This is exactly the problem with the US Congress NEGLECT of the Climate Crisis.

This is called discovery and innovation. The former President George W. Bush stated the path to ending the climate crisis was investment and innovation. Well, here it is.

Changes to the way things are done is through research and development. This is an iron battery that assists in the viability of an alternative energy power grid. President Biden wants wind power offshore for the entire east coast. It is long over due. 

Currently, Scotland has wind, wave and tidal energy to bring 80 percent of it's electricity to the Scottish people. Scotland developed it's alternative energy grid starting in 2002. Scotland's wind, wave and tidal energy does not emit one molecule of greenhouse gas in production.

Now, there are iron batteries. What will the future actually look like? I don't think most people can say. But, without profound commitment from a legislature in the USA ready to end the climate crisis, projects important to our children's future will be lost.

Everyone should be ashamed. This is the United States of America where the impossible is possible. Enough already. Research and development MUST go forward to bring alternative energy to the sustainable economy of the USA.

October 11, 2021
By Akshat Rathi

The world’s electric grids are creaking (click here) under the pressure of volatile fossil-fuel prices and the imperative of weaning the world off polluting energy sources. A solution may be at hand, thanks to an innovative battery that’s a cheaper alternative to lithium-ion technology.

SB Energy Corp., a U.S. renewable-energy firm that’s an arm of Japan’s SoftBank Group, is making a record purchase of the batteries manufactured by Energy Storage Systems. The Oregon company says it has new technology that can store renewable energy for longer and help overcome some of the reliability problems that have caused blackouts in California and record-high energy prices in Europe.

The units, which rely on something called “iron-flow chemistry,” will be used in utility-scale solar projects dotted across the U.S., allowing those power plants to provide electricity for hours after the sun sets. SB Energy will buy enough batteries over the next five years to power 50,000 American homes for a day.

“Long-duration energy storage, like this iron-flow battery, are key to adding more renewables to the grid,” said Venkat Viswanathan, a battery expert and associate professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

ESS was founded in 2011 by Craig Evans, now president, and Julia Song, the chief technology officer. They recognized that while lithium-ion batteries will play a key role in electrification of transportation, longer duration grid-scale energy storage needed a different battery. That’s because while the price of lithium-ion batteries has declined 90% over the last decade, their ingredients, which sometimes include expensive metals such as cobalt and nickel, limit how low the price can fall.

The deal for 2 gigawatt-hours of batteries is worth at least $300 million, according to ESS. Rich Hossfeld, chief executive officer of SB Energy, said the genius of the units lies in their simplicity....

It is only a commission. It is not like there are real dollars involved here.

Trump wins even before big, dark money when it comes to three Republicans and the January 6th Commission. Just a little scary. Machin proves his corruption. He hates Democrats that love the country and the people.

Are you people out of your minds?

No one believes in Wildcat Strikes more than me, but, this is an inappropriate use of that union power.

Let me just tell you why I believe in Wildcat Strikes. My father was a union secretary in Golo Shoe Factory in Pennsylvania (click here and 11th paragraph). The year was 1959 and the working conditions were terrible. The union officers decided to pull a Wildcat Strike to improve the workers health and well being. My father voted for the strike in an executive meeting. The factory workers, all union members, were called to assembly and given the information the executive committee had before them regarding working conditions and human health. There was a vote of the members and the factory went on strike.

That strike lasted for 90 days. Back then there was word of mouth information that spread through the surrounding towns. "Golo Shoe Factory is on strike for better working conditions." This area was depressed already due to coal mines shutting down. There was no more anthrocite coal to be mined. The bosses had completely depleted the mountains of it. So, the concept of workers' health was not foreign to any of the laborers at Golo or their communities.

The shop keepers in the area decided they could extend credit to the families of the striking workers. In that was community based support and the Wildcat Strike could go forward until the factory owners committed to the union's terms. Eventually, they did. But, the cost would mean all the six officers of the union had to resign. Among those people was my father, an Air Force veteran from Korea and now with a family of two young children. He went on to find work in New Jersey where his sister said there was good work for good men. To tell you the commitment my family has to unions is to understand my father worked in New Jersey three months before he was asked to be a Shop Steward for the union there.

So, when it comes to Wildcat Strikes, they are invaluable and work extremely well to bring about change for the better in any labor issue. I find the pilot union at Southwest to be heroes and nothing short of it, given their dedication to labor law. But, there are exceptions when a national health emergency exists. I think the courts and the NLRB will say that as well.

Pilots of all people and their attendants on board are exposed to this lousy bug more than most other people. There is a change in air mass components every time there is a landing and passengers depart and board. So, the chance of pilots and other airline workers, including baggage handlers, is higher and would expose them to the contagion is far higher rates. It is important all those without EFFECTIVE immunity get the vaccine. Labor law be damned this is a national emergency and a pandemic. What if pilots got sick and some died, what would that do to the USA economy and families left without one or more of their wage earners gone. We have orphans in this country due to the virus. There are military veterans among these folks. This is no joke. 

This wildcat strike with Southwest Airlines is due to what the pilots see as an assault on labor law. I doubt that can be incurred because of a national health emergency. I am sure they are thinking Biden is another Reagan. The labor union leaders should be meeting with the President. All airline labor union leaders, not just those with Southwest. Heck, where is the AFL-CIO on this thing?

The Railway Labor Act (RLA) (click here) has governed collective bargaining between rail carriers and labor unions since 1926.

This is a national health emergency and there are far different parameters regarding labor practices. If there are businesses with unions salivating at the idea this mandate by President Biden is going to destroy unions, they have another thing coming. Unions can go on strike if their employers are draconian and insistent in breaking the union. Unions are important. They are the backbone of the Middle Class and while there is always concern about the health of labor law, there is a panel of the NLRB that can issue statements as well.

Again, I state, will your ideology save you from the grave?

October 9, 2021
By Mary Schlangenstein

Southwest Airlines Co. pilots (click here) asked a court to temporarily block the company from carrying out federally mandated coronavirus vaccinations until an existing lawsuit over alleged U.S. labor law violations is resolved.

The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association’s filing Friday also asked for an immediate hearing on the request before a federal court in Dallas, claiming the carrier has continued to take unilateral actions that violate terms of the Railway Labor Act, which governs airline-union relations. Those steps include the Covid-19 vaccination requirement.

“The new vaccine mandate unlawfully imposes new conditions of employment and the new policy threatens termination of any pilot not fully vaccinated by December 8, 2021,” the legal filing said. “Southwest Airlines’ additional new and unilateral modification of the parties’ collective bargaining agreement is in clear violation of the RLA.”...

You need another reason, then how about the issue of masks for pilots that obstruct their best operating ability? Vaccines would mitigate all that.

October 2, 2020

By Linda Werfelman

Radio transmissions (click here) by pilots wearing cloth facemasks may be more difficult to understand than those by pilots wearing surgical masks, or no masks at all, according to a report by the French Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA)....

The science involving this speech by President Biden is correct, however,...

...there is concern among the public that natural immunity is better than the vaccine.

There is a large majority of Americans that have not been exposed to or succumbed to the COVID-19 virus and all it's many variants. I think we are upto the letter M in naming variants. I know we have L in Lamda, but, believe there is also one after that, namely M.

In simply talking to people and those that refuse the vaccine there are many reasons, most are dangerous reasons but one in particular is something that the CDC and FDA can address and haven't. 

The Americans that have been exposed to the virus or a variant believe their natural immunity is better than the vaccine. I think the NIH needs to examine that potential and address it formally. They might be right. Their opinion also goes on to believe that if they are vaccinated their natural immunity will be negated and made to be ineffective. They point to the issue that the vaccines need a booster and their natural immunity does not.

The ONE fact that is pushing the issue of vaccines to the forefront is the character of viruses, in that they mutate on a very regular basis. They mutate due to their mRNA content. In that lies the danger that if the COVID-19 virus is allowed to exist for much longer there could be a mutation that is a Level 3 virus that will cause high numbers of deaths, especially if people continue to be resistant to government intervention to end a pandemic. The entire globe has a strong interest in preventing that from happening. A level 3 virus would bring about a great deal of economic hardship and far more invasive government controls than currently exist. 

The other reasons for not getting the vaccine is bizarre. Fear is part of it because it is an mRNA vaccine. The virus is mRNA. Americans don't fear that? They should. Every American should fear contrating the mRNA virus footprint of COVID-19 and it's variants. Fear is irrational when there is a vaccine that will prevent illness, disability and/or death. I remind any American that COVID-19 and it's variants have caused and are causing large numbers of disability in the "Long Haul" lingering symptoms. As a nation we cannot allow a virus to infect large numbers of people and create a nation of the disabled. I would think that is an obvious reason to vaccinate.

Besides fear, there are a variety of reasons that stop Americans from being vaccinated. I am sorry this is even a reason for media to talk about it. Within that daily conversation is politics. Viruses and vaccines are not a political dialogue and if Americans are standing up for their individual rights in not being vaccinated, then they are worshipping a wrongful god. The country has 700,000 dead. The Rwanda genocide that lasted 100 days killed upto 800,000 deaths. The COVID-19 deaths numbering over 700,000 with ANY OF THE VACCINES would have and could have been prevented. Think about that for a moment before crying they are losing their constitutional rights. The dead have lost theirs. 

700,000 deaths if they had been vaccinated could have been prevented. There are those that occurred in the beginning, but, if the vaccines had been perfected after the SARS outbreak under former President Geoge W. Bush, there would be little that would have occurred even in the beginning. All that if fact and cannot be overlooked.

Today, American children are returning to school supposedly for their own good as they rely on social programs at school that provide nutrition. Then there are other noble causes like being proficent in sports for attempts at scholarships and the idea "children need other children." So much for the competency of homeschoolling and of course the American people must get back to work. We all know school time is the best babysitter. All those reasons to me are tragic and based in valuing money over lives. I find all those reasons hideous especially from people that are adult professionals in the care and teaching of a child's mind.

But, as to the President's speech. It is all based in fact. The ONLY real reason I see for any American to question the wisdom of being vaccinated is the issue of natural immunity and it's superiority over vaccinated immunity. That has to be addressed scientifically and soon.

As far as political ideology, I say, can you continue to practice that ideology from the grave?