The next couple months will be consumed with discussion about the Catfood Commission II, and their efforts to reach a $1.5 trillion or higher deficit package. This will frustrate any attempt to pivot to jobs. But as long as that’s known, activists and organizations can point out best practices on that committee while trying to force the conversation in a different direction.

One way to do that is to consistently point out that job creation is the best and most robust way to ensure any deficit reduction, and that reducing the deficit with 9% unemployment is a near-impossibility. Another way is to point out how much deficit savings can be gained merely by engaging in the vitally necessary actions of protecting the earth from climate change.

The flood of waters continues, but as usual during a natural disaster, the flood of rumors is rolling right along with it. Mythical levee breaches compete with imaginary government policy decisions, all of which combine to try to drive those who are dealing with the actual flooding bonkers.

And don’t even get me started about a Fukushima-style disaster in Nebraska . . . Get a link, people — and it ought to be from someone closer to Nebraska than Hawaii.

Rumors flow faster than the water during a disaster like this. The folks who are working on protecting homes, businesses, and communities have enough to do without having to beat back rumors — but this, too, is part of dealing with a disaster.