Day: January 2, 2020

Climate Change For 2020

Closing Thought–02Jan20

There are a lot of things that will change in 2020….but the one thing that will stay constant is that the climate is changing and not for the better….but let’s look at a few predictions for 2020….

When it comes to climate change, did we accurately predict in 2000 what would be happening now? 

“What the models correctly told us 20 years ago is that if we continued to add fossil fuels at an increasing rate to the atmosphere, we’d see an increasing range of consequences, including a decline in Arctic sea ice, a rise in sea levels and shifts in precipitation patterns,” Weather Underground meteorologist Robert Henson told USA TODAY.

Overall, we’re running quite close to the projections made in 2000 for carbon dioxide concentration, global temperature and sea level, Henson said.

Here’s a look at climate change indicators for 2020:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/12/24/climate-change-predictions-2020-carbon-dioxide-weather-disasters/2622212001/

Not to worry these predictions will be disputed/

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Pastry War?

This is not some thing in the downtown bakeries battling it out for tasty supremacy…..no but rather an actual war….

IF ANY NATION in the world would pick a fight on another country over pastries it would have to be France. And that’s just what happened in 1838 when the French and Mexico descended into a five-month conflict in what went down in history as The Pastry War.

Known as Guerra de los pasteles to the Mexicans or Guerre des Pâtisseries to the French, the war arose as a by-product of an internal power struggle between the Mexican president Manuel Gomez Pedraza and a political rival Lorenzo de Zavala, who at the time was governor of the state of Mexico.

The origins of the little-known dust-up go back to the previous decade, when the president tried to remove Zevala from power, the governor and his political ally, the redoubtable General Antonio López de Santa Anna assumed command of the garrison in Mexico City and overthrew Pedraza. Amid the chaos of the 1828 rebellion, mobs of soldiers looted homes and businesses throughout the city. One of the victims was a French national and pastry shop owner by the name of Remontel. Ruined, the businessman did what most entrepreneurs would do today: he applied for government compensation to recoup his losses. After 10 years of having his requests flatly ignored by the Mexican regime, a frustrated Remontel took his case to the government of France.

Baked Goods To Die For — The Ridiculous Pasty War of 1838

We humans will pick a fight over the damnedest stuff…..

I Read, I Wrote, You KNow

“Lego ergo scribo”

Taleban In 2020

We enter another year of conflict in Afghanistan…..so let’s look at what is happening in the beginning of 2020….

First let’s look at what has happened in Afghanistan….

The Back Story to the ‘Afghanistan Papers’

Nextt there has been the inklings of a possible ceasefire in Afghanistan……the media hyped it….but is it?

The Taliban has denied press reports indicating the group was on the cusp of declaring a ceasefire in Afghanistan, saying this is “false and baseless.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued an official statement (reproduced in full, below) denying the reports, which claimed that the group’s ruling council has approved a ceasefire, thereby opening the door for possible intra-Afghan negotiations. However, it was unclear if the reported ceasefire would include Taliban attacks against the Afghan government and security forces.

The reported ceasefire agreement was sourced to “Taliban officials familiar with the negotiations” who “spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media,” the Associated Press reported on Dec. 29.

https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2019/12/taliban-says-it-has-no-intention-of-declaring-a-ceasefire.php

The first report of the year and it is crappy news.

Since the Taleban is no longer the government of Afghanistan ever wonder where they get their money…I mean besides from the opium industry…..

Look NO further than American defense contractors…..

A lawsuit filed Friday claims that US and international contractors paid the Taliban protection money to complete projects in Afghanistan—and says that money was used to kill Americans, the Wall Street Journal reports. The plaintiffs are family members of 143 US service members and contractors who were wounded or killed there between 2009 and 2017. The accusation itself is nothing new—congressional probes have documented the funneling of such protection money to insurgents—but the lawsuit aims for a direct impact. “This will change the way business is done in war zones,” says August Cabrera, whose husband, Lt .Col. David Cabrera, died in a 2011 suicide car bomb in Afghanistan. “I believe that this can bring justice to those of us who have lost somebody.”

The suit says 20% to 40% of funds for big construction projects went to warlords and insurgent groups, when more than 100,000 US troops were serving in Afghanistan. The plaintiffs name specific projects, like the Kajaki Dam and part of Afghanistan’s Ring Road, as well as US-based companies including Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp., Centerra Group, and Janus Global Operations. Most of them aren’t talking, but a Black & Veatch rep says the company “followed directives of the US government” and is “proud of our record in successfully completing projects in Afghanistan,” per CNN. The money’s original source? Over a 10-year period, the US Agency for International Development in Afghanistan reportedly gave more than $1 billion to top contractors there.

Good to know that corporate profit is more important than American lives….

I am sure that there will be more shitty news from Afghanistan.

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I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”