Anti-Green Energy, Anti-Science Republicans costing taxpayers hundreds of Billions, and it's getting worse!!! "Fiscal Conservative" Myth Explodes!

Republicans say they want you keep more of your hard earned money, but their policies are doing just the opposite, resulting in huge costly disasters:

A federal watchdog says climate change is already costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year, with those costs expected to rise as devastating storms, floods, wildfires and droughts become more frequent in the coming decades.

A Government Accountability Office report released Monday says the federal government has spent about $350 billion over the last decade on disaster assistance programs and losses from flood and crop insurance. That tally does not include the massive toll from this year's wildfires and three major hurricanes, expected to be among the most costly in U.S. history.

The report says there is currently no strategic plan to absorb these recurring costs, which could grow to a budget-busting $35 billion a year by 2050.

President Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax.

Yet we're expected to accept the 2nd grade level right wing argument pictured below, from reckless ideologues who don't think to play it safe by siding with 99 percent of climate scientists. You know, err on the side of caution, just in case:

Although we can't blame climate change for the following story, it's still pretty disturbing:

THE WASHINGTON POST: Flying Insects Are Disappearing at Huge Rates, And We Should All Be Worried. But we can help them survive! Not long ago, a lengthy drive on a hot day wouldn't be complete without scraping bug guts off a windshield. But splattered insects have gone the way of the Chevy Nova - you just don't see them on the road like you used to. Biologists call this the windshield phenomenon. It's a symptom, they say, of a vanishing population. "On warm summer nights you used to see them around streetlights."

Between 1989 and 2016, according to a report published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, the biomass of flying insects captured in these regions decreased by a seasonal average of 76 percent. "This decline happened in nature reserves, which are meant to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. This is very alarming!" What made this research particularly remarkable was the extent of the observed decline. One culprit could be the alteration of the landscape itself, the agriculture that surrounds the preserves. "This suggests a possible role for, for example, fertiliser and pesticide application." 

Walker declares war on Drinking Water Supply, Lakes to Swim in, and DNR Scientists.

I think it’s time to write following story the way the news media should have from the beginning, so here goes (quote is my emphasis)…

“Schimel ignored past court cases, other state laws and the Public Trust Doctrine of the Wisconsin Constitution, which all give the DNR authority to protect water resources...”

After being ordered to by…

“...Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), chairman of the Assembly Committee on Organization, to ‘clarify’ the authority of the DNR over high-capacity wells.”

Clarity was a wink and nudge to pass and completely destroy the DNR, defying common sense and public responsibility. Leaving no one in charge...

"...Schimel concluded the DNR lacked explicit authority to place conditions on farms and or other entities that wanted to construct large wells — even if the wells harmed state waters."

Odd that after all this time, the state never found a way to protect the state drinking water supply.

Now there’s a 2016 lawsuit against that decision that hopes to reverse Rep. Vos' politically driven AG's right to plunder:

Employees of the DNR expressed concerns in emails in 2015 and 2016 about potential harm to lakes and streams from the construction of new wells in areas where irrigation was already widespread, court records filed on Friday show. The emails were included in the latest documents of a 2016 lawsuit by an environmental group and lake association that challenged a major shift in state policy that weakened the regulation of high-capacity wells. The October 2016 suit contends the DNR violated the Wisconsin Constitution and ignored other state laws and court cases after the agency announced it would no longer examine applications of large-scale wells by taking into account the impact of other nearby wells.

Destroying the Watchdogs; Scientists: Republican disdain for science is at a whole new level in Wisconsin, making it an environmental hell hole: 

Two years ago, Walker and lawmakers enacted a budget that cut 18 DNR science service bureau researchers amid complaints that their research related to climate change, pollution and wildlife habitat were controversial and unneeded.

Now the science services bureau is being dissolved and its remaining scientists moved to program offices that use their research.

A frequent critic of the DNR said the move will give more control to DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp. Sen. Tom Tiffany, a Republican and part of the GOP majority on the Legislature’s budget committee, said Stepp should be able to ensure that research benefits sportsmen and the DNR should be better able to prevent further research that takes climate change into account.

Walker Bags Smokey the Bear: Walker put the Kibosh on the State Fair's DNR exhibit. Seriously, who needs big government preaching to kids about taking care of the environment anyway: 

Effective this year, the DNR will no longer offer fisheries, wildlife or environmental management booths, casting clinics, archery, a children's nature play area, Smokey's Schoolhouse and a number of other attractions.

What Me Worry...about Blue-Green Algae? On the subject of water, Scott Walker is making Wisconsin "green" by designating it the official color of our lakes...with blue-green algae. Walker and his band of plundering legislative Republican pirates, don't seem alarmed that we can no longer go swimming in our lakes...even in June. WISC:

Our Little Friend, Cyanobacteria? Good for you Heart: Science might be coming to Walker's rescue though, even if he doesn't believe in that either. I don't know if we're talking about the same species of blue-green algae, but you never know....The Smithsonian:

In a study published this week in Science Advances, Dr. Woo and his team show how they successfully replaced blood with microscopic cyanobacteria, plant-like organisms that also use photosynthesis. By co-opting the process to help heal damaged heart tissue, the team was able to protect rats from deadly heart failure. Fixing an ailing heart, it seems, may be as simple as shining a light on the situation.

For cardiologists, the challenge for preventing subsequent heart failure is to rapidly supply damaged heart tissues with oxygen and nutrients. But “if you look at nature, photosynthesis answers that question,” 

Dr. Woo and his team grew a strain of Synechococcus in their lab and injected to the impaired heart tissue of a living rat. Then, they turned up the lights. After 20 minutes, they saw increased metabolism in damaged areas. Overall cardiac performance improved after about 45 minutes. The evidence suggested that the oxygen and sugar Synechococcus created through photosynthesis was enhancing tissue repair.

After injecting living bacteria into a body organ, you might expect an infection. But interestingly, the researchers didn’t find any immune response after TK HOURS “The bugs are just not there anymore, it disappears,” says Dr. Woo. “And maybe that’s the best kind of bacteria”—a friendly helper that sticks around to do damage control, then disappears without a trace. The recent study is merely proof-of-concept, but scientists are now on the path to trying the technique in human subjects. Next they’ll try it in larger animal models that are closer to humans, and they’re working on ways to deliver and shine light on cyanobacteria without an open heart surgery. They’re even considering genetically editing Synechococcus to make the critters release more sugar.

Walker says Faith and Science Compatible, maybe even in our classroom.

This is not an innocent Scott Walker tweet, it's dog whistle messaging missed by the media:

Walker is equating faith with science, that they're compatible in some way, "hand in hand" stuff...in our classrooms. This has been the argument for including intelligent design in our science classes. It presents both theories as equals, when only one can be tested, not just "debated." From the Discovery Institute comes this ridiculous rationalization that tries to get around that with twisted logic that inserts testing and experimentation into intelligent design to simply elicit a broad "God designed it" opinion.

It's no accident vouchers are going mainly to religious schools that can deny evolution completely in classrooms and online. Taxpayer money will eventually fund a much larger part of an American society that thinks men rode on dinosaurs.

You can't test faith either, or it won't be...faith anymore, right?

Lunacy # 1: Wisconsin House Republicans start to dismantle EPA, by requiring confidential health information be made public.

We've known for years air pollution harms and prematurely kills Americans every day, but that may not matter anymore if Republicans, who will be in charge soon, block research proving it. Then magically, the harmful effects of pollution will disappear, and anti-science marches on. Roll Call:

SCIENCE AND THE ENVIRONMENT: The House passed a Republican bill (HR 4012) that would negate specific rule making by the Environmental Protection Agency unless all data from underlying scientific studies -- including any confidential health information about participants -- has been made publicly available so that the studies can be independently replicated. Republicans said the bill would promote much-needed transparency at the EPA, while Democrats said it would thwart enforcement actions because many environmental studies depend on protecting the privacy rights of participants. Democrats said the bill's main targets are studies by the American Cancer Society and Harvard University that link air pollution with ill health and underpin the EPA's administration of the Clean Air Act.

Voting to kill more Americans with cancer and other diseases, by making scientific research completely irrelevant: Republicans Paul Ryan, James Sensenbrenner, Tom Petri, Sean Duffy, and Reid Ribble.

Here's Alex Wagner with the story as well:



The next post in this series will take your breath away, literally.