Day: July 20, 2023

How Hot Can It Get?

A question many are asking……but sadly not the right people are asking this probing question.

There has been many blog posts about the extreme heat the earth is suffering through….and there does not seem to be an end to this torture.

For weeks on end we have been told about the extreme heat that is gripping the US and the world.

My region has had a month of above normal heat even for this time of the year, even reaching the 107 mark just yesterday.

If this trend continues then how hot can it get and what would come afterwards?

If it seems like the weather has been getting really wonky lately — and generally, a lot warmer — that’s because it has been, thanks to the phenomenon of global climate change. In a nutshell, the mean temperature of the Earth’s surface is steadily rising, due in large part to the steadfast refusal of humankind to stop filling the atmosphere with heat-trapping greenhouse emissions, despite virtually every climate scientist on the planet imploring us to do so for decades. For the record, the science on this issue is absolutely settled; human activity is causing the phenomenon, and while there are large swaths of people who refuse to believe it, this unfortunately does not make it any less true.

For those of us who are actively concerned about the issue (which should be every single one of us), a few key questions may rise to the forefront of any discussion: How bad could rising temperatures get, and how quickly? What will the effects of global climate change be, and how will they impact us? And most importantly, what can be done about the problem? The answers are more straightforward than one might think, but be warned: many of them aren’t pretty, and they spell out the undeniable truth that global climate change is an issue that must be addressed by the whole of humanity, head-on — and right now.

According to an analysis by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of the United Nations, the mean temperature of the Earth’s surface has risen by about one degree Celsius since the industrial revolution. The analysis points out that this is a global mean — in some parts of the world, the average temperatures have risen even higher, and the effects have already begun to be felt. The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, an accord between member nations to limit greenhouse emissions, aims to keep this mean temperature increase firmly under two degrees, with a stated goal of keeping it under 1.5 — the point beyond which some changes may become irreversible.

https://www.grunge.com/1337577/how-hot-can-earth-get-what-would-happen/

Not to worry we are told this is all just a liberal hoax….there is nothing to see with the climate.

If you believe that then you may be dumber than I ever imagined.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Run For The Border

Let us take a break from one stupidity and move on to another….

I have waited a few days to see just how the blogs would handle this event…..few even noticed according to the chatter on-line.

The event I am writing about is the US soldier who ‘jumped’ the fence and escaped into North Korea…..

This is how the tale is trending…..

American officials have confirmed that a US soldier crossed into North Korea Tuesday “willfully and without authorization.” Officials did not release the soldier’s name at a briefing Tuesday afternoon, but outlets including CBS identified the man as Private 2nd Class Travis King. The AP, citing US officials, reports that King had just been released from a South Korean prison where he had been held on assault charges. The officials said King was due to face further disciplinary action in the US and had been taken to an airport by military personnel. But he managed to avoid getting on the plane and joined a tour group that went to the border village of Panmunjom in the Joint Security Area between North and South Korea.

The soldier passed through airport security before somehow leaving the airport and joining the tour group, officials said. A witness who was part of the same tour group tells CBS that the man gave out “a loud ‘ha ha ha'” before running between some buildings. “I thought it was a bad joke at first, but when he didn’t come back, I realized it wasn’t a joke, and then everybody reacted and things got crazy,” the witness says. The witness says there were no North Korean soldiers visible where the man ran. Members of the tour group were required to provide identification before they boarded their bus in Seoul, the witness says.

Col. Isaac Taylor, a public affairs officer for US Forces Korea, said authorities believe the soldier is in North Korean custody, the New York Times reports. Asked at Tuesday’s briefing whether the soldier had defected to North Korea, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “All I will say … is that it’s clear that he willfully, of his own volition, crossed the border,” the BBC reports. Asked whether the soldier was being forcibly detained by North Korean authorities, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Pentagon is closely monitoring the situation and he is “absolutely foremost concerned about the welfare of our troop.”

As I was writing this more info has been released….

More details are slowly emerging about Private 2nd Class Travis King, the US soldier who crossed into North Korea on Tuesday—but his current whereabouts aren’t one of them. North Korean state media has yet to say anything about the 23-year-old, the first American known to be detained in North Korea in almost five years. The latest:

  • King, a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division, had on July 10 finished a nearly two-month stint in a South Korean prison for assault, the AP reports. He was en route to Fort Bliss, Texas, to possibly face further military discipline and discharge when he somehow left the Incheon International Airport outside Seoul. King later joined a Panmunjom tour and dashed across the border.
  • The Korea Times sheds light on that “somehow.” It reports military police from Camp Humphreys escorted King to Incheon but were not permitted to go through security and to the gate with him. Once at the gate, King “approached an American Airlines official and reported that his passport was missing, and was able to return out of the departure gate under the escort of an airline employee,” an airport official said.
  • King had run-ins with the law in South Korea prior to serving time. Reuters reports he was accused of punching a man at a Seoul nightclub in September; the charge was dropped because the alleged victim didn’t want to pursue a case against King, reports the AP.
  • On Oct. 8, police responded to the report of an alleged assault. King reportedly refused to cooperate with police or answer their questions. He was put in a police car where, according to court documents, he yelled obscenities about Koreans and the Korean army and police and damaged the car’s door by kicking it. He was fined 5 million won (about $4,000) in February in that case.
  • The White House—which has no diplomatic relations with the North—on Tuesday said the US is “engaging” with South Korea and Sweden regarding King. The AP points out that while Sweden has acted as an intermediary in the past thanks in part to its embassy in Pyongyang, its diplomatic staff were forced out of the country at the start of the pandemic and reportedly haven’t returned.
  • As for the tour King joined, NBC News reports Panmunjom is located about 90 minutes from the airport and is the sole place along the roughly 155-mile Demilitarized Zone where the North and South “interact.”
  • New Zealander Sarah Leslie and her father were part of the tour group. She tells the AP that she initially believed she was watching a prank when she saw King sprinting toward North Korea “really fast. I assumed initially he had a mate filming him in some kind of really stupid prank or stunt, like a TikTok, the most stupid thing you could do. But then I heard one of the soldiers shout, ‘Get that guy.'”
  • As for King’s possible fate, Tae Yongho, a South Korean lawmaker and former minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, tells the AP he has a hard time envisioning the North returning King to the US because he is a soldier and the two countries technically remain at war. That’s because “the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty,” the AP explains.

Now my question is why would anyone choose a NK prison to a military stockade?

Best and brightest my ass.

I am sure that there will be more on this incident to come….but how will this be painted?

Your thoughts….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”