As Mudede once wrote: The fact is nothing is going to be done about climate change until it kills lots of white people.
As Mudede once wrote: "The fact is nothing is going to be done about climate change until it kills lots of white people." F00SION/GETTYIMAGES.COM

Happy first day of school, kids! Hopefully Sound Transit didn't give you a ticket for forgetting to grab your free ORCA card.

Seems like a warning should've been given: Buuuuuut—Oop! Here's the Sound Transit Twitter response. This just get worse:

Maybe don't start with "If they're like my kids"? For many reasons, also because I didn't know a train or bus can have kids. But also... it kept going? Patch has the story here.


The Hurricane Dorian death toll rises in the Bahamas: It's now at 20 and is expected to rise. Dorian is the strongest hurricane to ever hit the Bahamas. Winds reached up to 185 mph.

The 7-hour Democratic town hall on climate change is upon us: And it's going to last all night, folks. It's overwrought and chaotic, just like our climate! Here's the full schedule. I've crossed out who has already town halled:

Julián Castro – 5pm, interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer
Andrew Yang – 5:40pm, interview with Blitzer
Kamala Harris – 6:20pm, interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett
Amy Klobuchar – 7pm, interview with Burnett
Joe Biden – 8pm, interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper
Bernie Sanders – 8:40pm, interview with Cooper
Elizabeth Warren – 9:20pm, interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo
Pete Buttigieg – 10pm, interview with Cuomo
Beto O’Rourke – 10:40pm, interview with CNN’s Don Lemon
Cory Booker – 11:20pm, interview with Lemon.

First up, Castro and Yang: Yang has included the idea of "managed retreat," which would move Americans living in low lying areas to higher ground, as part of his official policy. (From his policy: "Move our people to higher ground. Natural disasters and other effects of climate change are already causing damage and death. We need to adapt our country to this new reality.") The idea has faced criticism.


Next up, Klobuchar and Harris: Harris says the US can fight climate change without making Americans make big sacrifices. This comment is being jumped on, as she said earlier that we need to ban plastic straws. Conservatives, apparently, think banning straws is a big sacrifice.


And now, this: Trump straws! Kill me!

We'll have more coverage in the morning, once this thing wraps up: Sorry, Katie.

Now we should hold a town hall on climate change with the White House: Trump's administration announced today that they are planning to drastically weaken federal rules that would have required Americans to use energy-efficient light bulbs. This move matches a larger pattern of scaling back rules to fight climate change. From the New York Times:

The actions are the latest by the Trump administration to weaken a broad array of rules designed to fight climate change. Last week it announced a far-reaching plan to cut back on the regulation of emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Earlier this year it proposed freezing antipollution and fuel-efficiency standards for cars, and tried to replace the Clean Power Plan, a signature emissions-reduction measure of the Obama administration.

Pivoting from one disaster to another: Scarlett Johansson. She's decided to publicly weigh in on another garbage fire: "I love Woody and I believe him."

Many politicians have talked about bringing "stakeholders" to "the table" to talk about solving homelessness: Well, it's time for a new table, people! Rich Smith has the details on the new King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

Kevin Hart, of all people, doesn't understand why someone would be afraid to come out as gay. This headline is a good summary of the exchange: "Lil Nas X tried to explain why he came out as gay. Then Kevin Hart interrupted him."

Let's end the night with some harsh words from Nancy Pelosi: She released a statement saying Trump is violating the constitution by using his presidency to promote his personal properties. The quote is: "Trump properties are a cesspool of corruption." Strong words! Maybe... ITMFA? More from the statement:

President Trump is violating the Constitution by making money off of his lavish, ritzy resort properties, ultimately prioritizing his profits over the interests of the American people.

First, Trump suggested holding the G7 Summit at his Doral golf resort in Florida.

Now, the White House is walking back their previous statements that Trump personally suggested Pence stay at his Doonbeg hotel in Ireland, which would be yet another example of the President’s self-dealing.

Vice President Pence promised that their Administration would defend the Constitution and stand by a “strict constructionist” interpretation of the Constitution. Instead the Trump-Pence Administration is ignoring the text itself and selling out the Constitution to line Trump’s pockets.

Trump properties are a cesspool of corruption, a black hole for taxpayers’ money, an exploiter of immigrant labor and a national security threat with a suspected foreign spy walking the halls.

That sounds bad: Here's the Pence "Doonbeg boondoggle" she's talking about.