My heart goes out to all the folks whose lives have been upended by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. As the warming of Earth’s oceans and atmosphere continues unabated—due to humanity’s inability to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels—tropical storms have become supercharged and more destructive over a much wider area.
Such was the case recently when America’s southeastern states were hit by Hurricanes Helene (September 26-28) and Milton (October 9-10). It’s not just their wind speeds that make these storms deadly. Their size, speed, and capacity to hold more moisture can wreak havoc over more extensive areas. What’s more, their rapid intensification has alarmed our meteorologists. Within just two days, the unusually warm water of the Gulf of Mexico transformed Hurricane Helene from a relatively weak tropical storm into a historic Category 4 hurricane for this time of the year. Not to be outdone, Hurricane Milton took just over 48 hours to intensify from a tropical depression to a Category 5 Hurricane, according to NOAA Climate.gov. This is bad news. Millions of people in their projected path may not have sufficient time in which to evacuate to safety.
NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION (NOAA)
Break Up NOAA. The single biggest Department of Commerce agency outside of decennial census years is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which houses the National Weather Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, and other components. NOAA garners $6.5 billion of the department’s $12 billion annual operational budget and accounts for more than half of the department’s personnel in non-decadal Census years (2021 figures).
NOAA consists of six main offices: The National Weather Service (NWS); The National Ocean Service (NOS); The Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR); The National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS); The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS); and The Office of Marine and Aviation Operations and NOAA Corps.
Together, these form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.This industry’s mission emphasis on prediction and management seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable. That is not to say NOAA is useless, but its current organization corrupts its useful functions. It should be broken up and downsized.[Emphasis mine.]
[…]
Focus the NWS on Commercial Operations. Each day, Americans rely on weather forecasts and warnings provided by local radio stations and colleges that are produced not by the NWS, but by private companies such as AccuWeather. Studies have found that the forecasts and warnings provided by the private companies are more reliable than those provided by the NWS.
The NWS provides data the private companies use and should focus on its data-gathering services. Because private companies rely on these data, the NWS should fully commercialize its forecasting operations.
Thomas F. Gilmanserved as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Administration and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Trump Administration. Currently, he is a Director of ACLJ Action and Chairman of Torngat Metals. Gilman is the former CEO of Chrysler Financial and has had a 40-plus year career as a senior executive and entrepreneur in the global automotive industry, including roles at Chrysler Corporation, Cerberus Capital Management, Asbury Automotive Group, TD Auto Finance, and Automotive Capital Services. He holds a BS in finance from Villanova University.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is one of six agencies falling under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The agency’s mission is “to provide daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings, climate monitoring to fisheries management, coastal restoration, and the supporting of marine commerce. NOAA’s products and services support economic vitality and affect more than one-third of America’s gross domestic product. NOAA’s dedicated scientists use cutting-edge research and high-tech instrumentation to provide citizens, planners, emergency managers and other decision makers with reliable information they need when they need it.”
Rosaliene’s Succulent Garden – Summer 2024 – Los Angeles – Southern California
This summer, June through August 2024, the average temperature for the contiguous American states was 73.8° F (23.2°C) – 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above average – ranking as our nation’s fourth-hottest summer on record. So says NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. California – together with Arizona, Florida, Maine, and New Hampshire – “sizzled through their warmest summer on record.” Heatwaves are growing more frequent, more extreme, and longer lasting in the U.S. West and across the world as the climate crisis drives increasingly severe and dangerous weather conditions.
To end this summer with a bang, an excessive heatwave arrived on Thursday, September 5th, bringing a record-breaking temperature of 112°F (44.4°C) in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, September 6th, says the National Weather Service. With temperatures in the nineties in our neighborhood in West Los Angeles for five days straight, I was forced to stay indoors – no weekend gardening – until relief came on Tuesday, September 10th.
Front Cover: Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise by the Heritage Foundation Photo Credit: The Heritage Foundation
Goal #1: The Secretary [of the Department of Health & Human Services]should pursue a robust agenda to protect the fundamental right to life, protect conscience rights, and uphold bodily integrity rooted in biological realities, not ideology.
From the moment of conception, every human being possesses inherent dignity and worth, and our humanity does not depend on our age, stage of development, race, or abilities. The Secretary must ensure that all HHS programs and activities are rooted in a deep respect for innocent human life from day one until natural death: Abortion and euthanasia are not health care.
A robust respect for the sacred rights of conscience, both at HHS and among governments and institutions funded by it, increases choices for patients and program beneficiaries and furthers pluralism and tolerance. The Secretary must protect Americans’ civil rights by ensuring that HHS programs and activities follow the letter and spirit of religious freedom and conscience-protection laws….
Roger Severinois Vice President of Domestic Policy at The Heritage Foundation. As director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 2017 to 2021, he led a team of more than 250 staff enforcing civil rights, conscience, and health information privacy laws. Roger subsequently founded the HHS Accountability Project at the Ethics & Public Policy Center. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School, an MA in public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and a BA from the University of Southern California.
Fragrant Red Rosebush – Spring 2024 – Los Angeles – Southern California
With an ongoing global climate crisis, due to humanity’s addiction to fossil fuels, our weather swings from one extreme to the next. Heat domes. Prolonged drought. Rain bombs. Epic floods. We’re not the only ones impacted. So are the trees and plants. Unlike those of us who can find shelter, they must face the elements head-on. Some are resilient and adaptive. Others are not so fortunate.
I’ve observed that the rosebushes in our communal garden are more sensitive to these extremes than my succulent plants. Over the years, we have lost 50 percent of our rosebushes, leaving only eight survivors. The two most recent losses, of the white Hedgerow variety, occurred after the Winter 2022-2023 heavy rains. Grown in an area fully exposed to the elements, their roots sat for three months underwater.
The photo on the left below shows one of them. I haven’t asked the gardener to uproot it in the hope that there may still be some lingering life. The photo on the right is also a white Hedgerow rosebush that stands at the other end of the same exposed plot. After standing for three months in the Winter 2023-2024 floodwater, it’s not doing well. In spring, it’s usually filled with lots of sprawling leaf-laden branches and roses. During our “gray May,” it produced only one tiny rose. I fear that it will not survive another wet winter.
Dead White Rosebush – Winter 2022-2023White Rosebush – Spring 2024
About seven years ago, I undertook to clean up the garden plot of a former neighbor and friend, a food stylist, who had moved back to her home state when her husband Benny took ill with lung cancer. He died months later in January 2016. In March the following year, my best friend and poet also died of lung cancer. Taking care of this plot became part of my grieving process.
After clearing the dense overgrowth of cactus plants, I uncovered the stunted dead trunk and branches of what appeared to be a rosebush. The six-inch tall (15 cm) plant had been smothered by more aggressive plants. For two years I watered it without any sign of life. Then, wonders of wonders, a new branch appeared with tender baby leaves. My care and attention had paid off. The first and single stunning pink rose appeared a year later. Then in 2022, it thanked me with five roses (see photo on the left below). My Miracle Rosebush, as I call it, continued to produce up to six flowers each spring, but I’ve noticed a change in the color and shape, as shown in the photo on the right below. Resilience has its limits as we age.
Stunted Miracle Rosebush – Spring 2022Stunted Miracle Rosebush – Spring 2024
My former food stylist neighbor planted the captioned fragrant red rosebush. Then just a small potted plant used in one of her photo shoots, it has grown into the hardiest and most luxurious of our rosebushes that keeps on giving. It reminds me of our neighbor Benny who is no longer with us. Healing after loss can come in unexpected ways.
Three other rosebushes also brighten my days with their unique beauty and vibrancy, as pictured below. The two remaining rosebushes are not yet in bloom. Hopefully, with the “gray May” and early “June gloom” now behind us, they will awaken to the summer heat.
The photos below were taken by a neighbor and dear friend who, sad to say, has recently moved out-of-state. In the early spring, I also lost my young gardening enthusiast and companion who moved to another neighborhood, trading her garden space for a dog park and ocean-view. Our lives, like the weather and climate, are continually in motion. I adapt as best as I can and, like the rosebushes, bloom in due season.
Earth Day 2024: Earth vs. Plastics Official Earth Day 2024 Poster Photo Credit: Earth Day Official Website
April 22, 2024, is Earth Day. The theme this year, Planet vs. Plastics, “calls to advocate for widespread awareness on the health risk of plastics, rapidly phase out all single use plastics, urgently push for a strong UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution, and demand an end to fast fashion.”
In their unwavering commitment to end plastics for the sake of human and planetary health, the Earth Day Network (EDN) is demanding a 60 percent reduction in the production of ALL plastics by 2040. To achieve this goal, they are:
Raising public awareness about plastic’s harm to human and biodiversity health, pushing for research transparency.
Proposing to phase out single-use plastics by 2030 and embedding these commitments in the United Nations Global Plastic Treaty on Plastic Pollution in 2024.
Advocating for policies aimed at combating the environmental impact of fast fashion which relies on the use of synthetic materials made of plastics, such as polyester and nylon.
Calling for investment in innovative technologies aimed at finding sustainable alternatives to plastics because plastics are made from oil and toxic chemicals.
Become part of the solution. Together, we can create a future where our planet thrives without the burden of plastics.
Front Cover: War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine by Norman Solomon
Frequent killing of civilians is inherent in the types of wars that the United States has waged in this century. Despite all the hype about precision weaponry, even its top-rated technologies are fallible. What’s more, they operate in flawed—and sometimes highly dysfunctional—contexts. Whether launching attacks from distant positions or directly deployed, American forces are far removed from the societies they seek to affect. Key dynamics include scant knowledge of language, ignorance of cultures, and unawareness of such matters as manipulation due to local rivalries.
When U.S. officials say that civilian deaths are merely accidental outcomes of the war effort, they don’t mention that such deaths are not only predictable—they’re also virtually inevitable as results of policy priorities. Presumptions of acceptability are hot-wired into the war machine. The lives taken, injuries inflicted, traumas caused, environmental devastation wrought, social decimation imposed—all scarcely rank as even secondary importance to the power centers in Washington.
Norman Solomon, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, The New Press, New York, USA, 2023, pp. 53-54.
NORMAN SOLOMON is an American journalist, media critic, author, and activist. He is the co-founder of the online organization RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a consortium of policy researchers and analysts. His books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (2006) and Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State (2008). He lives in the San Francisco area in California.
Camellia Trees – Winter 2024 – Los Angeles – Southern California
After the hottest year on record, we’ve had another unusually wet winter. Our garden turned a luxurious green with joy. Red camellias, in the captioned photo, blushed as we passed by on the way to and from the parking area. With a few exceptions, the succulent plants have also responded well to the soaking.
The growth of the potted Aeonium Mint, shown below, was impressive. Just two plants! Compare its growth since October 2023.
Aeonium Mint February 2024Aeonium Mint October 2023
Other large potted plants in this open area, shown below, have also responded well to the drenching.
The Aeonium Kiwi, one of my favorite succulents, is also happy. Thankfully, the open area did not flood and drained well.
Neighbor’s Garden – Summer 2023 – Los Angeles – Southern California
Gone are the days when I could spend hours soaking up the summer heat at the beach. Nowadays, I risk suffering from heat stress, as occurred on two occasions during a heatwave in July. To get out for my weekly chores meant leaving home after 4 p.m. when temperatures became bearable. Mind you, even then, I couldn’t forget my hat and a bottle of lifesaving ice-cold water. Worse still, I had to reduce my weekend gardening hours to just two hours from 5 to 7 p.m.
Thanks to an unusually wet winter, after several years of drought, our plants responded well to the excessive heat. In August, Tropical Storm Hilary also drenched us with two days of steady rainfall and cooled us down, if just for a while. The Propeller or Crassula Falcata succulent plant stole the show with its spectacular red blooms. A gift from a former neighbor who moved out last year, the plant (shown on the left) produced five blooms this year, compared to two last year. The Propeller plant, shown on the right in its early stage, is a young plant I bought last year that has flowered for the first time.
A new neighbor, who moved in last year, transformed his plot with a metal bench and added several potted plants. The flowers he planted for summer added joyful color to our garden. (See captioned photo.) How wonderful to have another garden enthusiast among us!
The garden featured below belongs to another neighbor and friend, a working mother of a seven-year-old daughter, who caught the gardening bug some years ago. In a once-neglected area of our courtyard, she has created a garden that changes colors with the seasons.
Located near the rear entrance/exit, her apartment is unique in having a two-panel glass wall, instead of a window, in her dining room area. As shown in the photo on the right below, she has taken advantage of the afternoon sunlight to set up an indoor garden. With its wide variety of plants, her garden is a delight to explore.
My Poetry Corner July 2023 features the poem “Broken Strings” from the poetry collection Awkward Grace: Poems (USA, 2019) by Mark Tulin, a poet, humorist, and short-story writer. The following excerpts of poems are all sourced from this collection.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he attended the Pennsylvania State University where he studied psychotherapy, specializing in family and sex therapy. In 2012, after practicing for over thirty years as a marriage and family therapist, he moved to Santa Barbara, Southern California. Today, he lives with his second wife, Alice, in Long Beach.
An only child, Tulin began writing poems as a teenager to cope with asthma and a dysfunctional family. His father, a fruit store owner, was charming, sociable, and rational. His mother was an independent-minded schizophrenic who “talked to herself and rarely filtered her words.” Because of his mother, he studied psychology and became a psychotherapist. “If I couldn’t fix my parents, I might be able to heal a family of strangers,” says Tulin in his author bio on Medium.
Three Worlds One Vision 