The Hollywood Liberal

Accused Syrian Spy Says Feds Botched Interpretation, Used Google Translate
Federal authorities botched a translation of a conversation between accused Syrian spy Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid and his wife and even used Google Translate for some interpretations, his lawyers aid in a court filing.

John Edwards Defense Strategy: But What About John Ensign?
Lawyers for former Democratic presidential candidate and Senator John Edwards have a question for the Justice Department officials prosecuting his case: what ever happened with that whole John Ensign thing?

Eric Holder To Testify On Fast And Furious As Dems Call On Ex-ATF Director Melson
Attorney General Eric Holder is set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 8 about ATF’s flawed Fast and Furious operation that let guns flow to Mexican drug cartels, a Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed to TPM.

Rick Perry Tries Praying to a New God

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Sanctioning Iran
From reading the last couple days’ coverage of the US and international response to the Iranian assassination plot, you can get a pretty good picture of the wide gulf that often separates American domestic politics from international politics — and,…

Markets, New Media, the Occupation, and What’s Next
Long before I dabbled in new media I was a timorous dabbler in markets, my investments driven algorithmically by computers at speeds that left me ignorant of what I “owned” from day to day. By comparison, the rapid convergence of…

Up to 5 Feet of Rain in 10 Days Spurred by Warming Waters is ?One of the Most Dramatic Disasters in its History,” Prez Says
Thailand’s Great Flood Likely to Peak this Weekend and Damage One Quarter of Rice Crop of World’s Top Exporter No, the main headline wasn’t about Thailand — it was about El Salvador (as is the picture).  We’ve been seeing twin uber-deluges this month on opposite sides of the Earth, both spurred by warming waters, as […]

Thailand’s Great Flood Likely to Peak this Weekend and Damage One Quarter of Rice Crop of World’s Top Exporter

No, the main headline wasn’t about Thailand — it was about El Salvador (as is the picture).  We’ve been seeing twin uber-deluges this month on opposite sides of the Earth, both spurred by warming waters, as meteorologist and former hurricane hunter Dr. Jeff Masters explains on his blog.

The Thai floods have gotten more attention, because of their epic nature — and global economic impact on rice prices (see below).  So let’s start with El Salvador and Central America:

“I want to tell the world that El Salvador is going through one of the most dramatic disasters in its history,” President Mauricio Funes said on national radio and television Wednesday night, as he appealed for international aid. A week of torrential rains across Central America have triggered extreme floods and landslides that have killed 105 people, according to media reports. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua have declared states of emergency due to the disaster. El Salvador and Guatemala have seen the worst flooding, with 34 and 38 people killed, respectively. Another 18 have died in Honduras, 13 in Nicaragua, and 5 in Costa Rica. The rains were due to a large area of low pressure that was moistened by the landfall of Tropical Depression 12-E near the Mexico/Guatemala border last week.

Contributing to the record-intensity rains were ocean temperatures off the coast of El Salvador that were 0.5 – 1°C above average during the first half of October, allowing more water vapor than usual to evaporate into the air. Over the past ten days, rainfall amounts of over a meter (39.4″) have fallen over a large area of southwest El Salvador (Figure 2.) At Huizucar, an astonishing 1.513 meters (4.96 feet) of rain fell in the past ten days.

Climatologist Kevin Trenberth explained the deluge-warming connection in an interview with Climate Progress last year:

I find it systematically tends to get underplayed and it often gets underplayed by my fellow scientists. Because one of the opening statements, which I’m sure you’ve probably heard is “Well you can’t attribute a single event to climate change.” But there is a systematic influence on all of these weather events now-a-days because of the fact that there is this extra water vapor lurking around in the atmosphere than there used to be say 30 years ago. It’s about a 4% extra amount, it invigorates the storms, it provides plenty of moisture for these storms and it’s unfortunate that the public is not associating these with the fact that this is one manifestation of climate change. And the prospects are that these kinds of things will only get bigger and worse in the future.

The AFP reports that many in Central America do understand the connection between warming and deluging:

Officials have blamed the effects of global warming for the spate of deadly rains and flooding.

“Climate change is not something that is coming in the future, we are already suffering its effects,” said Raul Artiga with the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD).

Here’s a graphic of the “astonishing” amount of rain El Salvador has been hit by:

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Rainfall [in mm] in El Salvador for the 10-day period ending on Friday, October 21, at 8 am EDT. At Huizucar, an astonishing 1.513 meters (4.96 feet) of rain fell during those ten days. Image credit: Hydrological Service of El Salvador.

Here’s the latest on the unfolding catastrophe in Thailand:

Thailand’s Great Flood likely to peak this weekend
The most damaging natural disaster in Thailand history is growing more serious, as the flood waters besieging the capital of Bangkok continue to overwhelm defenses and inundate the city. Heavy rains during September and October have led to extreme flooding that has killed 373 people and caused that nation’s most expensive natural disaster in history, with a cost now estimated at $6 billion. Thailand’s previous most expensive disaster was the $1.3 billion price tag of the November 27, 1993 flood, according to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). Floodwaters have swamped fields and cities in a third of Thailand’s provinces, affected 9 million people, and damaged approximately 10% of the nation’s rice crop. Thailand is the world’s largest exporter of rice, so the disaster may put further upward pressure on world food prices, which are already at the highest levels since the late 1970s. The highest tide of the month occurs this weekend at 8:07 am ICT in the capital of Bangkok, and the additional pressure that incoming salt water puts on the flood walls protecting the city is a major concern. Fortunately, the monsoon has been quiet this week over Southeast Asia, and the latest GFS model precipitation forecast show little additional rain over the country in the coming week. Heavy monsoon rains are common in Thailand and Southeast Asia during La Niña events, and we currently have a weak La Niña event occurring.

Ocean temperatures in the waters surrounding Thailand during September and October have been approximately 0.3°C above average, which has increased rainfall amounts by putting more water vapor into the air. The remains of Tropical Storm Haitang and Typhoon Nesat also brought heavy rains in late September which contributed to the flooding.

Figure 3. Top ten most expensive natural disasters in Thailand since 1900, as tabulated by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). This month’s disaster (number one on the table above) is not yet in the CRED data base.

And here’s what the deluge is doing to food insecurity:

BANGKOK: Thailand may lose a quarter of its main rice crop in the nation’s worst flooding in decades, the government estimates, which could boost prices of the staple and further squeeze shipments from the world’s top exporter. The flood damage to rice comes at a time when Thailand, which accounts for about 30% of global trade, has in place an intervention scheme that is likely to push prices even higher, encouraging buyers to seek alternative origins.

A rally in the market for Asia’s main staple could stoke tensions across a region where several nations are struggling with a double-digit increase in food inflation, although ample global reserves and new supplies in the pipeline are expected to keep buyers calm for now.

“The 6 million tonnes damage (to rice paddy) is just an initial estimate. We need to conduct a survey again after flood water recedes,” Apichart Jongsakul, head of the Office of Agriculture Economy, told Reuters, adding that the figure, which is a 50% jump from early estimates, referred to the main crop.

As a result, Thailand may not be able to meet its rice export commitments to Indonesia, the Indonesian trade minister said on Friday, forcing Southeast Asia’s largest economy to explore other sources.

“I just received information that they (Thailand) don’t appear to be able to fulfill their commitment to sell and ship rice to Indonesia,” trade minister Gita Wirjawan said….

The worsening flood situation could cut Thai production to 19 million tonnes of paddy, Apichart said, nearly a quarter down from the previous forecast of 25 million. Thailand has a second smaller crop producing around 7 million tonnes a year.

Thailand has seen about 1.6 million hectares of farmland inundated, forcing the government to cut its estimate for this year’s main crop by 24%.

High Water is here.

Related Posts:

• Virginia Deluge Was an “Off the Charts Above a 1000-year Rainfall,” Says National Weather Service
• “An Extreme Rainfall Event Unprecedented in Recorded History Has Hit the Binghamton, New York Area”

• Last year, we had Tennessee’s 1000-year deluge aka Nashville’s ‘Katrina’.
• Coastal North Carolina’s suffered its second 500-year rainfall in 11 years.
• Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, said in December, “The term ’100-year event’ really lost its meaning this year” (see Munich Re: “The only plausible explanation for the rise in weather-related catastrophes is climate change”).

• Northern Territory Chief Minister on Carlos’s deluge: “So a really one in 500 year event; nobody’s experienced anything like this before”
• High Water: Aussie inland tsunami labelled 1-in-370 year event
• In other UK news: “Rain like this happens once every 1,000 years”
• Yes, “human-induced increases in greenhouse gases have contributed to the observed intensification of heavy precipitation events” over much of the NH

Congress’s fiscal to-do list has some must-do items

Congress heads into a 24-day stretch Monday with a final chance to reach several bipartisan compromises that could steady the government’s shaky fiscal foundation and provide a slight boost to a sagging economy.

With both houses of Congress in session together for the first time in nearly three weeks, lawmakers must dig into the final details of the annual spending bills for 2012 and consider more of President Obama’s jobs legislation, while a dozen other lawmakers on a special deficit committee face a Nov. 23 deadline to craft a debt-reduction package.

Read full article >>

Insurer profits at issue in Anthem Health Plans of Maine suit

A lawsuit challenging Maine’s authority over health insurers’ profit margins is drawing national attention from state regulators worried about the impact on their power to hold down rate increases.

The state’s highest court has scheduled oral arguments Nov. 10 on a case brought by a Maine unit of WellPoint, one of the nation’s largest health plans. Anthem Health Plans of Maine argues that regulators violated state law and the U.S. Constitution when they reduced requested premium increases in each of the past three years, depriving the company of “a fair and reasonable return.”

Read full article >>

Newt Gingrich: GOP’s consummate survivor is back on his feet

GREENVILLE, S.C. — In an election season that already has taken more than its share of unlikely turns, few moments have seemed more improbable than the crowd scene Friday afternoon at a Chick-fil-A along a busy suburban thoroughfare here. At least 400 people jammed the restaurant, leaving those in the back straining to get even a glimpse of a man whose presidential candidacy had been left for dead not five months ago.

Read full article >>

Foreign students say visa program abused

For years, it has been touted as a form of vacation diplomacy: a U.S. government program that selects college students from across the globe to come work at beach resorts, amusement parks and other seasonal jobs. In the process, the visitors are expected to imbibe American culture, practice English and take home fond memories.

Read full article >>

Comeback Cardinals Never Quit
Bernie Miklasz, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The St. Louis Cardinals have won the World Series with Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith. They've won it with speed. They've won with power. They've won it with pitching, defense and mastermind managers.Until now, the Cardinals had never won a World Series with a team like this. A team that was lost, left behind and stranded in the standings. A team too stubborn and proud to accept the hopelessness of the situation. A team that fought back like no other has in franchise history.

Washington Insiders See Romney as Nominee
West & Bell, Nat’l Journal
The large Republican presidential field, along with the dramatic surges and collapses of several of its candidates, may ultimately be much ado about nothing. That, at least, is the conclusion of the Republican strategists surveyed in this week's National Journal Political Insiders Poll, who almost unanimously identified Mitt Romney as the most likely candidate to win the nomination. In the five times the GOP Insiders have been asked that question in 2011, Romney has never surrendered the top spot.Democratic Insiders, meanwhile, largely believe Republicans are on the right track, with…

Why Does Bill Daley Still Have a Job?
Joan Walsh, Salon
Politico’s Roger Simon has an “exclusive” interview with White House chief of staff Bill Daley, and you really have to read it to believe it. It’s a portrait of arrogant self-promotion. The piece is headlined, “Bill Daley, Unplugged.” I hope that President Obama reads it, and decides to unplug Daley, for good. Yes, I know he has announced he’s leaving after the 2012 election. That’s not nearly soon enough.Former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was no slouch when it came to arrogant self-promotion, either. Remember…

GOP Sees Cain as ‘Black Man Who Knows His Place’
Karen Finney, MSNBC

Late Late Night FDL: Fears of Zero
Zero Mostel - Fears of Zero, from episode 202 of The Muppet Show.

Zero Mostel – Fears of Zero, from episode 202 of The Muppet Show.

Grab your popcorn, put your feet up on the coffee table, and try to keep the spitballs off the screen please. This is Late Late Night FireDogLake, where off topic is the topic … so dive in. What’s on your mind?

?

Wall Street: You’ve Got Hate Mail
Some 400 Occupy Wall Street protesters got into costume Friday, but the occasion wasn’t an early observance of the beloved pagan-inspired holiday that is Halloween. Rather, the messengers from among OWS ranks paid visits to big bank headquarters in Manhattan to deliver mail from thousands of Americans who claim to have been negatively impacted by the financial shenanigans that contributed to the Great Recession. AP via CBS News: One group of protesters headed down a Fifth Avenue sidewalk, chanting, “You’ve got mail! You’ve got mail!” About 50 police officers accompanied them, on foot and in vehicles. The marchers stopped at a Citigroup office on Park Avenue. A building employee accepted a few letters but declined the rest. So the marchers folded them into paper airplanes and tossed them at a Citibank sign out front. One message, from LaShuna Garcia, in the Tucson, Ariz., area, told how her parents lost their jobs through downsizing and budget cuts. “Savings are difficult to accrue when the ends don’t even come close to meeting,” Garcia’s letter said. “Please help keep the American people alive.” Jeremy Wattles, in the Geneva, N.Y., area, wrote that he was concerned about a U.S. Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing the free speech rights of corporations, which many protesters say has encouraged corporate campaign donations. Read more

Some 400 Occupy Wall Street protesters got into costume Friday, but the occasion wasn’t an early observance of the beloved pagan-inspired holiday that is Halloween. Rather, the messengers from among OWS ranks paid visits to big bank headquarters in Manhattan to deliver mail from thousands of Americans who claim to have been negatively impacted by the financial shenanigans that contributed to the Great Recession.

AP via CBS News:

One group of protesters headed down a Fifth Avenue sidewalk, chanting, “You’ve got mail! You’ve got mail!” About 50 police officers accompanied them, on foot and in vehicles.

The marchers stopped at a Citigroup office on Park Avenue. A building employee accepted a few letters but declined the rest. So the marchers folded them into paper airplanes and tossed them at a Citibank sign out front.

One message, from LaShuna Garcia, in the Tucson, Ariz., area, told how her parents lost their jobs through downsizing and budget cuts.

“Savings are difficult to accrue when the ends don’t even come close to meeting,” Garcia’s letter said. “Please help keep the American people alive.”

Jeremy Wattles, in the Geneva, N.Y., area, wrote that he was concerned about a U.S. Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing the free speech rights of corporations, which many protesters say has encouraged corporate campaign donations.

Read more

Related Entries

• October 28, 2011 Wall Street: You’ve Got Hate Mail
• October 28, 2011 ‘Left, Right & Center’: Relief in Europe, Inequality in America

The Great Depression Right Outside Our Doors
While Occupy Wall Street and similar movements around the country take aim at financial institutions and their political cronies for taking the country into recession, let’s not forget those at the very bottom who were victims of economic depression long before the current collapse.

By Bill Boyarsky

While Occupy Wall Street and similar movements around the country take aim at financial institutions and their political cronies for taking the country into recession, let’s not forget those at the very bottom who were victims of economic depression long before the current collapse.

Related Entries

• October 28, 2011 Wall Street: You’ve Got Hate Mail
• October 28, 2011 ‘Left, Right & Center’: Relief in Europe, Inequality in America