DL Open Thread: Sunday: June 16, 2024

Out: El Nino. In: La Nina.  What does it mean?  Not what it used to, thanks to that thing you can’t talk about in Florida:

The strong El Nino weather condition that added a bit of extra heat to already record warm global temperatures is gone. It’s cool flip side, La Nina, is likely to breeze in just in time for peak Atlantic hurricane season, federal meteorologists said.

The world is now in a neutral condition when it comes to the important natural El Nino Southern Oscillation, which warps weather systems worldwide. Neutral is when weather gets closer to long-term averages or normal, something that hasn’t happened as much recently as it used to, said NOAA physical scientist Michelle L’Heureux, who is the lead forecaster of the agency’s ENSO team. But it likely won’t last, she added.

She said there’s a 65% chance that a La Nina, a cooling of the same parts of the Pacific that often has opposite effects, will form in the July, August and September time period. One of the biggest effects of La Nina is that it tends to make Atlantic hurricane season more active, and that storm season starts its peak in August.

“The likelihood of a La Nina coupled with record warm sea surface temperatures is the reason the National Hurricane Center is forecasting an extraordinary hurricane season,” said Kathie Dello, North Carolina’s state climatologist. “States from Texas to Maine are making preparations for an active year.”

Which reminds me.  DeSantis on the recent flooding:

DeSantis on Friday rejected any connection between the state’s energy policies and the flooding that occurred in South Florida, calling some of the criticism “very political.”

“We don’t want our energy policy driven by climate ideology,” he continued. “When that happens people pay more and the energy is less reliable. You don’t believe me? Look at California, look at the places that have tried this.”

DeSantis on May 15 signed the energy bill, HB 1645, which House Speaker Paul Renner pushed. Renner said the bill was needed to support utilities against pressure from “unrealistic” climate goals.

Hey, make ’em pay for their own cleanup.

Doctor, Doctor? This was, of course, inevitable:

On Saturday night Trump, who turned 78 on Friday, returned to the theme during a speech in Detroit, Michigan to the rightwing group, Turning Point Action. He sarcastically quipped that Biden “doesn’t even know what the word ‘inflation’ means”, and challenged his rival in the 2024 election to take a cognitive test just as he had done when he was in the White House.

Trump told his audience that he had “aced” the cognitive test following advice from the then presidential physician, a Republican member of Congress whom he named as Ronny Johnson. “Has anyone heard of Ronny Johnson, congressman from Texas?” he asked the crowd.

“He was the White House doctor, and he said I was the healthiest president, he feels, in history. So I liked him very much.”

The Ronny Johnson who administered Trump’s test was in fact Ronny Jackson, who represents Texas’s 13th congressional district. Jackson has been one of Trump’s most loyal advocates since entering the US House in 2021.

Whatever. All this is a mere pretext to share one of my fave ‘doctor’ songs, although the word ‘doctor’ does not appear in the song’s title:

Apparently, Dr. ‘Robert’ was a well-known London pill-pusher.  What ever would Trump do w/o the shit he’s taking?

In A Tortuous Transition, Robert and Bob are generally synonymous.  If you head out to ‘The Bob’ today, you just might find your new best friend.  I dare you not to click on this link.  A sample:

What do you want to talk about?