by Frank Schnittger
Fri Sep 18th, 2020 at 12:07:00 AM EST
Newton Emerson, a unionist commentator, has an article up in the Irish Times echoing Boris Johnson's complaint that the EU is threatening to blockade N. Ireland's food supplies. This is part of Johnson's justification for breaking international law even though discussions at the joint implementation body on the N. Ireland Protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement had been, by all accounts, making good progress in resolving outstanding issues.
by Luis de Sousa
Sun Sep 13th, 2020 at 05:16:58 PM EST
Another extraordinary week in the Brexit saga has come to pass. This time around a complete surprise, as another showdown was only expected in October, when time runs out for a timely approval of a Free Trade Agreement between the EU and the UK, ahead of the end of the transition period on the 31st of December.
The UK government has dropped a legal bombshell on Brexit process, sending shrapnel in all directions. Time to pick up the pieces and make some sense out of it.
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Sep 8th, 2020 at 03:10:05 PM EST
The UK is to unveil internal market legislation tomorrow (9/9/20) which will break international law albeit in what they describe as a limited way. Specifically it will abrogate sections of the Withdrawal Agreement which require the UK to implement customs controls at the N. Ireland Great Britain sea border thus providing back-door access to the Single Market for British goods - whatever any trade agreement might say.
by ARGeezer
Mon Sep 7th, 2020 at 02:45:44 AM EST
As of Sept. 7, Sunday of the Labor Day Weekend some things have clarified a bit. The Trump campaign has pulled its TV adverts in Arizona and Biden is up on Trump there by 9 points. Three solid polls in Wisconsin show Biden up by 7+ points. Minnesota seems likely to hold for the Democrats. Pennsylvania is the biggest weakness for Biden in the 'Blue Wall', with Michigan next. Democrats hold the west coast, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado and Hawaii by reasonable margins. And Democrats hold the east coast north of Virginia up to Maine.
Frontpaged with minor edit - Frank Schnittger
by Frank Schnittger
Fri Sep 4th, 2020 at 03:48:42 PM EST
Andrew McDowell and Mairead McGuinness candidates for European Commission role
The Cabinet has proposed Mairead McGuinness and Andrew McDowell as candidates to replace Phil Hogan at the European Commission.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney will not be one of the Government's nominees for the role of European Commissioner.
Andrew McDowell is a former Fine Gael advisor and until recently vice-president of the European Investment Bank .
Andrew McDowell is a former backroom Fine Gael Economic advisor and a political non-entity. No one seriously believes he will get the job. But Commission President Ursula Van Der Leyen had made it clear she wanted "both a women and a man, not a man and a women nominees," in the words of Leo Varadkar. Basically no man need apply, and in the end no one of substance did. Why put your present job at risk by applying for another, when you know you won't get the job?
by Frank Schnittger
Sun Aug 30th, 2020 at 09:36:51 PM EST
Commission President, Ursula Van Der Leyen has asked the Irish government to submit both male and female candidates to replace Phil Hogan as European Commissioner while EU sources are stating that any replacement is unlikely to retain the important Trade portfolio.
This creates a number of problems for the Irish Government. Firstly, it could be argued that asking the government to submit a shortlist from which she will make the final selection is an impertinence, as it is for the Irish government, and the Irish government alone, to determine who the next Commissioner from Ireland should be (subject to EU Council and Parliament approval).
by Bernard
Thu Aug 27th, 2020 at 07:03:14 PM EST
Phil Hogan, in charge of the Trade portfolio in the EU Commission, announced his resignation yesterday night (August 26), following a week long political storm dubbed 'Golfgate'.
Hogan traveled to his native Ireland a couple of weeks ago for a short summer break, but he also attended a dinner in a golfing resort near Galway, on the western coast of Ireland, on Wednesday 19, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the parliamentary golf society, along with 80 other Irish politicians. The problem? Ireland's coronavirus safety rules were just being strengthened to limit all gathering to just six people.
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
by gmoke
Thu Aug 27th, 2020 at 04:02:50 AM EST
The Laney College Carpentry Department in Oakland, California built a net zero tiny house, the Wedge, in 2016 for the SMUD Net Zero Tiny House Competition
https:/youtu.be/PyxJQynaC_c
That tiny house is for sale for
$55,000
https:tinyhouselistings.com/listings/oakland-ca-12-matthew-wolpe
Laney College carpenters are currently building two other prototypes tiny houses, the Pocket House, for the unhoused and homeless in Oakland
https:laney.edu/carpentry/tiny-houses/pocket-house
The Northern Nomad is another net zero tiny home designed and built by a group of students from Carleton University in Canada as this video from 2019 shows:
Northern Nomad Tiny House
https:/youtu.be/gbz35FLg9L4
http://www.thenorthernnomad.ca/
Reading Design Guidelines for a Net Zero Tiny House (https:tinyhousedesign.com/design-guidelines-for-a-net-zero-tiny-house) and Guide to Off-Grid Tiny Houses (https://gosun.co/blogs/news/guide-to-an-off-grid-tiny-house), the core idea seems to be energy efficiency first, last, and always: the less energy you use the easier it becomes to supply it with renewables onsite.
That core idea of energy efficiency applies to all houses, not just tiny houses.
by Frank Schnittger
Mon Aug 17th, 2020 at 12:35:54 PM EST
Irish Times Columnist Jennifer O'Connell has an article up basically saying that Trump, like all bullies, is afraid of all those who are not afraid of him, and seeks to patronise strong women because he is afraid of them. He is afraid of Kamala Harris because he knows she can beat him. This has provoked two letters to the editor in response from Jim O'Sullivan and myself:
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Aug 13th, 2020 at 05:18:05 PM EST
by gmoke
Tue Aug 11th, 2020 at 08:30:28 PM EST
Santa Monica civic building will produce net positive energy and going for full Living Building challenge certification
https:/fisherpartners.net/projects/city-of-santa-monica-city-services-building
https:/inhabitat.com/new-santa-monica-city-services-building-will-produce-more-energy-than-it-uses
An affordable Passive House development that's "aggressively green"
https:/www.technologyreview.com/2020/04/15/999376/the-passive-house-thats-aggressively-green
A ski chalet in Utah which will be a net-positive energy building, generating 364% more power than it needs
https:/tomwiscombe.com/THE-DARK-CHALET
https:archpaper.com/2020/04/tom-wiscombe-architecture-dark-chalet-utah#gallery-0-slide-0
https:/inhabitat.com/dark-chalet-in-utah-will-generate-over-350-more-energy-than-it-needs
Link City - proposed self-sustainable city-forest, using an urban operating system with an AI (Artificial Intelligence)
https:/www.lucacurci.com/portfolio/the-link-city.html
https:inhabitat.com/luca-curci-architects-designs-a-zero-energy-smart-city-of-the-future
Park Avenue Green - affordable passive house apartment building in the South Bronx, the largest passive house development in North America
http://www.cplusga.com/works/park-avenue-green-2/
https:/inhabitat.com/passive-house-certified-development-offers-affordable-housing-in-south-bronx
Wellesley College Global Flora greenhouse "exceeds the Net Zero Water & Energy requirements of the Living Building Challenge, the world's most rigorous certification of sustainable construction."
http://www.kvarch.net/projects/133
https:/inhabitat.com/wellesleys-global-flora-greenhouse-can-generate-all-of-its-own-energy
Energy neutral school in Utrecht
https:/inhabitat.com/energy-neutral-school-in-utrecht-enhances-biodiversity
http://e-v-a.net/?fluxus_portfolio=so-fier
AI to identify energy wasting homes
https:/venturebeat.com/2020/07/07/wattscale-is-an-open-source-ai-tool-that-identifies-energy-wastin
g-homes
WattScale https:/arxiv.org/pdf/2007.01382.pdf
Watthome, an earlier version: http://www.ecs.umass.edu/~irwin/watthome.pdf
Arctic Nordic Alpine - Exhibation on Snøhetta's work including Hotel Svart in Svartisen, the Arctic World Archive Visitor Center in Svalbard Island, and the Museum Quarter in Bolzano
https:www.aedes-arc.de/cms/aedes/de/programm?id=19520291
https:www.fastcompany.com/90524716/how-the-worlds-most-remote-buildings-can-help-us-adapt-to-clima
te-change
hat tip to Heath Row's Media Diet: http://tinyurl.com/joinmediadiet
Orford Mews - energy-positive, carbon positive, zero construction waste nine-unit development planned for London
https:studioanyo.com/work/orford-mews
https:/inhabitat.com/zero-waste-orford-mews-to-bring-energy-positive-homes-to-east-london
Moonstone House - test bed for energy efficiency started in 2002 is still evolving
https:/themoonstoneproject.co.uk
https:cleantechnica.com/2020/07/30/fully-charged-tours-the-net-zero-energy-moonstone-house
Self-sufficient skyscraper proposed for NYC
https:/www.lissoniandpartners.com/en/architecture/competitions/americas/completed/skylines-new-york
/1289
https:inhabitat.com/self-sufficient-garden-city-skyscraper-proposed-for-nyc
by Bernard
Sat Aug 8th, 2020 at 06:53:44 PM EST
Recap from Part 1 and eurogreen's diary: Municipal elections were held in France last spring to elect the municipal council (and the mayor) in the 35,000-odd municipalities throughout the country, ranging from small villages with 10 inhabitants to major cities like Lyon, Marseille or Paris, and as far away as Papetee, French Polynesia.
In about 30,000 cities, the municipal council was elected after the first round held on March 15, by getting over 50% of the vote. For the remaining 4,600 cities, including most big cities, the second round, initially due for March 22, eventually took place on June 28, after the country-wide lockdown from March 18 to May 11.
These were local elections and not necessarily an indication of national political trends for the next presidential elections in 2022, when E.Macron is expected to run for re-election.
Still, do these unusual elections give us any indication as to the mood of the French electorate? Are they showing any significant evolution? Do we see similar trends in other European countries?
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
by Oui
Wed Aug 5th, 2020 at 09:15:43 AM EST
Divide and Conquer ... how de-colonialization and faction infighting destroyed a beautiful nation. Democracy never took hold and foreign interference led to total corruption.
The economic crisis, corona pandemic, lack of political leadership and now an apocalyptic explosion and obliteration of the port and neighbourhoods has put Lebanon on its knees.
More below the fold ...
by gmoke
Wed Aug 5th, 2020 at 03:20:14 AM EST
After the 2000 election of hanging chads and Bush v Gore and a totally non-precedential Presidential decision by the Supremes, I discovered that the Caltech/MIT Electronic Voting Project (https:/www.vote.caltech.edu) met sometime at MIT in Cambridge, MA where I live. So I went to a few of the open meetings.
It was an interesting process. Here were all these technical people not only computer people but also sociologists and user-interface psychologists and such looking at the very complicated way the USA registers people to vote, votes, and counts the votes. What I gathered then was that optical scanners with paper ballots are probably the most nearly accurate way to make sure that the votes are counted accurately and accountably. From what I gather now, it still is.
Millions of tax dollars have been spent on voting since 2000 but I tend to think it's at least as bad and probably worse all these 20 years later.
The Brennan Center Defend Our Elections Program (https:www.brennancenter.org/issues/defend-our-elections) is working on election defense and you can find out much more about the issues around election protection at the Fair Elections Center (https:www.fairelectionscenter.org)
In these days of COVID19, poll workers will be needed. Power the Polls (http://powerthepolls.org) and Work Elections (https:www.workelections.com) will point you in the right direction if you want to help out with the nuts and bolts of democracy.
In my neighborhood, Swing Left Boston is organizing voter protection in swing states (https:swingleftboston.org/sign-up-for-voter-protection-2) if you want to become a partisan poll watcher instead of a poll worker.
Vote, yes vote but make sure your vote is counted accurately, honestly, and verifiably. As the saying goes, "It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes."
by Oui
Tue Aug 4th, 2020 at 11:02:42 AM EST
A petulant Baby ...
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Mon Aug 3rd, 2020 at 01:18:39 PM EST
John Hume: Origin of a Derry Icon 1960-1974
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Sat Aug 1st, 2020 at 07:40:19 AM EST
Was never in doubt with Clinton voices more prevalent amongst delegates than Sanders'.
Palestinian-Americans sidelined during DNC platform debate | Mondoweiss |
According to a document shared with Mondoweiss, DNC delegates expressed their outrage at the exclusion of Palestinian-American voices from the platform drafting process while pro-Israel lobbyists openly bragged about their efforts to strip out language critical of Israel.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Thu Jul 30th, 2020 at 02:05:46 PM EST
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Thu Jul 30th, 2020 at 12:48:47 PM EST
Only prior double digit GDP plunge was in 1958 when Chevy introduced the Impala ... memories as our family had arrived in America one year earlier.
America puts the economy first ... Europe puts the health of its people first... look at the strength of the Euro vs. the US dollar ...
More below the fold ...
by gmoke
Sun Jul 26th, 2020 at 12:19:45 AM EST
I've thought from the beginning that Trmp et alia are performing a Mafia bust-out on a national scale. Nothing is beneath them. It's all "Fck you, pay me," as this clip from "Goodfellas" points out.
https://youtu.be/WeK9e07Y65o
What's a bust out?
Definition: A forced bankruptcy of a person or an organization, usually through theft, fraud or extortion.
Source: http://mafiatrickster.tripod.com/kikai/mafiaslang.html
Once you get into business with a mobster, they take over. They exploit the business, run it into the ground, and then torch it for the insurance.
This is exactly what Trmp et alia are doing. Everything is a profit center, an opportunity to grift some graft, and wet the beak. It is why I would not be at all surprised to find out, someday down the road, that Trmp et alia were getting kickbacks on PPE and anything else that can put a buck in their pockets.
