Even if all the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming ceased today, we find that Greenland’s ice loss under current temperatures will raise global sea level by at least 10.8 inches (27.4 centimeters). That’s more than current models forecast, and it’s a highly conservative estimate.
Commentary
Violent Conspiracies and the Convictions of Michigan Governor’s Kidnapping Plotters
The verdict in the trial of co-defendants Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. comes after a previous trial ended in acquittals for two other co-defendants, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta, and mistrials for Fox and Croft. Their two other alleged accomplices, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the prosecutions against the others.
Marco Rubio and Rick Scott Fight Phantom Commies As the World Burns
Our two upper-chamber gents aren’t merely lobbing charges of Banana Republicanism at Democrats. At the recent CPAC meeting, Rick Scott gave a rootin’ tootin’ slap-your-dog-and-arrest-your-undocumented-mama speech warning, “The militant Left has now taken control of our economy, our culture, and our country.”
NASA’s Artemis 1 Moon Launch and Routine Exploration Ahead
NASA’s Artemis 1 mission is poised to take a key step toward returning humans to the Moon after a half-century hiatus. The mission, scheduled to launch on Monday, Aug. 29, 2022, is a shakedown cruise – sans crew – for NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion Crew Capsule. Here’s the significance of the mission.
How Trump’s Thefts May Have Compromised National Security
The most telling new information is that the FBI agent says that a review of Mar-a-Lago documents the government had already obtained by grand jury subpoena earlier this year were marked in a way that would clearly indicate national security was at risk.
Flagler Voters’ Message to Poison Peddlers
Flagler voters made damn sure that white nationalists, bigots and liars like Joe Mullins, Jill Woolbright and Janet McDonald had a short and embarrassing shelf life. If Flagler is solidly conservative, it remains sanely, moderately so for now, even for a one-party county with just three Democrats among 33 elected officials on six government boards.
Chautauqua’s Place in Free Speech and Learning
Chautauqua has never been immune from larger national tensions and sometimes failed to live up to the inclusive vision it proclaimed. But its founding values are those that Salman Rushdie’s supporters were seeking to defend when he was attacked there on Aug. 12.
Anti-Abortion Extremism Is Scaring Voters. It Should.
Our country may be divided on the issue of abortion. But when it comes down to it, most Americans believe that it’s a pregnant person’s right to decide for themselves whether to continue a pregnancy. That’s not only a blue-state attitude — it’s just as true in conservative states like Kansas.
The Impact of Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan
The plan would offer up to US$10,000 in forgiveness for people who earn less than $125,000 – $250,000 for couples – and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. Three experts explain the decision and its impact.
Nightmare Over
As we reflect on Flagler County’s resounding rejection of the bigotry, lies and posturing of its County Commission Chairman Joe Mullins, Steve Robinson—a board member of FlaglerLive—weighs in on FlaglerLive’s coverage of this man.
Yoga, Church and Civic Engagement
As the United States gets less religious, is it also getting more selfish? No: progressive spiritual practitioners as a growing but largely unrecognized, underestimated and misunderstood political force. People may change what they do on a Sunday morning, but checking out of church doesn’t necessarily imply checking out of the political process.
Obesity Is Not All About Sugar: Too Much Salt, Not Enough Water
Relatively little is said about two significant pieces of the very complex obesity puzzle: lack of hydration and excessive salt intake. Both are known to contribute to obesity.
The Mediterranean’s Record Sea Temperatures Could Devastate Marine Life
The searing temperatures seen around the Mediterranean this year are indicative of rising global temperatures. Marine life is increasingly threatened. Marine heatwaves were found to be responsible for the loss of up to 80% of the population of some Mediterranean species between 2015 and 2019.
The Fun Side of Pessimism
Happiness has evolved into an industry. That’s created the social expectation that we should all aspire to happiness. But this can be an obstacle to happiness. This is why if we actually want to live better lives, pessimism is the philosophical system that can help us achieve it.
College Students Are Increasingly Identifying Beyond ‘She’ and ‘He’
More than 3% of incoming college students use a different set of pronouns than “he” or “she.” It is indicative of a growing number of young people who identify outside of a gender binary – that is, they do not identify as female or male.
The Passion of The Woolbright
Enraptured in the language of white Christian nationalists, Jill Woolbright, the Flagler County School Board member, has turned her campaign for re-election into a crusade against her own, to eradicate “evil spirits” and clean house at the district of people who don’t look or pray like her, or share her pathological sexual obsessions. Academics can wait.
The Joyous Revelations of Gay Rodeos in Rural America
Queer people have always belonged in rural places and have always participated in rural traditions. The unashamed presentation of queer, rural rodeoers refutes the lazy dichotomy of the urban queer progressive versus the rural homophobic conservative.
Do Some Flagler Churches Lack Faith?
Over the weekend pastors at at least two Flagler County churches, New Way Church and Parkview Church, explicitly endorsed three candidates for the Flagler County School Board. Rabbi Merrill Shapiro questions why they have broken their contract with the federal government.
Easy Access to Guns Contributes to America’s Youth Suicide Problem
Between 2011 and 2020, the most recent decade for which data is available, 14,763 children ages 5-17 died by suicide in the U.S. – a rate of approximately four deaths every day. Over 40% of these suicides involved a firearm. The great majority of guns involved in youth suicides come from the victim’s home or the home of a relative.
The GOP’s Embrace of Violent Message-Laundering
Just as money laundering enabled mobsters to disguise their ill-gotten gain as the profits of a legitimate business, message laundering presents dishonest and dangerous speech as credible, innocuous or persuasive.
Why It’s Important to Be Honest About It: Monkey Pox Affects Mainly Gay and Bisexual Men
It’s important that people know that sexual and gender minority men are the primary victims of this monkeypox outbreak. This knowledge will help us end the outbreak before it bridges into other communities.
How Seized Documents Show Trump May Have Violated Espionage Act
The FBI recovered confidential and top-secret items from Mar-a-Lago during its Aug. 8, 2022, search of the estate – pointing to former President Donald Trump’s potential violation of several federal laws. The unsealed documents seem to indicate that the U.S. Department of Justice believes Trump may have violated the Espionage Act, as well as other criminal laws relating to the handling of public records.
Behind Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’
The book, “Satanic Verses,” goes to the heart of Muslim religious beliefs when Rushdie, in dream sequences, challenges and sometimes seems to mock some of its most sensitive tenets.
Arctic Is Warming Nearly 4 Times Faster Than Rest of the Planet
The Arctic is on average around 3℃ warmer than it was in 1980. This is alarming, because the Arctic contains sensitive and delicately balanced climate components that, if pushed too hard, will respond with global consequences.
The US Military Faces a Rise in Extremism in Its Ranks
Pentagon officials are shaken by service members’ prominent role in the events of Jan. 6. Of the 884 criminal defendants charged to date with taking part in the insurrection, more than 80 were veterans. That’s almost 10% of those charged.
Social Media? No. Blame Cable News for Idiocy Politics.
Roughly 17% of Americans are politically polarized – 8.7% to the left and 8.4% to the right – based on their TV news consumption. That’s three to four times higher than the average percentage of Americans polarized by online or social media sources.
Arming Teachers Is Not the Answer. Limiting Access to Guns and Addressing Mental Health Is.
Problems have escalated to such a point that it has helped drive good people out of the classroom and negatively influenced people willing to become teachers. This is especially true in schools with a reputation for having a culture of discipline issues or weak community support.
No Respect: Efforts to Combat Teacher Shortages Don’t Address the Real Problems
The reasons teachers are leaving primarily revolve around the disrespect they and the profession consistently face. For example, teachers earn about 20% less than similarly educated professionals. They also faced an escalating workload, even before the pandemic placed additional demands on their time, energy and mental health.
New Photos Suggest How Trump Flushed Official Documents Down the Toilet
Into the sewer. That appears to be the intended destination of what look like torn-up presidential documents in photographs released by reporter Maggie Haberman to the news publication Axios, which published them today.
Social Media and the Misuses of Images of Carnage from War
With social media in the mix and the never-ending competition to be first, editors are publishing and distributing images with less consideration for traditional editorial restraint and balance between gore and meaning – and with less context about the images themselves.
FPL’s Covert Campaign Against the Free Press
FPL got a consultant to hire a private investigator who spied on a Florida Times Union reporter, his girlfriend, and their dog. FPL CEO Eric Silagy swears he didn’t do it. And, if somebody did it, he didn’t know about it.
The UN Declares a Healthy Environment a Universal Human Right
The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on July 28, 2022, to declare the ability to live in “a clean, healthy and sustainable environment” a universal human right. It also called on countries, companies and international organizations to scale up efforts to turn that into reality.
An Open Letter to Flagler County Voters Against Extremism, Buffoonery and Their Disturbing Candidates
The abuse of position and process (particularly by school board members) is egregious. The wasted hours in all three elected boards’ meetings (school board, county commission, Palm Coast council) on ridiculous, petty–or worse: imagined–problems has been sickening to endure, Jake Scully argues in a plea for well-researched votes in the coming elections.
Trump-Boosted Christian Nationalism Going Mainstream Despite History of Violence
The Christian nationalist movement is “as ethnic and political as it is religious,” and relies on the assumption of white supremacy. Christian nationalism combines belief in a particular form of Christianity with nativist and populist political platforms. American Christian nationalism is a worldview based on the belief that America is superior to other countries, and that that superiority is divinely established.
Why Crossing the US-Mexico Border Is Deadlier Than Ever for Migrants
Fatalities result from two intersecting phenomena. One is the massive growth in the federal government’s policing system in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands since the mid-1990s. The other is the strong and profoundly unequal ties between the United States and the home countries of most unauthorized – or undocumented – migrants.
Kansas Vote for Abortion Rights Highlights Supreme Court’s Disconnect
The Kansas referendum’s result, by which voters made their opinions directly known on abortion, highlights the disconnection between public opinion and restrictive state abortion laws passed by many conservative state legislatures after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Local Elections Officials Are As Non-Partisan As They Come
Have these officials, as some charge now, used their authority to interfere with America’s democratic process? Do local election officials abuse their power? Research shows they do not, and they have not, whether they are Democratic or Republican. Legislators are a different matter.
We Need More Homes and Apartments in Palm Coast. A Lot More.
With the median price of a home at $400,000 and fewer than six weeks’ inventory, Palm Coast is in an affordable housing crisis. Existing residents are exacerbating the crisis by opposing developments, opposing smaller-lot homes and opposing apartment complexes. It’s hypocritical and untenable.
The Bill Russell Legacy
Bill Russell undertook an intellectual and personal journey during his career. He sought to find worth in basketball amid the racial tumult of the civil rights movement. He emerged from that crucible not only as a stronger man, but also as one of the most potent figures at the intersection of sports and politics.
What We Can Learn from Apartheid-Era Book Bans in South Africa
The rise in attempts to ban and censor books in America–and in Flagler County–in 2022 looks an awful lot like what South African censors did during apartheid. It’s as though would-be American censors have taken a page directly from the South African censors’ playbook, setting out to squash political dissent and silence social debate.
Time to Debunk Stereotypes About Mobile Homes, Affordable Housing’s New Face
Over 20 million Americans live in manufactured housing – more than in public housing and federally subsidized rental housing combined. Yet many people, including urban planners and affordable housing researchers, see manufactured housing parks as problems, when they may be part of the solution to housing crises.
The Independent State Legislature Doctrine Could Reverse 200 Years of Electoral Progress
In a case to be heard in the coming months, the U.S. Supreme Court could decide that state legislatures have control over congressional elections, including the ability to draw voting districts for partisan political advantage, unconstrained by state law or state constitutions.
Are We Now in a Recession? Depends on Whom You Ask.
Some observers suggest the two quarters of contraction constitute a “technical recession” or the “unofficial start” of one, while others suggest it at least raises fears or signals it’s on the way. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell apparently thinks otherwise. On July 27, after raising interest rates 0.75 percentage point, Powell told reporters, “it’s a strong economy and nothing about it suggests that it’s close to or vulnerable to a recession.”
Paul Renner’s Stunning Attack on Green Energy Is Bad News for Florida’s Climate Change Challenges
Sea level rise is just the most obvious manifestation of our climate change peril. Yet Speaker-designate Renner has barely even mentioned that when talking about Florida’s future as he keeps raking in campaign cash from power and coal companies.
The Trouble with ‘Closure’
The language of closure can often create confusion and false hope for those experiencing loss. Individuals who are grieving feel more supported when they are allowed time to learn to live with their loss and not pushed to find closure.
DeSantis and the Mis-Education of Florida’s Schoolchildren. With Test for Extra Credit.
Ron DeSantis wants the young ’uns educated with no unfair criticism of the Greatest Country that Ever Was. To that end, he’s bringing in a curriculum from Hillsdale College, a righteous institution where they love the Lord, the flag, and capitalism — not necessarily in that order.
Coal Is Over. The Supreme Court Won’t Stop That.
At its peak in 2007, coal was responsible for almost 2 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity generation in the U.S., equivalent to powering over 186 million homes for the year. By 2021, that total had dropped by 55%.
Home-Buying Is Beginning to Stall: Blame Fed’s Inflation Fight
The average rate on a 30-year mortgage hit 5.81% in June, the highest level since 2008 and up from less than 3% throughout most of 2021. The rate currently stands at 5.54%. On a $200,000 mortgage, a 5.54% rate translates into over $400 in extra interest costs every month compared with 3%.
How a 1989 Poster Framed Front Lines in Battles Over Abortion Rights
For abortion rights advocates, Barbara Kruger’s iconic feminist image “Untitled (Your body is a battleground)” remains as relevant today as when it was first released in 1989.
Why Donald Trump Can’t Be Prosecuted for ‘Dereliction of Duty’
The Jan. 6 House committee might find that Trump’s failure to ensure that rioters would not storm the Capitol and stay there for hours amounted to a dereliction of duty in an informal or colloquial sense. But this is not an actual crime that could be applied to a president.