https://mg.co.za/article/2019-10-31-00-the-trouble-with-indiscriminate-tree-planting-in-africa

«“It is true that you could store lots of carbon if you planted more trees. But when I engaged with European scientists about why you can’t plant trees in Europe, they say, ‘Well, we are using that land.’ There is a sense that land in Africa is available and can be used to fix global issues.”»

Ok, well, when you put it THAT way, it does sound like colonialism/environmental racism, but surely it can’t be, right?

«Digging up the soil to plant the trees may inadvertently release carbon into the atmosphere, because grasslands themselves are hypothesised to be formidable carbon sinks; and trees, with their deep roots, use up lots of water — leaving less for other species, including humans.

This science is not new, nor is it controversial: in fact, South Africa heavily regulates the planting of new forests because of their negative impact on water supply.»

(Actual tweet thread: https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1190260692189880320?s=20 )

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/10/california-fires-and-pge-toxic-debt/600979/

Cool, the phrase “technical debt” may be starting to migrate from the software-development world to the mainstream.

Also, maybe it’s time for some clawback for PG&E.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/warrens-wealth-tax-isnt-the-slam-dunk-progressives-want-it-to-be/

Oh, dear. This is why we need to win big in the Senate (because we need to overcome folks like Sinema and Manchin).

«…it’s genuinely unclear whether it would ultimately be ruled constitutional. The issue isn’t that Congress can’t enact a wealth tax. It’s that if a wealth tax counts as a “direct” tax, Congress would have to ensure that the amount of money coming from each state was roughly the same on a per-capita basis, as there is a provision of the Constitution that bans direct taxes unless the amount collected is drawn equally from the states based on their populations*. Given that wealth is not evenly distributed across the states, that equal distribution would be functionally impossible to ensure.»

*Article I, Section 2: “Representatives and blah blah blah shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”

There’s that infamous 3/5 clause, but the blah blah blah your eye (my eye) so easily slides over is: “direct taxes”. Whatever that is.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/29/climate/coastal-cities-underwater.html

Glub.

Even more political turmoil and chances to be ugly to refugees.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/29/kyrsten-sinema-arizona-democrats-060187

I don’t care as much about those specific programs as I do about re-apportioning the House and adding a couple of Supreme Court justices, but this means we can’t just barely win the Senate; we have to overperform.

«Take the liberal drive to bust down age-old Senate rules in order to pass “Medicare for All” or a “Green New Deal.” Sinema not only opposes getting rid of the 60-vote filibuster threshold for legislation, she wants to restore the supermajority requirement for presidential nominees that has been weakened by both parties.»

https://stoehr.substack.com/p/quick-take-dont-worry-about-dem-anxiety

«This is the time of the season where people start talking crazy. Journalists love it when people talk crazy. …. Bottom line: anxiety is natural and healthy but don’t make much of it.»

(I subscribed.)

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/too-short-lives-black-men/600628/

«Like so many other black men in America, Elijah Cummings died too young.»

Something like this was the one of the first thoughts I had when I heard he had died.

Here are some more links:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2014/01/07/racism-may-speed-up-aging-in-african-american-men/#68c98eb87127

https://www.pnas.org/content/101/49/17312.full.pdf

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/it-feels-like-a-horror-movie-republicans-feel-anxious-and-adrift-defending-trump/2019/10/28/b4510698-f75f-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html

Boom:

«“There’s a reason why ‘Profiles in Courage’ is a very short book. …”»

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/25/katie-hill-democrats-politics-

«Still, Hill’s own conduct – tacky, unprofessional, and ill-advised as it was – pales in comparison to what is being done to her, which amounts to a misogynist rightwing smear campaign. The publication of the nude photograph belies any claim Red State and other Republicans may make to being concerned about the ethics of Hill’s conduct. Instead, what Hill’s attackers seem interested in is a wholesale discrediting of the congresswoman, complete with psychological abuse, public humiliation, and misogynist cruelty of the kind that is all too common an experience for women, from the most vulnerable to the most powerful among them. The fact that Hill is not a perfect victim should not distract us from the true issue at hand: that Red State and its rightwing compatriots have brought the tactics of domestic abuse into our politics.

….

Hill, for her part, describes her ex-husband as abusive. We do not know where the nude picture of her came from, but if he was the one who sent it in for publication, then that description would seem accurate.»