This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
(I receive no compensation from any entry on this blog.)
This is an email between friends. It shows complete disregard for the importance of adapting to electric vehicles. At the first inconvenience it would seem some Americans at least run home to mommy and gas powered cars because it is what they understand. By all consumer standards these days both these people should be yelling and screaming to the manufacturers and elected officials about the lack of cohesive infrastructure for ease in using electric vehicles.
The car never failed to operate and provide good service. It is the electric charging infrastructure that has yet to be adequately addressed. The charging stations must be less competitive and more able to adapt to all the cars on the road that need to be charged up.
Capitalism is a valuable aspect of the USA economy, but, to place charging stations in an attempt to dominate this need for consumers is simply wrong. This is a huge paradigm shift for this country and there is enormous opportunity to bring down the carbon footprint of the country. These charging stations are about a child's future, the richness of nature in that future, and a livable climate. The climate today is causing deaths and none of it can be ignored.
So, rather than any company seeking to have exclusive rights to charging stations forcing consumers to purchase only one type of car, there needs to be charging stations that are more generic to accommodate any and all electric vehicles on the road.
LET'S GET THIS RIGHT!
There is no turning back. This is the future and Americans have to stop whining and "get with it!"
There is no complete fix for the poor in the USA. Former President Clinton once spoke to this in recognizing the need for supportive services. The needs of the poor must include the basics of human survival such as food, clothing, medicine, and shelter.
Being poor in the USA has little to do with laziness or any other negative descriptors rendered by ignorant people who choose to hate instead of having a conscience. In 2024 conscientiousness is the opposite of hate. Not every person has to be involved in charity, but, every American should understand poverty. There are some Americans who aren’t capable of rising to upper middle class. There is such a thing as the working poor and multigenerational families in one home.
So.
While the American Dream is vital to our society for all the right reasons, there are people completely unable to achieve it through no fault of their own. It is a form of denial, dismisses responsibility as a society, and removes compassion as an important quality of the character of the USA.
It has come to my attention by people who witnessed it that there are wealthy Republicans handing out phones and tablets to the homeless for their revolution and vote.
Angry people come in all forms. The distribution occurs at places where the homeless congregate such as service areas, including food and clothing distribution organizations. If there is a way of corrupting the politics of the country Trump has already visited it.
It is a concern for potentially increased violence in the country with the right wing propaganda of elements like Truth Social encouraging it.
The Democrats need strategies to tap into this added population of voters to give them correct information about the country. People need to understand what gas lighting is and its pervasiveness. Hopefully the new electronic capacity of those most in need will help them find outreach to improve their circumstances, but, in all honesty it is amazing to realize how greed has effected the cost of housing in the USA. The lack of conscience is pervasive.
New Jersey is experiencing growth in the billions due to immigrant labor. For every 1000 immigrants (Total 2.2 million) there are earnings of $21 million in annual wages resulting in local and state revenues of $2.1 million. There is also cultural enrichment improving quality of life. Immigration is great for the USA.
The language surrounding immigration is toxic for our society (click here). Hatred is easy to tap into as a motivator to an election.
Trump is a disgrace to his country and has been for a long time.
...Trump (click here) — the presumptive Reublican nominee for president — is required to be present for the entire trial, which could last as long as eight weeks. He’s pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records, a low-level felony punishable by up to four years in prison. The trial kicked off Monday,with both sides making legal arguments on outstanding issues ahead of the beginning of juryselection....
One would think for all the national debt he accumulated during his administration there would be no doubt how much of a disgrace he actually is. The so called fiscally responsible Republicans truly are not as they want to place him in the White House as emperor. The USA Treasury won't be solvent for a year if Trump were ever elected King.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
January 14, 2021 By Allan Sloan
One of President Donald Trump’s lesser known (click here) but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt.
The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. That’s nearly twice as much as what Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It amounts to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every person in the country.
The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by a leading Washington budget maven, Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. And unlike George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who oversaw the larger relative increases in deficits, Trump did not launch two foreign conflicts or have to pay for a civil war....
Masjid Al-Aqsa (click here) is an important holy site in Islam, located in the Old City of Jerusalem in Palestine. It’s name translates literally as ‘the Farthest Mosque’. The wider compound includes the Dome of the Rock, seventeen gates and four minarets, and is usually referred to as al-Haram ash-Sharif, which means ‘the Noble Sanctuary’.
Iran is in violation of international law when striking Israel. Breaking international law alone is a failure of Iran's authority.
Just a brief statement about war. There is a long history of conflict between the developed world and the undeveloped world. The causalities realized in the undeveloped world is always far larger than the developed world. There are very real reasons for this, but, the undeveloped world never stops aggression before there are large numbers of causalities. The dead in Gaza is not historically significant when looking at the outcomes of the wars between the developed world vs the undeveloped world. I know that is appalling to many, but, Israel is not committing genocide. It is conducting a war to defend their citizens with causalities in ratio no different than other wars with similar combatants.
The current meeting of the UN Security Council is correct, the hostilities need to stop. There are sincere methods to settle the current hostilities without further war. The region of the Middle East hosts many forms of governance within the understanding religious preferences play a major role in such governance. The region must stop hating each other and find a path to peace.
Now as to Iran. Iran has committed international crimes in attempting to cause far larger Israeli deaths than it already has with it's militia, Hamas. It is more correct to state this is a war between Israel and Iran. Iran expresses it's hate of any other religion than Shi'ite Muslim through violence and death of innocent people. That expression is done through Iran's militias. The Iranian militias currently employed are Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis to carry out war against Israel and the region when considering the disruptions of the Gulf of Oman, Straits of Hormuz, and the Persian Gulf. All these waters border Iran as does the Caspian Sea. Iran has no legal right to carry out these aggressions as they are international waters.
April 13, 2024 By Dan Williams
...Earlier on Saturday, (click here) Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that a Guards helicopter had boarded and taken into Iranian waters the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries.
MSC, which operates the Aries, confirmed that Iran had seized the ship and said it was working "with the relevant authorities" for its safe return and the wellbeing of its 25 crew.
MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, Zodiac said in a statement, adding that MSC is responsible for all the vessel's activities. Zodiac is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Iran of piracy....
Iran has committed piracy in taking ships away from owners and interrupting their purposes. There is no reason to consider this simply mischief. This is a violation of international laws and maritime laws that have been violated many times and not simply once. There is no doubt Iran is completely out of step with it's peers and the international community. Where does Iran take permission to carry out these attacks against the developed world? Every possibility to be a part of an international community of peace and good economy has been open to Iran, but, it insists on hatred of all others to justify it's extensive terrorist networks. Iran must stop it's hostilities with other countries to end the disruption and return missile.
The Shia Crescent (click here) is an interesting aspect of world populations, but, it in no way indicates Iran has a right to vanquish all the countries that welcome Shi'ites as citizens. Iran can act as a homeland, but, to think for one minute Iran has the right to kill at will to establish a Shi'ite empire is bizarre and complete nonsense. The leaders of Iran are fools to allow the Shia Homeland act as a "state" to communists. These communist countries have horrid human rights records, as well as high levels of corruption that destroy economic viability. Iran's leaders need to begin to make far better decisions to engage their citizens within a global economy that thrives within peace.
It is called self-expression. If anyone bothered to review the dresses (If you can call them that vs. costume.) at the Oscar parties, Ms Sanchez dress is rather tame.
There have been others that have graced the White House with beauty such as Marilyn Monroe. Ms. Sanchez was simply being herself. Most any picture of her anywhere is of a woman that is sexually expressive. There is nothing wrong with that.
State dinners are a diplomatic occasion. It is the place where one can reach out to others to have a richer view of life. I am certain Ms. Sanchez welcomes any criticism as well. It was good of her and Jeff Bezos to join the Biden’s at this lovely occasion.
Please note these are all unarmed protesters. They have no real weapons. They have shields in an understanding that violence was possible.
At this point in the country Yanukovych was still in power. The national military still existed but was completely disarmed by him. What Yanukovych put in place of the military were militias owned and operated by oligarchs friendly to him. Basically, Yanukovych booby trapped the country. While the people could still protest at their own peril, the militias were to enforce the dictates of Yanukovych. If one recalls, he was spirited away to Crimea where under cover Russian officers saw him aboard a jet to self-exile in Russia. So, this is not a Ukraine dynamic. This is what occurs when those loyal to Russia rule in Ukraine. They destroy the Ukrainian Constitution and rain authority and violence on the people.
So, why do Ukrainians fight? Why not? They had no peace under Yanukovych. They don't want it back!
The first investigations of the Maidan violence were considered falsified. We know for a fact there was extreme Russian corruption in Ukraine. The European Union demanded the corruption to be removed before Ukraine could be eligible for membership. It is one of the reasons President Zelensky was elected. He was well known to the Ukraine people, liked, and trusted. He promised to establish good relations with Europe by cleaning up the corruption as well as good relations with Russia for the same purpose; to engage a vibrant economy. Then, in time, as Zelensky installed a magnificent, young, and corruption free government Putin decided good relations were not possible and started a war with a wonderful country full of earnest people.
Now.
Those earnest people are engaged in war with many dead and many more refugees into eastern and western Europe.
Living with Putin is not life at all, it is oppression without end. This is why the Post-Soviet states are not interested in any relationship with Putin in power and quite possibly communist influence forever. It is why they made choices to align with NATO. NATO does not interfere with their independent governance.
This violence and killings were 20 years ago. Twenty years is a generation and Americans forget the reason these people are resolved to be alive under democracy and freedom. To them there is no going back and they still mourn the taking of their children by Russian soldiers into re-alignment camps. Ukraine children are not suppose to be Ukrainian anymore, but, citizens of Russia. That is a form of genocide.
A boy wearing camouflage walks past a mural depicting a special forces soldier during a military-style competition organized by the National Guard security force for military cadets and youths, at a training ground in Balashikha, outside Moscow.
I am quite sure Vladimir's children are not involved.
This video appendix shows shootings (click here for video) of Maidan protesters from Maidan-controlled buildings and areas during the Maidan massacre in Kyiv in Ukraine on February 20, 2014 and a massacre of Maidan protesters in Khmelnytskyi on February 19, 2014. It uses content analysis of brief segments of well-known videos of these massacres and unbroadcast segments of a widely broadcast Belgian VRT News TV video of the Maidan massacre to reveal such shooting. This is the online Video Appendix C of papers prepared for presentation at the virtual 52nd Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies in the US in 2020 and the 10th World Congress of the International Council for Central and East European Studies in Montreal in 2021.
She is a law abiding citizen that happens to have been sexually assaulted by Donald J. Trump.
SHE WAS RAPED.
What does anyone expect from a woman, a business woman, faced with violence? Her rape was not down a dark ally by a drunk, it was in broad daylight in of all places a high end store's dressing room.
Ms. Carroll's gun should not be a surprise considering she was not at all empowered to file rape charges against Trump. She has stated many times as a woman employed in a job she loved she would be compromised in her employment if she became a topic of social gossip because of Trump's rape of her.
So, fast forward to 2024 and this time she has braved public opinion to stand up for other victims that believe silence is a better resolve than the law.
Trump's lawyer aggressively pursued Ms. Carroll's gun ownership in court as being illegal and an attempt to defame her. She was very defamed by Trump even after the trial, so this aggression by Trump continues. But, regardless of any latent fear of him she relinquished her gun to law enforcement. The problem is mitigated. She did not pull a right wing rant about gun rights and how government is taking all the weapons from Americans, she realized her error and compromised her ownership to allow New York gun laws to prevail.
There really isn't anything else to say about this. Even if she ranted and raved about gun rights she would have faced a summons to court and this would probably be the result anyway. She isn't a law breaker. She doesn't sexually assault men. She is a victim of violence and that would be recognized in any court of law. By relinquishing the weapon to authorities she ended any confrontation.
I sincerely believe Ms. Carroll was and may still fear him. She is only one of dozens of women sexually assaulted by Donald John Trump. They remained silent for a long time. Why?
Police in New York took possession of a gun (click here) belonging to writer E. Jean Carroll in February after she said during testimony in her defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump that she had an unlicensed firearm at home, according to a police report obtained by NBC News.
The chief of police in Warwick, N.Y., visited Carroll at her home on Feb. 15 “to discuss some open issues,” the report states, including Carroll’s disclosure of the handgun while she was on the witness stand Jan. 17.
During the second day of the civil trial, Carroll had told the federal court in lower Manhattan that she kept a “high standard revolver, nine chambers” at home with ammunition. “By my bed,” she said.
"I still do not have a license," Carroll added.
John Rader, the reporting officer, said in his report that he “offered to secure the weapon at the police station’s property for safekeeping.”
Carroll and a member of her security team surrendered the gun a day after Rader visited, and the firearm was being held until Carroll receives a New York pistol license, the report said....
It sincerely is a beautiful country. The volcanic activity really is isolated to the very tip of the southwestern region. There are towns and people effected, but, the country is taking care of their own and the dangerous areas are not occupied.
The Blue Lagoon is open. It is a worthwhile vacation spot. I do believe there is still some proximity to the volcanic activity that bothers tourists. All I can say to that is Iceland is very aware of the activity of it's geography.
January 12, 2024 By Alison Fox
The Blue Lagoon (click here) has once again re-opened to visitors in south Iceland following the volcano eruption that caused weeks of closures.
The iconic spa, restaurant, and hotel had a staggered opening over the last week, welcoming visitors back to soak in its milky blue waters and relax amongst its otherworldly landscape, the spa shared with Travel + Leisure. The pools, spa, cafe, retail shop, and Lava restaurant first reopened (though with slightly reduced hours) on Saturday, followed by the Silica Hotel and Retreat Hotel on Tuesday, and finally the property’s Michelin-starred Moss restaurant on Wednesday.
“After three wonderful days of welcoming back our staff and day guests at the Blue Lagoon, we’re also thrilled to be able to reopen our hotels,” Helga Árnadóttir, the chief operator of sales, operations, and services at the Blue Lagoon, said in a statement shared with T+L. “We’re very appreciative of our staff who worked tirelessly to reopen our establishments, and we look forward to continuing to create moments of joy for each person who walks through our doors.”...
If unpredictable volcanoes are a concern, there are alternatives.
September 5, 2023 By Lisa Abend
Early on a Sunday morning in July, (click here) two brothers from Boston sat on Reykjavik’s rocky coast, with their faces turned toward the chilly waters of the bay and their feet soaking in what felt like a warm bath. Ben and Lucas Zheng had landed around 4:30 a.m. at Iceland’s international airport, and didn’t have too many early-morning options for how to spend the start of their eight-hour layover before flying on to Venice. So, taking advantage of the season’s round-the-clock daylight, they walked 40 minutes from the city center toward the northwestern tip of the Seltjarnarnes peninsula. There on the stony beach, they rolled up their pants and sat for a couple of hours, their legs submerged in the naturally warm Kvika pool, which, at 12 inches deep, is more foot bath than hot tub.
The Zheng brothers had stumbled onto the most Icelandic of experiences. With more than 600 natural hot springs, the volcanic island gets the better part of its heat and energy from geothermal sources. But it has also incorporated that bounty of warm water into its culture, turning bathing in public pools into a sociable national pastime that is, according to some, the secret to its citizens’ happiness....
Go say hello to the Iceland cliffs and Puffins. The Puffins (click here), by the way, are having a terrible time surviving in the Pacific, especially the Russian coastal area. Iceland may be the only country with hearty populations of this really cute bird.
What could be better, clear skies, beautiful blue waters of the Atlantic, whales, and some of the cutest birds in the world.
There is a rift valley along the plate boundary. It is a fascinating tour if one is curious about Iceland's geography. Pumice lines the beaches that are accessible to tourism.
Asking Hamas to be a partner in peace is like asking a soldier to guarantee he speaks for a sovereign power. Hamas is a terrorist network acting in the interests of Iran and both should be held responsible for deaths of Israeli and Palestinian citizens. It is Hamas with Iran’s support that put Palestinian people deliberately in harm’s way.
It is Iran most responsible for the terrorist networks that are the soldiers on the front lines of Iranian hatred of global religions other than its own. It is Iran that must participate in peace talks and a pledge to end terrorist networks. Until Iran comes to the table its hatred will never be understood.
Iran must end it’s global march with terrorists doing it’s bidding.
Today, Iran has seized a ship in the Straits of Hormuz stating it can shut down the entire waterway. That is an act of war. Now, is every ship going to need a military escort in the Straits?
There are two sides of these tensions already established: the allied powers and the axis powers. Iran sent drones to Russia for one reason only and that was to ensure Russia would carry out power against allied powers that itself cannot achieve. Along with Russia comes China. I think Iran has set up the world for WW III. I mean honestly are other countries going to go along with Iranian hatred? To what end?
The communists love capitalism. Will the communists, including North Korea, actually take on the mantle of Iranian religious hatred as a reason to destroy their own countries and people? That is what war is, an invitation to harm one’s own land and people for the sake of what exactly? Hatred? Hatred is a reason for war? I thought aggression, like Hamas carried out, was a reason for war.
A war can end aggression, but, it will never end hate.
In a sincere understanding of national security, one power cannot control the world. Iran has wayward understandings of the power of a sovereign.
I might add USA intelligence is spot on. President Biden was calling out Russia’s plans to invade Ukraine while all others denied it would ever happen.
People hold up portraits of victims of the 1994 bombing of the Argentinian Israeli Mutual Association, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 18 July 2018.
A new ruling byArgentina’s highest criminal court (click here) has blamed Iran for the fatal 1994 attack against a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, declaring it a “crime against humanity” in a decision that paves the way for victims to seek justice.
That huge blast at the Argentinian Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), was blamed on a suicide bomber driving a stolen van loaded with explosives. It killed 85 people, wounded 300 and devastated Latin America’s biggest Jewish community.
In their ruling late on Thursday, the judges ruled that the bombing was carried out by the Shia militant organization Hezbollah and responded to a “political and strategic design” by Iran. The court said the attack came in retaliation for Argentina reneging on a nuclear cooperation deal with Tehran....
The demonstrating American Palestinians may have had their deepest wishes come true by demanding Israel end it's defense of it's nation, but, even fewer will survive when Iran takes advantage of any perceived weakening of Israel’s resolve.
IRAN IS THE AGGRESSOR.
Iran has been the aggressor for a long time using proxies to carry out terror attacks.
The Iranian regime has been an active actor in the Syrian conflict which started in 2013 and has so far claimed the lives of around 500,000 people, at least 60 percent of whom were civilians.
To help maintain Assad’s rule, Iran dispatched its other proxies to Syria as well, including Hezbollah, Iraq’s Nujaba Movement, and also the Fatemiyoun Division, which was composed of Afghan Shiite fighters.
Iranian officials and state media frequently credit former IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani as the man behind launching, training and funding all these militant groups. Soleimani, who served as the Iranian regime’s top military and intelligence operator in the Middle East, was killed in a US drone strike in January 2020 in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad.
Observers contend that Tehran’s attempts to mobilize Shiite militant groups, such as Zainebiyoun, and their active participation in the Syrian war fanned the flames of sectarian violence in the Middle East, provoking Sunni communities to employ a similar strategy in the region....
Israel had a good reason to have carried out this strike. Iran's generals were having a good time in Syria. Hezbollah has been carrying hate strikes against Israel.
8 April 2024
An Iranian general (click here) killed in a strike in Syria’s capital last week was a member of Hezbollah’s Shura Council, the powerful Lebanese terror group’s decision-making body, a source close to the movement said.
The April 1 airstrike leveled the Iranian embassy’s consular annex in Damascus, killing seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, including two generals.
One of them was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Quds Force, the Guards’ foreign operations arm....
This isn't the first time in recent years that an Iranian general found their deaths. Hezbollah for decades, if not longer, has been seeking to kill Israelis.
January 3, 2020 By Nectar Gan
Qasem Soleimani, (click here) who was killed by a US airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump at Baghdad International Airport on Friday, was hailed as a hero in Iran – brave, charismatic and beloved by the troops.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, once called him a “living martyr of the revolution.” But the United States viewed Iran’s top general as a ruthless killer.
One of Iran’s most powerful men, Soleimani cut a highly controversial figure. He was head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, an elite unit that handles Iran’s overseas operations – and one deemed to be a foreign terrorist organization by the US.
Having started his front line military career in the Iran-Iraq war during the early 1980s, Soleimani rose to prominence to become an indispensable figure in Iran, playing an instrumental role in spreading its influence in the Middle East....
This is from Al Jazeera.
The Israeli military (click here) says sirens have sounded twice within the space of 30 minutes. Earlier, the military reported that they had struck several Hezbollah military compounds in southern Lebanon. The military also stated that it had detected “a number of launches from Lebanon” but had struck the sources of the fire.
These attacks happen with Israel all the time and Israel has a right to return fire and limit regrowth. Hezbollah is not denying the attacks on Israel.
This is from Alarabiya:
April 11, 2024
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group (click here) said it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at Israeli artillery positions Friday, a bombardment it said was in response to Israeli strikes in the south.
Hamas ally Hezbollah has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on October 7 triggering war in Gaza....
Why is any terrorist organization attacking Israel? Israel, before being attacked October 7, 2023.
Approx. 40 launches were identified crossing from Lebanese territory by the IDF, some of which were intercepted by Israel. The IDF Aerial Defense Array successfully intercepted 2 Hezbollah explosive UAVs that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory earlier this evening.
February 29, 2024
By Steven A. Cook
...The claim that Hezbollah does not want war (click here) hinges on a further claim that Iran fears a conflict between its proxy and Israel. The logic that underpins these two arguments is compelling: In recent years, Hezbollah has become an expeditionary force for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), playing important roles in supportingthe Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad in its bloody campaign against its own people, working with Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, and training the Houthisin Yemen.
Yet before it was an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah was—and remains—first and foremost a critical component of Iran’s deterrence. The group and its reported 100,000-plus rockets are Iran’s second-strike capability. If Israel or the United States were to attack Iran’s nuclear program, Hezbollah’s arsenal would deliver a devastating blow on Israeli population centers. As much as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other Iranian leaders are committed to Israel’s destruction, they are more devoted to regime survival and do not want to lose the deterrent capability that they have invested in Hezbollah....
Oddly, I believe this has nothing to do with the war in Gaza. These are entities in the Middle East have hated Israel for as long as Israel has existed. The Gaza War only provides an excuse to escalate attacks that are more routine against Israel than rare.
This is why the USA is always at the center of protecting Israel, because, it cannot do it by themselves.
April 12, 2024 By Gerald Michael Feierstein
“Hezbollah has a lot of capabilities. They have a lot of missiles, They have a lot of drones. They have a lot of weapons that they could use.” Israel fears attacks from Iran and Hezbollah as they could launch an attack that could "cover all of Israel”, says former US ambassador to Yemen Gerald Michael Feierstein.
April 12, 2024
ByShannon K. Crawford, Luis Martinez, Anne Flaherty, and Mary Bruce
President Joe Biden told reporters Friday afternoon (click here) he expects an Iranian strike on Israel to occur "sooner than later" amid urgent concerns that Iran was about to retaliate for the bombing of its consulate in Damascus, Syria, earlier this month.
Asked for his message to Iran in the tense moment, Biden was blunt, saying simply, "Don't."
"Would the U.S. respond?" ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked repeatedly as the president walked away after the end of an unrelated event. He paused, thought for a moment and then returned to the lectern.
"We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed," he said.....
The region is experiencing escalation by Iran's terrorist organizations. The presence of the USA isn't just about Gaza. The Houthis have been turned loose by Iran as well.
December 4, 2024 By Jon Gambrell
Ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels (click here) struck three commercial ships Sunday in the Red Sea, while a U.S. warship shot down three drones in self-defense during the hourslong assault, the U.S. military said. The Iranian-backed Houthis claimed two of the attacks.
The strikes marked an escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war, as multiple vessels found themselves in the crosshairs of a single Houthi assault for the first time in the conflict. The U.S. vowed to “consider all appropriate responses” in the wake of the attack, specifically calling out Iran, after tensions have been high for years now over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
“These attacks represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security,” the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement. “They have jeopardized the lives of international crews representing multiple countries around the world.”...
These aggressions are all conducted by Iran's terrorist networks, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. In complete honesty, it looks as though Iran has decided to declare war and October 7, 2023 was simply one of the attacks that have been ongoing. These conflicts, including all that Israel is mired in is about Iran's aggression and not simply Hamas.
"The 23rd serious attack by Houthi rebels since November."
If one is to understand Israel's vulnerability to Iranian terrorist attacks, it can be understood why Israel will not stop until every tunnel is destroyed in Gaza and every Hamas member is dead. Israel is about eliminating the danger and not simply retaliating for every attack. There are profound reasons that is Israel's survival at play with the decisions of its military leaders. This is no joke. And now, the USA is once again standing up for Israel and awaits attacks by Iran itself.
These three men should be at the peace table, not the proxy terrorists that Iran hides behind.
I really think the media has it wrong. President Biden has been strengthening alliances for very good reasons. He has also been strengthening the economy domestically.
Russian (click here) Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday during a visit to Beijing in a sign of mutual support and shared opposition to Western democracies amid the conflict in Ukraine.
I find it odd that the President of China was meeting with the Foreign Minister of Russia. Usually, a president meets with presidents and foreign ministers meet with foreign ministers. I guess since Putin is wanted by the World Court for human rights violations he doesn't travel much.
Orban should not have come to the summit. He does not support the democracy the people have ale
March 22, 2024
Friday is the last day of the summit
EU leaders (click here) have hit back after Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated Friday that Russia is in "a state of war."
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia's comments show that it betrayed its own population after denying that it was at war for the past two years.
Meanwhile, European Council President Charles Michel said Russia's statement shows the need for the EU to strengthen its own defense industries.
"We must be lucid and we must tell to our citizens all across the EU that if we want peace, if we want security and stability, it is extremely important to improve our defense capabilities and to build a true European Union in defense," Michel said at the end of the summit in Brussels.
The interconnection queue (click here) is a collection of power generation and transmission projects requesting to connect to the power grid. Generation projects can be pre-construction, construction, built/non-operational and operating.
April 10, 2024
The backlog of new power generation and energy storage seeking transmission connections (click here) across the U.S. grew again in 2023, with nearly 2,600 gigawatts (GW) of generation and storage capacity now actively seeking grid interconnection, according to new research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Active capacity in U.S. interconnection queues increased nearly eight-fold over the last decade, and is now more than twice the total installed capacity of the existing U.S. power plant fleet. The queues indicate particularly strong interest in solar, battery storage, and wind energy, which together accounted for over 95% of all active capacity at the end of 2023.
But this growing backlog has become a major bottleneck for project development: proposed projects are mired in lengthy and uncertain interconnection study processes, and most interconnection requests are ultimately cancelled and withdrawn. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) adopted major interconnection reforms in 2023 that have not yet taken effect in most regions; project developers continue to cite grid interconnection as a leading cause of project delays and cancellations....
- In total, over 1,480 GW of zero-carbon generating capacity is currently seeking transmission access. Solar (1,086 GW) accounts for the largest share of generation capacity in the queues. Substantial wind (366 GW) capacity is also seeking interconnection, 1/3 of which is for offshore projects (120 GW).
- Solar and battery storage are – by far – the fastest growing resources in the queues. Combined, they account for over 80% of new capacity entering the queues in 2023.
- Proposed fossil fuel generation much lower, with 79 GW of natural gas and 1.5 GW of coal currently proposed.
These fossil fuel projects need to move to the bottom of the list and quite possibly be eliminated. They are part of the problem, not the solution.
Hybrid projects (co-locating multiple generation and/or storage types) comprise a large – and increasing – share of proposed projects, particularly in CAISO and the non-ISO West. 571 GW of solar hybrids (primarily solar+battery) and 48 GW of wind hybrids are currently active in the queues. Over half of the battery storage capacity in the queues is paired with some form of generation (mostly solar).
However, much of this proposed capacity will not ultimately be built. Among a subset of queues for which data are available, only 19% of the projects (and 14% of capacity) seeking connection from 2000 to 2018 have been built as of the end of 2023.
- Interconnection wait times are also on the rise: The typical duration from connection request to commercial operation increased from <2 years for projects built in 2000-2007 to over 4 years for those built in 2018-2023 (with a median of 5 years for projects built in 2023)....
April 10, 2024 By Jason Plautz
As concerns grow (click here) about what a flood of new computers, data centers and artificial intelligence operations means for the electric grid, one industry remains a massive question mark: cryptocurrency.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that mining for bitcoin and other digital currencies accounts for 0.6 to 2.3 percent of the nation’s electricity use. But that figure is just an approximation based on worldwide data collected by Cambridge University and publicly available information about 52 crypto mining sites.
A bid to have the agency — a nonpartisan data arm of the Department of Energy — collect more detailed information on how crypto miners use electricity was stymied by a lawsuit and won’t be revived until after a public review. That means regulators, legislators and even power providers don’t have detailed data about how an industry that has exploded in just a decade could affect the grid in the future....
Carbon Removal Projects are far too late. The operative word is IF. Greenhouse gas capture has to be measurable, exact, and reliable in it's CAPTURE of the gases that bring about warming.
An example of a real joke is the packaging industry that uses dry ice in shipping. Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide. Back in the day, due to the dangers of exposure to dry ice, it was packaged in cans. The cans were full of solid carbon dioxide and was an effective cooler for picnic baskets. The cans were always marked "do not open." Over time they rust, but, then they were discarded because no rust should come in contact with food.
Today, (click here) this is CO2 Dry Ice. It is open to air and when not it is in a container that is not sealed to prevent leakage. Sometimes this type of dry ice will be in the shipping container inside of a plastic bag that is not sealed so it leaks back to the troposphere.
This is not a sustainable practice. It should never be considered a greenhouse gas capture protocol for investment or tax advantages.
April 10, 2024 By Emily Pontecorvo
Money (click here) seems to be pouring into the field of carbon removal (click here) from every direction. Every other week there’s an announcement about a new project. Multimillion dollar carbon removal procurement deals are on the rise. The Department of Energy is rolling out grants as part of its $3.5 billion “direct air capture” hubs program and also funding research and development. Some carbon removal companies can even start claiming a $130 tax credit for every ton of CO2 they suck up and store underground.
The federal government alone spends just under $1 billion per year on carbon removal research, development, and deployment. According to a new report from the Rhodium Group, however, the U.S. is going to have to spend a lot more — roughly $100 billion per year by 2050 — if carbon dioxide removal, or CDR, is ever going to become a viable climate solution....
The media picks and chooses the facts they present to attract whomever they believe will be a customer or whichever advertiser brings it the most income per inch.
August 22, 2023
...Heat waves (click here) — defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as periods of two or more days where the weather is “abnormally and uncomfortably hot” and “outside the historical averages for a given area”— have become more frequent and longer in duration since the middle of the 20th century. In April 2023, 69.7 million Americans lived in counties experiencing higher temperatures than the 20th-century normal.
In 2023, Americans are increasingly grappling with prolonged heat waves — sometimes dubbed “heat domes” or “heat islands” by the Environmental Protection Agency — even in areas accustomed to particularly high heat. Phoenix, Arizona, for example, registered an average daily high temperature of 114.7 degrees Fahrenheit in July.
In 2004, 297 Americans died from excessive natural heat, the lowest figure recorded over the past two decades. In 2018, 1,008 Americans died as a direct result of heat exposure. But in 2021, heat-related deaths increased to 1,600, a 59% uptick from only four years earlier, and a 439% increase from 2004.
Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which actively tracks daily and weekly heat-related illnesses, shows that 1,714 US deaths in 2022 were due to “heat-related” causes....
It is time to bring about equity in the energy sector to allow the rapid construction of solar and wind projects. We are talking about a deadly trend of Earth's climate that has already killed Americans. There is no excuse for complaining. These changes in the energy sector in the USA should have taken place over 40 years ago!
Our children should not be looking at a world so very different than the one most Americans inherited from their parents due to a very dangerous climate. Heat deaths are only one aspect of the climate crisis. The death count is actually much higher.
Consumers pay for procrastinating, both with their lives and their fortunes. If the solar fields and wind farms had been built in the 1960s when scientists made testimony to Congress we would not be facing high costs or high GHG emissions.
Maybe there is a "caste system" in the USA where some lives are more important than others. Deaths are deaths and they are occurring in larger and larger numbers every year. THAT MATTERS! Too bad if costs are going up. It is time to pay the piper. This cost was predicted over and over since the 1950s.
July 29, 2019
...The United States (click here)provides a number of tax subsidies to the fossil fuel industry as a means of encouraging domestic energy production. These include both direct subsidies to corporations, as well as other tax benefits to the fossil fuel industry. Conservative estimates put U.S. direct subsidies to the fossil fuel industry at roughly $20 billion per year; with 20 percent currently allocated to coal and 80 percent to natural gas and crude oil. European Union subsidies are estimated to total 55 billion euros annually....
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