Scientist questioning ties between climate and extreme weather to oversee critical program: report

Stephan:  And this is who Trump has chosen to replace Kuperberg. Who is he? Why a climate change denier of course. Trump is making a conscious effort to screw the American public for not re-electing him.
Ryan Maue Credit: Cato Institute

A scientist who has questioned the link between climate change and extreme weather events has reportedly been detailed to the White House to oversee a program that’s in charge of compiling a major climate change report.

The Washington Post reported late Friday that Ryan Maue has been detailed to the White House to oversee the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which is in charge of putting together the Fifth National Climate Assessment.

Two unnamed officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) told the Post of Maue’s move. 

Maue was appointed to be the agency’s chief scientist in September, according to reporting from the Post, and was considered a controversial choice because he’s questioned the science connecting climate change to extreme weather events on Twitter. 

The National Climate Assessment involves drafting hundreds of top scientists to weigh in on climate change. It often produces serious warnings about the limited time the U.S. has to act in order to prevent the most significant consequences of climate change. 

A White House spokesperson declined to comment. Spokespeople for NOAA […]

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World pushes ahead with climate action as U.S. remains in limbo

Stephan:  The United States under Trump by his explicit design has become a world leader... in climate change denial, and lack of preparation, and the world condemns us for our stupidity.
Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during the launch of COP26 UN Climate Summit in London in February. Credit: Chris J. Ratcliffe/AP

The United States government will be missing from a global climate summit for the first time next month, and the timing couldn’t be more inconvenient for other world leaders.

They are desperate to commence work with the incoming Biden administration, which is promising the most ambitious climate change policies of any incoming American administration, including a “100 percent clean energy economy” and “net-zero emissions no later than 2050.”

But when dozens of national leaders gather online Dec. 12,at a summit organized by the U.K. government to press ahead with a new and more onerous stage of theParis climate agreement, the U.S. won’t be at the table: The Trump administration hasleft the agreement, while President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team can’t attend.

That dynamic left British Prime Minister Boris Johnson bragging to the House of Commons about Biden’s enthusiasm for a climate summit more than a year away — “it was extremely exciting to talk to […]

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Biden Reaffirms Commitment to Rejoining Paris Agreement

Stephan:  Finally, here is some good news. When we get the orange monster out of the White House America will have a leader who understands climate change is an issue that cannot be ignored. It will be up to us to encourage him to make it a high priority. This is important because I believe the Republicans in Congress will do what they can to sabotage Biden in every way they can.  We won't be the world leader anymore but at least we will be back in the game to save the earth's ecosystem and ourselves.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris greet supporters in Wilmington, Delaware on August 20, 2020. Credit: Olivier Douliery / AFP / Getty 

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who took the lead Friday morning in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania according to The Associated Press, has reaffirmed his commitment to immediately rejoining the accord if he wins the 2020 presidential election against incumbent Donald Trump.

“Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it,” Biden tweeted late Wednesday.

The two candidates have taken opposite stances on how to address the climate crisis. Trump has repeatedly denied climate science and worked to roll back climate policies put in place by the Obama administration, including standards for power plant and vehicle emissions. He has appointed former energy lobbyists to head both the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency, and has completed or started the process of rescinding almost 100 environmental regulations, according to a New York Times tally.

Biden, meanwhile, has promised to […]

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Trump seeks to settle scores in final days

Stephan:  The most powerful nation in the world brought to its knees because of one narcissistic psychopath, and the unwillingness of the overwhelming majority -- over 6 million voters -- to demand that its laws and traditions be honored. Millions should be out in the streets, every Republican Congressperson should be under nonviolent siege. If American citizens don't or won't protect their country who will? Sixty more days of this and we may no longer be the country any of us recognize.

President Trump is settling scores and taking steps to cement his agenda in his final 60-plus days in the White House, even as he refuses to concede an electoral loss to Democrat Joe Biden and his legal team flails at the results in nearly a half-dozen states.

Trump fired the administration’s top cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs on Tuesday evening, the latest example of Trump settling a score. He expressed displeasure that Krebs issued a statement that the 2020 election had been the most secure in history, a message that undercut Trump’s unsubstantiated claims about voting machine vulnerabilities and a “rigged” election.

The removal of Krebs followed the firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper and raises the prospect that Trump will remove more officials, such as CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Christopher Wray, while at the same time signaling that anything regarded as disloyalty to Trump will result in punishment.

President-elect Biden has warned that Trump’s refusal to share information on national security and the coronavirus as part of a peaceful transition is threatening lives, while others have warned it […]

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A vindictive Trump seeks to undermine Biden’s presidency

Stephan:  There is something seriously wrong with America as a culture and as a society. The Republican Party needs to be disbanded, and Trump and many in his administration should be taken to the Hague and tried for crimes against humanity. It isn't just that Trump will not concede, it is that he is actively and openly sabotaging the country's future and its wellbeing. There is no precedent for this behavior in the last 240 years. Trump makes Benedict Arnold's betrayal look petty.

It has been almost three weeks since President Trump stepped to a lectern in the White House in the early hours of Nov. 4 to declare that the election was being stolen from him. It was a fabrication designed to turn President-elect Joe Biden into an illegitimate president and has continued apace ever since. It will not stop with Biden’s swearing-in on Jan. 20.

Any thoughts Trump might have had of overturning the election were a failed enterprise from the start. On Friday, those hopes were dealt twin blows when Georgia’s secretary of state certified Biden as the winner there and Republican legislative leaders from Michigan, after meeting with the president, signaled they would do nothing to try to undermine the results. Biden has an electoral college majority, and the certification process continues to gather steam.

Through these weeks, the president and his legal team have failed to produce credible evidence of systematic or widespread fraud. Now they are resorting to wild allegations of a grand conspiracy on the part of Biden and the Democrats — charges repeatedly debunked. This effort is being led […]

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