Devastation Alert

You may not appreciate just how many hell-in-a-handbasket topics I choose not to cover here, often because I've mentioned them on my Twitter account and feel too overwhelmed to keep up with them all. Or maybe you do realize.

Today, there are so many I have to list them, and I'm sure I'll forget something.

Meteorologist and climate writer Eric Holthaus has a new piece on Grist titled Ice Apocalypse: Rapid collapse of Anarctic glaciers could flood coastal cities by the end of this century. He put it this way on Twitter: "I spoke with more than a dozen polar scientists. Nearly all of them had that edge in their voice—they knew, in their core, that this work was critically important and they wanted the world to know." Children being born today will (most likely) still be alive at the end of this century; this is not a remote time.

Trump's Federal Communications Commission is killing net neutrality, which means at a minimum that people's already-too-expensive internet access will become more expensive. In worse scenarios, our access to some kinds of content will be throttled or even eliminated.

Trump's nominee to lead the 2020 census is the author of a book called Redistricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections Are Bad for America. The administration has already demonstrated it is coming for the very idea of democracy, and this is more evidence. (Written up on Politico.)

U.S. airstrikes in Iraq result in civilian death rates 31 times higher than claimed. That's not 31 percent higher... it's 3,100 percent higher. (Based on thorough investigative work by the New York Times.)

The tax bill may pass. (I have hopes that it won't, but they'll keep bringing it back just like the health care bill.)

Six weeks after Trump signed the Russia sanctions bill, he has made no move toward implementing the sanctions, undermining the foundations of constitutional government.

Trump's list of potential court appointments (and in-process appointments) will corrupt the judiciary for decades. From incompetent to deeply ideological, they've been prepped since law school to steer the country into the worst parts of our past. (Remember, though: aside from the incompetents Trump has plucked from nowhere, this little apocalypse was set to happen no matter which Republican got elected to the White House.)

Meanwhile, Clarence Thomas is still on the Supreme Court, and we're all waiting to hear what prominent man will next be outed as a harasser or worse.

Is that enough for one day? I'm not sure. I probably forgot something.