The EV revolution will improve highway noise pollution along with particulates in the air. How much? Depends on the number of EVs in use.

November 28, 2023

By Robert Walton

...U.S. consumers (click here) purchasing new light-duty cars or trucks are increasingly considering electric vehicles, which are on pace to make up 9% of sales this year according to data from EV Hub, a tracker run by Atlas Public Policy. EVs, including plug-in hybrids, accounted for 7.3% sales in 2022.

Combined U.S. sales of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery-electric vehicles reached 17.7% of new light-duty vehicle sales in the third quarter, according to the Energy Information Administration. Experts say the figure illustrates growing consumer interest in the range of benefits provided by EVs and other efficient vehicles.

Despite a spate of news articles lamenting slower EV uptake, observers say the data may not bear out that narrative as supply chain shortages are alleviated. “I don’t see sales lagging at all,” said Joel Levin, executive director of Plug In America....

It would make Pittsburgh happy.

MIT has found economically viable means to implement carbon capture from the oceans.

Acidification of the oceans is a huge and ongoing problem. To reverse this process means to bring about a stream of carbon capture that may very well return function to ocean waters and Earth's troposphere. CO2 will continue to enter the ocean environment, but, it is a better storage facility than the gaseous layers of Earth. If this process can be commercially viable it should be pursued, especially in areas of the ocean where acidification is already a problem, ie; Northwest USA waters. It will return function to the fisheries.

As the CO2 is removed from the oceans in carbon capture to make diamonds or other solid carbon products that WILL NEVER ENTER THE ATMOSPHERE AGAIN, more CO2 from the atmosphere will enter the ocean and the cycle will continue. The acidification will be reduced, but, will need to be maintained in a commercially viable process.

This discovery is from the scientists at MIT.

Energy & Environmental Science
01 May 2023, Issue 5

Asymmetric chloride-mediated electrochemical process for CO2 removal 

from oceanwater

By Seoni Kim, Michael P. Nitzsche, Simon B. Rufer, Jack R. Lake,

Kripa K. Varanasi and T. Alan Hatton

Current studies on CO2 removal (click here) from oceanwater have used bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BPMED), although the high cost of bipolar membranes might impede the commercialization of the process, and some of these architectures even present risks of toxic redox-couples leaking into the oceanwater. We propose a new approach based solely on electrochemical modulation of the pH to initially release the CO2 and then to alkalize the treated water before it is returned to the ocean. This approach (i) does not require expensive membranes or addition of chemicals, (ii) is easy to deploy, (iii) does not lead to formation of byproducts or secondary streams, and (iv) requires a lower energy input (122 kJ mol−1) than do other approaches, to the best of our knowledge. In addition, a preliminary technoeconomic analysis which suggests that this ocean capture system can be economically feasible.

US National Intelligence is not surprised by any events occurring to undermine American confidence in their elections.

It is just that the events today were known to exist and were being nurtured by enemies of the USA. Avril is an interesting person as well as a magnificent intelligence director.

What is interesting to me is that the National Threat Assessment (click here) does not discuss terrorist organizations, their structure and/or their leadership; either alive or dead. I find that odd. Terrorism is referred to when sovereign authorities, like Iran, are involved. 

April 14, 2021

Yesterday, (click here) Avril Haines took the oath of office to serve as Director of National Intelligence. DNI Haines is the first woman to lead the U.S. Intelligence Community.

Remarks (click here) as prepared for delivery by The Honorable Avril Haines Director of National Intelligence

...The US Senate (click here) has approved Joe Biden’s nomination of Avril Haines, making her the first woman to be director of national intelligence, and the first of the president’s picks to be approved.
The vote was 84-10, with all the “no” votes coming from Republicans.
Both Democrats and leading Republicans issued statements praising the nominee. Among Republicans voting against Haines were senators reputed to have party leadership ambitions; Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri.... (You call that leadership?)

...Moscow will continue to employ a variety of tactics to undermine U.S. influence and erode Western alliances. While Russia does not want a conflict with the United States, Russian officials have long believed that Washington is seeking to weaken Russia and Moscow will use a range of tools to pursue its objectives, including mercenary operations, assassinations, and arms sales. It will also employ, as we have reported, new weapons and cyber capabilities to threaten the United States and its allies, and seeks to use malign influence campaigns, including in the context of U.S. elections, to undermine our global standing, sow discord, and influence U.S. decision-making. Russia is becoming increasingly adept at leveraging its technological prowess to develop asymmetric options in both the military and cyber spheres in order to give itself the ability to push back and force the United States to accommodate Russia’s interests. 

Turning to Iran, Tehran is seeking to project power in neighboring states, deflect international pressure, and minimize threats to regime stability. Iraq will be a key battleground for Iranian influence in the coming year, but Tehran will also continue to pursue a permanent military presence in Syria, destabilize Yemen, and threaten Israel. For its part, North Korea may take aggressive and potentially destabilizing actions to reshape its security environment and will seek to drive wedges between the United States and its allies. These efforts could include the resumption of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile testing. 

When it comes to transnational threats, the assessment focuses on key issues that intersect with the state-actor threats I just outlined, starting with COVID-19....

Title 42

It is my understanding Title 42 (click here) has ended. Another name for Title 42 is Expulsion. The extremists of the Republican Party are mourning this law because it allowed border agents to immediately send southern border crossers back to Mexico. There was a reason for Title 42 and it had nothing to do with immigration.

Title 42 was a public health law that allowed the USA government at the federal level to prevent anyone from entering any border of this country due to the global pandemic. Why people would want to come to the U.S.A. during the pandemic is anyone’s guess because this country under the Trump presidency had the highest numbers of dead and diseased than ANY other country globally.

So, Title 42 is ending because the pandemic is over for the USA with the Trump legacy of more than 1.1 million dead USA citizens including the elderly and children. 

By the way, the Rwanda genocide killed approximately 800,000 Tutsis including the elderly and children. 

Title 42 cannot be invoked anymore because there is no longer a public health crisis and to continue it would be specifically targeting South Americans and Mexicans and that would be a racist law.

Nikki Haley

I am glad she has decided to remain in the race for the Republican nominee. I think it is vitally important she continues on as a woman and Republican that loves the country and its constitution.

I wish Former Governor Chris Christy was still running. I honestly believe he had a real chance at the nomination and president.

Nikki needs to be a strong woman candidate because Republicans don’t value women near enough. Republicans are too willing to victimize them. Her candidacy is important.

This election is bigger than the candidates. It is about truth, the very basis of democracy and the value of freedom both as an innate characteristic of the human being and the element of prosperity.

DeSantis had a donor base.

Bernie Sanders Republicans (click here)

Current ongoing scams

These are very clever scams occurring now. Kindly note the computer generated greeting. 

DO NOT CALL THE PHONE NUMBER.

The people that answer have an accent from the country of India. I am not saying this is a scam from India, the people speak perfect English.

The person I spoke with is named James. He is a very persistent fellow.

James phone number is 480-631-6484. He will give you a special web-address to type into the address bar. He will then be looking at your screen to guide you to get your $599.99 refund immediately. The catch is you have to open your online access to your bank account with username and password. Then, of course, you will immediately be given your refund. 

DO NOT DO IT!

There are other scams, too, like internet security companies that you may actually use on your devices. All these are very bad people trying to trick the person receiving the email. 

In calling PayPal the response is that if you received a notice about funds transfer it is fraudulent and a scam and the account is safe and there has been no transfer of funds.

These scams always start out thank you for your business. It is all electronic in nature. Below is an example of the Norton scam email.

The one below is the PayPal email. 

 

Everyone have a better day.

Believe it or not

Prosecutors can have romances, too.

There are no complaints of hostile work environment in Fulton County, Georgia. There are no claims of sexual harassment or misconduct.

Now, because two people in the county prosecutor’s office traveled together and enjoyed each other’s company that translates into “no charges” of Trump and his co-defendants? That is the joke of a lifetime!

These complainants against the prosecuting attorneys are coming from conspirators to commit sedition, Trump who has paid off former lovers while committing adultery, Trump with liable suits in the millions for sexual assault against a woman he intimidated from coming forward and some twenty more women who have come forward to complain about his ill behavior with sexual innuendo. Trump complains while carrying out pedophilia in teen dressing rooms. 

Trump is a parasite in this country as has he been most of his adult life. His assault on democracy is well documented and he will stand trail in Georgia as will every other assailant of our democracy!

Honestly!

Colorado “chaos”

What else is news with Trump? What does anyone think he caused on January 6, 2021; peace and tranquility?

Trump is openly threatening people with his understood power over other peoples’ behavior to be violent!

Trump needs to be charged and arrested for inciting riots and promoting violence. Put him in jail!

Cowards with guns

Texas likes the reputation politically as being the bravest and the strongest state in the country unafraid to protect it's own. 

WRONG!

May 29, 2022
By Paula Reid

The Justice Department (click here) announced Sunday it will conduct a review of the law enforcement response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

“At the request of Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, the U.S. Department of Justice will conduct a Critical Incident Review of the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24,” DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley said in a statement.

The review is a significant development as Texas officials and law enforcement have been under intense scrutiny for the way officers responded to the shooting.

The massacre, America's deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012, has been followed by conflicting official accounts of how it unfolded. The delayed police confrontation with the mass shooter has compounded parents' anger, with some saying a quicker response could have saved children's lives.

“The goal of the review is to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events. The review will be conducted with the Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing,” Conley said. “As with prior Justice Department after-action reviews of mass shootings and other critical incidents, this assessment will be fair, transparent, and independent. The Justice Department will publish a report with its findings at the conclusion of its review.”

Let me remind what every gun organization states, "Always treat guns as if they are loaded." Well, this time when every gun in the vicinity that responded to Robb Elementary School for an active shooter knew their guns were loaded.

There were a large number of so called Texas Officials armed with every type of armaments possible and not one, NOT ONE, charged into the school to end the killing.

Guns are an enormous problem in the USA. Even with every possible armament available to Texas Law Enforcement Agencies never saved the lives of the very people they took oaths to protect. Every officer that responded to the mass killing ongoing at Robb Elementary School were afraid to use their weapons to end the murderers life. Every officer that responded were AFRAID OF THE GUN that an amateur murderer carried into a classroom with some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

The Law Enforcement Officials never, not for one minute, treated the killing scene as an active murder scene so much as a soldier confined in a space that needed to be taken down. The VICTIMS of this amateur murderer were NOT in the minds of the Law Enforcement Officials. Basically, the victims were already dead, even if they weren't and the only aspect of the scene the officers were worried about was their own lives in securing the scene from a soldier inside a classroom with many already dead or going to be dead.

The amateur murderer had the officers buffaloed even as he planned his racist plans. Oh, yes, this was a racist attack. The children and teachers in Robb Elementary School was never safe in the first place UNLESS they could survive on their own because these bozos were never going to carry out RISK to their own lives to protect others. 

So much for Texas and it's focus on being the biggest bad ass law enforcement in the world. NONE of the propaganda is true; none of it.

Every officer involved should be charged with a hate crime!

Gun laws MUST now reflect the derelict response by law enforcement officers and end the availability of these killing machines to amateur racist killers. These machines are used by these amateur killers because they are so deadly regardless of the trigger man's ability to actually shoot a gun. The military weapons on the market need to end availability and the American society made safe REGARDLESS of derelict law enforcement!

Tim Scott

Well. How much money is Trump handing out this time? He bought himself a House not long ago so he could have the most economically and educationally deprived district Representative become Speaker. Now with the Supreme Court deciding if his insurgency was enough of an insurgency to keep him from the nomination he is buying out every person along the way including the Senator Nikki Haley nominated. 

That is Republicans in a nut shell, corrupt to the core when money is floated to them.

NATO…

…is being kept at bay by Russia. NATO needs to accept Ukraine into its alliance. It would bring pressure to end the war and validate peace talks. A large number of Ukrainians are already refugees in NATO nations. There is no end to Putin’s aggression with the philosophy that if he can’t have Ukraine then no one else can. Ukrainians have proven themselves and it is time they are allowed into the alliance so they are taken seriously. 

Belarus

Putin wants to attempt a nuclear strike against Ukraine. Other than being stupid enough to forever contaminate a very valuable piece of real estate on Earth, the nuclear fallout will drift into NATO and there will be war because of it.

Putin is irrational in all his plans and his allies need to start to deescalate the hatred driving Putin’s desperation. His politics have gotten him what he wants, he needs to stop the aggression that he pretends is important.

Happy Fat Tuesday !

White Supremacy dominated the leadership of the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

August 10, 2022
By Michael Kunzelman

A Maryland man (click here) described by the FBI as a “self-professed” white supremacist was sentenced on Wednesday to four months of incarceration for storming the U.S. Capitol while wearing a court-mandated device that tracked his movements, court records show.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly also sentenced Bryan Betancur to one year of supervised release after his term of imprisonment and ordered him to pay $500 in restitution.

Betancur, 22, was on probation for a 2019 burglary conviction when he traveled from the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, Maryland, and joined the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A GPS-enabled monitoring device that he was wearing under the terms of his probation showed that he spent roughly three hours in or around the Capitol that afternoon....

January 8, 2023
By Ella Lee

Opening remarks (click here) are set to begin this week in the seditious conspiracy trial of members of the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group with ties to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

Longtime Proud Boys leader Henry "Enrique" Tarrio and four other members of the group are charged with plotting to forcibly oppose the authority of the federal government and halting certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, along with a plethora of related crimes.

The trial comes weeks after the historic sedition convictions of two leaders of the right-wing militia group Oath Keepers. Three other Oath Keepers were also found guilty of multiple felonies in connection with the attack that left several dead, dozens of police officers injured and nearly 1,000 rioters arrested....

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, (click here) who’s Cuban, has tried to sell the group as “rough around the edges,” but welcoming to people of color. Many of those who’ve bought the message are fixated on proximity to power at any cost.

13 January 2024
By Adam Gabbatt

Supporters of Donald Trump have long been forced to suspend their belief in reality (click here): expected to believe, against all evidence to the contrary, that the one-term president won the 2020 election, hasn’t committed any crimes and is a successful businessman.

But as another tight presidential election looms, the recent efforts by Donald Trump to reimagine the people imprisoned for their role in the January 6 insurrection as “hostages”, and to downplay the horrors of that day as a peaceful protest, could have serious ramifications for democracy and his own party, onlookers have warned....

February 16, 2021
By Maya King

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, (click here) D-Miss., takes his ballot from election managers Gail Davis, left, and Joyce Moore to vote at his home precinct in Bolton, Miss., in Mississippi's Second Congressional Democratic Primary, Tuesday, June 7, 2022.

On the heels of the Senate’s acquittal of Donald Trump (click here), the NAACP, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson and civil rights law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll filed a lawsuit against the former president, Rudy Giuliani and two white supremacist groups, citing their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday morning in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Trump and Giuliani, in collaboration with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, conspired to incite the riot to keep Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. It claims they did so in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act (click here), a Reconstruction-era statute designed to protect both formerly enslaved African Americans and lawmakers in Congress from white supremacist violence....

If one hates equality and "the other" then one hates the USA Constitution.

The adoption of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution (click here) extended civil and legal protections to former slaves and prohibited states from disenfranchising voters “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Forces in some states were at work, however, to deny black citizens their legal rights. Members of the Ku Klux Klan, for example, terrorized black citizens for exercising their right to vote, running for public office, and serving on juries. In response, Congress passed a series of Enforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871 (also known as the Force Acts) to end such violence and empower the president to use military force to protect African Americans....

EEOC needs additional funding and/or personnel

"Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies." New York City, April 4, 1967. "We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs 'down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. '"

I am sure they are pedaling as fast as they can, but, the agencies are still overwhelmed with a backlog of cases.

October 29, 2021

By Barbara Bellinger

...Civil Rights officials say staffing shortages predate the pandemic. (click here)

“Prior to the pandemic, we had experienced an increase in turnover, with a number of experienced staff retiring or leaving for other positions,” said Vicki Levengood, the communications director for the department.

The pandemic complicated matters.

“The hiring freeze that was put in place early in the pandemic meant we were not able to fill a number of open positions in enforcement,” Levengood said. “For some time, we were down more than 10 investigators and intake staff.”

Since the state’s hiring freeze was lifted in December, the department has been able to fill open investigative positions, but training takes time. It still has only 30 investigators to work on the 2,500-case backlog, Johnson said.

“Those jobs are now being held by newly hired people who require training and on-the-job experience before they can be as efficient and productive as the experienced individuals they replaced,” Levengood said....

Hunter Biden is being used as a political pawn by the Republican Party.

Hunter Biden should be given a pardon for all his past mistakes and immunity to testify for whatever he believes needs to be said.

In this Congressional hearing Hunter Biden showed up because it was televised. He wants to be heard by the American people and Congress needs to allow him to do exactly that.

Iowa needs a state of emergency declared

It is a little late to prepare but the people will need some education (click here).

For those taking medication be sure a sufficient supply is in the house.

This is from the Des Moines Register

Houthis ?

They have been menacing the shipping channels for a long time. Until recently the USA presence was able to maintain some control. But, the Houthis with Iran’s help, are now using drones and missiles. This is an entirely new menacing profile for the Houthis and it is without a doubt far more dangerous. 

This is not an escalation in the Israel-Hamas War. Israel has no arguments directly with the Houthis as it does Hamas. I believe the Houthis hate. They are using the war with Hamas as an excuse to carry out hate directed death. 

This is not new, it has just become far more dangerous and simple measures don’t work anymore.

The USA along with the United Kingdom are doing the right thing. Every American and Brit should be proud of their country and it’s capacity to enforce peace when violence escalates.

This is pure insanity.

 https://youtube.com/shorts/WALMzvloRuA?si=I5pUmZylyqmXsh3z

Earth’s moon is sacred territory. It is our satellite directly related to the gravitational stability of Earth, ie: tides. That is only one example.

We already know Lunar Landers have caused moonquakes. Enough already.

The manned missions to the moon that began in 1968 were a magnificent achievement for the USA, but, that is where it should end.

If countries want to explore space then do so in space and not Earth’s only satellite. No way stations, no nothing!

I found the idea of cremated remains being placed on Earth’s moon a huge ethical issue and it should never have been considered. Those canisters are now floating remains forever. The egos involved in wanting a cemetery plot on Earth’s moon is appalling.

Molecules and atoms matter and Earth’s moon needs to be returned to pristine condition and the USA should lead the way. 

Space exploration is about planets and those that can support human life orbiting around a more youthful sun. 

End of discussion!