Republicans are risking becoming the party of Putin - The Washington Post

Republicans are risking becoming the party of Putin - The Washington Post:

Increasingly sophisticated Russian influence and cyberoperations threaten Americans’ ability to choose their own leaders. This isn’t hyperbole; in fact, it’s hard to overstate just how serious this issue is. Yet President Trump continues to sow doubt about whether Moscow even interfered in the 2016 presidential elections and to suggest the question’s insignificance by ignoring it all together.

Worse, Trump appears to have some support in this from Republican leaders in the House. Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) have delayed the bill, citing the constitutional requirement that such bills originate in the House.

This is little more than a red herring. Nothing prevents them from inserting the text of the Senate bill into a House measure, passing it and sending it back to the Senate for final approval, which it would likely grant under expedited procedures. Instead, Ryan and McCarthy appear to be more interested in delaying and weakening the bill.

I've voted for Republicans in the past. This bunch cares too much about power, and too little about anything else. They're selling out the country.

Health and diet and (multi-)multimodal distributions

I knew it! 😁 The Effects of White vs. Whole-wheat Bread May Vary Greatly Between Individuals | Big Think:

...the glycemic response to each type of bread and the way it was metabolized was person-specific and could be predicted solely based on the microbiome makeup of that person, collected prior to the study. The microbiome itself was resilient to the intervention and did not change in individuals as a result of the study.  The findings suggest that making blanket statements about a particular type of diet may not be appropriate and understanding dietary effects requires taking into account person-specific factors.

Opportunity Lost?

Since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 I've been wondering why the U.S. has ignored opportunities to develop technologies - for improved energy efficiency and alternative energy – that would have such an obviously large market around the world. Talk about lost opportunities: Three Reasons to Believe in China's Renewable Energy Boom:

"It’s not just pollution that’s driving the determined focus on renewable power. Leaders have made clear that they view clean energy as a powerful engine for job creation."

"“It’s about setting up for manufacturing dominance,” Liu says. “China sees green energy as an opportunity where it can become a manufacturing monster the way it has in clothes and toys.”"

Edit: forgot to add the counterpoint. Rick Perry is a bright spot in a very dismal, autocratic administration. (The following are mostly quotes of quotes.)

"Although EPA Chief Scott Pruitt seems more than happy to blow up his own agency, Perry has gone in the opposite direction. The Energy Department has been cheerleading non-stop for renewables and clean tech with a flood of press releases, and Perry has backed that up with missives from his own @SecretaryPerry Twitter account."

"More than 133,000 energy efficiency jobs were added in 2016, bringing the total number of Americans working in the sector to 2.2 million people. More than half of those jobs (1.4 million) are in the construction industry alone."

"More than a quarter of the energy efficiency workforce (552,000 workers) is related to efficient appliances, including high efficiency heating and cooling equipment. That’s a 58% increase from 2015."

"DOE-backed research in solid-state lighting has yielded more than 260 patents and a significant industry footprint, with literally millions of products currently on the market based, at least in part, on these technical advancements. These products are estimated to have contributed to more than $2.8 billion in savings for consumers and businesses – an impressive return on an investment of about $350 million."

The Economist examines another Authoritarian Govt

Why is Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro still in power?

"NICOLÁS MADURO, Venezuela’s president, is deeply unpopular. Four out of five Venezuelans think his government is doing a bad job."

"Mr Maduro has his predecessor to thank for his survival. During his 14-year presidency, Hugo Chávez systematically weakened all the main institutions in the country, stacking everything in the ruling party’s favour, and ensuring opposition-led change would be challenging or impossible."

This is relevant to the U.S. situation, given the time remaining to the midterm elections:

"Only one institution remains independent, and that is the national assembly. It became opposition-controlled after a massive swing vote in December 2015. But that has not really mattered to Mr Maduro. He can instruct his compliant supreme court to overrule the assembly as required."

Also relevant:

"The opposition has come to the conclusion that its only viable option is to take to the streets. It hopes mass protests will demonstrate who really holds majority power in Venezuela, and prompt serious concessions from the government, or even some sort of uprising. But Mr Maduro holds a trump card: the army. The supposedly neutral but heavily politicised institution is semi-embedded in Venezuela’s political structure. Officers or former officers run 11 of the government’s 32 ministries."

Trump Is Trying to Control the FBI. It's Time to Freak Out.

Trump Is Trying to Control the FBI. It's Time to Freak Out.:

"If the FBI is operating out of loyalty to the president, then one of the most important barriers between a democratic government and an authoritarian one has fallen."

Anne Applebaum - Don't forget those smiling images of Trump and the Russians - The Washington Post

Don't forget those smiling images of Trump and the Russians - The Washington Post:

"Nor are any of them much interested in the fate of Dan Heyman, the West Virginia reporter arrested recently for persistent questioning of Tom Price, the health and human services secretary. Due process, rule of law, all of the dull rules and procedures that deliver justice are uninteresting to men who believe in personalized power unconstrained by traditions, institutions or constitutions. Look at how pleased they were to see one another – and compare those pictures with Trump's stiff and awkward news conferences with democratic leaders such as Germany's Angela Merkel or Britain's Theresa May."

Garry Kasparov on Trump's authoritarian instinct - NY Daily News

Garry Kasparov on Trump's authoritarian instinct - NY Daily News: Summary paragraph:

"If the rule of law and the separation of powers are to mean anything in the U.S., an independent investigation into Trump’s Russia ties and his finances is more critical now than ever. It won’t be easy, but it’s only going to get harder. Trump will keep finding new ways to accrue power — and he won’t care at all how bad it looks."

The whole article is worth reading. I'll refrain from quoting it in its entirety.

"It's a simple formula: Always take whatever power is available. And don't worry about how it looks, because if you accumulate enough power quickly enough, appearances can't hurt you."

"“We’re in uncharted territory.” But this territory has been very well charted — in Russia, Turkey, Venezuela and in many other democracies that turned toward despotism. We watched Vladimir Putin navigate from the same map in Russia as he systematically destroyed every check on his power."

"Trump is surrounding himself with loyalists and family members, and dismissing anyone he thinks might be a threat to him."

"As if to emphasize how little he cares about optics, Trump followed up the Comey firing by meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador at the White House the very next day."

"Trump would love to turn the FBI into a personal security and intelligence force to use against his enemies, the way Putin uses the FSB in Russia and abroad."

Only I can...

It may not be obvious why anyone would worry about how much power Trump can hold in his hands. Vox again: Experts on authoritarianism are absolutely terrified by the Comey firing - Vox:

"It's not that the elected leaders in these countries set out to become an authoritarian, per se. It's that they care about their own power and security above all else, and do things to protect their own position that have the effect of removing democratic constraints on their power."

Who holds the cards?

This Vox explainer implies an imbalance of power, given the current distribution of parties in executive and legislative branches. Special prosecutor: can bring charges. Can be fired by (deputy) A.G., therefore subject to executive pressure. Independent commission: can publish findings. Cannot bring charges. Must be created by legislation, therefore can be vetoed by President. Special committee: can focus on assigned subject of investigation. Can publish findings. Cannot bring charges. Recent instances have produced unsatisfactory results.

"This Is Not a Drill"

This Is Not a Drill David Frum, 9 May, in The Atlantic:

"He could well resent the search for truth, even without being particularly guilty of anything heinously bad. But we all now must take seriously the heightened possibility of guilt, either personal or on the part of people near him—and of guilt of some of the very worst imaginable crimes in the political lexicon."

"The question has to be asked searchingly of the Republican members of Congress: Will you allow a president of your party to attack the integrity of the FBI? You impeached Bill Clinton for lying about sex. Will you now condone and protect a Republican administration lying about espionage?"

"The question has to be asked of all the rest of us: Perhaps the worst fears for the integrity of the U.S. government and U.S. institutions are being fulfilled. If this firing stands—and if Trump dares to announce a pliable replacement—the rule of law begins to shake and break. The law will answer to the president, not the president to the law."

Twitter weighs in:

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The Comey debacle calls to mind a paragraph from 'On Tyranny.' Democracy is rarely stolen, but given away in a democratic process. Chilling.

Snyder, Timothy. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (Kindle Locations 172-177). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition.

"Some of the Germans who voted for the Nazi Party in 1932 no doubt understood that this might be the last meaningfully free election for some time, but most did not. Some of the Czechs and Slovaks who voted for the Czechoslovak Communist Party in 1946 probably realized that they were voting for the end of democracy, but most assumed they would have another chance. No doubt the Russians who voted in 1990 did not think that this would be the last free and fair election in their country’s history, which (thus far) it has been. Any election can be the last, or at least the last in the lifetime of the person casting the vote."

— beth can't with this (@bourgeoisalien) May 10, 2017

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"no longer any serious possibility that he will respect the norms of conduct ... only questions are how far his fellow Rs...will let him go" https://t.co/dmOHUI3BqD

— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) May 10, 2017

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Among the amazing things in this story [Politico: Behind Comey’s firing: An enraged Trump, fuming about Russia].

1. Trump thought firing Comey would help him control the Russia investigation.
2. Trump was angry that Comey would not support his claims that Obama bugged him.
3. The fallout from the firing took WH by surprise. It had no communication strategy.
4. "Trump had talked about the firing for over a week, and the letters were written to give him rationale to fire Comey."

— Jack Goldsmith (@jacklgoldsmith) May 10, 2017

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Sleight of Mouth

In recent days I realized I've been thrown off-track by DJT's wording.

The DoJ and Congressional committees are investigating possible financial ties between Trump and Russia. To this, Trump says (paraphrasing), "I don't have any investments in Russia!"

Eric Trump has said, "We have all the funding we need from Russia." The younger Trump reminds that "financial ties" encompasses not just investments by Trump, but also investments in Trump - among other things.

Fuel Economy Standards vs. Vehicle Costs

From The ‘Job-Killing’ Fiction Behind Trump’s Retreat on Fuel Economy Standards:

"...the original CAFE standards were signed by President Gerald Ford, a Michigan Republican, in 1975. The key Clean Air Act provisions that successfully slashed tailpipe pollution, and that provide the legal basis for the more recent motor vehicle greenhouse gas standards, were developed under the administration of Richard Nixon, who signed them into law in 1970... Both Nixon and Ford were business-friendly Republicans, but ones who recognized that as national leaders they had many other legitimate public concerns to address."

"Trimming a vehicle’s CO2 emission rate may involve, for example, developing a new transmission... Those development costs mean jobs for engineers. Building the redesigned transmissions then creates jobs for assembly workers. So whatever additional costs are incurred go right back into materials and labor, including jobs for steelworkers and others involved in supplying parts and materials to the auto industry."

"The latest market collapse, in 2008, triggered massive job losses — even though it followed two decades of declining vehicle efficiency tied to stagnant CAFE standards."

In the years before the recession GM was warning that their obligation to pay employee health care costs – not fuel economy standards – would bankrupt them. In 2005, retiree health care costs added about $1,300 to the cost of every GM vehicle.

"Automakers note that according to EPA’s own economic analysis, they will have to cumulatively spend $200 billion to comply with the standards over the 2012-2025 period... Over that same time period, the new car and light truck market will rack up at least $7 trillion in revenue. So the $200 billion cost estimate amounts to only 3 percent of gross sales."

Recap: in 2005, retiree health costs added $1300 to each vehicle. In a new vehicle costing $30,000, about $875 will be attributable to fuel economy standards.

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Update: I arrived at that figure by simple math, but it turns out the EPA's estimate is similar. From gm-vol.com:

"The Environmental Protection Agency had estimated that automakers would have to spend an additional $875 per vehicle to meet the second phase standards starting in 2022, compared to 2021 standards. The [study by the research group International Council on Clean Transportation] reported that cost would only go up by about an additional $551 per vehicle."

---

"...the move to begin raising CAFE standards actually began under the George W. Bush Administration, which crafted the 2007 energy bill calling for much higher standards."

"And if the autoworkers bussed in by GM, Ford, and Chrysler to cheer for Trump at his Michigan rally think that gutting regulations is going to create jobs, well, they will have been fooled again."

That seems like a big "if" – I wonder if anyone has actually asked them what they think.

Edge of the Falls

Here's a summary of Trump's first 50 days. Trump and Co. are cutting at the roots of our Constitution:

• Attacking the judiciary
• Attacking the integrity of the voting system
• Attacking the free press
• Attacking those who exercise free speech
• De-funding institutions that interfere with personal enrichment
• Undermining faith in basic (as opposed to bureaucratic) government institutions
• Conflicts of interest
• Using government connections for personal enrichment, on a grand scale

How President Trump has already hurt American democracy — in just 50 days

Res. to request info on Trump-Russia likely to be buried

From Rep. Nadler's website, 2017/02/24: http://nadler.house.gov/press-release/nadler-calls-out-republicans-trying-bury-debate-resolution-inquiry

"First, House Republicans chose to consider this resolution in committee—as opposed to allowing debate on the House floor—because they would prefer that only a few of their safest members be forced to take a vote on this matter. The Majority must decide between conducting basic oversight of President Trump, on the one hand, or being complicit in potential misdeeds by Trump and his associates, on the other."

"Second, committee leadership has scheduled the markup for Tuesday in an obvious attempt to bury our debate in the heavy media coverage of President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress."

The Chairman of the committee used the equivalent of lorem ispum to introduce an amendment to the resolution. If I follow, the idea is that the amendment would require debate - another way to cut off debate on the resolution itself.

"Chairman Goodlatte also gave notice of an amendment in the nature of a substitute to my resolution, with wording virtually identical to H. Res. 111. That amendment only exists as a threat to cut off debate on the underlying resolution. I urge the Chairman not to break from the longstanding practice of the House Judiciary Committee, and to allow a full debate on the resolution of inquiry."

"Members of Congress have an obligation to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch."

Perhaps not all is lost. Also from 2017/02/24: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/sd-me-issa-maher-20170224-story.html

"Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, said on Friday that a special prosecutor needs to lead an investigation into the alleged ties between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s regime."

Alas, this is just talk, not actual legislative action.

President Of Audi Of America Tells Dealers To Embrace Plug-In Electric Vehicles | CleanTechnica

President Of Audi Of America Tells Dealers To Embrace Plug-In Electric Vehicles | CleanTechnica:

""And [Keogh] advised them to start thinking now about opportunities to earn money around battery-electric vehicles to offset the lower service and parts revenue they will provide.""

"Interestingly, Keogh also mentioned that he thought widespread price discounting was setting up dealers for future problems. The loss accompanying price discounting is typically being recovered by service and parts revenue, something that won’t persist into a future with strong plug-in sales."

Trump Has Already Blown It | Foreign Policy

Selected quotes from Trump Has Already Blown It | Foreign Policy:

"After telling us that he knows “much more” than the generals, his “secret plan” for dealing with the Islamic State turns out to be “ask the Defense Department to come up with one,” as if nobody at the Pentagon had given any thought to the matter."

"And all the while Trump and his surrogates continue to demonize anyone with the temerity to disagree with Fearless Leader or to question his infallibility, in a matter more reminiscent of Mussolini, Stalin, or the Kim family in North Korea than of Washington, Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, or any of Trump’s other predecessors in the Oval office."

"It takes a danger of considerable magnitude to get realists and neoconservatives to agree on anything, but we agree on Trump."

"Which raises the obvious question: Why is he acting this way?"

"[a third possibility] Instead of recognizing America’s remarkable strengths and security and many unique virtues, the Breitbart worldview that has infested the White House believes it has to destroy our current democracy in order to save it."

Here's how incredibly difficult it is for a refugee to get admitted to the US - Vox

Here's how incredibly difficult it is for a refugee to get admitted to the US - Vox:

"Trump’s refugee suspension is a solution in search of a problem"

"The intense investigation that Almshhad underwent in order to be admitted to the US was not unusual. The arduous vetting process involves investigations by a coordinated network of US law enforcement and intelligence agencies, all actively looking for any indication that an individual could potentially pose a threat in the future."

US Clean Energy Jobs Surpass Fossil Fuel Jobs | CleanTechnica

This CleanTechnica post uses a broad definition to sweep jobs into the "clean energy" category. I wish it had considered jobs related to energy efficiency separately. Even so, it appears from the summary that:

• electricity production from clean energy sources employs more people (350,000) than does production from fossil fuel sources (200,000)
• the number of jobs in the clean electric industry is growing, whereas fossil fuel jobs are declining slightly

US Clean Energy Jobs Surpass Fossil Fuel Jobs By 5 To 1 | CleanTechnica

"More than 350,000 people last year worked in part or in whole on solar energy production ... exceeds the combined employment of coal, gas, and oil workers connected with producing electricity that reached just under 200,000. "

"All told, nearly 1 million Americans are working near- or full-time in the energy efficiency, solar, wind, and alternative vehicles sectors. This is almost five times the current employment in the fossil fuel electric industry, which includes coal, gas, and oil workers. "

Riding to the Wreck

The Intercept on the FBI's Powers

"One of the documents contains an alarming observation about the nation’s police forces, even as perceived by the FBI. Officials of the bureau were so concerned that many of these police forces are linked to, at times even populated by, overt white nationalists and white supremacists, that they have deemed it necessary to take that into account in crafting policies for sharing information with them."

"now the groups most loyal to Trump are those that possess a state monopoly over the use of force"

The Immigration Ban is a Headfake

"It is a much bigger deal that the DHS felt they could ignore a federal court than that Trump signed an EO blocking green card holders in the first place. It is a much bigger deal that Trump removed a permanent military presence from the NSC than that he issued a temporary stay on immigration."

The best theory for why Trump tells such obvious lies - Vox

The best theory for why Trump tells such obvious lies - Vox:

"Objectively empowering Trump while signaling a lack of loyalty to him is a dangerous game."

You got that right. I am amazed at the smug self-assurance of Members of Congress who seem to think they can use Trump to their advantage, and still reign him in whenever they want.

"Trump continues to staff his White House with hardcore Ryan critics. When his own position is more secure, he could easily move to depose Ryan at some future time."

IFTF: It Doesn't Have to Happen Here: Saving Our Democracy

It's only 0635 MST and my brain is already full for the day. I'll have to come back to this summary of a recent "convening" at the Institute for the Future. The meeting appears to have identified several problems arising from social media and current journalism practices, and to have produced surprisingly (to me) concrete ways of addressing those problems. IFTF: It Doesn't Have to Happen Here: Saving Our Democracy:

"As a rule, journalists are not accustomed to fighting back against threats in a unified way. Story exclusivity is important to an individual journalist’s livelihood, and, as a group, they’ve had little reason to share information with competing journalists."

"Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are de-facto publishers, but they don’t want to be. Editorial curation is expensive...What’s needed, said Aviv Ovadya of Media Window, is a layer that displays credibility scores for online news."

"Current funding models for journalism consider readers to be eyeballs for advertisers, and so stories are designed to maximize clicks... novelist William Gibson’s 2002 description of the typical media consumer as a “vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organism… that can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections.”"

Oops, they just described me. It's hard enough to read and excerpt passages of interest from online news, let alone re-state it or create a summary analysis. For example, consider this post :)

"But, said David Bornstein, a New York Times columnist and co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network, stories can be written that create a sense of outrage and a sense of self-efficacy. The secret is to stop writing ”negative” or “positive” stories, and instead write specifically about how problems are being solved, which has the effect of engaging people."