Florida redistricting complaints are racist

ProPublica posted a review leftist political screed complaining that the redistricting done by Governor Ron DeSantis was racially oriented and illegal.

How Ron DeSantis Blew Up Black-Held Congressional Districts and May Have Broken Florida Law

As with all leftist grievances, the facts don't support the allegations. Before reading the article, which is heavily tinged with racist views of voting and congressional districts, just glance at the voting districts in question before 2022 and in 2022.

Which map looks more obviously gerrymandered? In other words, which one looks like it was drawn to purposely incorporate a large and disproportionate population of a specific racial group in one district? 

The pre-2022 map of District 5 was drawn to include specific parts of one large city (Tallahassee) then stretched across the state to include specific parts of another large city (Jacksonville) over a hundred miles away. Compare that to the districts in the 2022 map which have large contiguous areas that look like they weren't drawn on purpose to overrepresent a specific racial group which also happens to vote for Democrats 90% of the time. For reference, blacks are about 13% of the population of the United States nationally, though they are more concentrated in many big cities. It makes sense that voting districts that have large black populations should also have representation that is higher than the national average but this is definitely "stretching" the point. Heh.

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 states:

No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.

Section 5 allows redistricting as long as it:

does not have the purpose and will not have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color

The 2022 districts are clearly legal and also accomplish representation of the higher percentage of blacks living in those districts despite all the complaints in the article. It's astonishing that the Florida Republicans in the majority left the District 5 map alone when it was clearly drawn by the former Democrat majority in a way that favors Democrat candidates. Apparently they haven't learned yet how the Democrat Party has been running circles around them with redistricting and voting procedures that heavily favor Democrat candidates. It's time for them to wake up and even the playing field.

It's interesting that leftists spend so much time viewing the world through the lens of race. The allegations of racism they levy against their political opponents look an awful lot like projection of their own unconscious racism.

Sea Level Perspectives

We are told by the media and other climate alarmists that sea level rise is unprecedented, disastrous, and accelerating, but measurements by tide gauges and satellites show us something completely different. Here is a plot of current (29-year) global sea level rise measured by satellites. (See here for the latest.)

Here is a plot of sea level rise for more than 160 years at Battery Park in Manhattan, New York; one of the longest tide gauge records available anywhere in the world. (See here for the latest.)

Sea level has been rising for roughly 18,000 years since the last glacial maximum when the two-mile-thick glaciers covering huge swaths of North America and northern Europe and Eurasia began to melt. Here is a plot of global sea level over the last 18,000 years.

120 meters of sea level rise is 394 feet. This cycle of global warming and cooling has happened several times over the last million years or so. Here is a reconstruction of sea levels over the last 1.8 million years based on the content of the isotope oxygen-18 in deep ocean sediments.

The important points:

• Global sea level rise and fall has been happening for billions of years.
• The rate of sea level rise and fall changes for numerous reasons, all entirely natural.
• What causes global warming and cooling and the subsequent glacial and interglacial periods isn't fully understood, though Earth's periodic orbital changes over tens of thousands of years is among those postulated to have the greatest effect. 
• The current rate of sea level rise is insignificant when viewed in historical context.
• It is impossible to measure the theorized effect humans have on sea level rise but the rate is so small compared to natural forces as to be inconsequential. 
• Based on measurements, the claims of 0.6 meters or more of sea level rise by 2100 are clearly unrealistic. The current rate measured by satellites suggest about 0.3 meters. It's even less according to the rate measured by tide gauges.

Humans have been dealing with sea level rise for thousands of years. The Dutch and others have successfully protected their land from sea level rise and even reclaimed land from the sea thanks to clever engineering. Humans can adapt to the current rate of sea level rise with the same clever engineering. The cost of doing this is far less than starving the world of fossil fuels and destroying economies in a vain attempt to "stop" global warming.

You can see for yourself what the current rate of satellite measured global sea level rise is at the University of Colorado Sea Level Research Group website.

Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) measured by satellite 

Historical Global Tide Gauge Sea Level

Sea level rise, and sea level decline in many place in the far north, is not uniform. It differs a lot because of land subsidence and uplift (post-glacial rebound). You can easily see it in this interactive map of tide gauge data from NOAA.

Sea Level Trends

The tectonic forces, gravitational perturbations, and even potential influences from beyond our solar system over the eons that shape our planet and its climate and weather are endlessly fascinating, but they happen so slowly that the ingenuity of millions of humans engineering solutions to their local problems can easily adapt to it. Beware of "global" solutions. They are always, without exception, a really bad idea with a plethora of destructive consequences.