Ocean that's hot tub hot

An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos reports that the water temperature in Manatee Bay in Florida has set a new record of 101.1F (38.4C). They list some reasons why this may not be taken as an “official” reading that would break a record. The article reminds us: “Hot tub maker Jacuzzi recommends water between 100 and 102 degrees (37.8 and 38.9 Celsius).” When coral gets too hot, above 86F (30C) it expels the algae that gives it color and it turns pale, a process known as bleaching. And the coral near Florida is doing a lot of that. Sometimes it recovers when the water cools. Sometimes it is weakened and dies. Until the 1980s coral bleaching was rare. Now it is routine. Even so, this year it started earlier in the year, making climate scientists nervous. Mark Sumner of Kos shows Postcards from a world on fire. The images show: Fire burning the village of Gennadi on the Greek island of Rhodes. Fires also across Sicily where temps reached 47C (117F). Violent hailstorms in Italy with some stones the size of hands. When combined with flooding it looks like a “shattered Arctic.” High speed winds in Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe that strike without warning. Flooding in Junagadh, India when a flood control system broke and the Nallah River overflowed. Crop failures in Serbia and Belgium. And charts showing rising North Atlantic sea temperatures and shrinking polar ice caps, both much further from the average than in prior years. As Biden signed documents declaring national monuments honoring Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley, Merlin196360 of the Kos community talked about what happened to the men who abducted, tortured, and killed Till in 1955. The whole incident began in Bryant’s grocery store. Carolyn Bryant claimed Till wolf whistled her and grabber her arm. Roy Bryant and half brother JW Milam decided on revenge and killed Till. The all white jury acquitted the men. After that is what gets interesting. Blacks boycotted Bryant’s Grocery. Its income faltered. The two men described to Look magazine what they had done and they were indeed the killers – and were paid $4000 each in desperately needed money. After that whites also boycotted the grocery. They objected not to the murder, but that it brought the scrutiny of uppity northerners. They sold the store and moved to Texas. But even there they were shunned. Milam was reduced to menial jobs, then convicted for bad checks, assault and battery, and using stolen credit cards. He died of painful spinal cancer in 1981. Roy Bryant barely survived on odd jobs and was convicted of welfare fraud. He died of cancer in 1994. His wife Carolyn admitted she lied about what Till had done to her. She wrote a book claiming to be a victim, which prompted a backlash. She also died of cancer. Till may not have gotten justice in the courtroom, but the black community made the murderers pay. In a pundit roundup by Chitown Kev for Kos he quoted Charles Blow of the New York Times, discussing Christian Nationalism, which few people have heard of and fewer can properly describe.

But Christian nationalism isn’t merely “patriotic Christians” and it’s not Christianity, but rather, as the University of Oklahoma sociologist Samuel Perry put it, can be understood as “an impostor Christianity that uses evangelical language to cloak ethnocentric and nationalist loyalties.” And DeSantis is a paragon among the impostors. His anti-woke crusade is a manifestation of the intolerance and battle-thirst of Christian nationalism, and Florida’s distortion of Black history and its attempt to rehabilitate the image of slavery is part of it.

In the comments a cartoon by Mike Luckovich that is titled History according to DeSantis shows Lincoln saying, “I’m ending slavery...” and the slaves responding, “Then how’re we gonna develop new job skills?” A cartoon posted by Marko Silberhand shows Lady Liberty seated and bound and the nasty guy holding a gun to her head while the government buildings behind him are in flames. A cartoon by Kevin Siers shows the GOP logo in a trash heap with pieces of paper that say such things as “Defund FBI,” “Jan 6: Normal Tourism,” “Hunter & Hysteria,” and a few more. The logo says, “When it comes to wrecking a brand, Elon Musk is an amateur!” A cartoon by Cathy Wilcox showing a small boat named Business as Usual. The front of the boat is on fire. A child tries to alert the man lounging at the back. The man says, “What’s the panic? It’s all the way up the other end of the boat.” In the comments of another pundit roundup Garth German took another swipe at Florida education. On the board is “Florida’s new history curriculum: U.S. Slaves developed skills for personal benefit!” A white kid answers – causing a black kid’s head to snap around – “So, you’re saying that paying for college or trade school is a sucker’s deal when I could learn so much by being a slave!” Luckovich posted a cartoon on Kos showing GOP approved versions – Handmaid Barbie, Pay Gap Barbie, Student Debt Barbie, and Forced Birth Barbie.