Thursday, May 30, 2019

In The News (4)

Why is Kamala Harris running for president? Joe Biden is offering a return to normalcy. Elizabeth Warren aims to bring big corporations to heel and prop up the working class. Bernie Sanders wants a political revolution. ...... She’s pitching herself as the kitchen-table realist of the field ..... Harris’ plans include big raises for public school teachers, a proposal to pay women equally to men and a tax plan that calls for a $500 monthly credit for families earning less than $100,000 a year. ..... Harris is calling for direct payments to families to ease their paycheck-to-paycheck burdens........ Nearly half of American families are one unexpected $400 expense away from financial distress, she often says, and in 99 percent of the counties in America, a minimum-wage worker can’t afford market rate price of a one-bedroom apartment. ....... But if she makes it far enough, Trump is certain to yoke Harris to "Medicare for All" and the "Green New Deal," no matter how she talks about them...... Trump, who is trying to paint all Democrats as radicals and socialists. ..... Harris’ plans call for spending $315 billion over 10 years to boost teacher salaries, which amounts to a raise of $13,500 for the average teacher, a 23 percent increase in base pay. ...... Another plan would mandate that companies prove they aren’t discriminating against women and would fine corporations that don’t close their pay gaps between women and men. ..... She also has promised to take unilateral action on sweeping gun control measures that have stalled in Congress. ....... Harris said she also plans to release criminal justice reform and immigration proposals.



As trade war heats up, China threatens clampdown on "rare earths" Rare earths are a group of 17 elements used in everything from mobile phone cameras and automobile catalytic converters to wind turbines and MRI machines....... China dominates the global supply of rare earths and accounted for almost 80% of exports to the U.S. last year. ...... rare earths are ubiquitous in modern life, and their use is likely to spread as technology advances. ...... One rare earth element, lanthanum, makes up as much as 50 percent of digital camera lenses, including cell phone cameras. ....... One reason China is the global leader -- it's been pulling rare earths out of the ground for a long time. The country spent a century perfecting the refining method for extracting and refining rare earths in large enough quantities to keep costs manageable. ....... JJ Kinahan, chief marketing strategist at TD Ameritrade, said China's threat to use rare earths as a weapon against the U.S. is worrisome. "What it shows to me is that there is a little bit of a worsening relationship here," he said. "They went pretty deep in the bag to throw out something that would hurt." ...... China's goal is to paint the U.S. as a "lawless actor" that disrupts economic growth ...... China blocked some rare-earth exports to Japan after a maritime dispute in 2010. That led some countries to search for alternatives -- and a protest by Japan with the WTO, which ruled in 2014 that the restrictions on rare-earth exports were illegal.

‘Don’t say we didn’t warn you’: A phrase from China signals the trade war could get even worse The phrase “Don’t say we didn’t warn you” has been used by the People’s Daily in 1962 before China’s border war with India and ahead of the 1979 China-Vietnam War. ...... China threatened it would cut off rare earth minerals as a countermeasure in the escalated trade battle. The materials are crucial to the production of iPhones, electric vehicles and advanced precision weapons ...... The S&P 500 has lost nearly 6% this month.

Survivors Of Sexual Abuse By Nuns Want Greater Visibility For Their Claims Now in her late 60s, Cahill has struggled with PTSD and addiction to drugs and alcohol for decades, both fueled by having been sexually exploited as a minor......."To say, 'I was sexually abused by a nun' without immediately the cloud of, 'You're a sinner, this was a lesbian relationship, you tempted her...I'm not living in shame any longer," she said.

Escalating Iran crisis looks a lot like the path US took to Iraq war half of all Americans believe the U.S. will go to war with Iran "within the next few years" ..... Is Iran doomed to be an Iraq redux? This is just one of the questions raised by a crisis that has eerie parallels to the missteps that led to the Iraq War in 2003, where the buildup to conflict was precipitated by faulty intelligence and confrontational foreign policymakers such as John Bolton in President George W. Bush's administration. ....... In an opinion article in The Guardian in 2013, Bolton wrote: "Overthrowing Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 achieved important American strategic objectives. Our broad international coalition accomplished its military mission with low casualties and great speed, sending an unmistakable signal of power and determination throughout the Middle East and around the world. Despite all the criticism of what happened after Saddam's defeat, these facts are indisputable." ...... Meanwhile, with the failed outcome of the 2003 Iraq War still plain to see, Bolton started ramping up his outspoken criticism of Iran's Islamic Republic. In 2009, as President Barack Obama's administration entered into what would turn out to be almost five years of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, Bolton said: "Ultimately, the only thing that will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons is regime change in Tehran." As the deal entered its final stages, Bolton advocated in a New York Times opinion piece that the U.S. join forces with Israel: "Time is terribly short, but a strike can still succeed. Such action should be combined with vigorous American support for Iran's opposition, aimed at regime change in Tehran," he wrote. The articled was headlined: "To Stop Iran's Bomb, Bomb Iran."....... Bolton calls Iran "the central banker of international terrorism" and accuses Tehran of pursuing nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them and of "tyrannizing its own people and terrorizing the world." The video ends with a direct threat to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader: "I don’t think you’ll have many more anniversaries to enjoy," Bolton says. ..... Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Bolton said Wednesday that there had been a previously unknown attempt to attack the Saudi oil port of Yanbu as well. "Who else would you think is doing it? Somebody from Nepal?" .......... As for Trump's position on Iran, nobody seems to know the president's mind, not even, perhaps, the president.

Space internet maybe end of year, says SpaceX This new batch of satellite-driven internet systems, if they work and are eventually switched on, could provide broadband to most places, including previously internet-barren locations, such as rural areas. That would be good for high-bandwidth, low-latency remote-internet of things (IoT) and increasingly important edge-server connections for verticals like oil and gas and maritime. Data could even end up getting stored in compliance-friendly outer space, too. Leaky ground-based connections, also, perhaps a thing of the past........ Laser technical progress, where data is sent in open, free space, rather than via a restrictive, land-based cable or via traditional radio paths, is partly behind this space-internet rush. “Bits travel faster in free space than in glass-fiber cable,” LeoSat explained last year. Additionally, improving microprocessor tech is also part of the mix...... Global penetration of the “populated world” could be obtained after 24 launches, it thinks.



Why astronomers are worried that SpaceX’s satellite network will pollute the night sky The satellites, strung out like a line of glowing army ants, shone brightly as they moved along their orbit around Earth, clearly visible to the naked eye. Now, many in the astronomy community are concerned that this mega constellation might be too bright, and the sheer number of satellites that SpaceX wants to launch could muck up their telescope observations of the Universe. ...... Satellites can be seen for a few hours around dusk and dawn when they catch the light from the Sun as the sky dims, but they won’t reflect light for many hours of the night whenever they are in the shadow of the Earth. However, in higher latitudes during the summer, satellites can be seen throughout the evening. ...... at a latitude of 52 degrees north (about where London is located), there will be 84 Starlink satellites above the horizon at all times. ...... “So what something like Starlink will do, it’ll shut off some of those frequencies from the possibility of study.” Lonsdale also argues that there is a possibility that there will be some level of transmission that spills outside the intended frequency bands....... it’s unusual to have not consulted on this kind of impact.”

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