alanjjohnstone
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Those of us old enough remember the Reagan-complicit media providing the public with how long it would take for Russian tank battalions to get to the USA border from Nicaragua.
On this occasion, they will not be able to do so.
I would suggest that the Russians are the human shields to thwart an attack upon Venezuela and not a military threat either to the protestors or America.
Getting to the nub of the question is an issue. Pix and mix research?
Another report on coal power stations contradicting the last message and confirming the previous.
The number of coal-fired power plants being developed around the world has collapsed in the last three years, according to a report. The number of plants on which construction has begun each year has fallen by 84% since 2015, and 39% in 2018 alone, while the number of completed plants has dropped by more than half since 2015.
The falling costs of renewable energy are pricing coal out of the electricity market, more than 100 financial institutions have blacklisted coal producers, and political action to cut carbon emissions is growing.
“It’s only a matter of time before coal is a thing of the past worldwide,” said one of the report’s authors, Neha Mathew-Shah, of the Sierra Club.
Christine Shearer, of Global Energy Monitor, said even emissions from the existing coal plants were incompatible with keeping global warming below 2C. “We need to radically phase down coal plant use over the next decade to keep on track for Paris climate goals,” she said.
However, the report warns of a possible coal plant resurgence in China, where satellite photos show developers have restarted work on dozens of suspended projects.
China and India have accounted for 85% of new coal power capacity since 2005, according to the Global Energy Monitor report. China permitted construction for the generation of less than 5GW of coal power in 2018, compared with 184GW in 2015. India permitted less than 3GW in 2018, compared with 39GW in 2010. India has added more solar and wind power capacity than coal over the last two years. However, a report by the China Electricity Council, which represents the power utilities, proposes allowing 290GW of new capacity, more than the entire US coal fleet.
Lauri Myllyvirta, of Greenpeace, said: “Another coal power construction spree in China would be near impossible to reconcile with the emission reductions needed to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.”No more kissing the Pope’s ring?
Meanwhile, the all-female staff of the Vatican’s women’s magazine resigned, alleging editorial interference. “Women Church World,” which is published alongside the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano, has lifted the lid on scandals within the church, including the cases of bishops and cardinals who compel nuns to cook and clean for them for little or no pay.
Last month, the publication exposed the sexual abuse by priests of nuns who are forced to have abortions or give birth to children who are not recognized by their fathers. The article said nuns have kept silent about the abuse for years out of fear of retribution.
Lucetta Scaraffia, who founded the women’s publication in 2012, said a newly appointed editor at L’Osservatore Romano, Andrea Monda, who took over in December, had tried to assume editorship at the magazine as well.
He had retreated when the staff threatened to resign, but then added new female writers to tone down the coverage, said Scaraffia.
“We are throwing in the towel because we feel surrounded by a climate of distrust and progressive de-legitimization,” Scaraffia wrote. In her letter, Scaraffia said there was a “return to the antiquated and arid custom of choosing women considered trustworthy from on-high, under the direct control of men…”
In its final editorial for the magazine, the staff said Monda was “pitting women against one another.”“…We want to be listened to, contradicted, debated with, as would be the case with men…”
https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-pope-francis-ring-magazine-20190327-story.html
The Labour Party expels Jackie Walker for anti-Semitism.
You would think it might be relevant that the article would explain that Walker is herself Jewish but it doesn’t.
That her remarks of Jewish being “chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade” may be based on her own family history in that she is descended partly from a Portuguese Jew who came to the West Indies during the days of Christopher Columbus and a female slave, who converted to Judaism on marriage but the article omits that context.
She herself self-identifies as Jewish, saying, , “I certainly wouldn’t call myself an anti-Semite. I’m Jewish and my partner is Jewish.”
Yet it is her Jewish critics who deny her Jewishness, applying criteria that Israel itself ignores, regards the Law of Return.
A bit technical for me
“…When I started working on a yield curve inversion explainer, I was prepared to conclude that worrying about this is overblown but then it totally dropped out of mainstream coverage and I actually think people aren’t panicking enough…”
Some more info in the Spanish North Korean embassy.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47704353
Cheollima Civil Defence, also known as Free Joseon, a self-styled human rights group seeking to liberate North Korea
A follow up to the disappearing insects
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47698294
A third of British wild bees and hoverflies are in decline, according to a new study.
If current trends continue, some species will be lost from Britain altogether, the scientists say…Scientists warn that the loss of nature could create problems in years to come, including the ability to grow food crops…Every square kilometre in the UK has lost an average of 11 species of bee and hoverfly, between 1980 and 2013…The loss of insects has far-reaching consequences for entire ecosystems. Insects provide a food source for many birds, amphibians, bats and reptiles, while plants rely on insects for pollination…”Never heard this before. Heard of the Frankfurt school…psychologists, psycho-analysists and the like.
“…The phrase “cultural Marxism” refers to an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that a small group of Marxist Jews behind the Frankfurt School were part of an effort to destroy Western culture. According to the 1990s theory, academics and theorists at the school were part a plan to attack Western society through multiculturalism and progressive politics…”
“…The Board of Deputies, a group representing the British Jewish community, said that the comments had a history of anti-Semitic connotations. A spokesman told Times of Israel: “Suella Braverman MP may not have been aware of it, but the term ‘cultural Marxist’ has a history as an antisemitic trope…”
Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/suella-braverman-cultural-marxism-anti-semitism-conspiracy-theory/
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/suella-braverman-cultural-marxism-anti-semitism-conspiracy-theory/
I see wiki refers to this conspiracy theory also
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School#Cultural_Marxism_conspiracy_theory
Pelosi parrots Pence at AIPAC
“Israel and America are connected now and forever,” said Pelosi. “We will never allow anyone to make Israel a wedge issue.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday announced that the US had expanded its restriction on foreign aid for non-governmental organizations that support abortions or work with groups that help women access the medical service.
“We can continue to meet our critical global health goals,” Pompeo said. “While refusing to subsidize the killing of unborn babies.” He announced new limitations on the use of federal government funds. “We will refuse to provide assistance to foreign NGOs that give financial support to other foreign groups in the global abortion industry,” Pompeo said. “American taxpayer dollars will not be used to underwrite abortions.”
Marie Stopes International, an NGO focused on providing contraception and safe abortions, estimated the funding gap would result in 2.5 million unintended pregnancies, 870,000 unsafe abortions, 6,900 avoidable maternal deaths and a €125-million ($141-million) increase in direct healthcare costs.
https://www.dw.com/en/us-extends-foreign-aid-ban-for-ngos-supporting-abortion/a-48068966
“It is the same case for the Jews who are considered as a race, instead of followers of a religion.”
This has legally been the case in the UK for many, many years, Marcos, under discrimination legislation.
Followers of the Sikh religion are also defined as a race under UK law.
Further to the decline of coal, it is not all what it appears to be.
“…Globally coal use in power stations was up by nearly a third, and together gas and coal were responsible for nearly 70% of the growth in energy consumption, and Asia is now responsible for the majority of coal-fired power generation globally, and the average age of power plants there is now just 12 years, meaning they have decades to go before reaching their planned end of production in about 30 to 50 years.
Gas consumption in the US leapt by 10%, or the equivalent of the UK’s entire gas consumption in a year. Fracking has been a key driver, and oil production in the US also grew.
“We have seen an extraordinary increase in global energy demand in 2018, growing at its fastest pace this decade,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said. “Last year can also be considered another golden year for gas. But despite major growth in renewables, global emissions are still rising, demonstrating once again that more urgent action is needed on all fronts.” He called for greater development of non-fossil fuel energy sources, action from governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and investment in the capture and storage of carbon dioxide, as ways to reduce the impact of energy production on climate change….”
Yet again, one wonders where is the end of business-as-usual and the implementation of any urgency in policies, that underpins all those optimistic scientist projections?
As the planet heats up, much of the energy rise involves cooling it down.
(On a personal point, my air-con eats up electric and is simply unaffordable to run as we would wish.)
As a world socialist party perhaps these are the aspects of Brexit that should concern us the most.
“…EU citizens living in the UK would be stripped of their freedom of movement, housing and social security rights by Home Office legislation introduced to regulate immigration following Brexit, a parliamentary report has warned.
Despite repeated government reassurances that their privileges will be protected, a study by the joint committee on human rights (JCHR) concludes that more than 3 million Europeans living in Britain would be left in legal “limbo”…Irish nationals’ rights, guaranteed by separate common travel area agreements, would be “diminished”. Their ability to bring in a spouse from a non-EU state, for example, would be limited…Without the necessary protections, the bill could leave individuals in a precarious situation over such issues as “housing, social security and property rights”..”
