Hurricanes happen even without global warming, even large ones, and we can’t be certain that the damage of any of this year’s storms was caused by human-driven climate change.
But at least three weather data points this year were so far outside the realm of normal that we can be reasonably certain that this particular weather isn’t just weather, but climate: The record-high global temperature average, the record-high summer temperatures in Asia, and the record-high temperatures of the North Pacific.
The good news is that it’s quite likely that many people alive today will be alive to see just how crazy the weather gets! We’re going to be living in some interesting times.
Fortunately, our leadership is up to the… no, wait. It’s not. The president filled out his absentee ballot wrong in last month’s NYC elections. Actually the whole family did: Jared forgot to mail his ballot, Melania forgot to sign hers, and Ivanka mailed hers too late. But the president got his own birthday wrong on the form. Don’t worry though, he’s got a very good brain. Best brain. Still good. Yes.
It’s OK though, because they dynamism of the American economy and the children are our future and here’s a must-read article titled FML: Why millennials are facing the scariest financial future of any generation since the Great Depression.
This is why the touchstone experience of millennials, the thing that truly defines us, is not helicopter parenting or unpaid internships or Pokémon Go. It is uncertainty. “Some days I breathe and it feels like something is about to burst out of my chest,” says Jimmi Matsinger. “I’m 25 and I’m still in the same place I was when I earned minimum wage.” Four days a week she works at a dental office, Fridays she nannies, weekends she babysits. And still she couldn’t keep up with her rent, car lease and student loans. Earlier this year she had to borrow money to file for bankruptcy. I heard the same walls-closing-in anxiety from millennials around the country and across the income scale, from cashiers in Detroit to nurses in Seattle.
This also goes a long way to explaining why anxiety and panic have replaced depression as the touchstone American mental illness these days. (Hey remember when it was hypomania? Those were fun times.)
Twitter Interlude
Set Up Your Optimization Process. I Will Meet You There, In The Crack Between What You Want And What You Ask For. https://t.co/KtGrmHXKz6 — Moloch Chan (@MolochChan) November 23, 2015
These claims about the future implications of Go AI are {species_data(‘human’).adjs_by_target_state[:complacent].sample(2).join(‘ and ‘)}. — Steven Kaas (@stevenkaas) March 11, 2016
Omg friends, TIL the term for ‘mansplain’ in French is ‘mecspliquer’.
Mec = bro
“expliquer” = to explain
“M’expliquer” is reflexive; it literally translates to “I explain myself.”
This is such a *delightful* portmanteau I can’t even. — Renée Stephen (@ReneeStephen) December 14, 2017
Takedowns
No, you dumbass, that’s not how fraud works.
Moar Politics
Mention Our Revolution, the group that arose from Bernie Sanders’ insurgent campaign last year, to a moderate voter, and they’ll say it’s terrible branding for a political movement. Revolution? Socialism? When are progressives going to realize that conservatives have 49% of the votes, more of the electoral college, and 99% of the guns? How can liberals be so out of touch?
Michael Tomasky argues that it’s Republicans who are out of touch, at least with the parts of America where innovation and opportunity happen. Hillary Clinton, he points out, may have won only 15% of the counties in the US, but those small physical areas contribute 64% of the US GDP.
Personal essays
Mimi O’Donnell on her marriage to Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Professional climber Beth Rodden on her personal journey of obsession and fear and love (the kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan is only part of it).
Cultivating hope
Alabama makes it really hard for poor rural black people to vote. Fortunately for Lowndes County residents, a former sharecropper named Perman Hardy has the almost superhuman energy and dedication it takes to overcome those obstacles, get voters registered, and get them to the polls.
Cultivating despair
You can now buy a Christmas-themed dummy surveillance camera to emphasize to your children that just like the cops, Santa is literally watching them at all times.
Cultivating joy
Elusive.
Secretly Ironic 