RENÉ BRUEMMER and JESSE FEITH, Reporters - Montreal Gazette (Canada)
Stephan: This is a humiliating story, and it comes from the Canadian press. This is what America looks like now.
Outside the YMCA on Tupper St. downtown, near where the Children’s Hospital used to be, dozens of Haitians newly arrived from the United States milled about Wednesday, clutching government documents and looking slightly lost, while Montreal Haitians of long standing came to lend a hand and load their cars with luggage.
“Haitians help Haitians,” one volunteer explained.
Jean Dorméus was among Montreal’s flood of new arrivals. The secretary-general of a political youth group in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien, Dorméus, 23, fled six months ago when individuals threatened to kill him and his family, he said. Since his father was likewise threatened and assassinated, Dorméus took the threat seriously. His mother and sister fled to neighbouring Dominican Republic and he flew to Mexico, then crossed into San Diego to ask for asylum.
He lived in Pennsylvania for six months, but in Donald Trump’s America, Dorméus was told, his chances for asylum were slim and odds of deportation strong.
“It’s not good for us there now,” he said. “It’s not safe in the U.S., and I can’t go back to Haiti.”
So he surfed the Internet for instructions on how […]
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Henry Gass, Staff Writer - The Christian Science Monitor
Stephan: This is just a short take on sea rise from Louisiana. Short but it gives you a sense that completely independent of the false equivalency debate over climate change, people who live on low lying land proximate to the rising sea are taking this very seriously. This is how it is playing out.
Louisiana Bayou Credit: Ann Herme/CSM
Residents of Louisiana are on the front lines of climate change in the United States. Rising seas are forcing bayou residents to consider leaving communities where many have lived for generations. Individuals and entire communities are facing difficult questions: Should they stay and try to adapt? Or relocate to higher ground? If they do choose to relocate, how? In one case, the state has decided to permanently relocate the entire community of Isle de Jean Charles farther inland. But in the nearby town of Empire, retreat has happened more haphazardly. The town is the second-largest commercial fishing hub in the country outside Alaska, but the population has dropped from more than 2,800 in 2000 to less than 1,000 in 2010, according to census data. These two towns exemplify the hard choices facing state managers in Louisiana. And if sea levels continue to rise as climate models predict – by as much as five feet by 2100 – residents of coastal cities from Boston and New York […]
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http://www.ibtimes.com/trumps-taken-more-vacation-days-date-obama-during-presidency-2574250, - International Business Times
Stephan: I'm going to just let this story speak for itself.
Donald Trump gestures as he plays golf.
Credit: aol.com
President Donald Trump was a frequent Twitter critic of former President Barack Obama for his vacation days and golf outings, but to date, Trump has outpaced the former president on both those fronts.
Before entering the White House, Trump was a frequent critic of Obama’s personal time outside the Oval Office. Trump even criticized taking vacations at all.
“Don’t take vacations. What’s the point? If you’re not enjoying your work, you’re in the wrong job,” tweeted Trump in 2012.
Trump has apparently changed his position on the matter, as the president is set to take a 17-day vacation starting Friday. The president will head to his private golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey for what his aides are calling a “working vacation.” While he’s gone, the White House will receive maintenance on the heating and cooling system. Everyone, including staff, will be required to vacate the building during that time.
READ: Trump Fake News? The President’s Golf Courses Feature A Little Of His Own
Presidential vacations […]
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Stephan A. Schwartz, Editor - Schwartzreport
Stephan: The article in
inhabit, a usually reliable site, about the Tesla solar roof is in error. The price quoted is $21.85 cents for square foot. When I read it again, I realized the author has confused an asphalt roofing "square" a term that means 10' x 10' with a square foot. So I went to the Tesla site and confirmed that. This is what they say:
"Solar Roof is more affordable than conventional roofs because in most cases, it ultimately pays for itself by reducing or eliminating a home’s electricity bill.
Consumer Reports estimates that a Solar Roof for an average size U.S. home would need to cost less than $24.50 per square foot to be cost competitive with a regular roof. The cost of Solar Roof is less. The typical homeowner can expect to pay $21.85 per square foot for Solar Roof,
1 and benefit from a beautiful new roof that also increases the
value of their home."
My apologies for not catching this, and thanks for readers on both the site and the FB site for alerting me to this.
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Thursday, August 3rd, 2017
Stephan: Here is some excellent news. California is the sixth largest economy in the world and it is moving in the same direction as the rest of the developed world, just not the way the Trump administration is going.
I think that in 10 years the difference between the Red value states and the Blue value states will be particularly marked because of energy. The Christofascist plantation economies of the deep south are going to leave those societies further and further behind, more and more like second or third world countries.
California solar and wind power
“When it comes to our clean air and climate change, we are not backing down,” de León said on May 31, just before President Donald Trump announced a withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. “We are sending a clear message to the rest of the world that no president, no matter how desperately they try to ignore reality, can halt our progress.”
The bill, SB 100, would “set limits on California’s hydrocarbon consumption and aim to gradually increase renewable energy consumption in the coming decades,” according to Forbes.
“SB100 promises to reduce the impact of climate change by limiting fossil fuel use, in addition to creating productive new jobs in the renewable energy sector,” the Sierra Club wrote. “The passing of SB100 establishes California as a global leader in the environment, especially important as the federal government fails to commit to renewable energy.”
But despite the obvious benefits, there are certain challenges the state will face and have to take into account.
Forbes elaborated:
California currently imports about 33 percent of its electricity from outside […]
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