Saturday, August 4th, 2018
Stephan: In my view the whole North Korean summit was a reality show to give Trump a positive boost, and deflect attention away from Mueller and the Russian investigation.
North Korean ballistic missile
Credit: BBC
North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes, violating UN sanctions, a report commissioned by the UN Security Council says.
It also says Pyongyang has resorted to a “massive increase” of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products and has been trying to sell weapons abroad.
The confidential report by a panel of independent experts was submitted to the UN Security Council on Friday.
North Korea has so far not commented on the document’s findings.
Last week, US officials said Pyongyang appeared to be building new ballistic missiles despite recent warming ties with US President Donald Trump’s administration and pledges to denuclearise.
Unnamed US officials told the Washington Post that spy satellites had spotted continuing activity at a site that has produced ballistic missiles.
President Trump met North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in Singapore in June, and the two leaders then pledged to work towards denuclearisation, without specifying exactly what this would look like.
What did the UN report say?
The document was prepared by the experts monitoring the implementation of the UN sanctions […]
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Lorraine Chow, - Ecowatch
Stephan: While Trump and the Republics spend billions of subsidies for oil and coal to keep them alive, alternatives are making it clear they are superior in terms of pollution, cost, and utility. Here is an example of what I mean. The United States is finally catching up in spite, not because, of the government.
Offshore wind turbines at Barrow Offshore Wind Farm in the Irish Sea.
Credit: Andy Dingley
Renewable energy is truly getting cheaper every day. The 800-megawatt wind farm Vineyard Wind project, the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S., has offered a total levelized price of $65 per megawatt-hour (MWh)—a record low.
The planned wind farm, located 15 mies south of Martha’s Vineyard, will be jointly developed by Avangrid Inc. and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. Their contract was filed Wednesday with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities.
In all, Massachusetts electricity users will save about $1.4 billion over the 20-year duration of the contract, Bloomberg reported.
Energy expert Peter Kelly-Detwiler tweeted that the $65/MWh figure was “astonishing.” To put that price into context, he went on, the next record-low price for offshore wind was Maryland’s recent $131.9/MWh offer. Rhode Island’s Block Island wind farm is set at $244/MWh. Kriegers Flak, a proposed offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea, will cost $73/MWh.
Bloomberg reported […]
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Stephan: Is there an adult who can read in the U.S. who doesn't know that car emissions produce pollution and smog? This is the clearest example I can think of demonstrating the utter cruelty and corruption of the Trump administration, and their contempt for average Americans when the choice is profit or humanity. It's really quite breathtaking if you stop and think about it for a minute.
I think it is going to backfire though on the Republicans, and further exacerbate the growing States Rights Trend.
The Trump administration also announced it would seek to stop states like California from adopting their own stricter vehicle rules addressing problems like smog and climate change.
Credit: Ric Francis/AP
Donald Trump has declared an energy war on California.
The administration on Thursday proposed freezing the vehicle fuel efficiency standards sought by the Obama administration and moved to end California’s power to enforce its own rules, setting off a legal fight that could create a schism among red and blue states over the pollution regulations for new cars and pickups.
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement the proposal aimed to strike a balance “that will enable more Americans to afford newer, safer vehicles that pollute less. More realistic standards can save lives while continuing to improve the environment.”
But Democrats and U.S. automakers warned that forcing a conflict with California will create a split where states that follow California’s lead will have tighter mileage requirements than the federal standard, creating a patchwork of regulations that will hamper the development […]
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Stephan: I think things could get very ugly in Great Britain, with long lasting consequences that might break the country apart, and will surely cause massive social disruption. And apparently I'm not the only one that thinks that way. Here's the story.
British super market
Credit: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty
Prospect magazine’s Jonathan Lis has a piece titled “36 things that will happen if Britain crashes out of Europe with no deal” that I, an American who has been casually but not obsessively following Brexit, found extremely helpful.
Let’s back up a second: In 2016, the British people narrowly voted to exit the European Union. British Prime Minister Theresa May has proposed maintaining a free trade deal with the EU after leaving, but hardliners in her party like Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg have strenuously objected, leaving it an open question whether she’ll remain in office or, if she does, whether Britain will be able to leave the EU with any kind of deal to cushion the blow.
So what happens if May leaves without that kind of deal? That’s what Lis’s piece addresses. Here’s one of its extremely normal paragraphs:
4. Food will rot. We import about half of our food and feed, and 70 per cent of that comes from […]
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Jonathan Chait, - Daily Intelligencer
Stephan: As I am writing this, I am listening to Rachel Maddow talk about yet another just announced lawsuit in New York state concerning the basic mafia behavior of Trump, his family, his businesses, and his foundation. Earlier, I was listening to FOX who were telling their viewers that basically there is nothing to see here, move on. The coverage of Trump state TV, and MSNBC presents a sharp dichotomy between the norms and laws of the United States and the behavior of the Republican Party, its publicly elected officials, and its base.
I am afraid people who care about facts must conclude that we have reached a place where about a third of Americans and the people they have elected no longer care about the primacy of law and the wellbeing of the institutions of the nation. Power. Greed. Racism. Those are the hallmarks of the Republican Party, and that is a factual statement, not a partisan one.
Paul Ryan, Donald Trump.
Credit: The Washington Post
Republicans stand a strong chance of losing control of at least one chamber of Congress in the midterm elections, because many voters want to create a check on the Trump administration. A Republican aide working to maintain GOP control of government tells Playbook that checking Trump’s power is exactly why you should vote Republican. “I think there’s a credible case to be made that if you actually want to hold Trump accountable it’ll take both parties to do it. Hence giving it all over to the Dems will just reinforce gridlock.”
This might be the single most disingenuous argument for voting Republican
yet devised.
The news that congressional Republicans plan to hold Trump accountable might come as a surprise to congressional Republicans themselves, who have just been issued fresh official talking points from their party for handling the latest misconduct they have been trying to cover up.
The official party line stresses that “the fact that […]
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