Is Trump’s Cabinet More White And Male Than Any First Cabinet Since Reagan?
The title of this post is the same as the title on this article on the Politifact web site.
It surely says something about Trump’s mealy-mouthed response to the events of this weekend in Charlottesville.
Could Trump Organise A Piss-Up In A Brewery?
After reading this report on the BBC and seeing it in full on the ten o’clock news, I think the answer is no!
I am old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Six Day War, which were both events that if they’d been handled in an insensitive manner could have led to something a lot more serious.
Can Trump’s judgement be trusted to deal with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un?
The guy is just too inexperienced!
Help For Charlie Gard
This article on the BBC is entitled Charlie Gard: Pope and Trump offer parents support.
I think this Pope is a good man, and I suspect his kind words would be welcome.
But whilst Trummkopf does nothing to abolish the death penalty in the United States, his unwanted comments should be treated with the contempt they deserve.
An Appropriate Story For Today
On Page 58, The Times has an article entitled Frictionless Flywheels Hold Balance Of Power.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Flywheels will be used to balance supply and demand on Britain’s electricity grid in a £3.5million project that could help the country to cope with more wind and solar power.
Sophisticated flywheels that can store electricity for long periods of time are to be installed next to the University of Sheffield’s battery storage facility at Willenhall near Wolverhampton, in the first project of its kind in the UK.
By using batteries and flywheels together, this makes a responsive battery that can fill in demand and overcome the degradation problems of lithium-ion batteries.
It looks a promising way of creating an affordable and reliable energy storage system.
Who needs coal? Trummkopf obviously does to buy votes!
In the United States, with its massive mountain ranges, it would be better to create construction jobs by creating hydro-based energy storage systems, as we did in the 1970s at Dinorwig and the Americans, themselves did at Bath County Pumped Storage Station a few years later.
To gauge the size of these plants, Bath County has about the same generating capacity as the UK’s largest power station at Drax, with Dinorwig being about 55% of the size.
Bath County and Dinorwig are big bastards, but their main feature, is the ability to pump water to store the energy.
Energy is like money, the best thing to do with excess is to put it in a secure storage facility.
Should We Boycott America Over Trump And Cimate Change?
This article called Paris climate deal: Trump announces US will withdraw, has just appeared on the BBC web site.
I feel strongly that we should all cut our burning of fossil fuels, or at least the high carbon ones like coal.
So what can we do?
I typed “Boycott America Trump climate change” into Google and got a large number of articles posted in the last couple of days.
So I’m certainly not the only one who feels strongly!
So will I be boycotting American goods and services?
I always do to a certain extent, because when it comes to gluten-free foods, a lot of American manufacturers use high strength glucose made from wheat instead of sugar. And I react to it.
So for example, I now no longer eat any Cadbury products!
I also haven’t used a Starbucks for some time, but that’s in protest at their tax affairs.
It’ll be interesting how this one plays out!
After all, there’s quite a few Americans who didn’t vote for Trummkopf and some States appear to be going down the Paris route.
The Beginning Of The End For Coal In The UK
This article on the BBC is entitled First coal-free day in Britain since Industrial Revolution.
This is opening two paragraphs.
Britain went a full day without using coal to generate electricity for the first time since the Industrial Revolution, the National Grid says.
The energy provider said Friday’s lack of coal usage was a “watershed” moment.
Let’s hope it’s not a long goodbye.
Sadly, whilst there are people like Trummkopf about, it will be a long time before coal burning across the world descreases to a low level.
Trump’s Plan Won’t Reverse Coal’s Decline
That is the title of this article on FiveThirtyEight.
It explains that coal’s problem is not Obama and his legislation, but that natural gas is so much
This is a paragraph.
Trump — along with many of his supporters in coal-producing states — blames Obama’s environmental policies for the coal industry’s struggles. And it’s true that U.S. coal consumption dropped precipitously during Obama’s time in office. But the timing is largely coincidental: Coal’s biggest problem isn’t regulation — it’s natural gas.
There are several interesting graphs worth looking at.
I think we should all be worried about Trump’s mental health, as he is showing all the logic of a typical East European mad dictator.
Forget Trump: The Private Sector Is Still Going Green
This is title of a piece by Irwin Stelzer in this week’s Sunday Times.
Read the article if you can. It talks about how large companies like Exxon and Shell and individuals like Bill Gates are putting prices on carbon and backing reliable clean energy.
The last paragraph sums it up nicely.
Presidents come and go. The private sector will be engaging in long-run research and long-lived investments, perhaps more efficiently than the government has been doing. The profit motive might just turn out to be more productive than the vote-getting or ideological motives of politicians.
I think he could be right!
Think of all those successful projects, that were were done without any Government support or blessing and think of all those government projects that sunk without trace taking millions of pounds with them.
And also think about all that legal money slushing around the world looking for a home in an innovation that will be a wothwhile investment.
Shooting The Messenger
This article on the BBC is entitled White House bans certain news media from briefing. This is said.
The White House has barred several major broadcasters and newspapers from attending an informal press briefing.
The BBC, CNN, the New York Times and others were excluded from an audience with Press Secretary Sean Spicer, with no reason given.
If you don’t like the messenger, perhaps they’ve not the problem, but what the message might be.
Recent stories on the BBC web site include.
- Mexico Warns US Over Border Wall Funding
- India Shocked Over US Bar Shooting
- Trump Aid Pressed FBI On Russia Reports
- Caithlyn Jenner To Donald Trump “Call Me!”
But those who voted for Trump think he’s right.
Supporters thought that about Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Saddam Hussein, Qaddafi and Hitler.
Politicians should be wary of being selective with the messages they will accept.
Especially, when you consider that many English speakers throughout the world, get their American world news as it effects them from the BBC or CNN and not from Trump TV!
Donald Trump Inspires ‘fine-tuned machine’ Memes
Donald Trump is a gift to those with a sense of humour, as this article on the BBC web site shows.
The Anonymous Widower 