Author: wrongologist

From Russian Hacks to Russian Collusion: Where’s the Beef?

The Daily Escape:

Image of Saturn taken from the Cassini spacecraft on July 19, 2013

Wrongo has read much of the evidence that Russia interfered with the 2016 US Presidential election. He has watched House and Senate committees ask the intelligence community and the Justice Department what is known and not known about the Russian hacking story.

 It is clear that the Russians have extremely capable cyber technicians. They have a pragmatic view about getting what they need strategically, so it is both feasible and possible that they could have been disruptive to our democratic process.

But is there actual evidence that Russia interfered in our elections in 2016? And if they did, is there evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with them? The answer so far is summed up by Caitlin Johnstone:

Russiagate is like a mirage: from a distance it looks like something, but once you move in for a closer look, there’s nothing there. Nothing. Nothing solid, nothing substantial, nothing you can point at and say, “Here it is. This hard evidence justifies saturating the media waves with obsessive 24/7 coverage, escalating tensions with a nuclear superpower, stagnating political discourse in America and fanning the flames of a hysterical, xenophobic McCarthyist feeding frenzy.”

Most of what we know comes from the intelligence assessment by James Clapper when he was the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) for Obama; Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections. Here are the conclusions:

  • We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election.
  • Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.
  • We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.
  • Moscow’s influence campaign followed a Russian messaging strategy that blends covert intelligence operations—such as cyber activity—with overt efforts by Russian Government agencies, state-funded media, third-party intermediaries, and paid social media users or “trolls.”

From Sic Semper Tyrannis:

The assessment says Russia did three basic things to “influence” the Presidential election. First, the NSA, CIA and, to a lesser extent, the FBI, believed that the Russians hacked into the DNC and John Podesta emails, then passed that content to WikiLeaks and DC Leaks, who subsequently published the information. Second, the Russians supposedly obtained access to “elements” (undefined) of US state or local electoral boards. Third, Russian media outlets, RT and Sputnik News, put out Kremlin friendly messages.

There is no evidence backing up the claim that the Russian intelligence service hacked the DNC and Podesta that has been presented to the American people. The FBI did not conduct a forensic examination of the computers of either the DNC or of Podesta. The belief that the Russians did it is based on an independent firm, Crowdstrike’s examination of the DNC emails. Moreover, the release of Podesta’s emails had little to no effect on the election, while the Comey on-and-off-and on again investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails were certainly damaging to her electoral chances.

The larger point is that Democrats have convinced themselves that getting rid of Trump justifies throwing pasta (or any other sticky substance) at the wall to see what sticks. And that is what is happening with the “all Russia, all the time” hearings in the House and Senate.

An important subtext to this whole Russian conspiracy theory is the insistence that the Trump campaign colluded with Vladimir Putin to sabotage Hillary’s campaign.  That is repeated endlessly on the cable channels, and has become an article of faith to many Americans, especially Democrats. But, a few meetings do not create collusion. Possibly the intelligence community has some proof, but it has not been presented in a form that inspires credibility.

About a month ago, the DOJ appointed a Special Counsel to ferret out what is real from what is fake in the allegations about Russiagate, from hacks to collusion.

Let’s hope that he gets to the bottom of the story.

In the meantime, stay focused on the potential damage that Messrs. Trump, McConnell and Ryan are trying to do, from the gutting of Dodd-Frank to passing an Obamacare replacement that hurts many Americans.

Now for a tune. The Beatles’ “Back in the USSR” was released in 1968. It was intended to be a parody of “Back in the USA” by the Beach Boys. The song shocked many at the time for its pro-Soviet message. Years later, Paul McCartney stated he knew very little about the Soviet Union when he wrote the song. Here is McCartney doing the song live in Moscow’s Red Square:

Note Putin vaguely rocking @ 0:14

Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.

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Feelin’ Great, Because America is Just Great

The Daily Escape:

Via: Naked Capitalism

He said he would make America great again. He was elected on a messianic platform, to reform DC from the outside, to create jobs, to drain the swamp, all while saving the social safety net, and ending our foreign adventures.

He promised all of those things. He actually said he would do them − in many places and at many times, and in differing contexts.

The dissonance should be hitting his supporters very hard about now.

In the nearly six months Donald Trump has been in power, he has accomplished only the dismantling of major parts of Obama’s agenda. For example, the EPA announced that it will delay implementation of an Obama-era chemical safety rule for nearly two years while it reassesses the necessity of the regulation: (parenthesis by the Wrongologist)

(Obama administration) Officials moved to overhaul chemical safety standards after a 2013 explosion at a chemical plant in Texas killed 15 people. Their rule would require companies to better prepare for accidents and expand the EPA’s investigative and auditing powers. 

Trump and Scott Pruitt will MAGA by ensuring more workers die on the job from unsafe working conditions. Of course, like 90% of Trump’s agenda, this is just standard Republicanism.

Couldn’t the GOP just “lead by example” on the whole “getting killed at work” thing?

Just in case anyone is interested, here is a link to the White House’s list of all legislation signed since the Orange Flake took office. If it weren’t for things like approving the name change for an outpatient VA clinic in Pago Pago, his big agenda items like passing a budget, replacing Obamacare, reforming taxes, or rebuilding our infrastructure remain aspirational.

So, where is the plan to make America great? As Derek Thompson said in the Atlantic:

There is no infrastructure plan. Just like there is no White House tax plan. Just like there was no White House health care plan. More than 120 days into Trump’s term in a unified Republican government, Trump’s policy accomplishments have been more in the subtraction category (e.g., stripping away environmental regulations) than addition. The president has signed no major legislation and left significant portions of federal agencies unstaffed, as U.S. courts have blocked what would be his most significant policy achievement, the legally dubious immigration ban.

The simplest summary of White House economic policy to date is four words long: There is no policy.

Republicans are held hostage by campaign promises that they cannot fill. The White House is hostage to the president’s perpetual campaign, a cavalcade of promises divorced from any effort to detail, advocate, or enact major economic legislation.

Trump uses public policy as little more than a photo op, and that isn’t going to make anything great.

Let’s turn to poetry. Lawrence Ferlinghetti turned 98 in March. Here is “Pity the Nation”, a poem he wrote in 2007:

Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.

That was written in 2007 folks.

Here is a video of Ferlinghetti reading “Pity the Nation” in 2007:

Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.

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Monday Cartoon Blogging – June 12, 2017

The Wrong family is back from graduation weekend, Rod’s homebrew was the best, and a good time was had by all. Except for possibly the newly minted graduates, who had to listen to recycled exhortations to put down their screens, find their own compass, etc.

Trump started infrastructure week saying we should privatize the FAA. You might see this:

British Prime Minister May’s snap election strategy backfired:

Wonder Woman dominated the news:

And many wondered about the Wonder Woman vs. Working Woman comparisons:

How did Comey rehabilitate himself with Democrats?

The Saudis say the Qataris support terrorism, but what about them?

RIP Adam West:

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June 9, 2017

(There will be no Saturday Soother this week, and Sunday Cartoon Blogging will appear on Monday. The Wrong family is attending the high school graduation of our granddaughter in Pennsylvania. Congrats Claire! She is #8 in our 12-part series of grandchild HS graduations)

The Daily Escape:

Kingfisher with crayfish – photo by JH Clery

Everyone is following the Comey testimony, and Wrongo has nothing to add, except that none of this matters unless and until Special Counsel Robert Mueller provides a report that the public can review. That may never happen. There might be a report, and it could go to Congress and disappear without any public scrutiny, just like the report on CIA torture.

The bigger story of the day is the outcome of the snap election in the UK, where PM Theresa May lost control of Parliament. The Tories lost 12 seats, when just two months ago they reasonably hoped to gain nearly 100. Labour did far better than the pundits expected, but that outcome should have been clear to everyone. After nearly 40 years of neoliberal policies in the UK, the pundits believe that ordinary citizens are content to get the short end of the stick forever. Probably not, since the backlash has started.

ICYMI, here is an interview by NPR with the head of RT, the English-language news channel funded by the Russian government:

http://www.npr.org/2017/06/09/532196946/russia-needs-to-counter-mainstream-media-head-of-rt-network-says

The BBC has an interesting story about the Taliban in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. The Taliban controls about 85% of Helmand, and recently struck an arrangement with the Afghan government whereby the government is funding schools and hospitals operated by the Taliban.

  • Is this the outcome of America’s 16-year long failed effort to destroy the Taliban?
  • Can the Taliban be brought into the government, thereby ending the war?
  • Are the Taliban simply biding their time until the central government collapses from its own inability to keep the country secure?

See you on Monday!

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Trump Encourages War in the Middle East

The Daily Escape:

Nile River, Cairo, April 2017 photo by Amr Nabil

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” – Groucho Marx

How true Groucho, how true. There is a power play underway in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Bahrain all cut ties with Qatar:

Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries severed diplomatic and some commercial links with Qatar Monday, a dramatic move that exposed divides among US allies in the Middle East over policy toward Iran and the role of political Islam in the region.

This is a complex situation since the US’s primary air base (al-Udeid) for striking ISIS targets is based in Qatar. We have more than 10,000 people stationed there. When Trump was in Riyadh, he boasted that the US-Qatari relationship was “extremely good” and that he and the Emir would be discussing the purchase of “beautiful military equipment” made in the US.

That was just a few weeks ago. Yesterday, Our Orange Flake tweeted:

Just to be clear, Trump tweeted his support for a blockade of a country that hosts one of US’s largest military bases. He is trying to take credit for an avoidable and potentially dangerous regional crisis that may undermine our current effort to destroy ISIS, and might possibly even put Americans at risk.

It’s worth remembering that the first Gulf War originated in Saddam Hussein’s misinterpreting comments by the GW Bush administration as a green light to go into Kuwait.

Do the Saudi’s think Trump gave them a green light? Maybe. Today, Al Jazeera is reporting that the Saudis issued an ultimatum for Qatar to comply with 10 demands. These are the Saudi demands:

1. Immediately break diplomatic relations with Iran
2. Expel all Hamas members
3. Freeze bank accounts of Hamas members and stop dealing with them
4. Expel all Muslim Brotherhood members from Qatar
5. Expel anti-GCC elements
6. End support of “terrorist organizations”
7. Stop interfering in Egyptian affairs
8. Cease broadcasting the Al Jazeera news channel
9. Apologize to all Gulf governments for ‘abuses’ by Al Jazeera
10. Pledge not to carry out any actions that contradict the policies of the GCC and adhere to its charter.

If the list of demands as published are real, it’s hard to see how the Qatari’s can back down. For starters, Qatar and Iran share the world’s largest natural gas field. It is doubtful that Qatar will break diplomatic relations with their partner.

It looks like the Chinese and Russians are urging Qatar to make some concessions – no doubt they are prepared to do so, but in effect, that list requires unconditional surrender. That will be a bridge too far for Qatar. The pace at which this situation is unraveling is astounding: Turkey is fast-tracking a bill approving troop deployment in Qatar.

Will this situation go hot? If the Qataris don’t back down, then at best, this will lead to a massive disruption of LNG shipments. At worst, it could mean a regional war, aimed at regime change in Qatar.

If it were to go hot, the Qataris have no real military options. Their military is very small, and their outdated French Mirage fighters and older generation tanks are no match for what the Saudis have. Most of the Qatari soldiers are Pakistani mercenaries, who aren’t stupid. They do have very good air defense systems, which means the Saudi’s would most likely shoot from a distance, causing lots of collateral damage.

The biggest question is what will the friends of the Qataris do. The Chinese, Russians and Europeans will be urging compromise, but the Iranians (and the Turks) may be angry enough to try to confront Saudi Arabia.

And the Saudis are probably thinking that they need to take action before foreign troops can make landfall in Qatar. It is difficult to see how the Saudis back down, since they’ve just put everything on the line. And if Trump keeps tweeting support for the Saudis, that will keep emotions high.

This doesn’t look like it will end well.

Perhaps the Saudis are trying to goad Iran into closing the Straits of Hormuz. They (along with the Israelis and the Trump administration) have been spoiling for a fight with Iran, or to be more precise, spoiling for an excuse to drag Iran into a confrontation with the US.

The Saudis may be calculating that with Trump in charge, they finally have a chance to persuade the US to engage, assuming they can engineer the closing of the Straits as an excuse.

This shows how easily our regional clients can influence US policy when the leader of the free world has so few fixed positions.

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Is a Single-Payer Experiment on the Horizon?

The Daily Escape:

Breaking the Ramadan fast, Dubai – photo by Francois Nel

From Sarah Kliff:

Nevada, with little fanfare or notice, is inching toward a massive health insurance expansion — one that would give the state’s 2.8 million residents access to a public health insurance option.

The Nevada legislature passed a bill Friday that would allow anyone to buy into Medicaid, the public program that covers low-income Americans. It would be the first state to open the government-run program to all residents, regardless of their income or health status.

This is “Medicaid for All”, not “Medicare for All”, which several Democrats have proposed over the years. Medicare for all has always fizzled out, due to a lack of political support.

Medicaid for all offers an interesting alternative. Medicaid coverage generally costs less than Medicare for all because the program pays doctors lower rates. This could make it cheaper for low-income price-sensitive consumers who can’t afford the Obamacare monthly premiums. More from Sarah Kliff:

Nevada’s bill to allow a broader Medicaid buy-in is short, running just four pages. It would allow any state resident who lacks health insurance coverage to buy into the state Medicaid program, which would sell under the name the Nevada Care Plan.

Under the Nevada bill, people who qualify for tax credits under the Affordable Care Act would be able to use those credits to buy Medicaid coverage instead. People who don’t qualify for credits would be able to use their own money to buy in. It is likely that the plan would be sold on Nevada’s health insurance marketplace, making it a public option that competed against the private health insurance plans selling there.

Early versions of the Affordable Care Act included a buy-in provision. But the Senate was forced to drop the Medicare buy-in from its bill when it couldn’t get the entire Democratic caucus behind the idea. Health insurers fought aggressively against the idea, which disadvantages insurers by reducing their market share.

After Trump’s election, health policy experts started to explore whether it might make more sense to build a national health care system around Medicaid rather than Medicare.

Medicaid and Medicare are similar programs in that they are large and publicly run, covering 62 million and 43 million Americans, respectively. They use their large membership to negotiate lower prices with hospitals and doctors. Medicaid tends to have the lowest payment rates. On average, Medicaid pays 66% of what Medicare pays doctors. In Nevada, Medicaid pays 81% of Medicare rates.

This means Medicaid is a relatively lower-cost program, but some doctors do not accept Medicaid’s lower rates. A recent federal survey estimates that 69% of doctors are accepting new Medicaid patients, compared to 85% accepting new patients with private insurance.

States have significant control over how their health insurance programs work and whom they cover. Thirty-two states participate in a Medicaid buy-in program that lets certain disabled Americans who don’t otherwise qualify for coverage, buy into the program.

This flexibility provides an opportunity for states that want to experiment with a public program by tacking on a buy-in option. If Nevada’s bill does become law, it will show other states how such a program might work, and if it works well, other states may be inclined to try it.

States that want to enroll new populations into their Medicaid programs will need permission from the federal government. This means that the Trump administration — which has proposed slashing the Medicaid budget in half — would need to get on board with a significant expansion of the program, perhaps a doubtful possibility. But as Kliff says: (brackets by the Wrongologist)

The Nevada idea in theory shouldn’t expand federal costs. Individuals would be responsible for paying their own way onto the program, although it will likely be a challenge to set the right premium [rates] to ensure this outcome.

California is considering a single-payer bill as well. Whether other states might follow the Nevada example will depend on what outcomes it produces.

Here is another tune from the One Love Manchester concert. Watch “Happy” by Pharrell Williams and Miley Cyrus, who turn the song into a soul number, something closer to Motown than to Disney. They make it something more than it was when it was so popular. Also, the whole audience sings along, and that’s fun:

Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.

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Ariana Grande

The Daily Escape:

Lawn mowing in a tornado, Alberta Canada – June 2, 2017 – photo by Cecilia Wessels

Wrongo was only dimly aware of Ariana Grande before the bombing at her show in Manchester on May 22. He knew that her audience was largely young girls and women, and that her songs were affirming for young women.

He did not know that her music videos have been viewed more than seven billion times online or that she has nearly 160 million followers on Instagram. That’s a crazy amount, and actually makes her the second most followed person on Instgram in the world. If you’re a fan of her posts then you might want to save her stories using storiesig. 24 hours is never long enough, is it?

And then came the bombing at the conclusion of her concert in Manchester, and the rest of the middle-aged male world knew of her too.

On Sunday, Ariana Grande was back in Manchester at a different venue, the Old Trafford stadium, to give a concert to memorialize the victims of the bombing. Grande visited injured fans in the hospital before the concert, and met the mother of Olivia Campbell, one of those killed during the Manchester attack.

She also offered 14,000 free tickets to those who had attended her May 22 concert. About 50,000 attended Sunday’s sold-out One Love Manchester concert, and $13 million was raised for the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, the AP reported.

Millions watched around the world on a variety of platforms. The concert averaged 10.9 million viewers on BBC One, peaking at just under 15 million. The concert was also streamed over various commercial radio stations and broadcast in over 50 countries around the world. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube also hosted various streams.

The concert, like Live Aid and others before it, showed how uniquely powerful pop music can be, a space where emotions are expressed, processed and worked through. Pop music is often read as shallow, but events like this show how valuable it can be in the healing process for many young people.

The concert came less than 24 hours after another terrorist attack rocked London, which is about 200 miles away. It was impossible not to be moved by Grande’s duet with Miley Cyrus, re-creating their version of “Don’t Dream It’s Over” by Crowded House. In it, they showed that it’s ok for singers who are friends to play it a little loose:

After singing with Cyrus, Grande said:

I want to thank you so much for coming together and being so loving and strong and unified…I love you guys so much, and I think that all the love and unity you’re displaying is the medicine the world needs right now.

Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.

She closed the show Sunday night with a tearful rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” a fittingly desperate plea for a better tomorrow. She breaks down a bit, and the British audience rallies around her and she is able to finish the song. Wrongo loves European audiences, they are the best thing about live concerts online:

Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.

So, give Ariana Grande a listen. She is creating a forthright kind of R&B pop, and has shown herself to be socially engaged. Her conduct after the attack, bringing together this concert and hosting it with Ă©lan, provides another reason to get acquainted.

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Monday Wake Up Call – June 5, 2017

The Daily Escape:

Pink Katydid – a 1 in 500 mutation – photo from Nature Photos

Few of us have ever heard of the non-profit organization Vetpaw. It provides employment to post-9/11 veterans in support of anti-poaching efforts in South Africa. Vetpaw works on a dozen private game reserves covering a total of around 200,000 hectares in South Africa’s northernmost province, Limpopo. They support local anti-poaching rangers. But, if one aim of Vetpaw is to counter poaching, another is to help US combat veterans with their PTSD. Vetpaw’s founder, Marine veteran Ryan Tate, says:

Everyone gets PTSD when they come back from war
you are never going to get the brotherhood, the intensity again
 [There are] all these veterans with billions of dollars of training and the government doesn’t use them. I saw a need in two places and just put them together…

Vetpaw’s job in a remote northern part of South Africa is simple: keep the rhinos and the rest of the game in the bush around their remote base alive. South Africa is home to 80% of the world’s wild rhinos. Only 13 were poached in 2007. By 2015, the total was nearly 1,200. From the Guardian: (brackets by the Wrongologist)

A kilo [of Rhino horn] is worth up to $65,000. The demand comes from East Asia, where rhino horn is seen as a potent natural medicine and status symbol, and is met by international networks linking dirt-poor villages in southern Africa with traffickers and eventually buyers. Patchy law enforcement, corruption and poverty combine to exacerbate the problem.

And the locals are on both sides of the problem. Poachers coerce local communities into providing safe houses or other support. While some resist, it is vastly more difficult without support from local police. More from the Guardian:

One advantage for local landowners is the protection heavily armed combat veterans provide against the violent break-ins feared by so many South Africans, particularly on isolated rural farmsteads. The team has also run training courses for local guides and security staff.

Tate says he has selected combat veterans because they will resist the temptation to use lethal force. Poachers are told to put down their arms, and then handed over to the police. Another team member says:

This is textbook counterinsurgency…Its unconventional warfare…Shooting and killing is easy. The hardest thing is not shooting but figuring stuff out…if you kill someone do you turn a family, a village against you?

So, maybe some of the counterinsurgency lessons paid for by US blood and treasure in Afghanistan and Iraq will save the Rhinos of South Africa. Kevin, a Vetpaw team member, says:

After what I’ve done, I couldn’t just go and do a nine to five. I’ve never had nightmares or flashbacks or anything
 [But] after years of doing what I’ve done, this is good for the soul…It’s in a good cause and you get to watch the African sunset.

So, a cause to rally around. Something that helps a few vets and a few Rhinos. A good news story for a Monday, when there is so little to be happy about in Trumpland.

Time for a wake up tune. In honor of the Orange Tweeter, here is Linda Ronstadt performing “You’re No Good”, live in Germany in 1976. She was at the height of her powers. That’s Andrew Gold on the guitar solo:

Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.

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Sunday Cartoon Blogging – June 4, 2017

Re: The Trump severed head “joke”: Kathy Griffin isn’t funny, and this wasn’t a joke. Here’s the problem with what Griffin did: A joke has to be funny, and this simply wasn’t. The only message you can take from her severed Trump head photo is: “look at me, I’m Kathy Griffin!” Griffin is getting what she deserves for putting her desire for attention ahead of everything else.

Yes, she has the right to produce the image, but that doesn’t mean it has to be accepted by the rest of us. If you mimic what ISIS does to their victims, you deserve to lose your job on CNN. She needs to grow up; CNN did the right thing.

On to cartoons. Quite the week for climate change drama. Trump’s action on Paris could have been inspired by the Saudi sword dance, but it is it different than Griffin’s?

Trump said he was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris. Trump lost Pittsburgh to Clinton, and Pittsburg’s mayor says the city will follow the Paris Accords. But, in Trump speak:

Trump seems intent on completely eradicating the Obama legacy:

The news about back-channel communications with Russia leads to Jared Kushner:

The medicine in Trumpcare II is no better than in Trumpcare I:

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Saturday Soother – June 3, 2017

The Daily Escape:

Trolltunga (Troll’s Tongue) Norway – photo by B. Krustev

What is left to say about Trump pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement? The world is looking at a post-agreement future as if we were standing on the edge of Troll’s Tongue. The Paris deal wasn’t a binding agreement, it was aspirational, with voluntary targets and no mechanism for enforcement. But, this quote from Abu Ivanka tells all:

At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment. We don’t want other countries and other leaders to laugh at us anymore.

This is the core problem with Trump’s view of the world: He and the members of his Party see the world agenda as a zero-sum game, in which only one nation can win. Therefore, we gotta win, or else we lose, and God forbid, we can’t lose. At anything.

Zero-sum thinking is what causes voluntary agreements to fail; they require non-zero sum thinking to succeed.

But, in a zero-sum world, there will always be someone in some country who thinks, rightly or wrongly, that they’re being screwed over, that other countries are using the climate issue to pursue an economic advantage.

In this case, Trump gets into power. He then abandons the agreement, or attempts to renegotiate it.

The new terms on offer will be unacceptable, possibly even designed to fail. So it will be with Trump, who is looking to force both China and India into binding targets in order to continue with the agreement. That’s what Republicans consider “fair treatment”.

In other climate news, the Tampa Bay Times points out that the hurricane season started with nobody in charge at FEMA or NOAA.

What could go wrong?

And farther south, a massive crack in the Antarctica ice shelf grew 11 miles in only 6 days.

But America’s coal miners gotta work. Trump is in thrall with an industry that is among those dying out in America. In March, the WaPo reported that:

The coal industry employed 76,572 people in 2014, the latest year for which data is available. That number includes not just miners but also office workers, sales staff and all of the other individuals who work at coal-mining companies.

That’s fewer people employed than at other shrinking industries, like travel agencies (99,888), used-car dealerships (138,000), or carwash employment (150,000).

Maybe Trump will gin up a reason why climate change is killing jobs in those industries as well.

You need to relax, you need to think about something other than Trump, Ivanka and Jared, or Putin and Megyn Kelly. In other words, you need to turn off your devices, sit quietly and take a long look out the window at the natural world. It helps if you can have a strong cuppa something while you kick back.

Wrongo recommends brewing some Sumatran Mandheling coffee (only $11.44 for 16 oz.) and some beautiful music. This morning, we are listening to a Russian and a Latvian singing beautifully together. Here are Anna Netrebko & Elina Garanca performing the Flower Duet by LĂ©o Delibes at the Baden-Baden Opera Gala in 2007:

Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.

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