The Angry Bear

I grew up in East Tennessee in the 1960s. Fish was something that came in breaded rectangles out of the freezer. Growing up Roman Catholic, it’s what was for dinner on Friday. I never cared for fish back then.We honeymooned in Charleston SC (“where the Ashley and Cooper rivers meet to form the Atlantic Ocean”) and that’s when I first had shark. While we were in grad school in North Carolina, we occasionally enjoyed crab and rock shrimp. There was good...

by The one-handed economist Humans are not doing enough mitigation to slow — let alone reverse — climate change chaos. Average global temperature is now +1.2C, far above which is on track to exceed the 2015 Paris Agreement’s target of “holding the increase in the global average temperature… increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels”  by 2034.* In this 2011 post (“We’re screwed, now what?”), I wrote: Mitigation-focused investments...

by Emma Marris AB: I grew up with trees around us in the city of Chicago. Mostly giant Ash trees or the soft wood maples. They provided shade to the front and back of the house. Our first home in Wood Dale had a giant Burr Oak next to the garage and a Hickory in the middle of the back yard near the well. In Madison Wisconsin I planted trees and the same holds true in Michigan just north of Ann Arbor. Here and south of Phoenix, AZ we bought...

“Still no power? Here’s when lights could turn on,” StormTeam2 The lights have gone out in many parts of Ohio. Commenter and sometime writer r.j.s. citing conditions near his home after bad weather passed through. CLEVELAND (WJW) — FirstEnergy is calling storms that hit Northeast Ohio on Tuesday the most impactful to hit The Illuminating Company service territory in more than 30 years. On Tuesday evening, heavy downpours and strong winds...

Residential building construction and spending sound a warning for goods-producing employment – by New Deal democrat The final data point from last week that I wanted to catch up on was construction spending, and especially residential construction and spending. As reported last week, in June total nominal spending declined -0.3% in June, but is higher 6.2% YoY. The more leading residential sector also showed a -0.4% decline, and is higher...

Appointed officials have the life-saving solutions the public needs to stay safe from rising temperatures. But they don’t have political power. Zoya Teirstein . . . Once a month, roughly a dozen people enter a Zoom room to talk about what to do about this. They log on from their desks in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Jacksonville, San Antonio, and other cities across the country that are grappling with scorching temperatures. They have backgrounds in...

American colleges and universities are the envy of the world. The American higher education system is an important driver of the economy.There are those who sneer at the educated. They only expose their insecurity. In JD Vance, Donald Trump has chosen a running mate who has publicly stated that he sees colleges and universities as “the enemy.” Ironic, because Vance is both a college grad and a graduate of the elite Yale law school.Your doctor? S/he...

This is the start of a series of posts or commentary on access to hospitals in rural areas. First point, since they do not have the volume a hospital in the city has, their costs make be higher. The infrastructure and labor involved has to be spread over 24 hours of availability and not just when needed. In other words, you can not turn it on and off as needed. Availability to another source of care may be time limited depending on the patient too....

Noem releases social study standards to burnish U.S. history, AP News SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Monday released a revised proposal for social studies standards in public schools that lays out a mostly shining vision of American history, after an initial draft of the standards came under heavy criticism last year from conservatives and Native American educators. The Republican governor claimed the new proposed...

 – by New Deal democrat Officially reported initial jobless claims declined -17,000 to 233,000 last week. The four-week moving average rose 750 to 240,750. With the typical one-week delay, continuing claims rose 6,000 to 1.875 million, the highest number since November 17, 2021: On the more important YoY basis, initial claims were down -9.7%, while the 4-week average was nigher by 0.3%. Continuing claims were higher by 5.8%, up by more than...