Trump looked like such a fucking moron trying to inch his way into team photos of the SPANISH team. Moreover, Kash Patel continuing to show up to sporting events and live his best, taxpayer funded, life is also pathetic and tone deaf.
Did you notice the Trump Curse continues? When asked to predict the winner of the World Cup final, Trump said that "It's hard to bet against Messi". I'm sure the Argentinian team members were slapping their foreheads at that!
How can you say that to a man the plurality of the nation ave so humbly elected... After all, aren't we a republic of the people, for the people, by the people. ☺️
Trump raging about Canadian fires: most of these fires are in isolated boreal forest, of which Canada has a huge amount. They’re mostly not managed at all. Gift link explaining it:
The president could have invited the team to the White House for a Big Mac and then had his own photo op in front of the Resolute Desk. They could have brought the cup. That would be classy.
Donald Trump is notorious for not paying attention to the presidential intelligence briefings, which apparently have to be dumbed down so he can even understand them. Now he is claiming that during those briefings deep-state actors withheld information about China's actions during the 2020 election.
But how would he know? Did he keep the coloring books? Can we see them? And was he able to stay within the lines?
Please correct one notion. Most of northern Canada is roadless brush and forest, not susceptible to fire suppression strategies that might work in areas accesssible to fire fighters and equipment. Of course, one thing might have helped mitigate worsening of the annual fire season: meaningful efforts to stabilize and reduce atmospheric CO2 levels. But under the Trump regime, we are required to ignore that the planet is warming, and warming fastest in the northern latitudes. Northern Canada is hotter, drier and more combustible because humanity has failed to face reality yet again.
Canada's forests are larger than the combined *total* area of Texas, California, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. They account for about 9% of the world's forests. Canada has the third-largest forest area in the world, after Russia and Brazil.
Put that on a per capita basis and it's really nuts.
He understands. He's just looking for any reason to bad-mouth Canada because it's part of his majestic plan to make North and South America part of the U.S.
Yeah, proximity to the fucking ARCTIC CIRCLE used to be a sufficient safeguard against uncontrollable forest conflagrations. But this is what humanity has achieved.
The fossilized palm fronds etc. found above the Arctic Circle are vestiges of Earth's last Hot House phase--a period in which there was no year round ice anywhere. In a hot house phase, the Global Thermal Maximun (GTM), the average temperature world-wide--was calculated to be about 90F. (Right now it's closer to 60F).
It's not so much the standard temperature that will cause humanity problems - it's the dew point.
The dew point is an absolute measure of exactly how much moisture is physically in the air. A higher dew point means a higher moisture content.
You can think of dew point as a simple comfort scale:
Below 55°F (13°C): Dry, crisp, and comfortable.
55°F to 60°F (13°C to 15°C): Getting slightly sticky.
65°F to 70°F (18°C to 21°C): Very muggy and uncomfortable.
Above 70°F (21°C): Oppressive, tropical, and heavy.
The hotter it gets, the more water is drawn into the air. Scientists reckon that humanity cannot survive a dew point of 35 degrees centigrade. The body can't sweat and cool itself as the air is full of moisture. The body heats and organ failure follows. heat causes
During this last hot spell , while the "temperature" has been 90F or so, the dew point has been around been around 75F . in some places.
A 95°F day with a 55°F dew point is hot, but manageable for acclimatized workers. A 95°F day with a 75°F dew point is dangerous because the body cannot cool itself effectively.
People usually just look at temperature levels, or relative humidity. It's the dew point that's important.
All true, but the real variable is time. Changes that are too rapid to allow for adaptation mean extinction for species. The GTM took 10,000 years to ramp up. Humans evolved almost not at all over that time span. The rate of increase since the outset of the Industrial Revolution has been several hundred times that rate though we are far, far from any contender for maximum.
The same can be said for northern California, let alone Canada. The percent of forest that is managed is miniscule, being only at the Wildland/Urban Interface: (WIU)
A very small pick me up. My family vacations to Ocean City MD every year. This is the first year since 2016 that we have not seen any obnoxious trump (offensive t-shirts) theme merch prominently displayed at store fronts along the broad walk. Small steps.
I too, have noticed some of them quietly slipping back beneath their rocks. They will feign ignorance and/or memory loss, like so many German civilians after World War II. Don't let them off the hook.
Ohh I hope that’s the case down the shore here in Jersey when I’m there next month. My favorite beach town has been similarly overrun with MAGA signs and merch in recent years and I can’t stand it. Jersey Blue
Yes, it really was that embarrassing yesterday, watching our President in real time lurking around the Spanish soccer team in their moment of celebration of a great accomplishment, looking to all the world like an uninvited guest who is desperate for attention and to be seen around the people who actually matter or, if you prefer, a drunken uncle who has overstayed his welcome at the party, lacking the good sense to know when it is time to move on. It is yet another unwelcome reminder that our elected leader is one of the most uncouth, out-of-touch rulers on Earth and someone who continues to utterly embarrass us in real time not only with his mouth, but also as he waddles along from place to place, looking for acceptance and relevance. Worse still is that he does so by trading off of the good name of the United States of America that was long- and hard-earned by those who came before him, not by himself.
As he has been known to say ... sad. No, actually ... pathetic. Not so long ago a sense of dignity and decorum emanated from the presidency, regardless of political party. Not anymore. In that sense it is less about him and more about who and what we have become as a population. History will not remember this era or that man fondly, nor should it.
As always, I must note that this is the man John Robert’s and his friends on the Supreme Court want to rule over us so much, they won’t apply the Constitution to him.
Still, Trump has the strong support of the Republican Party, which has the strong support of several ultra-rich people and corporations who are fine with having no regulations and paying no taxes. He also still has the
"Christian" - racist-misogynistic crowd that enjoys killing innocent immigrants.
Strong support seems to be dwindling. At present Trump is at odds with several state Republican parties. The endorsement of the MyPillow guy for Minnesota Governor is one example.
We hear a lot of, “We meet many Americans, and NONE of you like Trump, so how is it that he is president?” And we point out, you meet the ones that choose and can afford foreign travel, which is a small fraction of the general population. We tell them that there are many people who would choose to travel if they could afford it, but there are so, so many who wouldn’t, even if they could. And that also, I never realized how many people were abused by their parents and think that this is what love and care look like.
AND we also travel extensively within the United States, and how little people understand and that the different regions have different histories, cultures, and manners blows my mind.
The real tragedy is the pro fascist people who surround him. They prop him up. Lie to him and do what ever they can to placate him so they can make immigrants into criminals, developing ICE with a license to beat and kill whomever they want as long as they apprehend as many people as possible and put them in Concentration camps. They have cut programs so emergencies go unattended because there is no money and no qualified professionals. They are not old and senile. They are just evil.
That was certainly my first thought, with executives from Taylor Farms visiting the White House last week. They only ran *one* test that was a false positive?? Please. I have a degree in agriculture, and I find it very hard to buy the fact that there weren’t multiple tests run on many different samples before they established that link. Of course, considering how many scientists have been purged from the FDA and USDA, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised about shoddy lab practices
This is one of those weird cases where something Trump talked about in his first term was actually kind of true for entirely the wrong reasons. Alongside the 'you don't know how to win' speech he made, which was true because the US military has deluded itself into thinking you can win via bombing alone since at least Vietnam, one thing he used to say all the time was that there was no ammunition for the military during his first term.
Now, that wasn't true, obviously. But apparently, there was in fact some truth to it, in the sense that the US military did not actually have the munitions stockpile to actually sustain any kind of offensive operation for any sustained period of time.
Consider this: if, say, the US had gotten into a war with China over Taiwan or something, we'd be using the same munitions we are apparently now running out of trying to fight Iran. And an adversary like China would be much more difficult to fight than Iran. Meaning that the US military has not been prepared to actually fight a war for any period of time for decades, apparently?
This is not really about Trump either. Because if the US military has been on the footing of 'we can fight anyone at any time' then it should be reasonable to expect that they have the munitions and capability to do that? But to say that now, after six months, the US no longer has that capability or is losing it, means that against any kind of real enemy that could fight back, we'd be in actual trouble.
It's been a thing for decades that the Pentagon has never managed to actually DO an audit, simply because of how big and sprawling it is, but the reality is that we don't seem to actually know what we have and what we can use. When Russia invaded Ukraine, many jokes were made about the fact that decades of graft had made it so most of the Russian equipment either wasn't maintained or didn't exist. But we are now looking at a similar situation.
The Pentagon and our military consume a vast amount of money and resources. Which they probably should. But the fact is that if no one noticed in the last, say, twenty years that we had less than a year's worth of combat munitions on hand, we have a real problem. Apparently, we are pouring money into it and somehow no weapons are coming out.
Again, Trump wasn't correct that he found a military with no ammunition. But apparently, he was saying something that was half true for the wrong reason, which is that the US military is not as well stocked as we all believed it to be, and no one seems to be able to answer why. If we can't sustain operations for six months against an enemy that is mostly not fighting back, we would never be able to fight a real war if one occurred.
Almost? It's gotten to the point where Hegseth will be mandating erection strength tests for each soldier. Maybe he'll even administer the tests himself.
They should make note that alcohol destroys testosterone. Heavy habitual drinking destroys testosterone even when not drinking. I know Hegseth likes his shots.
There were at least a few people (organisations like CSIS and ISW) who did notice the potential shortage of certain types of munitions, and the extremely limited capacity to build replacements, if the US ever got into a major war. Especially after the Ukraine war showed that the assumptions on which air defence doctrine rested - expensive high performance interceptors to be fired at even more expensive high performance jets - had been invalidated by the arrival of the relatively cheap mass drone attack. But they were mostly ignored and so the US has been forced to counter Iranian drones by ripple firing Patriots that were supposed to be used against ballistic missiles and supersonic aircraft.
Ammunition, being related to logistics, just isn’t as sexy and photogenic as the ships and planes that are useless without sufficient munitions to launch from them. So the budget mostly went to building those platforms with munitions being relegated to the “Don’t need it now. We’ll figure something out if we need to” category.
Of course the US hasn’t exactly been doing well on the systems building front recently either; especially when it comes to naval systems. An eye watering amount of money was wasted on the Littoral Combat Ships and Zumwalts with presumably more now going to be flushed down the drain trying to develop rail guns and frickin’ laser cannons for the putative Trump class battleships. The amounts involved could have bought a lot of MANPADS.
Richard - great observations! So what next? Will our procurement start with a committee to get the service branches together to develop a CFP for a space based laser to pick off drones from above? You know, like they have in the space war movies! Could be in a few years we could build & test one. ...but I just saw some impressive drone displays for July 4th - coordinated swarms of small, relatively cheap tech already available and proven in wide use, maybe take that as proof of concept to develop much larger swarms as air defense, sort of old school barrage balloon installation but mobile, steerable, quickly deployed when incoming is detected? The key question is, Which approach could fetch the biggest profit & long term income for a defense giant?
Heh. Thanks. Ukraine has shown the latter approach works even given their resource and technology constraints, allowing them to reserve their very limited supply of high end interceptors for appropriate targets.
However no doubt Lockheed-Martin and Boeing have their own ideas about the former and I’m sure Space Force would like to get an actual weapons system to get away from the ‘boring’ work of reconnaissance, communications and GPS satellites…
Bill: "Congress is entrusted by the Constitution with the power “to declare War” and “to make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval forces.” Congress is in session this week. It should do everything it can to end Trump’s War."
< Tim starts giggling >
You mean the same Congress that has functionally abdicated their Article I powers to keep a sundowning sociopathic POTUS happy? If we really want to be coldblooded about all of this, I want Trump exactly where he is and prosecuting this war without pushback from Congress. That way, every Democrat either running for Congress or running to keep their seat in Congress can point to a GOP majority that is morally complicit in the United States' biggest strategic defeat in our lifetime. Diminished interceptor stockpiles? On the GOP. Reputational damage throughout the world? On the GOP. Spiraling energy prices? On the GOP. And who confirmed Pete Hegseth to be SecDef, a man so out of his depth that he's relegated to waxing out testosterone levels in the armed forces? That's right, the GOP.
Tim gets it. This is Republicanism on full display. What we are seeing right now is everything Republicans have ever wanted to do and it is the shit show we knew it would be. Republican should become synonymous with weak minded people who fail.
It goes beyond that, Jeff. What we're seeing right is what a plurality of the electorate signed up for when they handed the nuclear codes back to an insurrectionist in November 2024. And if there's any group that deserves to eat a fecal sandwich, it's them. They're morally responsible for why we are where we are.
I don't disagree. I guess from a messaging perspective it isn't enough for me to see Trump be viewed as toxic. Voters need to see the Republican Party as radioactive as long as we have two parties limiting our choices.
Tim - if I recall there were around 10 categories of Trump Republicans in Tim Miller's "Why We Did It." Dunno if today he'd condense to 2 types: bullgoose MAGA & cucks (using terminology here I learned from Randall Patrick McMurphy & from Tim, respectively). The cucks would include Tim's original categories such as those who planned to wait out the craziness (maybe staving off a little when they could risk it) then be there to 'save' the Party after Trump's departure, plus those who were lifelong Party folks, team players who stick with their team even during the humiliating losing season cuz they've always worn red... So yeah, they all get to wear it proudly
And in other news, Trump's posh new Qatari Air Force One is going into drydock to be 'maxed out' with security and other critical features it should've had installed in the first place.
So we're gonna tear down a newly rebuilt luxury liner to finish a job that was never finished because Trump just had to show off his prize by flying in it to the summit in Turkey.
Oh, and you and me, the American taxpayer, get to pay for the privilege.
So he rushed the plane in order to take it to the NATO conference and show it off? And then he ordered more strikes on Iran which made it unsafe to use.
I heard Iran had a large banner up with coffins of trumpy and all offspring and his spouse too. not sure if the photos I saw were really real, but they are saying blood for blood.
For the conversion of the two replacement AF 1's being prepared, *six years* would have been on time. As it stands, the project is four years behind schedule, with the high end defensive measures being the hold-up. Trump wheedled this one just last year.
It looks like the Administration is thoroughly intent on embracing the sunken cost fallacy. The more money we spend, the more soldiers we lose, the more it justifies continuing to spend money and lose lives. I wonder how long certain voters will continue to justify this as a necessary war to prevent Iran's acquisition of a nuclear weapon as the costs pile up. They've bought the lies that were used to justify an "excursion" that mushroomed into an all-out war costing hundreds of billions of dollars and dozens (for now) of US lives (and many times that Iranian lives). Some people will never cease to defend Trump, but some of those currently defending him are not going to last for this entire conflict. They're going to go from supporters to critics, and the lies they are embracing now they are ultimately going to reject, though they'll never admit they were ever wrong.
I wonder to what extent forest fires are factored into our models for predicting the trajectory of climate change. Obviously we need trees to suck carbon out of the air, and less trees means more carbon. More carbon means more climate change. More climate change means more forest fires, More forest fires means fewer trees. This is going to reiterate year after year. It's terrible for the air, terrible for the wildlife that live in the forests, terrible for everything. In many ways, as bad as the 2016 and 2024 elections were, that 2000 election may end up the most consequential in world history. It bothers me whenever I think about it. And this is the world we're leaving our children, and people wonder why kids today don't want to have kids tomorrow. Because we're creating a Venusian hellscape all while knowing that's what we're doing and knowing how to avoid it.
The funny thing is that there is a rationale for the war that he could have been employed if it were not that he needed to wiggle past the War Powers exception and its emphasis on imminent danger to the US: "Iran has been funding terror aimed at our ally Israel for decades--it's time for us, Israel and the US-- to put a stop to that."
Of course, that does nothing about the craziness of over-ruling any concern about the Strait of Hormuz.
"that 2000 election may end up the most consequential in world history." I have been thinking about this almost daily ever since the rapIst was first elected.
That's EXACTLY how it should ALWAYS be referred to, all the way to the Midterms, and well beyond. Just remember that the GOP Senators have talked a good game about limiting what trump can and can't do, but have always managed to do NOTHING at all...
I disagree, it is Republican’s war. They elected this monster. They have not stopped him when they could. The whole Republican Party is on the hook here.
I'm a freshly-made Independent. I couldn't take saying I was a Republican so I switched not long after Trump was re-elected. To your point I fear Independents are part of the problem, plus we have less ability to affect primaries depending on state election rules. I am hoping my stay is temporary but I do like the mis-guided moral air of superiority I have of bitching about both parties and not feeling guilty about it
Anyone who voted for Trump in 2024 and has not apologized and changed their behavior is part of the problem. There a lot of parts to this problem really. I hope your stay is long-term because we desperately need to break the two party system.
I'm waiting for the results of all that testosterone being injected into his body -- shrunken testicles, gynecomastia (male breasts), and of course the mood swings. He's already set for the latter.
When he got confirmed, I figured the only way he would get removed is if he wound up naked and drunk off his ass in the Reflecting Pool threatening to fight anyone who challenges him.
All those testosterone shots might just make all that come true. We can only hope.
I suspect he's been more into steroids than testosterone over the last 10 years. And I wonder if he is getting some sort of kick back from non pharmaceutical companies that make and sell testosterone boosters.
That was creepy-cringey. GI Joke is such a puerile, stunted, wilfully stupid child that speaks like a horny little 13 yr.old. he'd be less harmful if they just gave him a Playboy magazine and a quiet little bathroom somewhere in the bowels of the Pentagon. Then maybe more of our service personnel will come home alive from this Iran debacle.
In the photo at the top of the piece, trump looked like a lost little boy who didn't what he was doing! He looked like he thought they were taking pictures of him! His partner in FIFA crime was trying to get him out of there before he made an even bigger fool of himself! How pathetic!!!
Narcissism ranging to Solipsism makes people behave awkwardly in group situations. He thinks the Spanish footballers are part of a diorama created for his photo op.
Given how he has wandered around aimlessly during his international trips (Turkiye being the latest example) and heads of state have to guide him to where he needs to go, I'm sure he was trying to photobomb the moment but I do wonder if he was just a lost little boy.
If he were as good at bombing Iran as he is at photobombing international gatherings, the war would've been over and done with before it even got started...
Trump looked like such a fucking moron trying to inch his way into team photos of the SPANISH team. Moreover, Kash Patel continuing to show up to sporting events and live his best, taxpayer funded, life is also pathetic and tone deaf.
Best comment posted by user "Tickle Me Ratto" on Defector:
"I guess I'd rather have him photobomb Spain than actually bombing Spain."
American treasure Ray Ratto
SSSHH! Don't give him ideas.
I don't think that you need to worry the orange dumbass has apparently run us out of munitions .
Did you notice the Trump Curse continues? When asked to predict the winner of the World Cup final, Trump said that "It's hard to bet against Messi". I'm sure the Argentinian team members were slapping their foreheads at that!
He was booed as he presented the trophy. And then cropped out of official photos. 😃 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/07/20/trump-cropped-out-of-world-cup-photos-by-fifa-and-spain/
Too bad he can't be cropped out of the White House.
Or our lives
Too bad he can't be cropped by what the French euphemistically call "the national razor."
How can you say that to a man the plurality of the nation ave so humbly elected... After all, aren't we a republic of the people, for the people, by the people. ☺️
Simple.
This ccountry has 77.3 million morons.
It's evergreen. If Trump gets on your team's bandwagon, they're cooked.
photoshop him out of it completely.
🤣thanks! Needed a laugh
The proverbial turd-in-a-punchbowl . . . .
The bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral
I thought he was the corpse at every wedding, the bride at every funeral. . .
Who cares about him being a bride? I'm praying for him to become a corpse. The sooner the better.
Oh he could always marry both of those cute little tate brothers . The honeymoon suite at ped a lardo .
😂😂👏👏👏👏
Or the bride at every funeral, the corpse at every wedding
Trump raging about Canadian fires: most of these fires are in isolated boreal forest, of which Canada has a huge amount. They’re mostly not managed at all. Gift link explaining it:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/2026/07/canadian-forests-are-big/687936/?gift=6oi67bxOorKlwXywPmU9ma_0VFMD5Wr6Nj2sKK84jXg&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
Exactly. This is climate change. Buckle up, buy a HEPA filter and stop burning fossil fuels!
Republicans continue to insist that climate change is a hoax! 🙄
The hoax is that the GOP has any talent.
I came here to say this. Thanks for the link.
Trump and Patel are weak men who desperately want to be seen as "winners".
Too bad they won't. Losers for all time.
Patel in the hockey locker room is a great parallel to point out. And give Bill Buttlicker my best.
Just like taking someone else’s Nobel peace prize. Pathetic and gross
He is a fucking moron so he was simply being authentic.
The president could have invited the team to the White House for a Big Mac and then had his own photo op in front of the Resolute Desk. They could have brought the cup. That would be classy.
Hey they are Spanish like Mexico, Central America, Cuba, Puerto Rico in Trump's eyes.
They speak Mexican.
As my Grandma would have said "Like a one legged man at an arse kicking party. . ."
No celebration yesterday with Kash using Kash champaign.
He also stole the trophy at last year's World Club and it's currently in The Oval. I think he thought he could steal this one too.
He is a fucking moron. Poser supreme.
Donald Trump is notorious for not paying attention to the presidential intelligence briefings, which apparently have to be dumbed down so he can even understand them. Now he is claiming that during those briefings deep-state actors withheld information about China's actions during the 2020 election.
But how would he know? Did he keep the coloring books? Can we see them? And was he able to stay within the lines?
Unlikely.
Trump won't* read. They create picture book briefings for him.
* I would have said "can't," but that he occasionally struggles through a teleprompter presentation.
Tom - perhaps this relates to his enmity toward Head Start (see Cohn’s weekend story) - jealous of all those children learning to read
"The lies, the lack of preparation...holy shit!"
--Trump's big sister Maryanne, who did his homework for him...
something Trump never did as a child
Apparently, reading is Woke.
Yeah, and one must be awake to actually do it, so another limiting factor...
And being able to read would help.
He may read comic books, if they are for kindergarders.
Please correct one notion. Most of northern Canada is roadless brush and forest, not susceptible to fire suppression strategies that might work in areas accesssible to fire fighters and equipment. Of course, one thing might have helped mitigate worsening of the annual fire season: meaningful efforts to stabilize and reduce atmospheric CO2 levels. But under the Trump regime, we are required to ignore that the planet is warming, and warming fastest in the northern latitudes. Northern Canada is hotter, drier and more combustible because humanity has failed to face reality yet again.
Yes, I just posted a link to this story that made the point that most of those fires are impossible to put out, due to their inaccessibility. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/18/world/canada/wildfires-canada-fire-fighting.html I guess that's a concept Trump can't understand. Or doesn't want to understand.
Canada's forests are larger than the combined *total* area of Texas, California, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. They account for about 9% of the world's forests. Canada has the third-largest forest area in the world, after Russia and Brazil.
Put that on a per capita basis and it's really nuts.
I'm going to be thinking about how Montana makes this map noncontiguous all day, thanks to my stupid brain.
He understands. He's just looking for any reason to bad-mouth Canada because it's part of his majestic plan to make North and South America part of the U.S.
None of which matters because it's a chance for Mr. Trump to say ridiculous things and get attention.
Does anyone think Trump has ever taken a walk in the woods?
I wish he would.
One where the Big Bears are. . .
Walked ?! He wouldn't have been driven thru one! He hates going to Camp David 🙄
No Trump resorts up there
Yeah, proximity to the fucking ARCTIC CIRCLE used to be a sufficient safeguard against uncontrollable forest conflagrations. But this is what humanity has achieved.
Yes. Proximity to. I believe the way you know you've crossed into the Arctic is that there suddenly are no trees.
I imagine they're going to have to redraw those lines in the coming decades; we're going to be seeing trees further north.
The fossilized palm fronds etc. found above the Arctic Circle are vestiges of Earth's last Hot House phase--a period in which there was no year round ice anywhere. In a hot house phase, the Global Thermal Maximun (GTM), the average temperature world-wide--was calculated to be about 90F. (Right now it's closer to 60F).
It's not so much the standard temperature that will cause humanity problems - it's the dew point.
The dew point is an absolute measure of exactly how much moisture is physically in the air. A higher dew point means a higher moisture content.
You can think of dew point as a simple comfort scale:
Below 55°F (13°C): Dry, crisp, and comfortable.
55°F to 60°F (13°C to 15°C): Getting slightly sticky.
65°F to 70°F (18°C to 21°C): Very muggy and uncomfortable.
Above 70°F (21°C): Oppressive, tropical, and heavy.
The hotter it gets, the more water is drawn into the air. Scientists reckon that humanity cannot survive a dew point of 35 degrees centigrade. The body can't sweat and cool itself as the air is full of moisture. The body heats and organ failure follows. heat causes
During this last hot spell , while the "temperature" has been 90F or so, the dew point has been around been around 75F . in some places.
A 95°F day with a 55°F dew point is hot, but manageable for acclimatized workers. A 95°F day with a 75°F dew point is dangerous because the body cannot cool itself effectively.
People usually just look at temperature levels, or relative humidity. It's the dew point that's important.
All true, but the real variable is time. Changes that are too rapid to allow for adaptation mean extinction for species. The GTM took 10,000 years to ramp up. Humans evolved almost not at all over that time span. The rate of increase since the outset of the Industrial Revolution has been several hundred times that rate though we are far, far from any contender for maximum.
The same can be said for northern California, let alone Canada. The percent of forest that is managed is miniscule, being only at the Wildland/Urban Interface: (WIU)
Gift link to an article on it:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/2026/07/canadian-forests-are-big/687936/?gift=6oi67bxOorKlwXywPmU9ma_0VFMD5Wr6Nj2sKK84jXg&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
No kidding. But then Trump knows more than the foreesters.
A very small pick me up. My family vacations to Ocean City MD every year. This is the first year since 2016 that we have not seen any obnoxious trump (offensive t-shirts) theme merch prominently displayed at store fronts along the broad walk. Small steps.
I too, have noticed some of them quietly slipping back beneath their rocks. They will feign ignorance and/or memory loss, like so many German civilians after World War II. Don't let them off the hook.
Ohh I hope that’s the case down the shore here in Jersey when I’m there next month. My favorite beach town has been similarly overrun with MAGA signs and merch in recent years and I can’t stand it. Jersey Blue
Don't hold your breath. In Cape May County you can't spit without hitting a magat moron!
Yes, it really was that embarrassing yesterday, watching our President in real time lurking around the Spanish soccer team in their moment of celebration of a great accomplishment, looking to all the world like an uninvited guest who is desperate for attention and to be seen around the people who actually matter or, if you prefer, a drunken uncle who has overstayed his welcome at the party, lacking the good sense to know when it is time to move on. It is yet another unwelcome reminder that our elected leader is one of the most uncouth, out-of-touch rulers on Earth and someone who continues to utterly embarrass us in real time not only with his mouth, but also as he waddles along from place to place, looking for acceptance and relevance. Worse still is that he does so by trading off of the good name of the United States of America that was long- and hard-earned by those who came before him, not by himself.
As he has been known to say ... sad. No, actually ... pathetic. Not so long ago a sense of dignity and decorum emanated from the presidency, regardless of political party. Not anymore. In that sense it is less about him and more about who and what we have become as a population. History will not remember this era or that man fondly, nor should it.
As always, I must note that this is the man John Robert’s and his friends on the Supreme Court want to rule over us so much, they won’t apply the Constitution to him.
That's the most frightening part of all this. Way too many are just fine with trump and the government and republic he is ruining.
Still, Trump has the strong support of the Republican Party, which has the strong support of several ultra-rich people and corporations who are fine with having no regulations and paying no taxes. He also still has the
"Christian" - racist-misogynistic crowd that enjoys killing innocent immigrants.
Strong support seems to be dwindling. At present Trump is at odds with several state Republican parties. The endorsement of the MyPillow guy for Minnesota Governor is one example.
And Lindell is actually leading 3 of 4 polls among Mn. Republicans. Any questions that this is Trump's party?
Any question that these supporters are utterly stupid?
don't worry about that, D Yell
As Alfred E Neuman said: What me worry? Beside Amy is going to clobber any Republican by 15- 20 points in November.
To toot my own horn just a bit, I'm not a complete asshole, and when traveling recently people met seemed amazed. Thanks,Trump.
We hear a lot of, “We meet many Americans, and NONE of you like Trump, so how is it that he is president?” And we point out, you meet the ones that choose and can afford foreign travel, which is a small fraction of the general population. We tell them that there are many people who would choose to travel if they could afford it, but there are so, so many who wouldn’t, even if they could. And that also, I never realized how many people were abused by their parents and think that this is what love and care look like.
AND we also travel extensively within the United States, and how little people understand and that the different regions have different histories, cultures, and manners blows my mind.
And the abusers go to work for ICE, where they get a license to kill.
And dumbfounded with a B!
The Big, Beautiful, B!!!
No dignity and no shame add up to DJT.
and there is a recording of him being seriously booed walking out there, it went on for some time
The real tragedy is the pro fascist people who surround him. They prop him up. Lie to him and do what ever they can to placate him so they can make immigrants into criminals, developing ICE with a license to beat and kill whomever they want as long as they apprehend as many people as possible and put them in Concentration camps. They have cut programs so emergencies go unattended because there is no money and no qualified professionals. They are not old and senile. They are just evil.
Could the FDA walk back from Taylor Farms have anything to do with the $1M the company just donated to Republican PACs?
That was certainly my first thought, with executives from Taylor Farms visiting the White House last week. They only ran *one* test that was a false positive?? Please. I have a degree in agriculture, and I find it very hard to buy the fact that there weren’t multiple tests run on many different samples before they established that link. Of course, considering how many scientists have been purged from the FDA and USDA, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised about shoddy lab practices
They also "donated" to Trump for the Republican Party.
This is one of those weird cases where something Trump talked about in his first term was actually kind of true for entirely the wrong reasons. Alongside the 'you don't know how to win' speech he made, which was true because the US military has deluded itself into thinking you can win via bombing alone since at least Vietnam, one thing he used to say all the time was that there was no ammunition for the military during his first term.
Now, that wasn't true, obviously. But apparently, there was in fact some truth to it, in the sense that the US military did not actually have the munitions stockpile to actually sustain any kind of offensive operation for any sustained period of time.
Consider this: if, say, the US had gotten into a war with China over Taiwan or something, we'd be using the same munitions we are apparently now running out of trying to fight Iran. And an adversary like China would be much more difficult to fight than Iran. Meaning that the US military has not been prepared to actually fight a war for any period of time for decades, apparently?
This is not really about Trump either. Because if the US military has been on the footing of 'we can fight anyone at any time' then it should be reasonable to expect that they have the munitions and capability to do that? But to say that now, after six months, the US no longer has that capability or is losing it, means that against any kind of real enemy that could fight back, we'd be in actual trouble.
It's been a thing for decades that the Pentagon has never managed to actually DO an audit, simply because of how big and sprawling it is, but the reality is that we don't seem to actually know what we have and what we can use. When Russia invaded Ukraine, many jokes were made about the fact that decades of graft had made it so most of the Russian equipment either wasn't maintained or didn't exist. But we are now looking at a similar situation.
The Pentagon and our military consume a vast amount of money and resources. Which they probably should. But the fact is that if no one noticed in the last, say, twenty years that we had less than a year's worth of combat munitions on hand, we have a real problem. Apparently, we are pouring money into it and somehow no weapons are coming out.
Again, Trump wasn't correct that he found a military with no ammunition. But apparently, he was saying something that was half true for the wrong reason, which is that the US military is not as well stocked as we all believed it to be, and no one seems to be able to answer why. If we can't sustain operations for six months against an enemy that is mostly not fighting back, we would never be able to fight a real war if one occurred.
But not to worry! Hegseth is making sure troop testosterone levels are sufficiently high!
One high T American is worth 10 woke commies?
Champaign Pete needs to get together with Doug Flute and Frank Thomas to do another Low T commercial.
Hegseth’s obsession with masculinity is almost becoming homoerotic.
Almost? It's gotten to the point where Hegseth will be mandating erection strength tests for each soldier. Maybe he'll even administer the tests himself.
For some reason, I saw Homer erotic. I wonder if Champaign Pete thought Matt Damon in Odyssey had enough T?
some of those women should still be in control, things would be going better, even women of COLOR
They should make note that alcohol destroys testosterone. Heavy habitual drinking destroys testosterone even when not drinking. I know Hegseth likes his shots.
LowT Pete 😂
There were at least a few people (organisations like CSIS and ISW) who did notice the potential shortage of certain types of munitions, and the extremely limited capacity to build replacements, if the US ever got into a major war. Especially after the Ukraine war showed that the assumptions on which air defence doctrine rested - expensive high performance interceptors to be fired at even more expensive high performance jets - had been invalidated by the arrival of the relatively cheap mass drone attack. But they were mostly ignored and so the US has been forced to counter Iranian drones by ripple firing Patriots that were supposed to be used against ballistic missiles and supersonic aircraft.
Ammunition, being related to logistics, just isn’t as sexy and photogenic as the ships and planes that are useless without sufficient munitions to launch from them. So the budget mostly went to building those platforms with munitions being relegated to the “Don’t need it now. We’ll figure something out if we need to” category.
Of course the US hasn’t exactly been doing well on the systems building front recently either; especially when it comes to naval systems. An eye watering amount of money was wasted on the Littoral Combat Ships and Zumwalts with presumably more now going to be flushed down the drain trying to develop rail guns and frickin’ laser cannons for the putative Trump class battleships. The amounts involved could have bought a lot of MANPADS.
Richard - great observations! So what next? Will our procurement start with a committee to get the service branches together to develop a CFP for a space based laser to pick off drones from above? You know, like they have in the space war movies! Could be in a few years we could build & test one. ...but I just saw some impressive drone displays for July 4th - coordinated swarms of small, relatively cheap tech already available and proven in wide use, maybe take that as proof of concept to develop much larger swarms as air defense, sort of old school barrage balloon installation but mobile, steerable, quickly deployed when incoming is detected? The key question is, Which approach could fetch the biggest profit & long term income for a defense giant?
Heh. Thanks. Ukraine has shown the latter approach works even given their resource and technology constraints, allowing them to reserve their very limited supply of high end interceptors for appropriate targets.
However no doubt Lockheed-Martin and Boeing have their own ideas about the former and I’m sure Space Force would like to get an actual weapons system to get away from the ‘boring’ work of reconnaissance, communications and GPS satellites…
Maybe ammunition levels were gauged to a Department of Defense, not a Department of War?
Yeah, it's not hard to imagine that all least pretty of this is an odd of mismanagement by unserious civilian leadership.
Silver - maybe we shouldn’t have started in on all those undefended Caribbean speedboats, coulda used some of those munitions about now
Bill: "Congress is entrusted by the Constitution with the power “to declare War” and “to make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval forces.” Congress is in session this week. It should do everything it can to end Trump’s War."
< Tim starts giggling >
You mean the same Congress that has functionally abdicated their Article I powers to keep a sundowning sociopathic POTUS happy? If we really want to be coldblooded about all of this, I want Trump exactly where he is and prosecuting this war without pushback from Congress. That way, every Democrat either running for Congress or running to keep their seat in Congress can point to a GOP majority that is morally complicit in the United States' biggest strategic defeat in our lifetime. Diminished interceptor stockpiles? On the GOP. Reputational damage throughout the world? On the GOP. Spiraling energy prices? On the GOP. And who confirmed Pete Hegseth to be SecDef, a man so out of his depth that he's relegated to waxing out testosterone levels in the armed forces? That's right, the GOP.
Make the GOP own it all.
Tim gets it. This is Republicanism on full display. What we are seeing right now is everything Republicans have ever wanted to do and it is the shit show we knew it would be. Republican should become synonymous with weak minded people who fail.
It goes beyond that, Jeff. What we're seeing right is what a plurality of the electorate signed up for when they handed the nuclear codes back to an insurrectionist in November 2024. And if there's any group that deserves to eat a fecal sandwich, it's them. They're morally responsible for why we are where we are.
I don't disagree. I guess from a messaging perspective it isn't enough for me to see Trump be viewed as toxic. Voters need to see the Republican Party as radioactive as long as we have two parties limiting our choices.
Tim - if I recall there were around 10 categories of Trump Republicans in Tim Miller's "Why We Did It." Dunno if today he'd condense to 2 types: bullgoose MAGA & cucks (using terminology here I learned from Randall Patrick McMurphy & from Tim, respectively). The cucks would include Tim's original categories such as those who planned to wait out the craziness (maybe staving off a little when they could risk it) then be there to 'save' the Party after Trump's departure, plus those who were lifelong Party folks, team players who stick with their team even during the humiliating losing season cuz they've always worn red... So yeah, they all get to wear it proudly
And in other news, Trump's posh new Qatari Air Force One is going into drydock to be 'maxed out' with security and other critical features it should've had installed in the first place.
So we're gonna tear down a newly rebuilt luxury liner to finish a job that was never finished because Trump just had to show off his prize by flying in it to the summit in Turkey.
Oh, and you and me, the American taxpayer, get to pay for the privilege.
Naturally.
So he rushed the plane in order to take it to the NATO conference and show it off? And then he ordered more strikes on Iran which made it unsafe to use.
I heard Iran had a large banner up with coffins of trumpy and all offspring and his spouse too. not sure if the photos I saw were really real, but they are saying blood for blood.
For the conversion of the two replacement AF 1's being prepared, *six years* would have been on time. As it stands, the project is four years behind schedule, with the high end defensive measures being the hold-up. Trump wheedled this one just last year.
It looks like the Administration is thoroughly intent on embracing the sunken cost fallacy. The more money we spend, the more soldiers we lose, the more it justifies continuing to spend money and lose lives. I wonder how long certain voters will continue to justify this as a necessary war to prevent Iran's acquisition of a nuclear weapon as the costs pile up. They've bought the lies that were used to justify an "excursion" that mushroomed into an all-out war costing hundreds of billions of dollars and dozens (for now) of US lives (and many times that Iranian lives). Some people will never cease to defend Trump, but some of those currently defending him are not going to last for this entire conflict. They're going to go from supporters to critics, and the lies they are embracing now they are ultimately going to reject, though they'll never admit they were ever wrong.
I wonder to what extent forest fires are factored into our models for predicting the trajectory of climate change. Obviously we need trees to suck carbon out of the air, and less trees means more carbon. More carbon means more climate change. More climate change means more forest fires, More forest fires means fewer trees. This is going to reiterate year after year. It's terrible for the air, terrible for the wildlife that live in the forests, terrible for everything. In many ways, as bad as the 2016 and 2024 elections were, that 2000 election may end up the most consequential in world history. It bothers me whenever I think about it. And this is the world we're leaving our children, and people wonder why kids today don't want to have kids tomorrow. Because we're creating a Venusian hellscape all while knowing that's what we're doing and knowing how to avoid it.
The funny thing is that there is a rationale for the war that he could have been employed if it were not that he needed to wiggle past the War Powers exception and its emphasis on imminent danger to the US: "Iran has been funding terror aimed at our ally Israel for decades--it's time for us, Israel and the US-- to put a stop to that."
Of course, that does nothing about the craziness of over-ruling any concern about the Strait of Hormuz.
"that 2000 election may end up the most consequential in world history." I have been thinking about this almost daily ever since the rapIst was first elected.
"Trump’s War... Trump’s War... Trump’s War... Trump’s War... Trump’s War..."
That's EXACTLY how it should ALWAYS be referred to, all the way to the Midterms, and well beyond. Just remember that the GOP Senators have talked a good game about limiting what trump can and can't do, but have always managed to do NOTHING at all...
I disagree, it is Republican’s war. They elected this monster. They have not stopped him when they could. The whole Republican Party is on the hook here.
plus a lot of independents
I'm a freshly-made Independent. I couldn't take saying I was a Republican so I switched not long after Trump was re-elected. To your point I fear Independents are part of the problem, plus we have less ability to affect primaries depending on state election rules. I am hoping my stay is temporary but I do like the mis-guided moral air of superiority I have of bitching about both parties and not feeling guilty about it
Anyone who voted for Trump in 2024 and has not apologized and changed their behavior is part of the problem. There a lot of parts to this problem really. I hope your stay is long-term because we desperately need to break the two party system.
Re: "Trump’s Secretary of Defense did post on X Friday, assuring us that our service members’ “sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.”
I don't know about you folks, but I'm getting a little tired of Hegseth focusing on "stiffening" all the time.
I'm waiting for the results of all that testosterone being injected into his body -- shrunken testicles, gynecomastia (male breasts), and of course the mood swings. He's already set for the latter.
When he got confirmed, I figured the only way he would get removed is if he wound up naked and drunk off his ass in the Reflecting Pool threatening to fight anyone who challenges him.
All those testosterone shots might just make all that come true. We can only hope.
And infertility. Don't tell Musk.
musk is having his own snit fit about a black woman, of course
I suspect he's been more into steroids than testosterone over the last 10 years. And I wonder if he is getting some sort of kick back from non pharmaceutical companies that make and sell testosterone boosters.
I'm convinced that Hegseth is kinky for muscular guys with breasts.
That was creepy-cringey. GI Joke is such a puerile, stunted, wilfully stupid child that speaks like a horny little 13 yr.old. he'd be less harmful if they just gave him a Playboy magazine and a quiet little bathroom somewhere in the bowels of the Pentagon. Then maybe more of our service personnel will come home alive from this Iran debacle.
I wonder if he giggled as he typed that into the phone resting on his crotch.
hegseth=unqualified , from the get go
And he's so focused on the members' members....
In the photo at the top of the piece, trump looked like a lost little boy who didn't what he was doing! He looked like he thought they were taking pictures of him! His partner in FIFA crime was trying to get him out of there before he made an even bigger fool of himself! How pathetic!!!
Narcissism ranging to Solipsism makes people behave awkwardly in group situations. He thinks the Spanish footballers are part of a diorama created for his photo op.
Given how he has wandered around aimlessly during his international trips (Turkiye being the latest example) and heads of state have to guide him to where he needs to go, I'm sure he was trying to photobomb the moment but I do wonder if he was just a lost little boy.
If he were as good at bombing Iran as he is at photobombing international gatherings, the war would've been over and done with before it even got started...
Wasn't that what *last year's* bombing supposed to accomplish?
He's attracted to the spotlight wherever it is, whatever it is for...like a cat chasing the light of a laser pointer.
If a house cat weighed 300 pounds and waddled on two legs
Using the term,
"probably three", exemplifies his concern for our soldiers.
He'll "probably" golf instead of calling their families.
I would refuse his call, rather than raise my blood pressure cursing him out.
"Probably three"--what Trump would say to his caddy after double-bogeying a four par.
👍 As high as he can count.
they do not release the real information about wounded either
Seen online:
"
Pete Hegseth: "We need our warriors to embrace the Spartan mindset"
U.S. Military: *suffers crushing defeat to the Persians*
"
Team portrait of the Spanish World Cup winners —- thank God for Photoshop. I hope every media outlet in the world erases him from that picture.
I’m reading multiple stories now that that’s exactly what outlets and FIFA are doing. Hooray! Bet the ketchup is flying.