases photo to show he’s taller than Obama.

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Calls for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to resign are mounting after reports emerged Monday he threatened to fire staff at NOAA — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — for pushing back on President Trump’s false statements about Hurricane Dorian and its risk to Alabama. On September 1, Trump incorrectly tweeted that Alabama would “most likely be hit much harder than anticipated.” The statement was swiftly denied by the National Weather Service. Last Friday, NOAA issued a statement disavowing the National Weather Service’s denial.

The Washington Post reported over the weekend NOAA warned its staff not to publicly contradict President Trump’s false statements. The agency reportedly sent a similar message after Trump showed a doctored hurricane prediction map last week with a hand-drawn extension added by black marker to include Alabama.

NOAA’s acting chief scientist told coworkers Friday he is investigating whether the agency’s response to President Trump’s Dorian tweets constitute a violation of agency policies and ethics. The Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General has also launched an investigation into the matter, according to The New York Times. Meanwhile, National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini publicly backed NOAA forecasters at a meeting of the National Weather Association Monday for dispelling the falsehoods about Dorian’s threat to Alabama.

Read more:

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/10/headlines/wilbur_

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