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November 20, 2021

Kyle Rittenhouse verdict was correct; quick thoughts on the background

First, twosiderism and tribalism, whether fueled by BlueAnon or by "antifa" on the anti-Rittenhouse side, or certainly by wingnuts?

Not welcome.

My takeoff is a non-wingnut, mainstream but thoughtful liberal, Eric Levitz of the NY Mag. He's more thoughtful and less tribalist, by far on both, than NY Mag peer Jonathan Chait of the bullshit that Trump was a Russian agent since the 1980s, with an assist from Wikipedia.

Basic facts?

Rittenhouse had a right to that gun;

Rittenhouse was running away from Joseph Rosenbaum et al;

Rosenbaum was unarmed with a gun, but apparently DID have a chain, but Joseph Ziminski, part of the same group, allegedly fired in the air;

At the same time, Rosenbaum threw a bag at Rittenhouse and (may have) hit him, but in any case, under Wisconsin law, "assault" does NOT include actually striking a person.

Rittenhouse then turned, Rosenbaum reportedly lunged at him, then Rittenhouse fatally shot him; 

Anthony Huber then hit Rittenhouse in the head with his skateboard;

Rittenhouse then fatally shot him;

Gaige Grosskreutz, armed!, then approached Rittenhouse brandishing (cliche alert) his handgun, and Rittenhouse shot him.

All three victims had criminal pasts, Rosenbaum felonious, while Rosenbaum was violent and bipolar. Contra the first link (BlueAnon Snopes) citing the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, as a media member myself, I believe referencing past criminal records, definitely when felonious and possibly when misdemeanor, if relevant, is a thing to do. Also, Judge Bruce Schroeder, refuting BlueAnon claims of bias by him, wouldn't let jurors hear of Rosenbaum's past, which was a win for prosecution.

The prosecution? Most of its antics (they were) that Schroeder ruled out of order WERE out of order. Prosecutors were either planting grounds for an appeal, or, speaking of appeals, doing a vox populi to say "we tried."

In any case, Wisconsin's "stand your ground" law isn't really that, and isn't really nutbar, when compared to say, Florida.

Rittenhouse shouldn't have been there. Agreed. A semi-kid had no place there.

Now, the big tribalism.

If you're a leftist, indeed, or even a liberal, and you support gun control, that means for EVERYBODY.

Grosskreutz had a concealed carry permit. Whether in Wisconsin or Texas, we have too much of that shit.

Beyond that, this shows the mob-like tendencies of much of the so-called Antifa. I've been in peaceful antiwar, environmentalist and gay rights protests. Had a Joseph Rosenbaum been around, I would have gotten the hell out of there.

Antifa? This shows to a T its tendency toward anarchism as part of its mob behavior. I've decried that and its Black Bloc roots as part of decrying the Black Bloc for 20 years.

==

As for claims Rittenhouse is a white supremacist? He flashed the OK sign when making bail and released from jail. Some people claim that this was the white power circle sign, a claim that's been refuted when made in some other cases. Unless I get shown something more unambiguous, I reject that.

In fact? He now claims to support BLM.

==

Meanwhile, Jonathan MS Pierce, British philosopher of sorts but I believe now resident here in America, has joined the #BlueAnon tribalism, and I posted this blog link there with comment.

"Good" philosopher that he is, he's accused me of tu quoque. In turn, I said my inferences were realistic, and accused him back of appeal to the crows (of his readers) and bulls-eye fallacy, on the grounds that if he didn't want to engage in tribal crowd appeals, it's reasonable to infer that he could have said other things bout the case and its background and chose not to. On "tu quoque" claims? An argument from silence, re my reasonable inferences, plays differently today than when used about New Testament manuscripts of nearly 2,000 years ago. Jonathan could have stated other facts in evidence beyond what he did, chose not to, and has chosen not to in responses to me. Paul and the Gospelers, from what I've heard, weren't on social media and blog sites. (I also went Caesar on him, with: καὶ σύ, τέκνον.)

On the "neither side should have been there"? First, Rosenbaum should have been institutionalized, of course. That said, after Huber and Grosskreutz showed up, they had the choice of not associating with him. And didn't. Grosskreutz claims not be be part of the so-called "antifa." We'll never know about Huber, of course. But, I color myself skeptical. That said, antifa has too much roots in the old Black Bloc. That's one reason actual BLM people in places like Portland don't care a lot for them. I believe it's called "wilding" in your Britain, Jonathan?

 May St. David of Hume, speaking of professional philosophers, forgive me for breaking the old "is / ought," but, theoretically Pierce should know better to engage in tribalism. On the other hand, Hume himself was a racist and as prince of empiricists, offered up non-empirical claims to justify his racism. Heidegger was a tribalist as a Nazi fellow traveler. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Tippling Philosopher Pierce ain't alone, though. At the Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf notes that universities, that is, university administrators, are largely doubling down on their already existing tribalist narratives.

November 19, 2021

Coronavirus, week 84: This and that

The Biden administration vax mandate has been blocked by (shock me) the Fifth Circuit. One of the leading, youth division, legal beagles in this effort is Jenin Younes, part of wingnut AIER. She was in on ground zero of Great Barrington, per her Twitter, where I've reported multiple posts. She's kind of a winger on politics, so the "lefty lockdown skeptic" of her Twitter name is also a lie, and I reported some posts twice. I note the "1" at the end of the Twitter URL; without it, that account doesn't exist. A previous, and deleted?

Boston Review says "tosh" to claims we don't know about the vaccines' longer-term safety.

Vaccine mandates work. Capital and Main has the latest.

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Nutbar) is up to $63K in House fines for appearing on the Capitol floor unmasked. That's her own reveal, as is telling Newsmax that (shock) she's unvaccinated.

So now wingnuts (won't link) are attacking the FDA for wanting 55 years to fully release appropriately redacted full info about Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination? It's actually not out of line. FDA noted that, in its response to the FOIA request, that plaintiff's four-month timeline was based on a requirement of examining 800,000, as in EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND, pages per day for redaction. A normal 800 pages per day would be 400 months, or 33 years.

November 18, 2021

Texas Progressives look at national and global nuttery

This corner of Texas Progressives saw so much nuttery outside the Pointy Abandoned Object State™ that he broke out a separate national and global roundup this week.

National

Mondoweiss notes that long-time Democratic House veteran James McGovern has explicitly called on Biden's Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, to "unambiguously denounce" Israel calling six Palestinian human rights and social groups terrorists. McGovern explicitly said "expressing concern" is not enough.

Stop buying so much shit. No, really. Even I had no idea American consumerism had gotten that bad. And, some liberals and some leftists may accuse me of guilting the poor, but if you live in a household with total income of under $40K and have more than 1 TV? The reasons you're poor or near-poor are partly your own.

I forgot that Ammon Bundy as well as Idaho's Lite Guv is primarying Gov. Brad Little, who hasn't formally announced yet but presumably is running. Bundy's now gotten Ron Paul's endorsement. Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachen's already gotten the Trump endorsement, so getcha popcorn.

Okie pot growing, which is essentially recreational-legal in all but name, is now a big fat legal mess.

The Flint water crisis legal settlement is indeed bullshit, both on lack of money and on lack of criminal sanctions for flunkies of former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder.

Judge orders city of Portland to reveal secret, taped-on police ID numbers.

Global

The Atlantic reports on the latest mind and society control efforts of Xi Jinping Thought. No, really; kids get monitored for how many hours of online video games they play, for starters in the story. Michael Schuman notes not only the background picture of Mao's shadow and the longer-term attempt to make sure Chinese businesses, especially in the tech world, don't get too uppity, but the Communist Party Congress a year from now when Xi will stand for a third term, unprecedented in terms of either formal or informal power since the death of Deng Xiaoping. Schuman adds that some of this comes from a puritanical streak toward the excesses of capitalism that Xi reportedly has. In all of this, asterisks must be appended, started with the magazine this appears in, then going to Schuman being a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Sidebar off Atlantic's rail: the reality of cause, effects and fallouts of the one-child policy.

Texas Progressives look at pre-Thanksgiving state tea leaves

Lots to talk about this week, the last before people stuff themselves on turkey or else scrape up vegan alternatives, so, let's dig in to ...

This week's Texas Progressives roundup.

Texas will get about $35 billion from the Biden infrastructure bill. GOP Senators Havana Ted Cruz and Tiny John Cornyn, and even more, wingnut US House Congresscritters, who all voted against it, will nonetheless start touting its state and House district benefits in 3, 2, 1 ... 

SB 8, the anti-abortion bill, is being challenged in state district court as well as the federal level.

Luke Warford is the first Dem to announce to seek Wayne Christian's Railroad Commission seat. Wondering who Texas Greens, or anybody else outside the duopoly, will get with the new third-party and independent filing fees. Warford is narrowly targeting his run on Winter Storm Uri.

In case you haven't heard, Robert Francis O'Rourke is running for guv, and taking a page from Warford. My take here.

The Monthly looks at the possibility of Gohmert Pyle entering the crowded Republican primary against Kenny Boy Paxton for AG. I personally am ready to pop plenty of popcorn and get it if Gohmert jumps in.

Carroll ISD has more problems than "alternatives to the Holocaust." The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights has opened a discrimination investigation.

The Observer's Michael Barajas takes another look at redistricting. It's true the process was rushed like hell. But if Dem Legiscritters were eventually going to fold the tents on their boycott of the voting bill special anyway, wouldn't it have been better to not do it at all and instead find a way to delay the process? 

Off the Kuff analyzed how the new State House map changed electorally over the past decade.

SocraticGadfly talks about the latest in Texas-New Mexico water rights issues and other environment and climate news, with thoughts on Glasgow COP26 coming for the week ahead.

Cheese, anybody? The Texas sector is growing. The story's not THAT good though. There's some great cheese at a "homestead" place northwest of Waco, that's been in operation, assuming it still is, for a decade now. Nothing about it.

That said, per a link inside that piece? I didn't realize that Texas had loosened its rules on raw milk distribution at this year's regular session of the Lege. Not good. (The Snooze's story is also not good, starting with the fact that the Texas Dairy Asssociation has consistently opposed such legislation. And the freelancer, formerly a Snooze staffer, should know that.) The big problem is not direct-to-cheesemakers raw milk, where cheese fermentation may reduce the risks, but direct-to-consumer sales of raw milk for drinking. The Monthly also misses the boat on this.

Delta-8 is back to being Ill Eagle for now.

Jessica Goldman finds out how wheelchair-accessible Houston's theaters are.

Alex Karjeker takes a closer look at how the Texas Democratic Party did as an institution in 2020.

Steve Vladeck argues for greater Congressional authority to enforce their own subpoenas.

Your Local Epidemiologist explains the mechanisms by which vaccines reduce disease transmission.

Hope Osborn looks ahead to the day when Texas is no longer reliant on oil and gas taxes to fund public schools.

November 17, 2021

Cardinals free agency, pitching

Per MLB's official list of free agents, which include players with opt-out options in the middle of contracts, or team or player options for single add-on years, the Cardinals don't face a lot of problems.

Matt Carpenter? Gone unless he comes back a LOT cheaper. Team declined his option.

Nolan Arenado? He has officially declined his opt-out.

That's it on position players.

Pitchers?

Carlos Martinez? Like Carp, team has taken the buyout on club option and he's not coming back unless for less money. It might not be as big a haircut as Carp, but not coming back.

Andrew Miller? Gone. Midseason relief pickups? Almost certainly gone, as noted this morning.

Jon Lester? Likely gone, though an invite to spring training could be tendered.

Lesser pitchers? Gone, or back for dollar amounts too small to matter.

Since pitching is the main need, let's go there. I'll do a brief one on hitting in a week or so.

Max Scherzer? Would be a wonderful addition. But, even at nearing the tail end of his career, is he coming here for less than $30M a year? Ohh, likely not. With a COVID asterisk for 2020, the man has a full decade streak of 5 WAR or better years and has been largely injury free. That's why it would be great to have him, but it's also why, at his age, he'll still want, and command, more than $30M a year for three years. (Or hit $130M, it seems, with the Mets signing.)

Robbie Ray could be a great lefty addition. I said "could" and not "would," though. He's only had one really great year before this out of five full seasons, plus the 2020 COVID season and a two-thirds season his first full season. He's never pitched 200 innings in a season and this was the first year he hit 190. He's actually a "good" candidate for some team to overpay him. See "David Price" and 'overpaid lefties" in your baseball dictionary. That said, he did receive a QO from Toronto. (And, he's headed to the Mariners at 5/$115, illustrating what I said about lefty overpays.)

If one is willing to take a gamble, and note that he'd be a bit of a help at the plate if the NL avoids the DH, Zack Greinke if not too pricey would be good as well.

Or, if one wanted an interesting "flyer"? The Dodgers did NOT give a QO to Clayton Kershaw. He'd of course have to pass a physical, and even that, I couldn't see the Cards offering more than $15M. Some other team might go higher. The Angels, always struggling on pitching, are a likely destination. See below for related news! (That said, I think the Cardinals would be, oh, about option 5 along with many other teams after, in this order: A. Dodgers B. Rangers C. Retire D. Angels E. Cardinals and possibly a couple of other teams.)

A lower-priced lefty option? Steven Matz, maybe. (Oh, do NOT @ me with Matthew Liberatore. He was decent-good but NOT great at Memphis last year, which was his first year at AAA. People touting him are generally, IMO, in the Mo ass-kissing division; see link below.) UPDATE, Nov. 23: It IS the Cardinals, at 4/$44. Yesterday, in coments at MLBTR, to another Cards fan (I think) who was underpricing him, I said 3/$33, so I almost got it right. 

Am I happy about that? Not really. Matz is being paid for one above-average year and being a lefty; a budget Robbie Ray; see above. But, I haven't paid coin to see an MLB game live or on teevee for 20 years now, so no harm to my wallet. As for what he brings to the table? Yes, it's true that he's below league average on walks. Is he SO MUCH below league average that it's a real talking point? Not really, and not when Marcus Stroman is 10 percent or so lower. (I've put this and more into a separate post.)

That's if, per Bernie Miklasz's old pun, Mo gets DeWitt to put a crowbar in DeWallet. And, right now, per MLB Trade Rumors linking to an interview Mo did with Derrick Goold at the Post-Dispatch, he MIGHT spend on a Matz-level starter, and even that would be a shock. So, deal with it, all of us "junior GMs." And, a verbose commenter on that thread, "Postcards," is one of the Mo ass-kissers I blogged about on the Shildt firing, part 3. And, IIRC from last week, yeah, he was a Liberatore addict, too.)

That said, early prices for Noah Syndergaard and Eduardo Rodriguez may make Mo even more leery about cracking DeWitt's DeWallet.

See MLBTR's top 50 list FAs list and some of their guesses.

November 16, 2021

The National Park Service 86-ed an internal report on employee sexual harassment and assault, but got busted

Approximately five years ago, the National Park Service, in the face of a rising tide of complaints of sexual harassment and even several instances of sexual assault of female employees by men, did a survey and study of the issue.

And, then, 86-ed it.

Until somebody leaked that to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which in turn made it available to High Country News, which had done the original reporting on this issue in 2016.

Hcn has now dropped the leak story. My Tweets should say it all. I'll provide some light framing as needed.

I tagged Jeff St. Clair in the first one in hopes that would get it some definite coverage. He, like me, (I think) has a bit of a love-frustration relationship with HCN, but still ... he knows the explosiveness of this, and at Counterpunch has a vehicle for it.

Next?

That "paramilitary" as in "paramilitary culture," is a big thing. NPS has had more and more cops in recent years, because more and more crowding at the top parks leads to more and more issues. Its answer has been more cops first, rather than looking at things like more shuttle buses or other ways of better managing flow and usage. 

Beyond that, from what I've heard, the NPS doesn't always hire the best cops, and in many cases, their mindset is cops first, NPS employees second.

The "paramilitary" seems in part to come from the NPS' earliest history. The idea behind the word "ranger" seems to reflect that.

And, there's one other issue related to this all.

As noted, sexual assault, not just harassment, has been a problem.

In your normal private sector job, after you've been sexually assaulted, IF you're ready to go through with the criminal reporting process, you start by calling your local cops or sheriff. Even if you work for state or federal government, unless a uniformed soldier in the military on base, you call your local cops or sheriff.

Know what? In a National Park Service Unit, especially in a large national park, there IS no "local cop" other than Park Service police. Even if it wasn't a Park Service cop who was the assaulter, nonetheless, you've got a problem.

"Paramilitary culture" is bad enough. This is, if not worse, a whole nother equally bad:

I wonder if that might be exacerbated by federal hiring practices that make too many NPS jobs seasonal, rather than hiring more employees full-time year-round, while at the same time requiring the newer highers to do seasonal rotations. I'm sure that lots of younger NPS employees would accept that additional degree of stability in exchange for doing, say Big Bend for 6 months and North Cascades, or even Rocky, for the other six. You have to buy the cult to improve your chances of seasonal rehirings because of the NPS grapevine.

In any case, to people who know, like me, that the NPS really can't be trusted, the cultishness of it should really be no surprise.

So now we're going to get to the NPS response to HCN, once it found out the report was, essentially, file-13nd. We'll start here.

Problem? Beyond the next Tweet? The date on that survey is June 6, 2019, per the URL for it at the second link in the first paragraph up top. So, NPS is admitting to a nine-month delay right there.

And, that's laughable anyway!

"COVID ate my homework!"

Actually, sloth and indolence meant you needed to eat your homework yourself:

Click that link. You'll see that nothing had changed, and presumably, another 8-9 months after that survey, nothing has still changed.

Sexual harassment, and the sexual assault that sometimes accompanied it and went far beyond it, was not the only problem. Minorities, women, and LGBQ employees also claimed various forms of discrimination. Again, to correct my first tweet, the report had actually been leaked by an NPS employee to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER. It has its own summary of the shinola on the harassment, discrimination and more.

As for HCN? Good to publish it, of course. That still doesn't excuse all the things that have made this a love-frustration relationship, and still isn't enough to tempt me to start a subscription back up. Not yet.

November 15, 2021

Beto throws his hat in the ring against Strangeabbott

Announcement on YouTube:


I had not-jokinging asked rhetorically on Twitter which Robert Francis O'Rourke would run.

Would it be the the neoliberal ConservaDem of 2018 who refused to back Medicare for All? (Despite that, and hoping for a place at the party table, then-insurgent Sema Hernandez endorsed him anyway. Go here for my overall take on that. Go here for Hernandez's transmogrification from insurgent to Just.Another.Politician.)

Or would it be the (likely pandering) wild man of the 2020 presidential run, going far left of his previous position on gunz and other things? (He in reality remained a ConservaDem on most issues, like loving him some oil money. But, since he's running for state not federal office, he can dodge single-payer questions.)

Well, per the video, it appears he's taking a page from Railroad Commish candidate Luke Warford and starting with Winter Storm Uri. The "competence" angle is smart. It avoids the "old Beto" vs "new Beto" issues and gets at something that will come back to people's minds when post-bailout power bills start coming in.

That said, Beto did call, by calling it a matter of focus, for legalizing pot. That must be something poll-tested.

At the Trib, Svitek is right: He IS a weaker candidate than in 2018.

That said, Abbott is vulnerable, and if Allen West and Don Huffines push him, could feel the need to tack yet further right in the GOP primary, which would be an issue in the general.

And, a final political chess question.

Now that Beto is in, where is Matthew McConaughey? In or out, and if in, as a ConservaDem or an independent? And, in or out, when does he give us some word?

Glasgow: Sound and fury on climate change, signifying nothing

First, here is the actual agreement, all 10 pages.  You'll see lots of "urges." No "agree that they will" or anything like that, of course. So, with that, let's dig in.

1. John Kerry is turd-polishing the Glasgow climate deal. Tells us non #BlueAnon folks all we need to know. A deal with no enforcement got even worse to kowtow to India on coal.

2. Tree planting climate offsets were already full of both loopholes and bullshit. Pledges at Glasgow only doubled that. So does the larger idea of getting to "net zero" with an offsets-first approach. Indigenous people are right that this is a new form of colonialism. Greta Thunberg is right that this is greenwashing. (In turn, that undermines Wrong Type of Green if it still claims she's under the thumb of corporate neoliberal minders.)

3. If carbon markets are like carbon cap-and-trade was in the EU, they're bullshit, too.

4. Gizmodo nails it; the US has been a bit of a bully in the past (but China has hid behind our skirts).

Bottom line? This will be Jell-O, just like Paris.

5. Therefore, it's no surprise that a mainstream climate science neoliberal like Michael Mann is scribbling for the LA Times, avidly stanning for the "deal" at Glasgow. In fact, this shite is exactly why I've called the likes of him and Texas' #BlueAnon national climate change treasure Katharine Hayhoe climate change neoliberals, or actually, from the blog, not from memory, "climate change Obamiacs," for years. Focusing on Hayhoe and fellow travelers of hers, I talked about this four years ago. I most recently tackled her in a piece late this summer, kind of a warning shot about Glasgow, and another one about the mainstream media on climate issues.

Let's break out how much BS he has, starting here:

COVID-related restrictions made it difficult for climate activists to participate in the proceedings.

Uhh, wrong! The rich nation-states organizing Glasgow had more to do with this than COVID. DeSmog Blog and other sites have written about this. Even you admit the overwhelming presence of fossil fuel execs, but can't, or won't, tie this to activist exclusion.

Then, this:

Meanwhile, the leaders of the world’s largest carbon emitter, China, and petrostates Saudi Arabia and Russia were AWOL. Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia was shunned for his woefully inadequate climate commitments. Yes, there were pledges aplenty, but the “implementation gap” seemed ever more yawning. A leaked draft of the COP26 decision text lacked any mention of a fossil fuel phaseout.

Uhh, China sent officials. Just not Xi Jinping, who hasn't left China since the start of COVID and, if recent internal indications are any worry, is concerned about a new round of COVID. (He probably didn't want to face even a suggestion of hostile questioning from either world leaders or world press.) Shameful? Per the Paris Jell-O link above? The US has also been shameful. As for attendance? Biden did go, didn't stay that long, and barked up the wrong tree. Nor did many other world leaders. Mann having a "we" in a following paragraph comes off as American tribalism, even if not meant that way.

And, the capper on the bullshit? This:

But the biggest breakthrough was unexpected. On Wednesday, China and the U.S. — the world’s two largest climate polluters — said they would commit to “enhanced climate actions” to keep global warming to the limits set in the Paris agreement. Most critically, the statement included a commitment to phase down coal. And while we can’t yet quantify the impacts of this development, it presumably moves us closer to the 1.5 Celsius goal. This level of U.S.-China cooperation quickly shifted the entire COP26 narrative and outlook. 
It is noteworthy that a similar bilateral agreement in 2014 brokered by the same two lead negotiators — China’s top climate envoy Xie Zhenhua and then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry — laid the groundwork for the Paris agreement a year later. This week’s agreement might prove even more important. Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Biden will meet virtually on Monday to discuss further actions.

EXACTLY like how Paris ended. A joint communique full of purely voluntary items. (Mann either knows this about Paris and is being mendacious, and does not, and is an idiot. I'm taking 5-1 odds, minimum, on the former.)

Until either the US or China passes a carbon tax PLUS carbon tariff, the likes of Michael Mann should STFU. Right now, per Greta Thunberg, he's full of "blah, blah, blah."

Except more of that in days and weeks ahead from Hayhoe herself and the fellow travelers like Bob Kopp, as well as the climate change Obamiac mainstream environmentalists like Audubon and even the AOC-touted (and AOC-queenmaking) Sunrise Movement. They've done it before, too, in the case of Audubon; see the "late this summer" for Sunrise.

6. So, in summary, I agree with Vox that it was a "tiny step." I agree that Dear Leader Obama is a hypocrite. (Right, climate change Obamiacs?) I disagree that this provides any sort of international political lever.

7. Finally, where am I at on the realities on the ground, using the measuring stick of global warming? As for my degree of alarmism? I'm not quite James Kunstler, but I'm far more than Mann or Hayhoe.

I think if we do EVERYTHING we can right now, reasonably, with mandates, not voluntary unenforceable agreements, 2C is still cooked in the books and hits by 2100.

I think if the current actual reality continues? About a 50 percent chance of 2C by 2050. I think a 10 percent chance of 3C by 2050, 30 percent by 2075 and more than 50 percent by 2100. I think a 10 percent chance of **4C** by 2100, and if that happens, there’s the possibility of “runaway Earth” tipping points. Mother Jones thinks the world will hit 2.4C, and apparently that's it. THAT is too low.

Update 1 and confirming that? The Independent Media Institute, Richard Wolff-affiliated org, in discussing the "climate chinwag," says that even if all pledges at Glasgow were met, it still wouldn't get us to Paris targets. It also notes that most consumers in advanced nations, above all but not limited to the US, aren't really ready to change their lifestyles much. It adds that many don't know what the best things are to do, anyway. 

Update 2? It was noted at Glasgow that rich countries have missed the targets for money for a climate mobilization fund to assist poor countries. Per Quartz, there's an even bigger problem. Nobody knows what's been done with the. money that HAS been raised.