tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-310798097714822702024-03-19T00:07:59.570-07:00interested partysnarking up The Right's treelarry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.comBlogger4485125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-85269037272383797152024-03-17T07:32:00.000-07:002024-03-17T11:26:26.383-07:00SDGOP disintegrating over CO2 pipelines, vote tabulators <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN1uFsrD7cZbQfy2HXI33RNaolaVLN4PpxAlkhLOLPz-nFRYiFmvHRdtSOhOwfJugI0FTpzoOEI6VAkWVG4Yal08GY6xhYfpD4e-p8Jc8vLogqdI31bNTOootsQjKyPdm9m4LnmrxK5hXxCt7pjfVUBD-E9LwRq2RoeySOmLWgaVnm3C3spyXkNr2F8Wk/s1024/1EEF953A-ECDA-47A5-9B29-33290AD48CD9.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN1uFsrD7cZbQfy2HXI33RNaolaVLN4PpxAlkhLOLPz-nFRYiFmvHRdtSOhOwfJugI0FTpzoOEI6VAkWVG4Yal08GY6xhYfpD4e-p8Jc8vLogqdI31bNTOootsQjKyPdm9m4LnmrxK5hXxCt7pjfVUBD-E9LwRq2RoeySOmLWgaVnm3C3spyXkNr2F8Wk/s600/1EEF953A-ECDA-47A5-9B29-33290AD48CD9.png" width="600" /></a></div>Industrial <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/03/today-in-pink-slime-republicans-cause.html" target="_blank">agriculture is ecocide</a> and for those of us who love the Earth CO2 pipelines are subsidized corporate greenwashing but ironically many Republicans actually benefitting from reduced greenhouse emissions decry the sequestration of carbon as caving to the Green New Deal. <div><br /></div><div>But as the South Dakota <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/06/fractures-in-sdgop-evident-as-violence.html" target="_blank">Republican Party faces disintegration</a> and braces for potential violence that could test Kristi Noem's riot boosting law during Veto Day in Pierre at least two issues threaten the Big Tent. Republicans are militantly divided over the utility of eminent domain for private enterprise for pipelines to move carbon dioxide but are just fine with employing it for the entrepreneurial transport of oil and gas.<b><i><blockquote>The most controversial part of the new law is its perceived effect on the Public Utilities Commission and local setback laws. Prior state law allowed the commission to overrule counties’ pipeline setbacks, although the commission has so far declined to do that. [<a href="https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2024/03/15/new-group-aims-to-refer-carbon-pipeline-law-to-voters/" target="_blank">New group aims to refer carbon pipeline law to voters</a>]</blockquote></i></b>A private plane carrying Republican former Mesa, Colorado County Clerk Tina Peters and other Trump operatives took them to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to attend a rally held by Mike Lindell. Peters' trial on charges that she copied files of the county's election tabulations then shared them with Pillow Guy, Lindell has been pushed back to at least July. Peters is probably going to jail after compromising election results and forcing polling machines to be discarded and Lindell is bankrupt. <b><i><blockquote>Most of the county officials who administer elections in South Dakota don’t consider hand counting to be an effective or efficient method of tabulating votes. That’s the result of a South Dakota News Watch survey that saw input from 49 of the state’s 66 county auditors. Auditors are elected officials who supervise county, state and federal elections as well as maintain financial records and other duties. The hand count debate comes as South Dakota is viewed as a proving ground by election reformists who claim that recent elections across the county were marred by hacking or fraud, allegations repeatedly rejected by courts of law as well as Democratic and Republican election leaders. Jim Eschenbaum, a semi-retired farmer from Miller who serves as a Hand County commissioner, thinks some of the election reformists have gone too far. [<a href="https://www.sdnewswatch.org/hand-counting-ballot-machines-south-dakota-2024-election/" target="_blank">Hand counting vs. voting machines: Debate rages in South Dakota</a>]</blockquote></i></b>The grassland fire danger index will reach the high and very high categories Sunday for most of South Dakota and will reach the extreme category Monday for the northwestern part of the pathetic red state.</div><div><br /></div><div>Based in Brookings, Pat Powers is a morbidly obese establishment SDGOP blogger whose kids all suffer from the effects of ag chemicals but is <a href="https://dakotawarcollege.com/sd-ag-alliance-ill-advised-referendum-is-anti-landowner-and-anti-agriculture/">in the bag for Summit's pipeline boondoggle</a> nevertheless. The <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/04/big-sioux-river-contamination.html" target="_blank">irreversibly polluted Big Sioux River</a> runs through Brookings County.</div><div><br /></div><div>In a related story more than half of Iowa's streams and lakes are <a href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/03/15/more-than-half-of-iowas-tested-streams-and-lakes-are-impaired/" target="_blank">impaired because of runoff from industrial agriculture</a>.</div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-72310839942240367522024-03-16T06:24:00.000-07:002024-03-16T07:39:36.788-07:00As Noem targets migrants South Dakota dairies face labor crisesIn 2015 Republican former South Dakota US Representative Kristi <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2015/04/noem-brothers-exploit-immigrant-labor.html" target="_blank">Noem said her brothers used the H-2A </a>program to bring in workers during planting and harvest season but complained that those using the program were targets of the US Department of Labor and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. <div><br /></div><div>In 2020 Mrs. Noem sued to have the checkpoints that protected Native Americans removed from the highways on reservations. But today there are no checks on executive power and the governor's cronies routinely raid the state's general fund. The state is second in addiction to gambling, East River <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2017/01/sdsu-enlisted-to-train-elktons-dairy.html" target="_blank">dairies are polluting rivers</a> in at least three states, teachers' salaries surf the bottom of the US and <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2020/03/labor-shortages-driving-dairies-to.html" target="_blank">wage slavery</a> is the state's biggest claim to fame. </div><div><br /></div><div>Diversity, equity, and inclusion: Trump state economies are in the toilet according to Creighton University's Ernie Goss but it's not about laziness, it's about Maria shrugged, if you will. Now, South Dakota's governor is going full blown Netanyahu and planning to wall off the north bank of the Rio Grande to keep America white and <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/09/looks-like-my-home-town-has-changed-some.html" target="_blank">she has targeted Venezuelans</a> in particular.<b><i><blockquote>In fact, most livestock producers, such as ranches, dairies, and hog and poultry operations, are not legally allowed to use the program to meet year-round labor needs. Even if they were, 10 months isn’t long enough, Nicolien Hammink said. Training employees takes time, especially for higher priority positions like calf management. Nicolien and her husband Wim Hammink own and operate Hammink Dairy near Bruce, South Dakota, where they milk roughly 4,000 cows. Hamminks employ 40 people, most of whom are from Mexico, Nicaragua and Guatemala. She and her husband immigrated to South Dakota from the Netherlands in 1995. [<a href="https://agupdate.com/tristateneighbor/news/dairy/who-s-going-to-milk-them/article_0d5acec0-db10-11ee-8c64-6b65f43de19c.html" target="_blank">Who’s going to milk them?</a>]</blockquote></i></b></div><div>So since Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem (KLAN) is militant about rejecting potential workers at the southern border <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2016/04/south-dakota-dairies-bring-habitat.html" target="_blank">wage slaves</a> could make real social justice change by walking off their jobs then calling for a general strike and tourism boycott to bring Kristi to her senses, too.</div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-56745383753514707812024-03-15T09:26:00.000-07:002024-03-15T09:26:25.406-07:00Go Fund Me announced<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Vb4MuiWtumquhn2IfO_OtUilxNOMBhsTJugImgGEnIf-udALo5qDVJsObaGHA5dnDXztRKx8Oh50uVW7tRhnLmoSNT29DPWsYUgVZTygmI3Ed9LI1XyEjgr_PVwP4tJXcxL15iUaIUMzGaGd6FJ3IEVf8rGUnrU5Ockuoqycpx1VoS4pPCzKfv_ptzs/s2472/20240219_110120.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="2472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Vb4MuiWtumquhn2IfO_OtUilxNOMBhsTJugImgGEnIf-udALo5qDVJsObaGHA5dnDXztRKx8Oh50uVW7tRhnLmoSNT29DPWsYUgVZTygmI3Ed9LI1XyEjgr_PVwP4tJXcxL15iUaIUMzGaGd6FJ3IEVf8rGUnrU5Ockuoqycpx1VoS4pPCzKfv_ptzs/s600/20240219_110120.jpg"/></a></div>After consulting with the Horse Shelter and an equine veterinarian Donnamarie and Larry have decided that the best way to protect ten free-roaming horses is to keep them in their care. Forage is scarce and the only water available is from wells on their property so the four mares that will foal very soon will be safe, well cared for and as wild as possible. <div><br /></div><div>About fifteen acres is fenced with horse-safe wire but the gate is always open so the herd can come and go as they please. The couple has been buying hay and so far that is working but the three stallions need to be gelded and that is expensive so <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/wild-horses-of-red-rock" target="_blank">we're asking you to pony up</a> to help defray the cost. </div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-42621406945268402172024-03-14T05:30:00.000-07:002024-03-14T13:21:31.416-07:00Black Hills forest experts rebuke Republicans after Spearditch roundtable<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzWAxqmJL8NrwHf1IVuFq2dFfZ3mlgA4M4Ayosi3qXbmQ3VBR5cEYI9ta_hA66ZjAjM2Eq-h75cfq7zWYs0k_NdB-6ddoeIAgNO8EMhTTYhIg4ITEGUiyYbKORPBpFGmFg84w4xYkCKswARb2cJ5yvn4TnRdwTkXilc5tYnxi8yam4zWeva0jZsOFpScU/s881/8572B133-581F-4957-801B-EE9F2B128435.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="424" data-original-width="881" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzWAxqmJL8NrwHf1IVuFq2dFfZ3mlgA4M4Ayosi3qXbmQ3VBR5cEYI9ta_hA66ZjAjM2Eq-h75cfq7zWYs0k_NdB-6ddoeIAgNO8EMhTTYhIg4ITEGUiyYbKORPBpFGmFg84w4xYkCKswARb2cJ5yvn4TnRdwTkXilc5tYnxi8yam4zWeva0jZsOFpScU/s600/8572B133-581F-4957-801B-EE9F2B128435.jpeg" width="600" /></a></div>After a century of fire suppression, a decades-long moratorium on prescribed burns, a lack of environmental litigators and <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2018/05/tdp-supports-mechanical-timber-harvest.html" target="_blank">GOP retrenchment</a> the Black Hills National <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2022/10/expert-more-megafires-are-coming-to.html" target="_blank">Forest has been broken for decades</a>. The collapse of the Black Hills hydrologic region was forecast in 2002 even as the mountain pine beetle raced to save Paha Sapa water supplies.<div><br /></div><div>So, during remarks to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in 2021, US Forest Service Chief Randy Moore outlined a plan to ship logs from as far away as California to sawmills owned by Hulett, Wyoming's Neiman Enterprises.</div><div><br /></div><div>In June, 2023 an interested party asked former acting Black Hills National Forest Supervisor <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/06/zornes-republican-micromanagement.html" target="_blank">Jim Zornes</a> to comment on an article appearing in <i>South Dakota Searchlight</i> about the heinous state of affairs on the Forest then Seth Tupper followed up on that piece with another describing the unheard of turnover of supervisors so an interested party asked Dave Mertz to comment on it.<div><br /></div><div>Mertz is a retired natural resource officer for the BHNF who attended a roundtable discussion in Spearditch hosted by South Dakota's lone US Representative Dusty Johnson when he sicced two fellow Republican congress members on Regional Forester Frank Beum and BHNF Supervisor Shawn Cochran. Cochrane was the sixth different leader in 2023 alone and 11th in the past seven years.<b><i><blockquote>After introductions, the panel quickly turned to grilling the two Forest Service officials. It appeared that they were there to browbeat the Forest Service. Johnson participated in these tactics as well. Much of the hour and a half revolved around blaming the Forest Service for not selling more timber and for being ineffective. Repeatedly, panelists stated what the timber industry needs. Never was there any concern for what level of timber harvesting the forest needs. The two Forest Service participants showed up in good faith only to be interrogated. What was the point of all this other than some people enjoying seeing the Forest Service get beat up? No solutions were found that I could tell. [<a href="https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2024/03/08/we-know-what-the-timber-industry-needs-but-what-can-the-black-hills-provide/" target="_blank">Dave Mertz, We know what the timber industry needs, but what can the Black Hills provide?</a>]</blockquote></i></b>This blogger forwarded Mertz's column to <i>The Smokey Wire</i> where Zornes and Mertz continue the discussion.<b><i><blockquote>But, can you imagine, the FS paying to ship logs, by rail, from California to South Dakota? Remember a few years ago when the old BCAP (Biomass Crop Assistance Program) couldn’t find enough money to even be relevant? This is playing out in real time, and it is absolutely shocking on how The Hills are being mined for volume…. BHNF was cutting more than growth plus mortality, losing suitable and “standard” component acres, and those cumulative effects finally came home to roost! This should have been nipped in the bud in 2016, but the politics, industry tantrums and Agency egos just carried too much weight! And now, we have a mess…..[<a href="https://forestpolicypub.com/2024/03/12/we-know-what-the-timber-industry-needs-but-what-can-the-black-hills-provide-commentary-by-dave-mertz/" target="_blank">Jim Zornes</a>]</blockquote></i></b>There are far, far better life choices than working in a sawmill for ten years let alone living in states like <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2022/07/neiman-cutbacks-intended-to-pressure.html" target="_blank">Wyoming and South Dakota where workers are commodities</a> so Neiman bought mills in blue states Colorado and Oregon that expanded Medicaid. Earth hating US Senators John Thune and John Barrasso introduced the <strike>Save Jim Neiman's Ass</strike> Black Hills Forest Protection and Jobs Preservation Act of 2022 but it died in committee. <b><i><blockquote>It’s some crazy stuff going on here Jim! When you were here, things were just borderline crazy, but it’s full One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest now! It’s almost impossible to find out how much the rail thing is costing taxpayers but it’s likely an outrageous amount. These are supposedly salvage logs, they can’t be worth much. The transport must be costing several times what the logs are worth. It’s hard to believe our politicians can solve big problems when they are devoid of objectivity. [Their] answer is always just get a bigger hammer. It is putting band aids over band aids. They parrot the story that if a mill closes, the Black Hills will burn to the ground. This is not true, other mills will remain. The real fire risk here is the hundreds of thousands of acres of doghair stands of young trees. Not the sawtimber. But sawmills don’t make money on doghair. And so it goes…. With the current state of the forest, there are fewer and fewer options of any kind to properly manage it. [<a href="https://forestpolicypub.com/2024/03/12/we-know-what-the-timber-industry-needs-but-what-can-the-black-hills-provide-commentary-by-dave-mertz/" target="_blank">Dave Mertz</a>]</blockquote></i></b>Nevertheless, Republican welfare ranchers ginned up by the likes of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Wyoming's US Representative Harriet Hageman, disgraced former Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, American Stewards of Liberty rabble-rouser Margaret Byfield and others are plotting violence against public land managers in the West.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jim Furnish was deputy chief of the US Forest Service from 1999 to 2002. He believes <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2022/02/former-deputy-forest-service-chief.html" target="_blank">Neiman will close the sawmill in Spearditch</a>, too.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Historian Paul Horsted, the Norbeck Society, People for Sustainable Logging in the Black Hills and the Black Hills Environmental Coalition have joined the condemnation of Rep. Johnson's attack on the Forest Service.</div><div><br /></div><div>South Dakota’s junior Republican US Senator has introduced likely doomed legislation in Congress that would increase bureaucracy and open the BHNF to the wholesale pillage of any <a href="http://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/02/todays-intersection-old-growth-forests.html">surviving saw timber</a>.</div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-44980487314901825032024-03-12T06:30:00.000-07:002024-03-12T15:44:33.181-07:00Budget released but below average upper Missouri basin snowpack testing Corps, endangered species The US Army Corps of Engineers counts almost 90,000 dams in its database and on the western side of the Continental Divide the Snake River through Idaho, Oregon and Washington that was dammed to deny Indigenous salmon fishing is now <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2022/10/todays-intersection-prairie-pothole.html" target="_blank">the 4th most endangered </a> as drought seizes the region.<b><i><blockquote>Following historic progress made under the President’s leadership—with over 14 million jobs added since the President took office and inflation down two-thirds from its peak—the Budget protects and builds on this progress with proposals for responsible, pro-growth investments in America and the American people. Overall, the President's Budget for FY 2025 for the Army Civil Works program reflects the Administration's priorities to strengthen the supply chain and grow the nation's economy, decrease climate risk for communities and increase ecosystem resilience to climate change based on the best available science, and promote environmental justice in underserved and overburdened communities and Tribal Nations in line with the Justice40 initiative and creating good paying jobs that provide the free and fair chance to join a union and collectively bargain. The FY 2025 Budget investments will work to confront climate change by reducing flood risk and restoring ecosystems. The Corps is working to integrate climate preparedness and climate resilience planning in all of its activities, such as by helping communities reduce their potential vulnerabilities to the effects of climate change and variability. [<a href="https://www.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Releases/News-Release-Article-View/Article/3703204/statement-by-assistant-secretary-of-the-army-for-civil-works-on-the-presidents/" target="_blank">Statement by Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works on the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget</a>]</blockquote></i></b>On the eastern slope Spring runoff allows pallid sturgeon in Yellowstone tributaries like the Powder and Tongue Rivers to spawn but the Corps canceled the Spring Pulse below Lewis and Clark Lake in 2022 due to inadequate runoff into the Missouri River.<div><br /></div><div>This Spring a dry winter and low mountain snowpacks are driving the Corps to release storage in the Missouri River mainstem dams hoping to prop up the navigation season at the risk of providing less water for hydroelectric generation.<b><i><blockquote>The 2024 calendar year runoff forecast above Sioux City is 17.0 MAF, 66% of average. The runoff forecast is based on current soil moisture conditions, plains snowpack, mountain snowpack, and long-term precipitation and temperature outlooks. Beginning in mid-March, releases from Gavins Point Dam will be adjusted to provide flow support for Missouri River navigation. Navigation flow support for the Missouri River is expected to be at 500 cubic feet-per-second below full service for the first half of the 2024 season, which begins April 1 at the mouth of the river near St. Louis, Missouri. The six mainstem power plants generated 467 million kWh of electricity in February. Typical energy generation for February is 618 million kWh. Forecast generation for 2024 is 8.3 billion kWh compared to the long-term average of 9.4 billion kWh. [<a href="https://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Releases/Article/3699580/despite-early-runoff-upper-basin-runoff-forecast-below-average-gavins-point-rel/" target="_blank">Despite early runoff, upper basin runoff forecast below average; Gavins Point releases to increase for navigation flow support</a>]</blockquote></i></b>Endangered pallid sturgeon, paddlefish, catfish and most other aquatic organisms cope with lethal levels of mercury throughout the South Dakota portion of the Missouri River so as those species are extirpated or even go extinct zebra mussels will colonize the system. Lewis and Clark Lake is at least thirty percent full of toxic sediment but that impoundment and Lake Sharpe can’t spend money fast enough to reverse the infestation of the imported bivalves in hydroelectric equipment and water courses.</div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-77283941071155992292024-03-11T06:20:00.000-07:002024-03-11T08:46:25.805-07:00Rural hospitals are closing at accelerating rates<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmAfrF9-tQfxV3zcm8J98e0pYpvlAm8zvTluzSSBW-0y7JDRiVetfF9ym_uD4ytZrJts9vhe626yybEkkF3ZGkm6jSYrAJFb62VFVG8e0Mzxc8dQRMrFhaVl4pupXKMHtR45ETuEQaIcFBvVEE8IqmDKO9Mf45jXYwAbPYY1n5FqdqE_-kREYIRzLfdZ0/s1123/39AA7DC2-A90E-49E0-8C49-326BF5426F67.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="708" data-original-width="1123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmAfrF9-tQfxV3zcm8J98e0pYpvlAm8zvTluzSSBW-0y7JDRiVetfF9ym_uD4ytZrJts9vhe626yybEkkF3ZGkm6jSYrAJFb62VFVG8e0Mzxc8dQRMrFhaVl4pupXKMHtR45ETuEQaIcFBvVEE8IqmDKO9Mf45jXYwAbPYY1n5FqdqE_-kREYIRzLfdZ0/s600/39AA7DC2-A90E-49E0-8C49-326BF5426F67.jpeg" width="600" /></a></div>Recall former Montana Sen. Max Baucus threw President Barack Obama's pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, former Senate Majority Leader and fellow Democrat Tom Daschle, under the bus during a pre-confirmation quarrel in 2009. Daschle was widely expected to push Congress toward a Medicaid-for-all health care plan in the weeks before Big Pharma-backed Baucus soundly rejected single-payer medical insurance and guided the passing of what would become the <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2013/10/baucus-view-from-combine-focus-on-farm.html" target="_blank">Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act</a>. <div><div><br /></div><div>In South Dakota, Monument, Avera and Sanford operate as a triopoly and as virtual monopolies in their own markets. It’s disaster capitalism for oligarchs and religionists masquerading as health care. </div><div><br /></div><div>Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) has known about the monopolistic nature of rural hospitals for decades. And after Amtrak's Empire Builder derailed near Joplin, Montana many of the injured passengers were unable to find medical care because area hospitals were overwhelmed with unvaccinated Republicans. The Benefis Health System hospital in Great Falls is about 100 miles from Joplin. Today according to WalletHub Idaho is the third most lucrative state for doctors just behind Montana and South Dakota.<b><i><blockquote>Leaders in Montana, whose population is nearly half rural, credit Medicaid expansion as the reason their hospitals have largely avoided the financial crisis depicted by <a href="https://www.chartis.com/sites/default/files/documents/chartis_rural_study_pressure_pushes_rural_safety_net_crisis_into_uncharted_territory_feb_15_2024_fnl.pdf" target="_blank">the report</a> despite escalating costs, workforce shortages, and growing administrative burden. [<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/rural-hospitals-half-operate-in-red-many-cut-services/" target="_blank">Operating in the Red: Half of Rural Hospitals Lose Money, as Many Cut Services</a>]</blockquote></i></b>There is a growing movement among Democrats and others to fund Medicare for all but I like the idea of rolling the funding for Obamacare, TriCare, Medicare, <a href="https://www.blackhillsfox.com/2024/03/11/rep-dusty-johnson-introduces-ihs-reform-bill/" target="_blank">the Indian Health Service</a> and the Veterans Health Administration together then offering Medicaid for all by increasing the estate tax, raising taxes on tobacco and adopting a carbon tax.</div></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-52627609564962898992024-03-10T07:33:00.000-07:002024-03-10T17:18:30.247-07:00Trump-led insurrection would have violated Noem's riot boosting lawAfter winning North Dakota by a 36% margin the Trump Organization ignored Republican Governor Doug Burgum's request for a "major disaster declaration" to help cover some of the estimated <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2017/07/trump-snubs-loyal-north-dakota-earth.html" target="_blank">$38 million gift to the law enforcement industry</a> who busted heads and chilled the civil rights of water protectors trying to stop the <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/01/usace-ignoring-first-in-time-first-in.html" target="_blank">Dakota Excess pipeline</a>.<div><br /></div>Mercenaries and National Guard troops brutalized many of the thousands of demonstrators camped on federal land near Cannon Ball, North Dakota where some 761 people were arrested between early August and late February. Trump apparatchiks even referred to the American Indians and their compatriots as jihadists or insurgents. But as Commander in Chief Donald Trump clearly failed the State of North Dakota for not removing the protesting citizens from land managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. <b><i><blockquote>“The Corps needed to be on the record saying we do support constitutional rights to protest,” Col. John Henderson, who served as commander of the Corps’ Omaha District during the protests, testified Feb. 27. The Corps has authority over a segment of the pipeline that crosses under the Missouri River north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. [<a href="https://northdakotamonitor.com/2024/03/08/judge-faults-corps-for-outcome-of-dapl-protests-as-trial-wraps-up-third-week/" target="_blank">Judge faults Corps for outcome of DAPL protests as trial wraps up third week</a>]</blockquote></i></b>Recall that in response to that citizen resistance in a neighboring state Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed a bill that revived the state’s criminal and civil penalties for rioting and incitement so had Donald Trump led his insurrection in South Dakota he would have run afoul of her riot boosting law. <div><br /></div><div></div><a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/02/republican-governors-are-feigning.html" target="_blank">Noem's anti-civil rights actions</a> are no accident. She's is a graduate of the Koch Brothers' American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC, an anti-think tank think tank that teaches how wedge issues raise campaign dollars for the extreme white wing of the Republican Party. South Dakota's GOP legislators and candidates enjoy millions in lobbyist benefits from ALEC. <div><br /><div>Intervenors were so frustrated with Mrs. Noem after she blew off a meeting with tribal members in 2019 the backlash resulted in her being banned from the Oglala Lakota Nation where she is forbidden to set foot again today.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">“In South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has pushed an agenda to criminalize protests w/ her Riot Boosting Act, yet under those same standards of ‘riot boosting’ #45 would be guilty of committing that crime in blatantly inciting the mayhem that unfolded” - <a href="https://twitter.com/NickTilsen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NickTilsen</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ImpeachTrumpNow?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ImpeachTrumpNow</a></p>— NDN Collective (@ndncollective) <a href="https://twitter.com/ndncollective/status/1347659833370046464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-36629705269840109762024-03-08T06:12:00.000-08:002024-03-08T07:22:50.630-08:00Republicans suing again to stop executive from protecting public land<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNDXLef583rAEWOxrtt3JqPM_nNS21y_XI2tklfucZwJfYr6bLj9U9FwuLfGkxq12YIf7sFL6mR9d4AhxilNVwIimamBXiCMRz2PBhOh9Y7Ir5J7x4fU3hs51ysbPFIEkuDcAUpgznXhtUR3IVMLGCMo6syo1dps4lOV9U6gfaWwnuKhq6n-nqeAJtKxY/s640/IMG_0071.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNDXLef583rAEWOxrtt3JqPM_nNS21y_XI2tklfucZwJfYr6bLj9U9FwuLfGkxq12YIf7sFL6mR9d4AhxilNVwIimamBXiCMRz2PBhOh9Y7Ir5J7x4fU3hs51ysbPFIEkuDcAUpgznXhtUR3IVMLGCMo6syo1dps4lOV9U6gfaWwnuKhq6n-nqeAJtKxY/s600/IMG_0071.JPG" width="600" /></a></div>In February the Interior Department and Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the use of $31 million so the Klamath Tribes can acquire nearly 90,000 acres of private land within their historic reservation boundaries for ecosystem restoration and economic development.<div><br /></div>Under the 1906 Antiquities Act and the America the Beautiful initiative President Joe Biden has moved to create the 400,000-acre Dolores River Canyon Country National Monument in Mesa and Montrose counties in Colorado and the 245,000 acre Mimbres Peaks National Monument in Luna County, New Mexico.<div><br /></div><div>But Republicans, including South Dakota's former US Representative <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2014/03/noem-daugaard-screwing-poorest-south.html" target="_blank">Kristi Noem</a>, have been trying to restrict execution of the law since President Theodore Roosevelt first used it to create Devils Tower National Monument and seventeen other properties some of which became national and historical parks. So far, the Supreme Court of the United States has supported the statute's presidential powers with only two exceptions. My old Brookings pal, <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2010/07/from-rapid-city-journal-sentencing-is.html" target="_blank">Scott Matteson</a> had his artifact collection impounded and was prosecuted under provisions of the 1906 law. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, Republicans in Arizona and Utah are challenging President Biden's authority to limit grazing permits on Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument and uranium mining leases on <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/08/ethnic-cleansing-real-part-of-trump.html" target="_blank">Bears Ears</a> and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtu5qCupynOa12KXO3QNAxRrE3F-cYc-L4QITBBdFI0K4QWtPwxqo38UsjdsLANM2VsBw_g29-okSMVosr3FO8F4aQyXPnoNO38r27r21zKgXS5eQaMR5JQlbAv6IzPUfNpi6N39l8LuR9rm3V0yPZu46DA7gNpgrl98U4Up1voF77jOtkj2S9IweOrKQ/s640/IMG_0068.JPG" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtu5qCupynOa12KXO3QNAxRrE3F-cYc-L4QITBBdFI0K4QWtPwxqo38UsjdsLANM2VsBw_g29-okSMVosr3FO8F4aQyXPnoNO38r27r21zKgXS5eQaMR5JQlbAv6IzPUfNpi6N39l8LuR9rm3V0yPZu46DA7gNpgrl98U4Up1voF77jOtkj2S9IweOrKQ/s320/IMG_0068.JPG" /></a></div><b><i><blockquote>“The Antiquities Act exists to protect Native American archeological sites, not to give presidents unlimited power to declare vast swaths of land and sea out of bounds for productive use,” Frank Garrison, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a statement. Biden has created five national monuments spanning more than 1.5 million acres since 2022 and restored 2 million acres to two Utah sites reduced during the Trump administration. [<a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/arizona-monument-created-by-biden-faces-volley-of-lawsuits/" target="_blank">Arizona monument created by Biden faces volley of lawsuits</a>]</blockquote></i></b></div><div>What now? If that's indeed the case President Joe should simply find the money, buy out Republican welfare ranchers and <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/06/democrats-pushing-back-on-earth-haters.html" target="_blank">remand the ground</a> to Nations like the Klamath Tribes have been able to do.</div><div><br /></div><div>ip images: Chaco Culture National Historical Park grew out one of the <a href="https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/blog/numbers-dont-lie-national-monuments-make-america-great" target="_blank">national monuments</a> created by President Roosevelt.</div><div><br /></div><div>Learn <a href="https://coloradosun.com/2024/03/04/dolores-river-national-monument-opposition/" target="_blank">more at the Colorado Sun</a>.</div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-63642304035222291772024-03-06T07:10:00.000-08:002024-03-06T09:23:17.862-08:00Flycatcher survives Republican assault for now<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaPxY7YYi2o185YXvoASwFXsIBxXeKABwlTnHgWPU48QFpfpkFdMuxBjYczT84iG87nx778QZh7Ki4MMePRpFD5ELHiD8MeE60Di5jr45Qks2aJgRMrBbJNW3_uwq9SdwW5g6xyQy5dLp0zSu5iwlF29dAQQKbBM_IGX8WR7XRQtEQS-Z8kq53UD0wVe8/s2048/4D2C9C1E-ED08-4C06-A82B-932287FF2D64.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaPxY7YYi2o185YXvoASwFXsIBxXeKABwlTnHgWPU48QFpfpkFdMuxBjYczT84iG87nx778QZh7Ki4MMePRpFD5ELHiD8MeE60Di5jr45Qks2aJgRMrBbJNW3_uwq9SdwW5g6xyQy5dLp0zSu5iwlF29dAQQKbBM_IGX8WR7XRQtEQS-Z8kq53UD0wVe8/s600/4D2C9C1E-ED08-4C06-A82B-932287FF2D64.jpeg" width="600" /></a></div>Half of all migratory birds in North America move through the Patagonia, Arizona flyway and along the San Pedro River. <div><br /></div><div>In 2019 warblers, swallows and flycatchers began dying in large numbers throughout the southern Rockies. Scientists who study them note their emaciated conditions and reduced body fat. </div><div><br /></div><div>In 2020, to preserve more habitat for birds like the southwest willow flycatcher, the US Forest Service imposed more stringent measures under a legal settlement to keep grazing cattle away from waterways in New Mexico's Gila National Forest and Arizona's Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2023 the <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/11/groups-sue-blm-and-usfws-over-continued.html" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity sued</a> the US Fish and Wildlife Service because of the agency's failure to better protect the Gila River from erosion caused by livestock.<b><i><blockquote>A federal court upheld the southwestern willow flycatcher’s protection under the Endangered Species Act following a lawsuit by the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association. The Fish and Wildlife Service listed the southwestern willow flycatcher as a federally endangered subspecies in 1995 following widespread habitat loss across its range in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Utah. When cattle graze in riparian areas, they tend to eat the young cottonwood and willow trees flycatchers need to breed and propagate. They also can trample streambanks, interrupt water flows and jeopardize water quality, endangering flycatchers' and other species’ habitats. The service found the highest number of breeding territories along the middle Rio Grande and upper Gila River in New Mexico, and Roosevelt Lake and the San Pedro and Gila River confluence area in Arizona. [<a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2024/03/01/southwestern-willow-flycatcher-retains-endangered-species-status/72796251007/" target="_blank">Southwestern willow flycatcher keeps its protected status after ranchers lose legal case</a>]</blockquote></i></b>The robins that love juniper berries and the dark-eyed juncos that feed on grass seeds winter here in Santa Fe County. Pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) live here year round and mob the bird bath in a flock of about forty every morning but the bird's numbers have declined 80% in the last fifty years. </div><div><br /></div><div>ip image captured through the porch screen is that of a crissal thrasher which is considered quite rare in our part of New Mexico.</div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-74254128209751371392024-03-05T06:11:00.000-08:002024-03-17T05:08:27.921-07:00Thune warming to socialized passenger rail My proposal for passenger rail from Minneapolis to Denver is a multi-modal route from the Twin Cities or Mankato on the right of way owned by the Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern Railroad to Brookings, South Dakota and Pierre then to Rapid City and to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway tracks at Alliance via Chadron, Nebraska then to Cheyenne and Denver. <div><br /></div><div>A rail bed in the I-90 median with abundant opportunities for wildlife egress should also be explored.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Yes, the Cretaceous shale between Oacoma and Rapid City and between Fort Pierre and Rapid City is a major obstacle and is one reason passenger rail across South Dakota failed but two east/west routes across South Dakota exclusively for freight rail is <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2020/09/state-of-south-dakota-snubs-tribes-will.html" target="_blank">lunacy</a>. </div><div><div><br /></div><div>Yet, even Senator John Thune (Earth hater-SD) sees a future for socialized passenger rail across his red moocher state. In 2016 Thune was recognized by the National Association of Railroad Passengers for supporting taxpayer funded service despite its absence in his home state. In 2020 he joined with Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) to advance publicly bankrolled service in New Hampshire and across the country.<b><i><blockquote>“We ought to be certainly open to, and if we can find a way to make that work, especially with some of the resources that are being made available through the infrastructure bill, South Dakota certainly ought to look at doing that,” Thune said. [<a href="https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2024/03/05/thune-weighs-amtrak-expansion-south-dakota/" target="_blank">Thune weighs in on Amtrak expansion to South Dakota</a>]</blockquote></i></b>Yes, socialized agriculture, socialized dairies, socialized cheese, socialized livestock production, a socialized timber industry, socialized air service, socialized freight rail, a socialized nursing home industry, socialized water systems and now a socialized internet are all fine with Republicans in South Dakota but then they insist single-payer medical insurance is socialized medicine. </div><div><br /></div><div>Stakeholders can comment on the Federal Railroad Administration's Long Distance Service Study <a href="https://fralongdistancerailstudy.org/comments/" target="_blank">here</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Investing in Public Transit Is Investing in Public Health <a href="https://t.co/xkfkgbVVHm">https://t.co/xkfkgbVVHm</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/UCSUSA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ucsusa</a> Our Public Engagement Report - Engaging Rural and Tribal Communities in the Development of Passenger Rail Services speaks to this. <a href="https://t.co/IZC7ShdrCN">https://t.co/IZC7ShdrCN</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sdoe?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#sdoe</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/climatechange?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#climatechange</a></p>— BigSkyRailMT (@bigskyrailmt) <a href="https://twitter.com/bigskyrailmt/status/1763637634818355430?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div></div></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-61624946269274557042024-03-02T05:40:00.000-08:002024-03-04T11:15:49.519-08:00Today in pink slime: Republicans cause cancerThere are 23.4 million hogs in Iowa's concentrated animal feeding operations or about 7.3 pigs for every human in the state. Voluntary buffer strips and other conservation practices have simply failed desertifying parts of the state and causing the Raccoon River to be named one of the most endangered waterways in the United Snakes. <div><br /></div><div>Recall that in 2015, Republican then-Iowa Governor <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2015/11/would-you-want-denny-daugaard-sitting.html" target="_blank">Terry Branstad</a> helped to block a federal lawsuit that could have stopped industrial agriculture from polluting the Des Moines drinking water supply. That same year a judge appointed by Republican then-South Dakota Governor <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2015/03/sd-governor-cracks-door-for-ethically.html" target="_blank">Denny Daugaard</a> heard the case brought against ABC News for its role in dubbing so-called lean, finely textured beef "pink slime." </div><div><br /></div><div>Dakota Dunes-based Beef Products says it was forced to close three of its four plants and erase hundreds of jobs after consumers realized what is in the crap. Using ammonia to reduce bacteria BPI had a processing plant in Iowa but moved its headquarters to South Dakota to take advantage of the regressive tax structure and lax environmental oversight. <div><br /></div><div>According to court documents released to the Associated Press the slaughter house was in the business clique that raised concerns about a state official <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2015/03/bpi-leaned-on-iowa-governor-to-fire-gay.html" target="_blank">Branstad tried to force from office</a>. BPI donates generously to Republican candidates like Senator <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2013/04/thune-backed-product-news-blocked.html" target="_blank">John Thune</a> (Earth hater-SD). </div><div><br /></div><div>Branstad was then picked by the corrupt Trump White House to replace Montana's Max Baucus as Ambassador to China.<div><br /></div><div>Today, most of the corn grown in the US is fed to domestic livestock but a third of it will be processed for ethanol this year and subsidies of up to $700 an acre are the incentives to plant even more next year. 20 of Iowa's 99 counties are devoted exclusively to food that is ultimately burned for automobile fuel. Iowa contributes some 40% of the pollution killing the Gulf of Mexico. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2015/06/nfu-directors-nothing-gay-about.html" target="_blank">Roundup® is a threat to human life</a> and is known to cause birth defects and spontaneous abortions despite assurances from manufacturer Bayer but high levels of <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/01/todays-intersection-autism-and-ssb-taxes.html" target="_blank">glyphosate, a known endocrine disruptor</a>, are still found in oats, chickpeas and corn sugars.<b><i><blockquote>In Iowa, first-term Democratic state Rep. Austin Baeth, an internal medicine specialist from Des Moines, is leading a bipartisan effort in the state legislature to end what he calls “Iowa’s cancer crisis.” Working with Democrats and Republicans, Baeth says a number of bills are being drafted for legislative consideration later this year. A proposal that Baeth and colleagues are developing would fund an epidemiological research program to more precisely evaluate potential causes of cancer, identify the sources of exposure, the number of people sickened, and the places where excess cancers are developing. Commercial nitrogen fertilizer and nitrogen-rich livestock and poultry manure are the leading sources of nitrate contamination that is increasing in the region’s surface and groundwater, according to state environment and agriculture agencies. According to many studies, as much as 70% of the nitrogen applied to farmland leaked off fields and drained toxic nitrates into the region’s waters. In 2023, alarm bells started to ring in Iowa when the state cancer registry reported that its citizens were suffering with the second-highest incidence of cancer in the U.S. [<a href="https://investigatemidwest.org/2024/02/13/cancer-related-diseases-and-deaths-spur-actions-to-fight-farm-chemical-contamination-in-corn-belt/" target="_blank">Cancer-related diseases and deaths spur actions to fight farm chemical contamination in Corn Belt</a>]</blockquote></i></b>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Iowa farms use more toxic weed killers (237 million pounds), apply more commercial fertilizer (11.6 billion pounds), and produce more nitrate-generating manure (50 million tons) every year than any other state, say federal and state data. New Toxic Terrain article coming.</p>— Keith Schneider (@modeshift) <a href="https://twitter.com/modeshift/status/1763575033387954504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div></div></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-27540302570381324292024-03-01T05:45:00.000-08:002024-03-10T06:24:45.746-07:00Thune backing aid to Ukraine but angering Trumpsters<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8PKmU0f3z1uJ_ywnpFrHpHX4xfQpTe4EbYLFB9hZcvIReed2ABFu-EABDjvy5rzsz5PYVOLhhxlDioVB9xirS7xg08JMk3wujr5-xmNGo-YpUHXdhbL8hihS-hMaBlvWOvA4vjQK4WtypmyLw9KYhkcIWn4X8KFTSnA5t8Q8wMAlrjgbihVCkbbmDM24/s683/6C39EA3F-64DE-4E31-AB44-D7348AF92438.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="683" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8PKmU0f3z1uJ_ywnpFrHpHX4xfQpTe4EbYLFB9hZcvIReed2ABFu-EABDjvy5rzsz5PYVOLhhxlDioVB9xirS7xg08JMk3wujr5-xmNGo-YpUHXdhbL8hihS-hMaBlvWOvA4vjQK4WtypmyLw9KYhkcIWn4X8KFTSnA5t8Q8wMAlrjgbihVCkbbmDM24/s600/6C39EA3F-64DE-4E31-AB44-D7348AF92438.jpeg" width="600" /></a></div><div>Amid the continual <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/02/if-john-thune-doesnt-want-gigi-sohn-at.html" target="_blank">sturm and drang</a> from Senator <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2015/03/sd-governor-cracks-door-for-ethically.html" target="_blank">John Thune</a> (Earth hater-SD) is a constant harangue at his Faceberg page from the far white wing of his political party who revere Donald Trump's patron, Vladimir Putin. </div><div><br /></div><div>Recall that in 2005 as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) Republicans like Bruce Rampelberg helped to make Ellsworth Air Force Base an even bigger target for retaliatory attacks but today exercises over the <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2014/12/thune-embracing-prtc-government.html" target="_blank">Powder River Training Complex</a> are suspended in part because of the poor condition of B-1 bombers stationed at Ellsworth. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Trump Organization had planned to spend at least half a billion taxpayer dollars on each new B-21 Raider and some $1.4 TRILLION on a proposed Defense Department budget instead of really making America great again. Trump wanted to put the now $700 billion over-budget bomber in red states to avoid confrontations with Democratic governors but Republicans are whining about the poor condition of the obsolete B-2 and the B-1B Lancers some of which are stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base in occupied South Dakota. Why? Because the Republican government shutdown and <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2013/03/gop-losing-militarytoo.html" target="_blank">the 2013 sequester</a> to embarrass President Barack Obama ripped into military readiness. <div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, deteriorating <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/01/opinion-ellsworth-has-failed-usaf-so-b.html" target="_blank">B-1s are eating up resources</a> and the seventy year old B-52 continues to rain death on civilians in war torn countries on stages in the usual theaters of war. So, instead of rattling impossibly expensive sabers Trump should have been accelerating the cleanup of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contaminating nearly every military base in the United States and in the other countries subjected to American imperialism.<b><i><blockquote>The 2024 South Dakota Legislature considered two spending measures for construction projects aimed at preparing for an influx of military personnel and civilians arriving with the launch of the new B-21 Raider bomber program at Ellsworth Air Force Base. But Morgan Gruebele, a budget analyst with the state Bureau of Finance and Management, told senators it would be unfair to provide extra state money to Douglas schools when other districts across the state are not receiving it. The Senate Education Committee passed the bill on a 5-2 vote, but the Joint Appropriations Committee rejected it in an 11-7 vote. [<a href="https://www.sdnewswatch.org/ellsworth-b21-expansion-millions-south-dakota-legislature-support/" target="_blank">B-21 Ellsworth expansion getting mixed support in Pierre</a>]</blockquote></i></b>The <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2019/12/pastor-thune-part-of-cult.html" target="_blank">GOP is Trump’s party</a> now so the Reagan and Cheney voters are wandering in the wilderness and likely to stay home in November dooming many down ticket Republicans. And, with Mitch <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2020/04/plutocratic-populism-is-glop-that-binds.html" target="_blank">McConnell going away</a> John Thune will find himself straddling <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2015/12/trump-lays-4-trillion-iraq-bill-at-gop.html" target="_blank">a very rickety fence</a> especially after voting to aid Ukraine in her fight against Vlad the Impaler. <div><br /></div><div></div></div></div></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-80089655475478250562024-02-29T05:04:00.000-08:002024-02-29T05:25:40.340-08:00Hot droughts in the West are intensifying: paper<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid8N-NMAWdMANv0fKkhcY7wcJCtyvRBVa4QSeoqvUWcbT4JwK4rlMv4FFwj0bLZzJodgl51odM_lkBHwLFRg8LozaflTWZUfVD_yu3t2g7bkTZkPQKQs3UUtF2J-JwgEOtkD2YpH07dhEnhrrA3sJgR83BRCuZm_JdvctXM5Jqrp8oXegMMAKvOm-S-DM/s640/IMG_0098.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid8N-NMAWdMANv0fKkhcY7wcJCtyvRBVa4QSeoqvUWcbT4JwK4rlMv4FFwj0bLZzJodgl51odM_lkBHwLFRg8LozaflTWZUfVD_yu3t2g7bkTZkPQKQs3UUtF2J-JwgEOtkD2YpH07dhEnhrrA3sJgR83BRCuZm_JdvctXM5Jqrp8oXegMMAKvOm-S-DM/s600/IMG_0098.JPG" width="600" /></a></div>Is Earth fucked? <div><br /></div><div>Evidence that we humans have eaten or burned ourselves out of habitats creating catastrophes behind us is strewn throughout the North American continent. <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2019/02/rewilding-west-critical-to-reversing.html" target="_blank">European settlement</a> and the Industrial Revolution in the New World took hardwoods for charcoal then humans allowed fast-growing conifers to replace lost forests. Desertification driven by agricultural practices, overgrazing, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and urban sprawl have turned much of the United States into <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2016/08/american-west-being-eroded-at-alarming.html" target="_blank">scorched earth</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div><div><div>The Anthropocene is now. </div><div><br /></div>The Mesa Verdean ancients who occupied the Green Table for nearly a millennium grew to a population of about five thousand creating spectacular architecture and art-of-fact but ultimately consumed every living thing atop Chapin and Wetherill Mesas. Matrilineal and matrilocal, their resulting exodus took them east over the Continental Divide (possibly not for the first time considering their hunter-gatherer past) into the Rio Grande valley and settled Santa Fe where their descendants were all but wiped out by the invading Spanish forces. Puebloans in New Mexico accept their stations as members of the Fourth World. Theirs is a cautionary tale of ecological destruction followed by extirpation: a trophic cascade where human is the apex predator and decimates a landscape. </div><div><br /></div><div>Rangers at Mesa Verde National Park drive home a narrative of preserving ecosystems to visitors. There are specimens of Rocky Mountain juniper that date to the time of the departure of the puebloans: about eight hundred years old. The bark was used in most of the ways northwest Indigenous cultures used (and still use) it.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Have we reached Peak Human? Should Liberals and Progressives just say: "to Hell with biodiversity" and join the Earth haters in a final orgy of death, consumption and/or prayer? Coexist or kill them all and let Gaia sort 'em out? <b><i><blockquote>We develop the Western North American Temperature Atlas (WNATA), a data-independent 0.5° gridded reconstruction of summer maximum temperatures back to the 16th century. Our evaluation of the WNATA with existing hydroclimate reconstructions reveals an increasing association between maximum temperature and drought severity in recent decades, relative to the past five centuries. The synthesis of these paleo-reconstructions indicates that the amplification of the modern WNA megadrought by increased temperatures and the frequency and spatial extent of compound hot and dry conditions in the 21st century are likely unprecedented since at least the 16th century. We find that the Great Plains region is historically most prone to experiencing anomalously warm and dry summers >2.0 σ, while the central/southern United States Rocky Mountains and much of California show the highest historical prevalence of concurrent warm summer temperatures and low winter precipitation. Once more, the spatial footprint of severe hot drought over the past two decades far exceeds that of any other period since at least the middle of the 16th century. [<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adj4289" target="_blank">Increasing prevalence of hot drought across western North America since the 16th century</a>]</blockquote></i></b><div><a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-ancients-who-occupied-mesa-verde.html" target="_blank">ip image.</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Since 1970, spring temperatures have increased by 2°F on average across the contiguous U.S. <a href="https://t.co/m12i7fS62q">https://t.co/m12i7fS62q</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/climatematters?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#climatematters</a> <a href="https://t.co/rFrqbQTSWO">pic.twitter.com/rFrqbQTSWO</a></p>— Climate Central (@ClimateCentral) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateCentral/status/1762860726140465486?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-87710480234300917292024-02-28T05:32:00.000-08:002024-02-28T15:15:56.313-08:002024 wildfire season begins in earnest for red states<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghxoqPTS7W7a1MmgiSChn-I7cRhsGUo25v47vMQCJSJ2lBDiGrNaQLeRx2I18T3SwOPdFarnojz2jNbw-MxO9bkkWstxH-ODDIGzZZmN0T3ugngDBEDf1ZQDH-gP0wA4hr76vXGju0CcmBxE3Q4hheGpQd7XN6Ln0nbdM2_1LHTCeA7yyPV6Ki5HnasDc/s815/3C20DB54-A0EC-438A-8025-3C4413A1C7A8.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="815" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghxoqPTS7W7a1MmgiSChn-I7cRhsGUo25v47vMQCJSJ2lBDiGrNaQLeRx2I18T3SwOPdFarnojz2jNbw-MxO9bkkWstxH-ODDIGzZZmN0T3ugngDBEDf1ZQDH-gP0wA4hr76vXGju0CcmBxE3Q4hheGpQd7XN6Ln0nbdM2_1LHTCeA7yyPV6Ki5HnasDc/s600/3C20DB54-A0EC-438A-8025-3C4413A1C7A8.png" width="600" /></a></div>Republicans in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and even Montana are facing the effects of their climate denial this week as wildfires clear the <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/02/red-flag-warnings-begin-for-republican.html" target="_blank">eastern red cedar</a>, dead fuels and grasses they've failed to manage. And they're not small fires either as the Smokehouse Creek Fire Complex spreads over 1.2 million acres of the Republican Texas panhandle where sixty counties face disaster declarations.<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="854" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBLMMontana%2Fposts%2Fpfbid021Tdei5EgxYi5AzoNLDSL8eHUM7FaWUz5qA73BMrRzVBUprR4qqWoEm2WN8RmgvRil&show_text=true&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe></div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Satellite heat detections for the Texas Panhandle show 1.2M acres of fire spread over 100 miles east to west. This perimeter is from data current thru 2/26/24, about 9pm, Central Time. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TexasFires?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TexasFires</a> <a href="https://t.co/4h5OXq66lA">pic.twitter.com/4h5OXq66lA</a></p>— Zeke Lunder ~ The Lookout (@wildland_zko) <a href="https://twitter.com/wildland_zko/status/1762698660666868006?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Polar-orbiting satellites captured high-resolution views of the fire in Nebraska as it was growing under windy and dry conditions yesterday. <a href="https://t.co/3vdoeL9dZa">pic.twitter.com/3vdoeL9dZa</a></p>— CIRA (@CIRA_CSU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CIRA_CSU/status/1762621315565937055?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">3:11 PM CST, 2/26: Numerous <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wildfires?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wildfires</a> burning in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nebraska?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Nebraska</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kansas?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Kansas</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oklahoma?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oklahoma</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Texas?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Texas</a> this afternoon with critical <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FireWx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FireWx</a> conditions being observed. Fires not seen on satellite are occurring in NW OK. <a href="https://t.co/ThWyDJ7qbM">pic.twitter.com/ThWyDJ7qbM</a></p>— Dr. Stephen Bieda III (@DrWildcatWx) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrWildcatWx/status/1762224087089229922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-15793605831378501772024-02-26T06:23:00.000-08:002024-02-26T09:11:18.835-08:00Today's intersection: Earth v. MAGA<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://interested-party.blogspot.com/2013/04/usgs-high-plains-aquifer-in-decline.html">This is your brain.</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMmaMkYVnHnM34oJwFRvgmmGHanP23zocL49UGEsMIEBVUNed9qzwhhAB6SwbAn8eIZDhRnaWeVJhsc2vDxFEGq3l8AX_Xs5jh4wmoHIXaZWg_-f-BQ38s_84NqfxWkiQfdhDgPfdnEajnoEhCGlyNcuCUxnX_IpNJG6XLiBFFobQExMmimZxEtiX5Yb8/s878/9773AB31-FF20-4F6D-9140-D0BFFE28CD56.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="878" data-original-width="600" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMmaMkYVnHnM34oJwFRvgmmGHanP23zocL49UGEsMIEBVUNed9qzwhhAB6SwbAn8eIZDhRnaWeVJhsc2vDxFEGq3l8AX_Xs5jh4wmoHIXaZWg_-f-BQ38s_84NqfxWkiQfdhDgPfdnEajnoEhCGlyNcuCUxnX_IpNJG6XLiBFFobQExMmimZxEtiX5Yb8/s600/9773AB31-FF20-4F6D-9140-D0BFFE28CD56.png" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/02/red-flag-warnings-begin-for-republican.html">This your brain on MAGA.</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNnNdSC_OeCtuiV6sJsCrCrUHc6a_Bjnl2u6b0LNxIIt3xfB_1BHyx63hiKwfk54WRXdNilmquNfNAA6xj9phBsOVQBjnKMsuIbJnNGZdBM6J12foOb7Evtkv3mFrnPqFGnZ-swFeyWp5bQZIFWQvXA7O94jZb3petKdrswPhBsjX6Il7U9XahxHn1RIM/s815/EF16BB44-445F-4F99-9D23-BD666DC1F3FF.gif" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="815" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNnNdSC_OeCtuiV6sJsCrCrUHc6a_Bjnl2u6b0LNxIIt3xfB_1BHyx63hiKwfk54WRXdNilmquNfNAA6xj9phBsOVQBjnKMsuIbJnNGZdBM6J12foOb7Evtkv3mFrnPqFGnZ-swFeyWp5bQZIFWQvXA7O94jZb3petKdrswPhBsjX6Il7U9XahxHn1RIM/s600/EF16BB44-445F-4F99-9D23-BD666DC1F3FF.gif" width="600" /></a><span style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/02/todays-intersection-groundwater.html" target="_blank">Any questions?</a></div></span></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-63959229792289640662024-02-26T04:04:00.000-08:002024-02-26T04:25:12.121-08:00The Republican god really hates Trumpistan<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Looks like their god hates Trumpistan. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FireWX?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FireWX</a> <a href="https://t.co/A8LdMco162">pic.twitter.com/A8LdMco162</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1762081246627148080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">As @EPAScottPruitt denies the Anthropocene climate change is ravaging his state. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OKfire?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OKfire</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/okwx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#okwx</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OKleg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OKleg</a> <a href="https://t.co/aRTGSQm9M3">https://t.co/aRTGSQm9M3</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/839937942558666752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Just 150 years ago bison would be clearing the grasses that drive late winter and early spring range and wildland fires. <a href="https://t.co/EmYTmtHhr2">https://t.co/EmYTmtHhr2</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sdleg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#sdleg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mtpol?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mtpol</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KSwx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KSwx</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/coleg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#coleg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/neleg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#neleg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/okleg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#okleg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/txlege?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#txlege</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wyleg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wyleg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreenNewDeal?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreenNewDeal</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/blackhills?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#blackhills</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nmleg?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nmleg</a> <a href="https://t.co/v0uMRIJREZ">https://t.co/v0uMRIJREZ</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1093903218394857472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Republican counties drive Spring <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/firewx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#firewx</a> risk: <a href="https://t.co/OIZVQ4smkv">https://t.co/OIZVQ4smkv</a> <a href="https://t.co/AOokM1y6jZ">https://t.co/AOokM1y6jZ</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1640327959453237250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Moral hazard combined with poor ag and ranching practices continue to drive Spring wildfire conditions. <a href="https://t.co/EjaYXB3rZe">https://t.co/EjaYXB3rZe</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FireWX?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FireWX</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZOPwzs46dJ">https://t.co/ZOPwzs46dJ</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/974358131009449984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Red flag warning again for majority Republican counties: <a href="https://t.co/OIZVQ4rOuX">https://t.co/OIZVQ4rOuX</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FireWX?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FireWX</a> <a href="https://t.co/xPvBpvtpbE">https://t.co/xPvBpvtpbE</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1452967909815472136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">What does the vast majority of counties affected by tomorrow's critical <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/firewx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#firewx</a> have in common? With the exception of reservations they're all Republican strongholds. <a href="https://t.co/j20AnPyrYj">pic.twitter.com/j20AnPyrYj</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1376157876956274689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Nearly every day this time of year the same Republican-held strongholds that get ag subsidies are most prone to wildland fire: eastern Colorado and New Mexico, western Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/firewx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#firewx</a> <a href="https://t.co/xtDIqIzcRq">pic.twitter.com/xtDIqIzcRq</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1092410103255298048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/firewx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#firewx</a> in Montana and elsewhere today isn't risk from environmentalists stopping timber operations; it's the result of poor ranching practices in Republican warrens. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mtwx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mtwx</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mtpol?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mtpol</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mtnews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mtnews</a> <a href="https://t.co/3dgVw442zf">https://t.co/3dgVw442zf</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1235203148915945472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">It's important to note that northwestern South Dakota is a Republican wasteland. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sdwx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#sdwx</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/firewx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#firewx</a> <a href="https://t.co/JmcxOaFxtd">https://t.co/JmcxOaFxtd</a> <a href="https://t.co/c7THXwE0sv">pic.twitter.com/c7THXwE0sv</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1364238734862917634?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Republican counties still driving <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/firewx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#firewx</a> risk <a href="https://t.co/hKqGoN1n2F">pic.twitter.com/hKqGoN1n2F</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1477795061626810370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Republican counties are still driving wildfire risks. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/firewx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#firewx</a> <a href="https://t.co/fgtQjPRWRg">pic.twitter.com/fgtQjPRWRg</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1485598895476551689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Republican counties are still most at risk. 10 hour fuel moisture, red flag warning: <a href="https://t.co/OIZVQ4smkv">https://t.co/OIZVQ4smkv</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FireWX?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FireWX</a> <a href="https://t.co/3NES9wXrHF">pic.twitter.com/3NES9wXrHF</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1499369941220589571?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Republican counties continue to suffer extreme <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/firewx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#firewx</a> conditions. <a href="https://t.co/0tC3Nj5R9a">https://t.co/0tC3Nj5R9a</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1508804296615374861?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Republican counties continue to drive critical <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/firewx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#firewx</a> <a href="https://t.co/TYecLsRA5k">https://t.co/TYecLsRA5k</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/1613323520687079431?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-85743513566941688782024-02-25T05:19:00.000-08:002024-02-25T05:28:12.325-08:00Red flag warnings begin for Republican counties<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3kB1i_PfzF-d_U4ARanoWXGl85D3429cgkas9X_d_8qyyfG02HHoaxxjOGu4EkYvfximrsdHj-UFo47Vq2AnxlC0_6C8cwZN4hgZAvUjbQ0T1fxPDd7xC4zjMX29rDN2XHKMAFyyeljarluHTuSrel1pX2yMe3c5V4CU7uwiCCLfwSeaZpZNGiGMAgC0/s815/8B3E4BB7-8C07-4436-B94C-9CF425C21FA8.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="815" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3kB1i_PfzF-d_U4ARanoWXGl85D3429cgkas9X_d_8qyyfG02HHoaxxjOGu4EkYvfximrsdHj-UFo47Vq2AnxlC0_6C8cwZN4hgZAvUjbQ0T1fxPDd7xC4zjMX29rDN2XHKMAFyyeljarluHTuSrel1pX2yMe3c5V4CU7uwiCCLfwSeaZpZNGiGMAgC0/s600/8B3E4BB7-8C07-4436-B94C-9CF425C21FA8.png" width="600" /></a></div>Well, it's the 25th of February and dead fuels are drying out fast: drought created by human climate interference, poor farming and ranching practices and care less attitudes among the MAGA crowd are driving Earth's biosphere into the dirt. <div><br /></div><div>National Weather Service offices in Pueblo and Boulder Colorado; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Goodland, Kansas; North Platte and Hastings, Nebraska and Cheyenne, Wyoming are forecasting red flag warnings for red counties while in Lubbock, Texas fire weather watches are posted until at least Monday where highs will reach the mid-80s with zero moisture in sight. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are three large uncontained wildfires burning in Oklahoma totaling over 1,100 acres and the evacuations of some OKC metro areas are being ordered at post time where fire officials are saying grass fires are "popping up everywhere." Forecasters predict Republicans in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas can expect extreme fire seasons that will be thirty days longer than normal as the region warms and eastern red cedar spreads through central Trumpistan.</div><div><br /></div><div>Strong westerly winds and low relative humidity are forecast across the southern and central High Plains until at least Monday where elevated to critical conditions are likely. Grassland fire danger indices will reach the extreme category Monday as far north as southwestern South Dakota with moderate and high risk for other MAGA-held counties.</div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-85883375352861823682024-02-24T05:03:00.000-08:002024-02-24T12:51:08.168-08:00IAIA grad named 2024 AiR at SURFAfter studying journalism at Black Hills State University, National Endowment For the Arts Scholarship Recipient Marty Two Bulls, Jr. studied printmaking and ceramics at The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe where he graduated with honors in 2011. <div><br /></div><div>Mr. Two Bulls spent several years as a working artist with exhibitions in New Mexico where he was an organizer, Director of Operations at 333 Montezuma Arts and the gallery manager at Santa Fe Clay before he came home to teach at Oglala Lakota College where he runs a graphic arts program he founded. After applying for the position he has just been named 2024 Artist in Residence at the Sanford Underground Research Facility or SURF in the former Homestake Mine under Lead, South Dakota. </div><div><br /></div><div>Democratic former US Senators Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson brought the need for a research facility to Congress and worked tirelessly to bring the project to fruition. But today, South Dakota is dumbing down requirements for math teachers because graduates flee and the state's <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2021/06/kristi-noem-would-ban-pulitzer-prize.html" target="_blank">governor is a reactionary cracker</a>, the Republican Party ridicules educated people and perennially threatens funding for public radio.<b><i><blockquote>“Open pit mining and mineral extraction was a major wound, not just to the land, but also, to my people,” Two Bulls said. “Our history is not necessarily an easy conversation to have in the Black Hills, but ignoring it is not the best way forward. I do come from a population whose version of history hasn't really been told. Art has the potential to express complex ideas in very short amounts of time. My goal as an artist, and also as an educator, is to be a good communicator and teacher who can express complex ideas and help people understand some of this difficult history.” [<a href="https://sanfordlab.org/article/marty-two-bulls-jr-named-surf-2024-artist-residence" target="_blank">Marty Two Bulls Jr. Named SURF 2024 Artist in Residence</a>]</blockquote></i></b></div><div>That a dark matter lab named for a usurious, lecherous Republican billionaire would select an enlightened, forward-looking tribal leader to a residency sends an <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2021/09/closure-of-homestake-mine-erased.html" target="_blank">undarkened signal to the SDGOP</a> to just shut the fuck up.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="und">.<a href="https://twitter.com/sherman_alexie?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Sherman_Alexie</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/IAIASantaFe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IAIASantaFe</a> <a href="http://t.co/ULzEfp1pnC">pic.twitter.com/ULzEfp1pnC</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/553717585737293824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-92062105499128621552024-02-22T05:38:00.000-08:002024-03-10T12:07:00.375-07:00Idaho now facing talent flight, enriching doctorsHaving fled Idaho new neighbors Brian and Lara are settling in at Russ and Bea’s old place. Lara is white but Brian is not so when they went into Twin Falls to shop the glares from the Earth haters were threatening enough and they have now found sanctuary here in Santa Fe County. <div><br /></div><div>Montana and Idaho are part of the American Redoubt where Ammon Bundy and the christianic religionists have holed up to wait out the End Times so even the Chair of the Idaho Republican Party is a Bircher. According to WalletHub Idaho is the <a href="https://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-states-for-doctors/11376" target="_blank">third most lucrative state</a> to practice medicine just behind Montana and South Dakota.<b><i><blockquote>A <a href="https://www.idahocsh.org/impact" target="_blank">new report</a> shows Idaho has lost 22% of its OBGYNs since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 – that's more than 1 in 5. Valley County Family care obstetrician and Coalition board president Caitlin Gustafson said while not all departures are necessarily a response to the bans, the dramatic and sudden decrease in physicians can only be attributed to the state’s restrictive abortion laws. [<a href="https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/health/2024-02-21/abortion-idaho-ban-obgyn-obstetrician-report" target="_blank">New report shows 'dramatic exodus' of Idaho OBGYNs since repeal of Roe v. Wade</a>]</blockquote></i></b>Just say it: <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/20/donald-trump-allies-christian-nationalism-00142086">radical christianic terrorism</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">They took a baby, got paid and lied about it!<br /><br />CPS Agents, Meriden Police, St. Lukes Medical Staff FLAT-OUT lied about why they took Baby Cyrus. Here is the evidence. Then they got their attorneys to try and cover it all up using the courts. <a href="https://t.co/NxDdOfb8MQ">pic.twitter.com/NxDdOfb8MQ</a></p>— Ammon Bundy (@RealABundy) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealABundy/status/1744791268662591781?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">In a new livestream from an undisclosed location, Ammon Bundy emerged to portray himself as a victim. He also swerved into a pro-Trucker/“right-to-drive” sovereign citizen-esque rant. <a href="https://t.co/1WrstX2wkY">pic.twitter.com/1WrstX2wkY</a></p>— Devin Burghart (@dburghart) <a href="https://twitter.com/dburghart/status/1759996622333980709?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-2722675300675893662024-02-21T05:13:00.000-08:002024-02-21T16:23:04.844-08:00South Dakota doesn't even look like America<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKLhjoWimx1rJjj-3k_H03zy528qv3O6Gj6ME41VQRBAoA-NuYkIk-0E0lgmvakaDMXJZApVogVc1rt9SLB7IYYOezXOEkrW87xqerWansdfqWytiJC1zDOOyP35t3L6yzJq46Aryed9_Y2ExVoYLGHB584IvUUrN66zCf0__MwbZl5Nj_LYr-55M5XN4/s497/3EEFEBA3-A5B6-498B-A208-77E87A5E7CC7.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="451" data-original-width="497" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKLhjoWimx1rJjj-3k_H03zy528qv3O6Gj6ME41VQRBAoA-NuYkIk-0E0lgmvakaDMXJZApVogVc1rt9SLB7IYYOezXOEkrW87xqerWansdfqWytiJC1zDOOyP35t3L6yzJq46Aryed9_Y2ExVoYLGHB584IvUUrN66zCf0__MwbZl5Nj_LYr-55M5XN4/s600/3EEFEBA3-A5B6-498B-A208-77E87A5E7CC7.jpeg" width="600" /></a></div><div>My home state of South Dakota is among the least ethnically diverse according to new surveys from WalletHub. Even the most diverse town in the state, Huron, is 203rd probably because of the <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2017/11/refugees-are-doing-work-in-south-dakota.html" target="_blank">Karen population</a> but Sioux Falls is 381st and Rapid City is 395th.<br /><div><div><br /></div><div>The state is 34th in electorate representation, 46th furthest from US reference value, in 51st place for the number of women who own businesses and 49th in percentage of women who voted in 2020. South Dakota is 41st in 'sociodemographic' rank, 49th in 'public opinion' rank and 36th in 'economy' rank <a href="https://wallethub.com/edu/electorate-representation-index/18190" target="_blank">according to WalletHub</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>South Dakota is 50th in women-owned businesses and 41st in women's health care and safety. The bottom 8 states for women's well-being are all red and as a surprise to no one Utah looks the least like America but <a href="https://wallethub.com/edu/cities-with-the-most-and-least-ethno-racial-and-linguistic-diversity/10264" target="_blank">blue state Illinois looks the most like US</a>.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>South Dakota is rife with sobriety checkpoints, racial profiling makes I-90 a civil rights black hole and police just recently were stopped from forcing catheters into the urethras of the accused. So, probably not coincidental to Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem (KLAN)'s political grandstanding is the flight of talent from the state and calls by its entire congressional delegation to ease immigration rules. Her christianic religionists are apparently void of any compassion and choose to blame Democrats for inflation as labor shortages drive wage increases. </div><div><br /></div><div>In 2020 Mrs. Noem sued to have the checkpoints that protected Native Americans removed from the highways on reservations. Now, South Dakota's governor is going full blown Netanyahu and planning to wall off the north bank of the Rio Grande <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/02/republican-governors-are-feigning.html" target="_blank">to keep America white</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div><div></div></div></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-39837409314056305182024-02-20T07:06:00.000-08:002024-02-20T15:27:47.783-08:00Schweitzer, Tranel: utilities are not your friendsDemocrat Brian Schweitzer was governor when this scrivener was living in Montana but after leaving office he chose not to run for the US Senate allowing raving lunatic Steve Daines to sashay into the seat. <div><br /></div><div>The sometimes bombastic but widely-liked Schweitzer became chairman of the board of Stillwater Mining Company, Montana's largest revenue producer. Schweitzer isn't a progressive by any stretch of the imagination but <a href="http://interested-party.blogspot.com/2014/01/schweitzer-on-2016-presidential-run-it.html">his populist appeal</a> makes him a regional favorite among Democrats even though he has promoted coal and the Keystone XL pipeline. Recall that in 2009 when he was governor, Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based NorthWestern Energy was responsible for a gas explosion in Bozeman, Montana that killed a person and destroyed several businesses. </div><div><br /></div><div>In 2021 Schweitzer raked Montana Republicans after they gave special treatment to NorthWestern Energy calling it "a fine mix of Socialism and Crony Capitalism to match Russian President Vladimir Putin." Also in 2021 the company's devastating decrease in the Madison River flow killed native trout because of its negligence at the Hebgen Dam then one of its power lines caused a wildfire that destroyed most of Denton, Montana. <div><div><br /></div><div>NWE thumbed its nose at Montana’s Public Service Commission so without any regulatory approval it began construction of a generating station in Laurel. The company spends millions of dollars every year greasing Republican politicians and poisoning waterways including in Montana where the PRC is comprised of Earth haters. </div><div><br /></div><div>Utilities are not your friends so on behalf of Northern Plains Resource Council, the Thiel Road Coalition and the Montana Environmental Information Center, Earthjustice filed suit over zoning jurisdiction of the parcel where the plant is being built but a judge ruled for NWE and Yellowstone County.<b><i><blockquote>Schweitzer, speaking at a forum sponsored by Montana Conservation Voters, said the state Public Service Commission hasn’t acted in the consumers’ interest for several years, seizing on an October decision by the five-member PSC that made residential and small business electric rates the highest in the region for customers of NorthWestern Energy. Northwestern Energy is the state’s largest monopoly utility, with more than 400,000 metered electric customers and 300,000 natural gas customers. Customers of monopolies are legally recognized as “captive,” meaning they lack the free-market choice of shopping around for a better deal. [<a href="https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/schweitzer-calls-for-shakeup-of-montana-utility-regulators/article_ec1b6de4-cc66-11ee-af36-8f48fbd20d93.html" target="_blank">Schweitzer calls for shakeup of Montana utility regulators</a>]</blockquote></i></b>Monica Tranel is an attorney and candidate for Montana’s western District for US Congress.<b><i><blockquote>NorthWestern’s motive is money. The bigger the kingdom, the bigger the king. NorthWestern’s corporate PAC contributes to Ryan Zinke’s campaign while he voted to cut funding for low-income heating assistance by more than 75%. If our elected officials won’t hold NorthWestern accountable, let’s hold our elected officials accountable. Let’s vote for people who will work for the people, and put the interests of our communities above profits for monopoly corporations. [<a href="https://www.laureloutlook.com/commentary/time-for-accountability/article_67963d6a-bc76-11ee-bebf-c38f83f6a0fc.html" target="_blank">Time for Accountability</a>]</blockquote></i></b>In 2015 the US Department of Transportation swatted ExxonMobil with a million dollar penalty after the Environmental Protection Agency released an overview of cleanup efforts in the aftermath of the 2011 breach of the Silvertip pipeline that spilled 63,000 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone River upstream of Billings near Laurel. </div><div><br /></div><div>It’s endless — like <a href="https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/government-politics/epa-superfund-butte-berkeley-pit/article_99cb65ff-7a22-5d23-aa71-d84604e32a20.html">wiping yer ass with a hula hoop</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>On 16 February the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that crews working on the cleanup of an August, 2023 train derailment have recovered some 236,385 pounds of asphalt from the Yellowstone River just upstream from Laurel.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">People, urge Brian Schweitzer to run for Public Service Commissioner.<br />And expose fossil fuel BS energy policy.<br />Rebrand the BSC, as PSC.<br />Finish real strong as a public servant.<br />Kinda make up for depriving Stillwater chrome miners of their pensions.<br />& pushing magnetohydrodynamics. <a href="https://t.co/MoEGo7Zkbz">https://t.co/MoEGo7Zkbz</a></p>— Bob Williams (@BWilliamsMont) <a href="https://twitter.com/BWilliamsMont/status/1756749566630912327?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div></div></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-44134731855561190872024-02-19T05:44:00.000-08:002024-02-19T08:11:41.729-08:00NM legislature passes psilocybin resolutionOur Lady of the Arroyo is part of a study testing the efficacy of microdosing psychoactive fungi. She reports mood leveling, easing of anxiety and a more grounded approach to her place on Earth during a time when Republicans are actively destroying the planet. <div><br /></div><div>New Mexico is one of some 22 states easing restrictions on <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2022/07/entheogens-move-another-step-closer-to.html" target="_blank">psychoactive substances</a>. <b><i><blockquote>Sen. Jeff Steinborn, a Las Cruces Democrat, pulled in a Democratic House colleague and Republican Rep. Stefani Lord of Sandia Park as co-sponsors of SM 12, as well as Republican Sen. Craig Brandt of Rio Rancho. Proponents such as veterans groups, licensed therapists, physicians, and organizations like the New Mexico Psychedelic Science Society and Sol Tryp — a ketamine therapy and psychedelic advocacy organization based in Las Cruces — expressed their support for the memorial to lawmakers last weekend during a Senate committee meeting. Colorado, Oregon and several municipalities, including Washington, D.C., have adopted or are in the process of adopting psilocybin-based treatment programs. Colorado is even decriminalizing psilocybin mushrooms and other psychedelic substances outright. [<a href="https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/legislature/new-mexico-health-department-directed-to-study-psilocybin-therapy/article_cd6b728c-cd14-11ee-b96d-3f74086a82ba.html" target="_blank">New Mexico Health Department directed to study psilocybin therapy</a>]</blockquote></i></b>My first experience with LSD was in California just after high school in 1971 but my first ingested psilocybin was in Brookings after leaving Missoula in 1981 and the experience was revelatory. This blog has been covering entheogens like cannabis, fungi, peyote, <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2010/03/holy-spirit-mental-illness-linked.html" target="_blank">opium</a> and <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2012/01/depression-find-something-that-works-or.html" target="_blank">ketamine</a> since its beginning. </div><div><br /></div><div>Black Hills State University Professor Audrey Gabel was a tireless advocate for Black Hills habitat and took my calls when i was stumped. She told me oyster mushrooms were the best eating and thought my favorite, <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2011/08/rally-is-over-time-for-lobster.html" target="_blank">Hypomyces lactifluorum</a>, are too tough to eat. She passed in 2011.</div><div><br /></div><div>Colorado is firming up rules on <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2023/12/29/colorado-creates-regulatory-division-for-psychedelic-mushrooms/" target="_blank">therapeutic fungi</a>. Learn more at a story behind a paywall at <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2024/02/05/colorado-psychedelics-decriminalization-law-psilocybin-shrooms-dmt-mescaline-arrest/" target="_blank">the Denver Post</a>. More on ketamine at Kaiser Health News <a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/ketamine-therapy-hallucinogenic-mental-health-unregulated/">linked here</a>.</div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-17384958505405473212024-02-18T04:57:00.000-08:002024-02-19T07:06:26.546-08:00Support for 30x30 initiative strong in Rockies yet violence looms<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdAJL6uWz95l78UXJq38-iPAShwJ8GtRJZHOpNgEoj5NPnbPZWR_c5mWWPNCvQg4C6ebbRHw1PAfMZQJNYvho1yO22QAy7XyrLXkfuf0ChW0vhE5hcjAq0m81Oxt6ktryoTK4Qzd5hBizLoRo1Bdd7pW1KFYHpIOitrBvWDA8qZGrPWRenx2px4yUR-mg/s607/B1970CF6-CF76-4AA0-8BDC-A9CE6EDA925C.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="607" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdAJL6uWz95l78UXJq38-iPAShwJ8GtRJZHOpNgEoj5NPnbPZWR_c5mWWPNCvQg4C6ebbRHw1PAfMZQJNYvho1yO22QAy7XyrLXkfuf0ChW0vhE5hcjAq0m81Oxt6ktryoTK4Qzd5hBizLoRo1Bdd7pW1KFYHpIOitrBvWDA8qZGrPWRenx2px4yUR-mg/s600/B1970CF6-CF76-4AA0-8BDC-A9CE6EDA925C.jpeg" width="600" /></a></div>According to voters in the Rocky Mountain West President Joe Biden's 30x30 Initiative is popular even among Republicans. <b><i><blockquote>“Issues that are the highest in 14 years of conducting <a href="https://www.coloradocollege.edu/other/stateoftherockies/conservationinthewest/2024.html" target="_blank">this survey</a>,” said Lori Weigel, one of the project’s pollsters. “They are at the highest levels of concern ever.” The poll contacted people online or by phone, with at least 400 voters in each of the eight Mountain West states — Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. [<a href="https://www.cpr.org/2024/02/15/bipartisan-conservation-in-the-west-poll-results/" target="_blank">Bipartisan conservation poll shows increasing concern over environmental issues in Western States</a>]</blockquote></i></b><div>In July, 2023 the <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/07/americans-overwhelmingly-support-blm.html" target="_blank">Center for Western Priorites</a> found 92% of 10,000 comments encouraged the Interior Department to adopt the US Bureau of Land Management's <a href="https://www.blm.gov/public-lands-rule#:~:text=The%20Public%20Lands%20Rule%20would%20establish%20the%20policy%20BLM%20needs,degraded%20habitat%20and%20ecosystems%2C%20and" target="_blank">Public Lands Rule</a> as written or even strengthen its conservation measures.<b><i><blockquote>To the delight of oil drillers, miners, trophy hunters, ranchers, farmers, loggers, and factory trawlers, the Biden plan calls for not initiating any conservation action at the federal level, instead ceding federal responsibility on this to local, parochial politics. If the intent of the 30x30 initiative is to give our struggling terrestrial and marine ecosystems the best chance possible to make it to the far side of the climate chaos this century, the current approach clearly fails. [<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/biden-s-conservation-plan-falls-short" target="_blank">Biden’s 30X30 Conservation Plan Falls Far Short of What Is Needed</a>]</blockquote></i></b>Nevertheless, Republican welfare ranchers ginned up by the likes of South Dakota Governor <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/01/driven-by-governor-attack-on-blm.html" target="_blank">Kristi Noem</a>, Wyoming's US Representative <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/10/hysteria-threats-putting-blm-employees.html" target="_blank">Harriet Hageman</a>, disgraced former Otero County Commissioner <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/01/convicted-in-new-mexico-criminal-now.html" target="_blank">Couy Griffin</a>, American Stewards of Liberty rabble-rouser <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2024/02/afbf-culture-war-heating-up-over.html" target="_blank">Margaret Byfield</a> and <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/10/republican-civil-war-heating-up-in.html" target="_blank">others</a> are <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/05/far-white-wing-of-gop-would-destroy.html" target="_blank">plotting violence</a> against public land managers in the West.</div><div><br /></div><div>Republicans in Chaves County have joined with those in Luna County to resist the Mimbres Peaks National Monument according to the <a href="https://www.rdrnews.com/news/local/chaves-county-officials-back-luna-county-oppositon-to-mimbres-peaks-designation/article_6c16c3b4-cdce-11ee-840d-37fba688509d.html" target="_blank">Roswell Daily Record</a>.<b><i><blockquote>The Antiquities Act of 1906 has been used by presidents of both parties as an instrument to preserve and protect critical natural, historical and scientific resources on federal lands. According to the Department of the Interior, since President Roosevelt, 16 U.S. presidents have used the act over 150 times to establish or expand national monuments. Congress may also pass legislation designating national monuments. Currently, the National Park Service manages 83 national monuments. The Bureau of Land Management administers 25 national monuments. And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service administers six national monuments. [<a href="https://www.thefencepost.com/news/arizona-rancher-files-suit-alleging-antiquities-act-abuse/" target="_blank">Arizona rancher files suit alleging Antiquities Act abuse</a>]</blockquote></i></b>Learn <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-priorities/protect-water-and-land/land-and-water-stories/committing-to-30x30/" target="_blank">more at the Nature Conservancy</a>.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">With only 6 years left to reach our 2030 goals, it’s essential that leaders around the world prioritize the health of our planet over profits. <a href="https://t.co/SvwpjMImJu">https://t.co/SvwpjMImJu</a> <a href="https://t.co/lQ1zN7lNo1">pic.twitter.com/lQ1zN7lNo1</a></p>— The Nature Conservancy (@nature_org) <a href="https://twitter.com/nature_org/status/1746547853990797678?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-2326499736817635822024-02-17T07:16:00.000-08:002024-02-19T09:10:11.647-08:00Hybrid rail plan announcedFrom my inbox comes the following from Dan Bilka. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3w4t_VoPYsJlAvXXu_6Y84xUV2hB8Oa97qWO_9gM10pWVulzHaL_FyLwlkbRMDb_Gs2RSAYHbcelmEb2ctaBeH0SvHYJRc8fbPCJu5i9Puv67PRPB4_7SWGEnd-FYJkChrnWTjM_McAL18T_U8jvnV-wi2UYa4HxOCphretn7x6YXex0FfFF5wzZxvjk/s1444/SoDak%20Amtrak%20Round3%20Route%20Proposal3.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="1444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3w4t_VoPYsJlAvXXu_6Y84xUV2hB8Oa97qWO_9gM10pWVulzHaL_FyLwlkbRMDb_Gs2RSAYHbcelmEb2ctaBeH0SvHYJRc8fbPCJu5i9Puv67PRPB4_7SWGEnd-FYJkChrnWTjM_McAL18T_U8jvnV-wi2UYa4HxOCphretn7x6YXex0FfFF5wzZxvjk/s600/SoDak%20Amtrak%20Round3%20Route%20Proposal3.JPG" width="600" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVtJ2bLdycTUkuFGeRsN0_ZIg6Y417Gun4EAgIz3Hi0TFrj3_xzREDYM_T1zT802CmtvXAuswMHmFGnAO6hUOCPjz9VqcJcp2vcybVau9xf75oWclrPWICKVOCuXUKYeN-uwKsKCWdODy1KibUNxqjlZ7VQbubLAWm3fHPX7nMQy6TY-wcuXF39L0LwvI/s1071/SD%20ROund%203%204.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="769" data-original-width="1071" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVtJ2bLdycTUkuFGeRsN0_ZIg6Y417Gun4EAgIz3Hi0TFrj3_xzREDYM_T1zT802CmtvXAuswMHmFGnAO6hUOCPjz9VqcJcp2vcybVau9xf75oWclrPWICKVOCuXUKYeN-uwKsKCWdODy1KibUNxqjlZ7VQbubLAWm3fHPX7nMQy6TY-wcuXF39L0LwvI/s600/SD%20ROund%203%204.JPG" width="600" /></a></div><b><i></i></b><blockquote><b><i>Hello my fellow South Dakotans!! </i></b><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>Now that the Project team has released the materials, I am pleased to announce that South Dakota, for the first time in Amtrak's 52+ year history, is on a Federally-created proposed map of passenger rail service! We are now identified on the "Proposed Network of Preferred Routes." </i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>South Dakota: On. The. Map!! </i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>The Long-Distance study process has identified two routes through our state. A Twin Cities - Sioux Falls - Rapid City - Cheyenne - Denver routing and a Twin Cities - Sioux Falls - Sioux City - Omaha- Kansas City and beyond routing. It has been through no small part, the efforts of All Aboard Northwest (in the room and at the table with the FRA during the workshops) and comments submitted by South Dakotans and our friends across the nation that has gotten us to this milestone. </i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>The presentation from the Round 3 workshops can be seen <a href="https://fralongdistancerailstudy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/FRA_LDSS_Presentation_for_Web_Meeting3_Optimized.pdf " target="_blank">here.</a></i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>This isn't the last step, this is only the first step, to return passenger trains to our state. We'll also continue making the case for more routes, ultimately, to be included for passenger rail (here's looking at you Milbank, Aberdeen, & Lemmon). </i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>Given the 52+ years of South Dakota being disadvantaged by not having passenger rail, I personally believe that we (along with Wyoming) should be a top priority to get on the map with passenger rail services again. With your help, support, and vocal interest to the FRA, our state leaders and congressional delegation, we can make it happen! </i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>South Dakotans, and all people in our region, deserve the same freedom of mobility, economic opportunity, and quality of life that passenger rail services bring! Together, we can make it happen.
</i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>What's next? The final round of Workshops will be held later this year after which the final report will be delivered to Congress. Once delivered, we need Congress to act on these recommendations and bring these critically needed routes into reality. Once they act on these recommendations, these proposed routes will have to go through service development planning (and likely construction activities) prior to implementation. </i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>We need to get our Congressional Delegation; Senator Thune, Senator Rounds, and Representative Johnson on-board with passenger rail and help ensure that we're a national priority moving forward.</i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>Read more about this Round of workshops from our partners at Rail Passengers <a href="https://railpassengers.org/happening-now/news/blog/15-new-trains-closer-to-our-long-distance-goals/ " target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://www.railpassengers.org/happening-now/news/blog/the-round-three-ld-map-is-out/ " target="_blank">here</a>.</i></b> </div></blockquote><blockquote><div><b><i>Key to note: "As for the naysayers you may have read on social media, well, they’re entitled to their opinions. But nobody should draw conclusions about whether rail expansion is worthwhile just from looking at leaked sections of a vision map. And assuming that somehow a year and a half of concentrated full-time study would NOT include thinking about track conditions, capital investment, living patterns, equipment needs, or station placement and design? Well, that’s just plain silly. The FRA team didn’t just order out for pizza last month and sit in someone’s basement to draw up a map with Magic Markers. Everyone involved knows that the next step is a broad, high-level assessment of capital needs, ridership, social and economic benefits, and stages of readiness. And that’s coming in Round Four this Spring, setting the stage for additional route-specific detailed planning later on." </i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>Passenger Rail is feasible for South Dakota and it's up to us to make it a reality. Yes, it may take a number of years to realize but now is the best time to start working on that! Public Comments are now open on the Round 3 Materials until March 8th. Make your voices heard! </i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>Dan </i></b></div><div><b><i> -- </i></b></div><div><b><i>Dan Bilka </i></b></div><div><b><i>Co-Founder & President, All Aboard Northwest </i></b></div><div><b><i>Coordinator, Greater Northwest Passenger Rail Coalition</i></b></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: center;">### </p><div>A 2015 multi-modal intercity passenger rail plan proposed a route between Minneapolis and Denver that would serve just Sioux Falls in South Dakota but connect with the California Zephyr at Omaha as part of a Phase Two development. </div><div><br /></div>Mr. Bilka's expanded proposal does that and more. His maps are not entirely clear about how to use existing rail bed. Burlington Northern Santa Fe has track from Canton to Wolsey where it intersects with the Rapid City Pierre and Eastern then presumed into Pierre and Rapid City. <div><br /></div><div>My proposal for passenger rail from Minneapolis to Rapid City is <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2023/08/sioux-falls-billings-boise-added-to.html" target="_blank">a route</a> from the Twin Cities or Mankato on the right of way owned by the Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern Railroad to Brookings and Pierre then to Rapid City then to BSNF tracks at Alliance via Crawford, Nebraska then to Cheyenne and Denver.</div><div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://dot.sd.gov/media/documents/railmap.pdf" target="_blank">South Dakota rail map linked here</a>.<div><br /></div></div></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31079809771482270.post-9597816023745122162024-02-16T06:11:00.000-08:002024-02-16T16:21:21.770-08:00FEMA testing Democratic resolve with NM wildfire compensation<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWleh4ygTMikdOSyW-Nn139TO8fuP2VQnlIpBrlueMgANpH1WgL1pOMzktlfJnzXuYB5An4UdEoi1KkqrBHFIs6o_0e727ABSqjcKpc55HUDwbDt_bIXeAZzs1aF04ZEOnDqCGC9YTTtLsySWL25YtatxiECTinqcNtNKCFKKrLm1A09iekDAJCKz4d84/s2048/E5FD9530-F3AC-4216-B4F2-74DA4074B738.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWleh4ygTMikdOSyW-Nn139TO8fuP2VQnlIpBrlueMgANpH1WgL1pOMzktlfJnzXuYB5An4UdEoi1KkqrBHFIs6o_0e727ABSqjcKpc55HUDwbDt_bIXeAZzs1aF04ZEOnDqCGC9YTTtLsySWL25YtatxiECTinqcNtNKCFKKrLm1A09iekDAJCKz4d84/s600/E5FD9530-F3AC-4216-B4F2-74DA4074B738.jpeg" width="600" /></a></div><div>Our Lady of the Arroyo worked at the Los Alamos Medical Center during the <a href="http://interested-party.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-post.html">Las Conchas Fire</a> and told her man at post time that residents who lost homes and belongings mostly blamed Republican Governor <a href="http://interested-party.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-mexicans-occupy-alec-dinner.html">Susana Martinez</a> for her hesitation to ask President Barack Obama for an emergency declaration.</div><div><br /></div><div>Every incident like that fire, the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak Fire are teaching moments: episodes where humans are humbled by climate catastrophes created by our own failures. But like in 2011, New Mexicans who were displaced and burned out by <a href="https://interested-party.blogspot.com/2022/05/new-mexico-fires-linked-to-trump.html" target="_blank">the 2022 wildfire complex</a> are increasingly frustrated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency as election year unfolds. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even New Mexico's Democratic congressional delegation is fretting the sluggish pace of compensation after under-monitored US Forest Service pile burns blew up ahead of a dry Spring. In January, Senators Martin Heinrich, Ben Ray Luján and Representative for the Third District Teresa Leger Fernández sent a second letter to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell hoping to expedite payments to claimants. So far, the Claims Office has paid out over $330 million or about 8% of the $4 billion fund and the office has received over $518 million in claimed damages. New Mexico is in FEMA Region 6.</div><div><div><b><i><blockquote>John Mills, external affairs officer for the FEMA Incident Management Assistance Team Region 7, explained in a telephone interview on Jan. 19 that, up until this point, FEMA’s response to the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire was twofold: the disaster response under the Stafford Act and the response via the Claims Office. [<a href="https://www.lasvegasoptic.com/news/community/fema-officials-assure-residents-process-will-speed-up-at-town-hall/article_6d4a85f4-bba4-11ee-b773-f3d8a731a75b.html" target="_blank">FEMA officials assure residents process will speed up at Town Hall</a>]</blockquote></i></b>Tribes, well-funded local and volunteer fire departments could manage prescriptive burns, create defensible space and burn road ditches to create buffers where contract fire specialists don’t exist. But even government can’t always protect you from your own stupidity.</div><div><br /></div><div>In New Mexico, Republican ideologues who poke at competitors and declare their derision for those in public service simply reinforce my quest to move the Forest Service into Interior as a sister agency or even married to the Bureau of Land Management in cooperation with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and local tribal governments.<blockquote><b style="font-style: italic;">There is a simple answer to the dilemmas faced in disbursement of financial restitution to the victims of the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fires. FEMA needs to stop perceiving those whom they serve as opponents who should simply submit to receive whatever FEMA wishes to disburse. Learn from us. Becoming cooperative partners in this effort stands to benefit FEMA as well as the people served. [</b><a href="https://www.lasvegasoptic.com/opinion/nosotros-la-gente-dont-give-up/article_dbcde6f6-cc25-11ee-93c2-ebf7798c9bb4.html" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Nosotros la Gente: Don't give up</a><b style="font-style: italic;">]</b> </blockquote>Unless claims are processed more quickly Democratic voters in San Miguel and Mora Counties are going to stay home in November putting New Mexico's blue state solidarity at risk.</div><div><br /></div><div>ip images.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="es">Las Conchas Fire survivor <a href="http://t.co/c6WNGolWgO">pic.twitter.com/c6WNGolWgO</a></p>— interested party (@larry_kurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/larry_kurtz/status/539073004647350272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 30, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div></div>larry kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855417104900624838noreply@blogger.com0