The Past Eight Years are the Warmest

The Copernicus Climate Change Service announced 2022 as the 5th warmest year on record globally.

The annual average temperature was 0.3°C above the reference period of 1991-2020, which equates to approximately 1.2°C higher than the period 1850-1900.

An expected shift to the El Niño pattern would likely make this year even warmer.

The observed warming trends persisted in 2022 despite three consecutive years of La Niña, a climate pattern marked by cooler-than-normal sea surface temperatures near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, which tends to suppress warming across the world.

And ocean heat content set another record for the fourth year in a row. 

[T]he oceans are growing more stratified, meaning warm and cold water masses aren't mixing as easily and are instead getting stuck on top of one another, like layers in a cake. Stratification can make it harder for heat, oxygen and vital nutrients to be transported throughout the water column. That can damage marine ecosystems and trap heat near the surface of the water, where it can then proceed to further warm the atmosphere.

Scorn for Fox

In a deposition as part of the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News, Sean Hannity was asked about the claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election.

I did not believe it for one second.

Given how much damage those lies have done to trust in elections, it's infuriating and unconscionable that they would promote actual fake news. Will anyone be held accountable? 

Update (February 26, 2023):  A news organization should report the truth to the best of their ability, but people at Fox News understood their audience didn't want to hear the truth. And so Fox perpetuated election lies even though they knew the truth.

Amanda Marcotte reports on documents produced by Dominion Voting Systems.

"Sidney Powell is lying," host Tucker Carlson texted to fellow host Laura Ingraham on Nov. 18, 2020. Powell was a regular Fox News guest who was a primary source of Big Lie allegations.

"Sidney is a complete nut," Ingraham texted back. "Ditto Rudy."

Marcotte notes the Fox defense is that "we hear them" and are showing "respect" for their audience.

To most people, the idea that you "respect" someone by lying to them is nonsensical. But it makes sense if you realize they aren't trying to deceive their audiences, not really. It's more that they are collaborating with their viewers to prop up the narrative the viewers prefer. Since viewers don't care about the truth, but only about winning at any cost, this is a matter of Fox News respecting their wishes.

Update (March 13, 2023):  Katie Phang thinks Fox News is going down.

Fox is now trapped in an ever-worsening spiral of lies of its own creation. ... And the result just might be a financial death penalty for the network.

[P]eople at Fox News allegedly knew the channel was repeatedly peddling lies. But it didn’t care. Because, according to the lawsuit, profits were more important than the truth.

Update (March 30, 2023):  In an email released as part of the defamation suit, Fox CEO Suzanne Scott wants reporter Eric Shawn to stop fact-checking Dear Leader's lies about the 2020 election.

[T]here is a lack of understanding what is happening in these shows. The audience is furious and we are just feeding them material. [This is] bad for business.

Update (April 16, 2023):  The lawsuit is going to trial. Rae Hodge notes:

In the courtroom, the bar Dominion must clear is high. But all those mocking remarks captured in the text and email evidence have led some observers to wonder whether Fox News can prove it didn't act with actual malice.

If Fox News wins this case, it will no doubt be emboldened to repeat its borderline-reckless behavior. If Dominion wins, we need not expect some scary rollback of First Amendment rights. There's at least a chance that this case could begin a revival of the once-treasured fairness doctrine, on the principle that a "news" badge only protects those who wear it honestly.

Update (April 18, 2023):  It's disappointing to learn Dominion settled with Fox just before the opening statements of the trial for $787.5 million--a bit less than half of what they originally asked for. Fortunately, Smartmatic has also filed a lawsuit. 

Dominion's litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox's disinformation campaign. Smartmatic will expose the rest.

Smartmatic remains committed to clearing its name, recouping the significant damage done to the company, and holding Fox accountable for undermining democracy.

Fusion Breakthrough

The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has produced a net energy gain in a fusion reaction. The accomplishment took decades of research. My worry is that some people will assume this solves the climate issue and no other efforts are needed.

According to Daniel Jassby, commercial development won't be anytime soon.

I don’t know if magnetic fusion is ever going to be feasible. Inertial fusion is at least half a century away.

Tony Roulstone says many engineering obstacles remain.

I think the science is great. [But] we don't really know what the power plant would look like.

Update (December 23):  A fact that didn't get highlighted in the initial reporting is that NIF is primarily for military research. Linda Pentz Gunter quotes Edwin Lyman:

This achievement will be far more useful for US nuclear weapon maintenance and "modernization" than for generating clean energy in the foreseeable future.

Update (December 27):  Brian Tokar makes the connection between several hyped climate solutions.

[W]hy all this attention toward the imagined potential for fusion energy? It is yet another attempt by those who believe that only a mega-scaled, technology-intensive approach can be a viable alternative to our current fossil fuel-dependent energy infrastructure. Some of the same interests continue to promote the false claims that a "new generation" of nuclear fission reactors will solve the persistent problems with nuclear power, or that massive-scale capture and burial of carbon dioxide from fossil-fueled power plants will make it possible to perpetuate the fossil-based economy far into the future.

Update (January 27, 2023):  Joshua Frank quotes the LLNL website on the mission of the National Ignition Facility:

NIF's high energy density and inertial confinement fusion experiments, coupled with the increasingly sophisticated simulations available from some of the world's most powerful supercomputers, increase our understanding of weapon physics.

On-going Threats to Democracy

While the worst results were avoided in this year's election, Jessica Goodheart outlines six areas of concern:

1. An election system that can be subverted

2. A media ecosystem that breeds disinformation and mistrust in elections

3. Concerted attempts to undermine the voting process

4. Gerrymandering leading to partisan minority rule

5. Laws that limit who votes

6. Upcoming Supreme Court rulings that could upend elections

Regarding Moore v. Harper, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has a very simple question:

I don’t understand how you can cut the state constitution out of the equation when it is giving the state legislature authority to exercise the legislative power.

Update (December 12):  And just to underscore the threat we face, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has an "interesting" take on the January 6 insurrection.

If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, it would’ve been armed.

Of course, after sharp condemnation, it turns out to be a "joke".

The White House needs to learn how sarcasm works. My comments were making fun of Joe Biden and the Democrats, who have continuously made me a political target since January 6th.

Update (December 13):  Talking Points Memo released hundreds of text messages involving Mark Meadows. Representative Ralph Norman sent this message to Meadows on January 17, 2021:

Our LAST HOPE is invoking Marshall Law!! [sic] PLEASE URGE THE PRESIDENT TO DO SO!!

And Representative Jamie Raskin didn't find Greene's "joke" very funny.

If you and Bannon organized the violent insurrection against our government on 1/6 you'd be going to jail with everyone else convicted of seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to interfere with a federal proceeding. These are crimes, not stupid laugh lines.

Update (January 15, 2023):  Republicans across the country filed almost as many lawsuits over election results in 2022 as 2020. Marc Elias has an explanation. 

Republicans found themselves unable to persuade a majority of the electorate to support their candidates. This sparked a conviction among many on the right that their best hope to win elections rested on restricting who can vote and shaping the electorate.

Conviction

Five "Oath Keepers" on trial for activities related to the January 6, 2021 insurrection were found guilty on multiple charges. Two were convicted of seditious conspiracy, including the founder Stewart Rhodes.

Harry Litman:

The effect of these guilty verdicts, in a trial conducted with thoroughness and care, will be to marginalize the apologists for January 6. They can’t help but look more and more like wingnuts or monsters now, inveighing against what a critical mass of society has accepted and denying a jury’s account that squares with what the whole country saw in real time.

In probably related news, good ol' Orangeman makes his January 6 intentions regarding the 2020 election crystal clear.

A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.

Voting For Democracy

Though control of the House of Representatives and Senate is still not decided, Senator Mark Kelly's win means Republicans need the last two undecided races to win control and the Georgia runoff isn't until December 6.

There is a small chance Democrats could keep control of the House, but more likely is a split Congress and maybe gridlock is the best we can hope for these days.

But Amanda Marcotte points to a positive aspect:

Americans voted in an astonishingly high turnout election. They also did serious damage to [Dear Leader's] best — and possibly only — path toward illegally installing himself in the White House in 2024.

[He] tried to install people into powerful offices who could steal the election for him. And most of them have lost. It doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet. If it's close enough in 2024, he may only need to steal one state in order to pull off a coup.

And John Stoehr notes that flipping Congress in a midterm election is really a more recent phenomenon (a party can often lose many seats without losing control). 

[T]he conventional wisdom, based on [recent] electoral patterns, said the Republicans would wipe out the Democrats the way they did in 2010.

Then something happened.

Whatever it was (the fall of Roe, probably, and/or the J6 insurrection), it pushed 2 percent of white women, who are unaffiliated with either party, to choose Democratic candidates.

These are respectable white people. These are the Americans who determine which party establishes and maintains a political regime. The GOP has lost the support of respectable white people in a year when they would normally rely on them. If they don’t have that support now, they won’t have that support two years from now.

I'm not sure I'm as optimistic that we're in "a new regime in which a majority favors the ideas and policies of the Democrats over those of the Republicans", but the Republicans built in all kinds of advantages (gerrymandering, etc) and will just barely win the House. It's possible our polarized standoff may last for years to come, but perhaps the transition is in motion. Unfortunately, urgent issues don't allow the luxury of much time.

Update (November 13):  Democrats have retained control of the Senate with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto's win in Nevada.

But Chauncey DeVega reminds us that the fascists are not yet defeated.

In a reasonable society, the Republican Party would have been utterly vanquished or driven to the political margins, but instead it retains its cult-like hold on tens of millions of white Americans. The midterms represented a welcome setback for their movement, but have not altered that fundamental fact.

Update (November 16):  Republicans are projected to win control of the House of Representatives. So, that sucks. 

Update (December 10):  Senator Warnock was re-elected in Georgia, but Senator Sinema mucks things up by switching to "independent" in party affiliation. The Senate will still have a chance to do more useful things than investigate Hunter Biden.

A Defeat for Authoritarianism

It's close, but it's also a win for the global environment.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday, defeating far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in a heated contest during which the incumbent repeatedly threatened to dismantle the world’s fourth-largest democracy.

Brazil’s Superior Electoral Tribunal called the race for da Silva just before 7 p.m. Eastern time, with the leftist holding a narrow 50.83% to 48.17% lead with more than 98% of votes counted.