First on CNN: Justice Dept. will not defend executive order on travel restrictions

Stephan:  Here we have some good news. There are still ethical people left in the Department of Justice, at least until Jeff Sessions is confirmed -- if he is confirmed. Which I hope will not happen. Oh, sorry, as I write this I have just heard on the television that Acting Attorney General Sally Yates has been fired. So not good news, but more of the same of the Trump slime.

Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates, fired Monday 30 January 2017 for standing up to President Donald Trump

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Acting Attorney General Sally Yates has told Justice Department lawyers not to make legal arguments defending President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees, according to sources familiar with the

People Have Raised More Than $800,000 for a Mosque Destroyed by a Fire

Stephan:  In the middle of the Monday Night Massacre in which both the Acting Attorney General, and the Director of ICE have just been fired, here is a report of human decency and caring as a counterweight. We are 8 days into the Trump Administration and already we are lost in a miasma of incompetence and rampant ideology, but what gives me hope is the response to the arson burning of this Texas mosque.

Texas Mosque aflame due to arson

A local community in Texas has rallied around a mosque destroyed by a fire on Saturday night, raising upwards of $800,000.

After the blaze ripped through the mosque, the Islamic Centre of Victoria set up a a fundraising drive on GoFundMe on Sunday to help rebuild the mosque. On Monday, the campaign was close to hitting its target of $850,000, thanks to more than 18,000 donations from as far as Europe.

According to the Victoria Advocate, at least four local churches and a synagogue has offered their places of worship for the mosque’s Muslim congregation. The center wrote a Facebook post on Sunday saying: “the local support from our wonderful Victorians has been heart warming. People drove from Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Fort Worth to join our tearful & joyful gathering that was filled with love & […]

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US will change course on climate policy, Trump official says

Stephan:  Now we know that the United States will abdicate its role as a leader of climate change remediation, with consequences we cannot really calculate except to say they will be substantial. It is an act of complete incompetence which, I think, will be the hallmark of the Trump Administration. This is really bad news.

Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute speaks to Fox News
Credit: screen grab

The United States will switch course on climate change and pull out of a global pact to cut emissions, said Myron Ebell, who headed U.S. President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition team until his inauguration.

“(Trump) could do it by executive order tomorrow or he could do it as part of a larger package,” Ebell told a conference in London on Monday. “I have no idea of the timing.”

Trump, a climate change doubter, campaigned on a pledge to boost the U.S. oil and gas drilling and coal mining industries by slashing regulation. He also promised to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement aimed at curbing global warming.

Trump’s administration has asked the EPA to temporarily halt all contracts, grants and interagency agreements pending a review, according to sources.

Ebell, who helped guide the EPA’s transition after Trump was elected in November until he was sworn in on Jan. 20, said it was difficult to predict the […]

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Sea level rise will disproportionately hit U.S. this century, NOAA warns

Stephan:  The news about sea rise just keeps getting worse, as my regular readers will no doubt note, since I have been covering this trend since 1991. If you live in the areas where the searise will be worse perhaps you should make plans.

Global sea level rise is unfolding at a stunning pace, and a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) says the U.S. will find itself directly in the crosshairs. Over the coming decades, some parts of the nation’s coastline will be hit harder than others, the study finds.

The report — co-authored with the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency, the South Florida Water Management District, and scientists from Rutgers and Columbia University — outlined six likely scenarios for sea level rise, ranging in severity from low to extreme, so that communities and the federal government can plan around those likelihoods.

In almost all the scientists’ projections, sea level rise will disproportionately affect the coasts of the U.S. Northeast and the western Gulf of Mexico, compared to averages across the globe. Except for Alaska, the report says nearly all of the U.S. coastline is more vulnerable than the global average if more severe scenarios come to pass.

In the mildest projected scenario, global sea levels will rise by about one foot by the end of this century. In the worst-case scenario, global sea levels will rise by 8.2 feet.

Though eight feet may […]

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How America Lost Its Identity

Stephan:  Sometimes it helps to have someone outside of your society describe for you what they see.  German Reporter Holger Stark spent the past four years as DER SPIEGEL's Washington correspondent during a time in which the country changed radically enough to elect Donald Trump as its president. Here's how he experienced our decline into the Fascist madness of Trump. Nothing is going to change this sorry tale but we ourselves.

Credit: 20th Century Fox/Everett

On a frigid January evening one year ago, I was standing in a line of around 1,000 people in Burlington, Vermont, to see Donald Trump. I reported my very first story on the United States in 1991 and had been living in the country since 2013. I thought I knew the country well. But on that evening in January, I realized that I had been mistaken.

Burlington lay under a blanket of snow and next to me in line stood Mary and Tim Loyer, both wrapped in dark-blue parkas. Mary was unemployed and her son Tim had a job at a bar. Both told me they were Bernie Sanders supporters. Tim said he was particularly bothered by the power held by large companies, that the division of wealth was unfair and that people like him no longer had opportunities to improve their lives. It was the anthem of the working class.

When asked what he found attractive about Trump, Tim said: “Bernie and Trump are the only politicians who say […]

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