by Oui
Thu Jan 21st, 2021 at 11:32:16 AM EST
Enemy #1 is Mike Pompeo
"Good riddance, Donald Trump!" read a gleeful tweet from Chinese state news service Xinhua.
More below the fold ....
by Oui
Wed Jan 20th, 2021 at 10:55:32 AM EST
Inauguration Day - Jan. 6, 2021 @12:00 hrs
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Sun Jan 17th, 2021 at 06:55:35 AM EST
Just like Texas governor George W. Bush and his AG Alberto Gonzales ... an indelible legacy.
by Oui
Sat Jan 16th, 2021 at 09:28:13 PM EST
More below the fold ...
by gmoke
Sat Jan 16th, 2021 at 02:13:01 AM EST
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is a collegiate competition, comprising 10 contests, that challenges student teams to design and build highly efficient and innovative buildings powered by renewable energy.
It's been going on since 2002 and has produced hundreds of model houses built by student teams from all over the world. This year they are doing a webinar series as well. Should be lots and lots of good information here.
Resilient Home 411: Strategies to Weather and Recover from Natural Disasters
Thursday, January 21, 2021, 1-2 p.m. E.T.
RSVP at https:/register.gotowebinar.com/register/1486122315339351051
Zero Energy Ready Homes: New and Growing Fast
Wednesday, February 17, 2021, 1-2 p.m. E.T.
RSVP at https:register.gotowebinar.com/register/2818488515646035216
The Future of Solar: A Tour of Cutting-Edge Solar Research with the U.S. Department of Energy
Wednesday, March 17, 2021, 1-2 p.m. E.T.
RSVP at https:register.gotowebinar.com/register/1202756178629245968
Solar Decathlon Build Challenge Team House Tour
Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 1-2 p.m. E.T.
RSVP at https:register.gotowebinar.com/register/2467358377853890320
More at https:cleantechnica.com/2021/01/11/register-today-for-resilient-home-411-next-solar-decathlon-virt
ual-session
by IdiotSavant
Fri Jan 15th, 2021 at 12:56:46 AM EST
A minor party has withdrawn from the Italian government, leaving it without a majority in the Senate and on the verge of collapse:
Italy has been plunged into chaos after former prime minister Matteo Renzi withdrew his Italia Viva party from the country's ruling coalition in a largely unpopular move that could end in fresh elections.
The political meltdown, which leaves the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, without a parliamentary majority, comes at the worst possible time for Italy as it struggles to contain the coronavirus pandemic and emerge from economic quagmire.
Renzi announced the resignation of his two ministers, Teresa Bellanova and Elena Bonetti, following weeks of clashes over a variety of issues including Italy's post-Covid economic recovery plan.
Conte could now either offer his resignation to the president, Sergio Mattarella, who could give him a mandate to try and forge a new alliance, or go to parliament for a vote of confidence.
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Jan 14th, 2021 at 06:03:10 PM EST
Ever since the Brexit referendum in the UK, and particularly since the signing of the Withdrawal Agreement, Northern Ireland Protocol, and the UK EU Trade and Security agreement, there has been a plethora of writing and comment on the prospects for an independent Scotland and a united Ireland. This is based partly on the fact that both Scotland and N. Ireland voted to remain in the EU, and partly due to an antipathy to the insurgence of English nationalism, which is largely what drove the Brexit project and threatens to drive the component entities of the "United Kingdom" ever further apart.
by Oui
Wed Jan 13th, 2021 at 06:12:24 PM EST
Added to Wikipedia ... social unrest revolution to overthrow the elected government ..
2021 storming of the United States Capitol, on January 6, 2021, rioters supporting United States President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
In my Opinion, the Maidan Revolt had many Hallmarks of last week's attempt to change the results of an election. In 2014 there were foreign powers interfering and supporting the rioters. This was not the case in Washington, the rioters were a cross-section of the nation and came from many, many States.
Ukraine was divided in two large blocks ... the pro-West group with many rightwingers and anti-semites and the Russian speaking group which was represented by a lawful elected president. Corruption was everywhere and still exists today.
Many months of violence by both sides let to the outburst of Februari 2014 and the overthrow of the government.
The US Law Enforcement forces, National Guard, FBI and DOJ prosecutors are working 24/7 in a counter-terrorism mode to prevent a new attack of terror on Inauguration Day.
by Oui
Mon Jan 11th, 2021 at 01:05:23 PM EST
The "yes" man for four years was confronted with a constitutional dilemma: he needed to stand up and once say a crucial "no" to his boss.
Pence stayed silent and wished he could stay loyal to Trumpism and dogma. Too many reasonable advisers had left or got booted out by a madman and tyrant. Key politicians in the Republican party too were cowards and hid behind the cape of a delusional, but powerful person in the highest Office of the US Government.
Many Presidents before him too failed the test of leadership and courage in a moment of crisis. A tyrant will always fall short in a position where decisions need thorough vetting and support of his Cabinet and NSC.
Trump blew it and Pence failed to stand up and be counted. Even under attack, Republicans stayed loyal to its leader.
It's difficult to find a good analysis how the deterioration between Trump and Pence unfolded. Undoubtedly a journalist will be succesful and write a bestsellers over the last days of Trump's presidency that shook American trust in democracy.
A poor man's choice "Quid pro Quo"
by Oui
Sun Jan 10th, 2021 at 09:07:52 AM EST
Trump a master manipulator exploiting the ills of society, using hate to build a support group to "stand back and stand-by".
Hidden in that mob are the militants with an agenda!!
That's how revolutions are made ... 😠
Bio Lawrence Pintak - an award winning journalist and PhD Islamic Studies
Author of The Al Jazeera Revolution - 2011
by Frank Schnittger
Fri Jan 8th, 2021 at 06:10:45 PM EST
Trump Says He Could 'Shoot Somebody' and Still Maintain Support
Donald Trump said Saturday that his supporters are so loyal that he would not lose backers even if he were to shoot someone in the middle of downtown Manhattan.
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, okay, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?" Trump said at a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa as the audience laughed. "It's, like, incredible."
Trump's whole Presidency can be seen as a political experiment to see how far he could push the boat out on political extremism and still retain political support. Indeed his approval ratings have rarely slipped below 40%, and currently stand at 42.4%. Not enough to secure re-election, obviously, but enough to make it a contest. It is worth noting that his 74 Million votes in the General Election is the highest ever attained by any presidential candidate bar Joe Biden, who obtained 81 Million votes.
So what does this say about the state of the US polity...
by Oui
Thu Jan 7th, 2021 at 06:26:16 PM EST
Indictment for impeachment in a Senate resolution ... Yer OUT ⁉️
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Jan 7th, 2021 at 12:07:33 PM EST
Having generally done a relatively good job of containing the pandemic (Ireland currently ranks 62nd. for cases/million, and 47th. for deaths/million in the world), at least compared to our nearest neighbours, the government seems to have lost its way recently. In its determination to offer some respite to the hospitality industry and allow people some semblance of a normal Christmas, it has allowed the pandemic to get out of control to a far greater extent than ever before:
Partly, this may be due to the upsurge in the much more infectious English variant of the virus, but there is no doubt the level of social mixing got out of control over the holiday season resulting in a renewed lockdown and closure of schools.
But the even more serious issue is that the vaccination programme has gotten off to a very slow start and shows no sign of accelerating rapidly any time soon. The government and its public health advisers have been very good at lecturing the public on how to behave, less good at organising what should be their primary responsibility - an efficient vaccination roll-out programme. Hence my letter to the editor published today:
by Frank Schnittger
Wed Jan 6th, 2021 at 07:56:03 PM EST
Following an incendiary speech by President Trump crowds of protestors marched from his protest meeting and breeched the security lines and stormed the Capital Buildings in Washington DC. The Senate and Congress were in joint session to certify the Presidential election results and had just heard an objection from Senator Cruz to certifying the result. Senators and Congressmen were evacuated through various tunnels carrying gas masks and Vice President Pence and others were evacuated to a safe place.
More to follow as events unfold...
by Frank Schnittger
Wed Jan 6th, 2021 at 02:13:31 PM EST
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As a long haired student radical in the early 1970's I did a spot of hitch-hiking around the eastern USA following a summer working making motel beds and selling hot-dogs on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey and working construction in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
I ventured as far as N. Carolina but was warned not to go further south as the southern states of South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and especially Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia where injun country as far as long haired students were concerned. You could get beaten up or worse.
I remember being amazed at a military High School in Charlotte where young teenagers were being drilled to within an inch of their lives in the merciless heat wearing 19th. century buttoned up military uniforms that made no concessions to comfort, utility, or the heat. This was no place for anarchist idealists.
by Oui
Wed Jan 6th, 2021 at 07:01:58 AM EST
Title edited:
Mitch As Minority Leader US Senate?
The Georgia Runoff Election too close to call ...
Live Updates: CBS News projects Warnock wins; other race too close to call | CBS News |
My posts of the past hours:
FiveThirtyEight Georgia Senate Race
A Dead Heat ... we're hoping for a Blue sweep of course .. hopefully Trump made the difference ... GOTV today will be decisive ... taking down his own (?) GOP ... on the way out.
by Oui on Tue Jan 5th, 2021 at 12:58:48 PM PDT
Re: FiveThirtyEight Georgia Senate Race
Watching US News outlets on the Georgia runoff Senate election. Coverage on the ground and exit polling of voter intent makes me quite optimistic. It's an uphill battle because the Republicans have never lost in a runoff. Georgia needs to turn Blue ... let's do it!
by Oui on Tue Jan 5th, 2021 08:52:05 PM PDT
More below the fold ...
by Frank Schnittger
Sat Jan 2nd, 2021 at 06:17:13 PM EST
The Cummings/Wakefield family pile: Chillingham Castle and Gardens, Northumberland. Just what establishment is Dominic Cummings trying to overthrow, or to re-establish?
One of the more puzzling aspects of the Trade and cooperation agreement just signed by the UK and EU is that its focus is almost exclusively on trade in goods, an area where the EU (excluding Ireland) enjoys a massive trade surplus with the UK. Services make up 80% of the UK economy and the City of London has been the financial powerhouse of the EU. Yet curiously the trade deal does not provide for free access for UK service companies to EU markets, does not provide for mutual recognition of professional qualifications (again, excluding Ireland), and even the Erasmus student exchange programme no longer applies to the UK.
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Dec 31st, 2020 at 01:59:44 PM EST
Denis McShane (born Josef Denis Matyjaszek, 21 May 1948) is a British former politician, author and commentator who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rotherham from 1994 to his resignation in 2012. A former member of the Labour Party, he was Minister of State for Europe from 2002 until 2005. He was convicted in 2012 of submitting false invoices for expenses and was sentenced to 6 Months in Prison. He was a supporter of the Iraq war and has been accused of dishonest behaviour on a number of other occasions.
Without noting this background, the Irish Times has given him space to expound his views on how British Irish relations should develop post Brexit, He is the latest in a long line of columnists in Irish papers warning Ireland to stay close to mother England in case those perfidious continentals should take advantage of us. Apparently he has detected a rise in Schadenfreude and Anglo-phobia amongst his Irish friends. I have responded in a draft letter to the Editor below and [Update] an edited version has been published here:
by Oui
Thu Dec 31st, 2020 at 07:04:24 AM EST
After long years of Brexit negotiations, four years of American intransigence under Donald Trump, sanctions imposed on NATO allies, ambassadors with a political agenda w/o experience in diplomacy from the School of Pompeo, flaunting International Law, choice for MAGA and ending policy of multilateralism ... even the election of Democrat Joe Biden will be insufficient to believe American ways will change bound by a destructive U.S. Congress.
After the recent trade deal with Japan, the EU again sets a priority in Asia with this EU-China deal. The lame duck president is AWOL spending most of his time on the Mar-a-lago golfcourse. His Twitter feed is filled with election fraud garbage.
by Oui
Mon Dec 28th, 2020 at 12:17:14 PM EST
I wondered why the FBI refrained from calling the Christmas bombing in Nashville an Act of Domestic Terror ...
During four years of the Trump presidency, his powerbase was energized by fringe rightwing groups and outright white supremacists across the nation. In addition, Trump and his GOP gang in US Congress embraced the Confederacy as a clarion call for revolt. Turning back the clock to the days of Abraham Lincoln and the election of 1860. The Long Winter Transition fueled rapid secessions from the Union and the bloody Civil War: brothers killing brothers.
Fewer than four in 10 Americans voted for Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 -- he wasn't even on the ballot in nine Southern states -- but it was enough to win. Lincoln carried eighteen of thirty-three states, sweeping Northern population centers, and won 180 of the 303 electoral votes. His election outraged the South and triggered the Secession Winter.
Will the U.S. Constitution stand strong in the onslaught by the GOP and Donald Trump and will the traces of democracy survive in America? What will the role be of the US Supreme Court during the Biden presidency. And will US foreign policy continue on a Quid Pro Quo basis instead of a leadership role based on fundamental, liberal rights gained in the aftermath of the French Revolution: separation of Church and State. Liberté, égalité, fraternité.
In recent years the domestic terror groups did not have priority by the FBI and local law enforcement agencies. The 1st and 2nd Amendments dominated ...
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