Will Franklin, for Freedom

Okay. Let's have some fun. Whenever you bring up the heatwaves and drought of the 1930s, climate panic puppies are quick to dismiss them as “statistical outliers” that were caused by “unsustainable farming practices” in the Great Plains. This is cute, but it's not really true. The decade-long drought of the 1930s covered much of the United States and significant portions of Canada. The extreme heat in July-August 1930, June 1933, May-August 1934, June-August 1936, and September 1939 also covered much of the Continent. But the “Dust Bowl” itself was primarily confined to a relatively small area in northern Texas, the Oklahoma Panhandle, and western Kansas. In other words, farmers plowing up deep-rooted perennial prairie grasses and replacing them with shallow-rooted annual crops outside of places like Liberal, Kansas or Boise City, Oklahoma were not responsible for the heatwaves and continental-scale drought. Sure, those agricultural practices amplified drought conditions and, by extension, the intensity of heatwaves on a very localized basis, and they stirred up the dust storms that swept through the Great Plains, but those farming practices were not the actual cause the persistent drought or heatwaves during the 1930s. The drought was naturally forced by persistent La Niña conditions (similar to what has been occurring in recent years) in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and an unusually warm subtropical North Atlantic (Schubert et al., 2004; Seager et al., 2008). 🔗science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… / open-access: www7.nau.edu/mpcer/direnet/… 🔗journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/… Below average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the tropical Pacific produced negative 500 hPa geopotential height anomalies over the tropics, which led to positive anomalies over the mid-latitudes. This created large-scale subsidence (sinking air) over the Plains, which suppressed rainfall for several years. Concurrently, a warm North Atlantic generated anticyclonic rotation in the mid-to-upper troposphere and low-level cyclonic flow that cut off moisture transport from the Gulf of Mexico (or America if you prefer; I'm not going to get into that argument with anyone) to the central United States, especially during the summer and fall. These two factors alone initiated the drought, as they had during the preceding centuries and also recently. In fact, severe droughts in the Great Plains typically happen about once or twice a century (Woodhouse & Overpeck, 1998), and occasionally have been so severe that they transformed the region into a de-facto desert with blowing sand. 🔗journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/… Notably, multi-decadal droughts during both the 13th and 16th centuries exceeded the 1930s drought by intensity and duration, all naturally forced. A tree-ring analysis in Nebraska found that the 13th century Medieval drought lasted an incredible 38 years (Herweijer et al., 2006). 🔗journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1191/09… / open-access: researchgate.net/profile/Richar… Land degradation only locally enhanced drought and heatwave conditions during the 1930s. It did not cause it, nor did it enhance those similar conditions exhibited elsewhere on the entire continent. In other words, you cannot simply dismiss the 1930s heatwaves and droughts because they are problematic for your narrative. It was almost entirely natural. It verifiably happened. And, it isn't going to be dumped down the memory hole so long as I am still standing, I can rest assure you of that.

Good grief.

Ai and manufacturing run on reliable, affordable energy.

Hey @ChrisMartzWX — is it me, or does the National Weather Service now create an advisory for almost any weather condition?

@RealJessica No thanks, I prefer to support the causes that I think make a difference, not some politician’s desire to buy votes with my money.

New York Gov Kathy Hochul is begging wealthy people who have moved to Florida and Texas to come back to New York and pay taxes. 🤣 "I need people who are high net worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state. Now, there are some patriotic millionaires who stepped up. OK, cut me the checks if you want to be supportive, but maybe the first step should be go down to Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home." "I have to look at the fact that we are in competition with other states who have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their individuals. And I would say remote work changed everything." "There were people who could only work in an office in Manhattan and work in New York state. And they were captives to our state, they were going to stay. We saw that that's not the case. Wall Street businesses looking at Texas, they're not going there because they have a nicer governor. They're going there because of the tax rate."

It's hard to imagine a more dishonest graph than this one by the Guardian claiming China is bringing people out of poverty while the US is not. The US poverty rate has been so low for >30 years that it wouldn't even show up on the China graph if it had been plotted to scale!

@KonniBurton I voted the Saturday 2/21. Took a few days to die down, and I'm still getting a few. Though I know at least one person whose profile is tied to my number, so not entirely certain if some campaigns aren't scrubbing their lists, or just picking up someone else. 6 hours to go.

@willfranklin Yeah, I voted on Friday, but still am receiving many texts. 🤷‍♀️

And texts.

Capital gains absolutely should be indexed for inflation. It’s crazy they’re not. If that’s too big a tax cut then raise the rate but index them. Higher rates but indexed to inflation, perhaps coming to a similar total, makes much more economic sense.

@JasonVaughn 💯 Jason

If you actually want housing affordability, do the boring work that matters: • Legalize more housing types locally: duplexes, ADUs, lot splits, and modest density • Streamline permitting and end open-ended delays • Cut fees and mandates that raise construction costs • Stop treating property taxes as a harmless funding source. They punish ownership and investment, year after year • Encourage building, including build-to-rent, to expand options for families The best evidence for this approach is painfully simple: when supply rises, housing prices and rents fall.

Tired of the political text messages yet? There’s a simple solution: Go vote. The sooner you vote, the sooner the texts usually stop. Here’s why: Campaigns are cost-conscious. While no one knows who you voted for, it is public record that you voted. Most campaigns remove voters from their outreach lists so they can spend their dollars more efficiently. So if you needed one more incentive… that’s it. Check your sample ballot (it’s a long one), polling locations, and times at: 👉 harrisvotes.com Weekend voting hours: 🗳 Today: 7am–7pm 🗳 Tomorrow: Noon–7pm Civic participation matters. Show up, cast your ballot, and help shape the future. #ForFreedom #HarrisCounty #VoteEarly

Everyone is mostly talking about Gorsuch taking issue with the dissenters in the tariff case, but his swipe at Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson is exquisite. “Not everyone sees it this way. Past critics of the major questions doctrine do not object to its application in this case, and they even join much of today’s principal opinion. But, they insist, they can reach the same result by employing only routine tools of statutory interpretation.” "Start with the critics. In the past, they have criticized the major questions doctrine for two main reasons. The doctrine, they have suggested, is a novelty without basis in law… And, they have argued, the doctrine is rooted in an ‘anti-administrative-state stance’…” "Today, the critics proceed differently. They join a section of the principal opinion that applies the major questions doctrine.” "It is an interesting turn of events.”

@nimblephatty I agree with Cuban on this (though not if he is calling for some sort of regulation). I like your approach.

Truth. I always make the ED of YDC have lunch with any other charity I’m cutting a check to. I tell them to find something to reduce redundancies on.

Had Bernie been elected prez he would have enacted tariffs and we'd be in the opposite world of Ds defending them & Rs intensely opposed. Had SCOTUS ruled differently and a Dem became prez in '29, that person would have fiddled around the edges but largely kept the tariffs.

Take it up with your congressional delegation. Congratulations for actually having a Supreme Court that sustains lawful policy. You either believe in the rule of law, or you don’t. And if you don’t, then don’t complain when someone else violates the law at YOUR expense. Good day

@willfranklin @lsferguson Meanwhile, the rest of world gets the advantage of unfair trade, at the expense of the American worker. Congratulations!

Rand Paul is celebrating the Supreme Court ruling on President Trump's tariffs

Government spending is the problem.

In defense of our Republic, the Supreme Court struck down using emergency powers to enact taxes. This ruling will also prevent a future President such as AOC from using emergency powers to enact socialism.