Friday, November 22, 2013
Alternate Realities Roundup 11/22
Posted By Eric S. Peterson on November 22, 2013, 10:29 AM
Progressives claim a huge victory in gutting the Senate's filibuster powers.---
Top of the Alty World
“How Democrats Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”--Slate
As UN climate talks falter, African officials explain their country doesn't have the resources to withstand the effects of climate change.--Democracy Now!
On the 50th anniversary of the death of JFK, his nephew recalls his vision to halt the war machine.--Rolling Stone
The Atlantic looks at the immigration reform that wasn't, and the consequences for GOP inaction on the issue.--The Atlantic
Top of Alty Utah
Embattled Attorney General John Swallow resigns from office.--Salt Lake City Weekly
Legislators in favor of increasing smoking age to 21.--Utah Political Capitol
The openly gay candidate for mayor of the small Utah town of Springdale lost by a slim margin.--Q Salt Lake
Records reveal the public spokesman for the Attorney General's Office did campaign work for his bosses on state time.--Salt Lake City Weekly
Rantosphere
Bob Bernick reflects on Swallow's resignation.
“On a personal note, it is never pleasant seeing a man’s life torn apart in the drive for public service. Swallow clearly had the political bug. He took his two congressional losses deeply. He loved being in the Utah House for his relatively short stay.
He believed himself destined for greater things. And with the helping hand of Shurtleff and, unfortunately, some unsavory characters they, together, solicited, Swallow today must wonder what the heck has hit him since he stood proudly and took the oath of office in the Capitol Rotunda last January.”--Utah Policy
The Long View
Business Week looks at the Pacific island nation of Kiribati that stands to be wiped out by climate change.
“Kiribati is a flyspeck of a United Nations member state, a collection of 33 islands necklaced across the central Pacific. Thirty-two of the islands are low-lying atolls; the 33rd, called Banaba, is a raised coral island that long ago was strip-mined for its seabird-guano-derived phosphates. If scientists are correct, the ocean will swallow most of Kiribati before the end of the century, and perhaps much sooner than that. Water expands as it warms, and the oceans have lately received colossal quantities of melted ice. A recent study found that the oceans are absorbing heat 15 times faster than they have at any point during the past 10,000 years. Before the rising Pacific drowns these atolls, though, it will infiltrate, and irreversibly poison, their already inadequate supply of fresh water. The apocalypse could come even sooner for Kiribati if violent storms, of the sort that recently destroyed parts of the Philippines, strike its islands.”--Business Week
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