WarGamer
WarGamer's JournalBill Gates new gamechanging book on Climate Change comes out tomorrow.
This is a REALLY good read:
(I read the story for free through my Google timeline, it's pay to read at WSJ)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/bill-gates-interview-climate-change-book-1161317333
He's really a brilliant man, a futurist right when we need one. He's a proponent of safe nuclear energy, which IS the solution we've been waiting for. He recognizes the complications of 1 Billion people in the world eager to move into the 20th century by flipping a light switch for the first time and considers that in his solution.
Bottom line, we can end fossil fuels and remove sufficient CO2 from the atmosphere by 2050 for around $5T a year globally.
EDIT: and to add... if we can kick in $4T in less than a year to fight COVID, we can kick in $1T a year for the climate...
Silence out of Mar-a-Lago, what's up?
All jokes aside, lets talk about it without memes and jokes.
One, I don't believe a shred of the "CNN reports a Trump adviser says Trump ate toast with jam this morning..."
In Palm Beach, he's surrounded by loyalists and the only "word" that gets out is leaked on purpose.
SO what's he up to? His well known reputation for vengeance has me thinking he's plotting his next moves. But why the silence?
1) Laying low during Impeachment Trial. Opening his mouth may have been just enough to make 17 GOP'ers shut him the hell up.
2) Without Twitter, he's creating an intentional void and a social media vacuum. I expect him to be pushing a new Social Media app soon, a Trumpy Gab, Parler or TikTok looking thing.
3) Has his 757 been brought in for service yet? One of it's engines was past-due for maintenance and FAA laws don't allow an aircraft to be flown without current checks so it was stuck in NJ iirc. He's got the Citation X, of course but he wants to roll up in the big bird.
4) In negotiations for sale of properties? I think he wants to remove all physical and economic presence from NY and other blue States/Cities. I expect to see Trump Tower in NYC sold this year.
5) I expect him to announce the formation of a new SuperPAC and probably a Presidential run sooner rather than later although I don't believe he'll run in 24. Why, you ask? Because if he announces a run he takes on an (kinda) umbrella of protection from lawsuits and prosecution as being "motivated to damage a political opponent".
As a student of history, it's all delicious to watch.
This is the real-life equivalent to the story of Frankenstein's monster. All the little Frankensteins over the last 40 years, Bill Kristol, Steve Schmidt, Glenn Beck, BushCo, etc etc... have been working on a project in the basement to aide them in accomplishing their blue blooded, war loving neo-con bullshit. The project paid off when the monster went into action as the Tea Party and took over DC.
But today, the monster is on the loose and can't be brought back to the lab.
Why no guns?
Think of this as Devil's advocacy... or more accurately, wargaming.
Just like I'd ask "Why did/didn't Rommel reinforce the Cotentin Peninsula in May 1944"?
Why didn't the rioters bring guns to the Capitol? Were they "dead enders" seeking a political statement? Were they seeking an actual coup, taking over the Gov't like the military in Myanmar? Were they looking to "frat boy" inside the Capitol?
Here's my opinion, after thorough analysis.
I don't think this was a coup attempt at all. The motivations varied by the individual. SOME of the rioters certainly would have torn a Congressperson to shreds if they had the chance. But reports from inside the Capitol actually show many rioters walking between the velvet ropes as if they were on an 8th Grade field trip.
Look at the damage to the Capitol. Relatively light damage, no arson. They did less damage to the Capitol than the jocks did to the nerds dorm in Revenge of the Nerds.
Again, IMHO... I think they wanted to disrespect the gov't, not kill it. They wanted to humiliate and sully our national institution while demonstrating strength and impudence.
To circle around to the top... why no guns?
After watching the Super Bowl Halftime Performace...
It got me to thinking about past Super Bowl Half Time shows...
What's YOUR favorites?
I took to YouTube and watched a dozen or so and one caught my attention and brought back some great memories.
1993 Michael Jackson.
I've been watching performers on stage for 50 years and there's never been a performer in his league.
EDIT: I always wanted to see a Metallica Half Time show...
I'm hoping for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine
For one, I have a nostalgic sort of feeling for J&J from my childhood and it's ubiquity.
J&J immunized all their employees against Smallpox in 1910, over half of them women
J&J produced masks to fight the 1918 Flu
J&J created Band-Aids
J&J retained all employees during WW2, even increased wages
J&J promised all employees who fought in WW2 they'd have a job when they returned home
And the J&J COVID-19 vaccine just may be the vaccine that saves the world... all four corners.
Before you throw out the next Nazi, Hitler, Goebbels slur...
Let me start by first saying Hello to everyone. Long time DU reader, longer time Political enthusiast and debater.
Trump is a Nazi. Stephen Miller is Goebbels, Barr is Himmler, Wolf is Reinhard Heydrich and Ivanka is Leni Riefenstahl.
Right?
IMHO, it does a great disservice to History and the victims of ACTUAL Nazism to conflate villains and political opponents to historical figures.
I could start by asking you to research what ACTUAL REAL Nazis actually DID but that's probably not fruitful. So let's try this.
Edna S. Frieberg know more about Nazis than I or any of you. She's a historian at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, she's a fellow at the Jewish Theological Seminary and I hesitate to call her a "friend" but I'll just say an "acquaintance".through our shared interests and social/educational functions.
Give this a read and then think the next time before you call someone a NAZI or Storm Trooper.
https://www.ushmm.org/information/press/press-releases/why-holocaust-analogies-are-dangerous
"The Holocaust has become shorthand for good vs. evil; it is the epithet to end all epithets. And the current environment of rapid fire online communication and viral memes lends itself particularly well to this sort of sloppy analogizing. Worse, it allows it to spread more widely and quickly."
"Neither the political right nor left has a monopoly on exploiting the six million Jews murdered in a state-sponsored, systematic campaign of genocide to demonize or intimidate their political opponents."
"Perhaps most popular this year have been accusations of “Nazism” and “fascism” against federal authorities for their treatment of children separated from their parents at the US border with Mexico. “Remember, other governments put kids in camps,” is a typical rallying cry from some immigration advocates. Even a person as well versed in the tenuous balance between national security and compassion, the former head of the CIA, took to Twitter to criticize federal policies toward illegal migrants using a black and white photo of the iconic train tracks leading the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center. Nazi comparisons have also been leveled against the federal government in connection with a travel ban on individuals from predominantly Muslim countries. Animal rights proponents have consistently decried what they call “the Holocaust on your plate” in critiquing today’s meat industry. The list goes on."
Be a better debater... give it a thought, ok?
thx.
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Name: JGender: Male
Hometown: SoCal
Home country: USA
Current location: Socal
Member since: Mon Feb 1, 2021, 09:27 PM
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