"He who has the gold, rules." The Supreme Court validated that principle in Citizens United, although it's been true for most of our history, with meaningful exceptions in the FDR and LBJ administrations. Most politicians, however, try to hide it. Not the Dumpster. (I'm giving you Scott Lemieux's reposting so I don't have to use a gift link.)
Former President Donald J. Trump told a group of oil executives and lobbyists gathered at a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month that they should donate $1 billion to his presidential campaign because, if elected, he would roll back environmental rules that he said hampered their industry, according to two people who were there.
About 20 people attended an April 11 event billed as an “energy round table” at Mr. Trump’s private club, according to those people, who asked not to be identified in order to discuss the private event. Attendees included executives from ExxonMobil, EQT Corporation and the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies for the oil industry. The event was organized by the oil billionaire Harold Hamm, who has for years helped to shape Republican energy policies. It was first reported by The Washington Post.
"If you give me a billion dollars, I will destroy civilization." Seems like a fair trade.
Update: For you denialists. (And BTW, Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election by more than 7 million votes, just so we're clear.)
Extreme floods were relatively uncommon in Rio Grande do Sul. However, scientists believe that climate factors are now accelerating such events.
These include an intense wind current in the region, which destabilised the climate; an atmospheric block, which emerged after a heatwave that made the centre of Brazil drier, concentrating the rain in the country’s northern and southern extremes; and a moisture corridor from the Amazon, which strengthened the torrential rain.
Twenty years ago, a study produced by the climate researchers José Antonio Marengo and Wagner Rodrigues Soares identified a significant increase in precipitation in southern Brazil and warned of its consequences.
A more recent study published by the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) indicated that the number of days Porto Alegre suffers “extreme precipitation” – rainfall above 50 millimetres – has more than doubled since the 1960s. From 1961 to 1970, there were 29 days a year. This number increased to 44 days between 2001 and 2010 and rose to 66 days from 2011 to 2020.
“These climate events gain power as we have El Niño and La Niña periods. Over time, we have seen that the rainfall regime and temperatures are different,” s Marcelo Dutra da Silva, a professor of ecology at the Federal University of Rio Grande and one of the country’s leading figures warning about climate effects. “This is creating climate and ecological troubles and an economic problem.”
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