Some Good (Temporary) Drought Relief News? I’ve recently found myself scanning the weather maps in hopes of seeing some relief from the west/mountain west’s ongoing drought. Looks like we’re finally getting some:
The moisture cannot arrive too soon. California is nearing its 20th consecutive month of drought, a grim benchmark in a decades-long dry spell. The state’s plight is representative of the challenging water situation facing much of the Western United States, highlighted by drought-related disasters over the past two years including extreme heat, wildfires and water shortages.
The replenishment of a much-depleted snowpack in the West is a crucial element in reducing the drought. Many regional reservoirs rely on snowpack and have been hurt by its scarcity in recent years. So far this season, snowpack is below normal almost everywhere in the West, but the coming trio of storms has the potential to restore some of it.
The drought will not be erased by one storm or even a succession of storms, but predicted precipitation through the middle of the month almost certainly will help incrementally notch down its magnitude and reach.
Letitia James: Bad News/Good News. The bad news?: NY’s AG is dropping out of the race for Governor. She was my preferred candidate. The good news?: She’s gonna force Trump to sit for a deposition:
New York’s attorney general plans to subpoena former President Donald Trump as part of the state’s civil fraud investigation into the Trump Organization, according to reports.
Attorney General Letitia James is seeking to have Trump sit for a deposition early next year to question him about whether the Trump Organization manipulated valuations of its real estate properties, The Washington Post first reported Thursday.
If James finds evidence of wrongdoing, she could file a civil lawsuit against Trump, but could not file criminal charges. However, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has been conducting a criminal probe into the Trump Organization’s business practices for the last several years. James is also involved in that investigation.
Investigators in the criminal probe have spent more than two years looking into whether the Trump Organization misled banks or tax officials about the value of the company’s assets. The probe has already resulted in tax fraud charges against the former president’s company.
Biden Delivers Fastest Economic Recovery In History. Nobody Notices. Why? Because Democratic messaging sucks, ‘moderates’ are wetting their drawers, and Rethugs’ repeating of lie after lie is predictably effective:
Republicans want voters to think of their economic gains as temporary and the inflation pinch as permanent. They get the story exactly backwards. That hasn’t stopped some conservative outlets from crafting the bogus narrative that inflation is a result of Democratic spending priorities — not a side effect of an economy rapidly expanding after a year with its head held underwater. They also fail to mention that wages recently rose by the largest amount in two decades, and American workers will still be pocketing those gains when our post-coronavirus economic supercharge wears off and inflation drops back to regular levels.
If the conservative media’s framing is wrong, it’s also ruthlessly effective in scaring Democrats away from discussing all of the good happening in our economy since January. And like clockwork, skittish moderate Democrats are taking the GOP bait.
“We urge additional action by the House of Representatives to further address the disruptions and higher costs our constituents are experiencing,” a group of centrist House Democrats, including over a dozen in vulnerable 2022 races, wrote in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week. If Democrats can’t get their economic messaging together to convince their own moderates, how do they intend to persuade voters?
Covidiots Cause Pause In Surgeries At ChristianaCare. ‘Freedom’ (to not get vaccinated) isn’t free:
ChristianaCare is temporarily pausing elective surgeries starting Dec. 8 as Delaware experiences a significant surge in COVID-19 cases, the health system announced Wednesday night.
“This surge combined with already high demand for hospital services unrelated to COVID-19 is creating an extraordinarily high volume of patients who need hospital and emergency care,” hospital officials said in a statement.
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