PETTY BOURGOISE INDO AMERICAN DREAM

Trump's MAGA forces threaten to upend vote for RNC chair



Election 2024 RNC Chair - Republican National Committee chairman Ronna McDaniel speaks during a Get Out To Vote rally on Oct. 18, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. 

The race for RNC chair will be decided on Friday by secret ballot as Republican officials from all 50 states gather in Southern California.

 McDaniel is fighting for reelection against rival Harmeet Dhillon, one of former President Donald Trump’s attorneys. 

NEW YORK (AP) — By week's end, the Republican National Committee is set to resolve a bitter leadership feud that has exposed perilous divisions within a party that has struggled to move past a disappointing midterm ahead of a critical race for the White House.

Those inside the fight believe the days ahead of Friday's secret ballot at a luxury seaside resort could get even uglier as rebel forces within former President Donald Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement threaten to upend RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel's reelection bid.

The attacks have been led by McDaniel's chief rival, Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump attorney who has accused the incumbent of religious bigotry, chronic misspending and privately claiming she can control the former president — allegations McDaniel denies. Also in the race is My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist who secured enough support to qualify for the ballot.

Trump hasn't made a public endorsement, but he and his team are privately advocating for McDaniel, whom he tapped for the position shortly after his 2016 victory. Still, many Trump loyalists blame McDaniel, the niece of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, for some of the party's recent struggles.

In an interview, Dhillon insisted that the overwhelming majority of Republican voters want a leadership change at the RNC. She warned of serious political consequences for any of the committee’s 168 elected members who support McDaniel’s reelection.

“For those members of the party who vote not with what the people in their state want but with what their own self-interest is, the next time they’re up for election, it’s going to be an issue,” Dhillon told The Associated Press.

Apprised of Dhillon’s statement, McDaniel said, “That sounds like a threat.” She condemned the increasingly ugly attacks against her and the divisions plaguing the committee.

“There’s nobody who’s enjoyed this more than Democrats. I know, because I love it when they’re fighting each other,” McDaniel said.

Friday's vote for RNC chair serves as the latest high-profile leadership test for a deeply divided Republican Party grappling with questions about its future — and Trump's influence — ahead of the 2024 presidential election. 

The infighting was on public display earlier this month as House Republicans almost came to blows before uniting behind House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, undermined by the same MAGA forces threatening McDaniel this week.

In both cases, Trump has struggled to control his own loyalists, who seem intent on fighting the status quo — whether McCarthy or McDaniel — no matter the cost.

Seeking to influence the vote, a group of Florida Republicans from the party's MAGA wing moved last Friday to hold a vote of “no confidence” in McDaniel, which Republican groups in a handful of other states have done in recent weeks as well. But the Florida gathering, which drew leading McCarthy detractor Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., fell far short of reaching the quorum needed to hold an official vote.

Still, dozens of anti-McDaniel protesters waved signs outside the event. One read, “RONNA IS THE ENEMY WITHIN.”

“The biggest thing is that we want a really strong leader who’s in touch with MAGA, and Ronna just doesn’t have that,” Lake County, Florida, GOP Chair Anthony Sabatini, who led the anti-McDaniel push, said in a phone interview from a shooting range as gunshots rang out. “She’s lost the confidence of voters.”

Trump has avoided weighing in on the RNC chair fight at McDaniel's request, according to those with direct knowledge of the situation. The former president would endorse her if she asked, but McDaniel's team currently believes she will win without his public backing, allowing her to maintain a sense of neutrality heading into the 2024 presidential primary season.

According to its bylaws, the RNC must remain neutral in the presidential primary. Trump is the only announced GOP candidate so far, but other high-profile contenders are expected in the coming months.

Still, Trump could ultimately endorse McDaniel ahead of Friday's vote if his public support is deemed necessary, according to people familiar with his thinking who, like others interviewed, spoke on condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.

At least three top Trump lieutenants — senior advisers Susie Wiles, Chris LaCivita and Clayton Henson — are planning to attend this week's three-day RNC winter meeting in Southern California, where the vote will play out. While they are not attending specifically on McDaniel's behalf, Trump's team is making clear in private conversations that he backs McDaniel.

McDaniel's unofficial whip team is expected to include former Trump chief counselor Kellyanne Conway, former Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus, former Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, she said. Another high-profile Trump loyalist, Maryland RNC member David Bossie, is also backing McDaniel.

Dhillon’s guest list is still in flux, but she said over the weekend that her team would likely include former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk and country singer John Rich.

After three consecutive disappointing national elections, there is a broad sense of dissatisfaction among Republican voters and RNC members alike about the health of their party. Some are increasingly eager to move on from Trump and, by proxy, McDaniel, who is viewed as a close Trump ally — even if many Trump's supporters outside the RNC membership see her as insufficiently committed to their cause.

"She’s been Trump's lap dog for four-plus years,” said Bill Palatucci, an RNC member from New Jersey and a vocal critic of both Trump and McDaniel. While Palatucci formally endorsed Dhillon late last week, he is skeptical she has the votes to defeat McDaniel.

Dhillon has unleashed a torrent of attacks against McDaniel in recent weeks that have resonated across Trump's MAGA movement. But as the far right cheered, Dhillon may have alienated would-be supporters on the actual Republican National Committee, which is made up of activists and elected officials from all 50 states.

She has seized on several examples of apparent misspending and mismanagement under McDaniel's watch, which McDaniel's team — backed by former Trump officials like Wiles — claim are inaccurate or misleading.

In recent days, the attacks against McDaniel have intensified.

Last week, Dhillon promoted claims that a McDaniel ally raised concerns about Dhillon's faith in at least one private conversation. Dhillon, who is of Indian heritage, identifies as a member of the Sikh religion.

The McDaniel ally has denied the claim, which was outlined in a detailed email to the RNC's entire membership bearing the subject line “Religious Bigotry."

Dhillon also highlighted a Washington Post report that McDaniel has said, in multiple private conversations with RNC members, that only she can dissuade Trump from launching an independent presidential bid — and ultimately destroying the party's chances in the next presidential election — should he fail to win the GOP nomination.

“She said it to many people: Only I can control Trump,” Dhillon told the AP, likening such a statement to someone believing they could single-handedly stop an asteroid from crashing into Earth.

McDaniel said such claims are “ridiculous.”

“After working with President Trump for six years, I don’t think anybody could ever say they control him," McDaniel said.

Meanwhile, McDaniel warned of a “huge risk” if Republicans cannot stop the infighting as the 2024 election season begins. The GOP is well positioned to win the Senate majority and maintain control of the House, although the presidential contest will dominate much of the committee's focus.

“This is really critical as we head into ‘24 that we stop labeling, attacking, demonizing other Republicans to the point where we can’t bring them together post-primary,” she said.

For her part, Dhillon said she would “of course” unite behind McDaniel if she ultimately prevails Friday.

“Job 1 is winning elections,” Dhillon said. “I'm a team player.”

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NIKKI HALLEY IS ALSO A SIKH

ICYMI

Logged Forests May Be Carbon Emitters for Years


Molly Taft
Mon, January 23, 2023 

Forest cleared for palm oil planting in Aceh province, Indonesia.

If you’ve ever been offered the opportunity to donate money to plant a tree to offset a purchase, you’ve probably guessed that trees naturally store carbon. Forests are an invaluable source of carbon storage around the world; one would assume that forests that have been cut down but are regrowing trees are also regaining their capacity to store carbon.

But that assumption may be incredibly incorrect. Forests that are regrowing trees after being cleared may actually be emitting more carbon dioxide than they store for up to 10 years after they were initially cleared, a study published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found.

Tropical forests are some of the world’s most important carbon sinks: Research has found that the world’s tropical forests contain around one-quarter of the carbon stored on land. But aggressive deforestation to harvest trees and other resources and make room for industries like agriculture and mining has destroyed much of the carbon-storing abilities of these forests.

It’s long been assumed that regrowing trees in these areas after logging would help restore their status as carbon sinks; most studies of logged forests done before this one, the researchers told Earther, focused on the amount of carbon regrowing trees are able to store, without considering other aspects of the forest. But the team behind this study wanted to check this assumption, by comparing the carbon-storing abilities of the new trees against the amount of CO2 being released into the atmosphere by the soil disturbed during the logging process and dead wood from logging decomposing on the forest floor.

The researchers surveyed logged land in the Malaysian part of Borneo, Asia’s largest island with a wealth of biodiverse rainforests, between 2011 and 2017, using two different techniques to measure carbon emissions from the forest floor and above the tree canopy. The land inspected in the study was in various stages of growing back trees after it had been logged. The researchers also monitored unlogged forests as a control.

The results are kind of like seeing a negative balance on your checking account when you thought you’d be in the black for the month. The unlogged forests the team measured were either carbon-neutral or small carbon sinks. But the areas that had been logged recently were actually carbon sources—they emitted more carbon than they stored, despite the new trees growing back. While this study only looked at one area, “the potential implications are serious” for the rest of Earth’s forests.

Fortunately, the study’s authors told Earther, there are some pretty straightforward techniques, known as reduced impact logging methods, to help logged areas emit less carbon. Loggers can pre-plan trails and tree extraction directions, which can help minimize soil disturbances. Meanwhile, being more precise about which trees to extract can cut down on tree waste on the forest floor, as can cutting down vines before chopping the trees—vines can inadvertently pull the crowns of nearby trees down with them and create more dead wood on the floor.

Even if logging companies take all these precautions, however, the study is a reminder of how dire the situation is for the world’s rainforests and the globe’s ability to store carbon emissions. It’s also a lesson in how unpredictable calculating the capacity of carbon sinks or emissions from natural resources like forests can be—and, as the world’s carbon markets ramp up and companies begin making green pledges to plant trees in faraway places, it’s an important thing to keep in mind.

U.S. energy chief says Biden would veto House Republican bill on oil reserve

Mon, January 23, 2023 
By Steve Holland, Timothy Gardner and Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden will veto a bill by U.S. House of Representatives Republicans on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) if it passes Congress, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Monday.

In a letter last week, Granholm warned Republicans that limiting the Democratic president's authority to tap the nation's oil reserves would undermine national security, cause crude oil shortages, and raise gasoline prices.

"He will not allow the American people to suffer because of the backwards agenda that House Republicans are advancing" Granholm, speaking to reporters at a White House briefing, said of Biden.

The bill, called HR21, would prohibit the energy secretary from tapping the SPR without producing a plan to increase oil and gas leasing on federal lands - unless the release is for a severe oil supply emergency.

The House, which Republicans control by a narrow margin, is expected to vote on the bill as soon as this week. The legislation would face an uphill battle in the Senate, controlled by Democrats.

Republican lawmakers say they are concerned that last year's releases from the SPR, the biggest amount of crude oil from any president, have deteriorated the ability to store, pipe and pump oil at the SPR, which holds crude across series of underground natural caverns on the Texas and Louisiana coasts.

"We would like to curtail use of the SPR for only those situations where there's a severe supply interruption," a Republican aide to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce told reporters.

Biden tapped the SPR repeatedly last year in response to oil prices that jumped due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and as travel increased while the COVID-19 pandemic eased.

Biden announced last March a record 180 million-barrel sale over six months that drove the reserve's level to its lowest since late 1983.

The Energy Department this month rejected the first batch of bids from oil companies to resupply a small amount of crude to the SPR.

Despite that rejection, Granholm said she is confident the United States will be able to refill the SPR and save taxpayers money by buying oil at a lower price than the government originally purchased the supplies.

“The offers that we received did not meet specification or price,” the secretary said. She said the administration would soon announce how it will buy back some initial replenishment oil for the reserve.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Nandita Bose and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Marguerita Choy)

Biden administration threatens veto of GOP bill restricting strategic oil reserve releases


Rachel Frazin
Mon, January 23, 2023 

The Biden administration is threatening to veto Republican-led legislation that would restrict the release of oil from the country’s emergency reserve.

“If Congress were to pass H.R. 21, the president would veto it. He will not allow the American people to suffer because of the backwards agenda that House Republicans are advancing,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters during a White House press briefing.

The legislation would require the federal government to develop a plan to increase the percentage of federal lands leased for new oil and gas production in order to withdraw oil from the strategic reserve. It includes an exception for “severe energy supply” interruptions.

House Republicans are slated to take up the bill this week.

The Energy secretary said on Monday that the bill would “needlessly aim to weaken the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s [SPR] usefulness as a tool to ensure energy security in America.”

She added that it “risks raising these gas prices and making it harder to offer Americans relief in the future.”

In response to similar criticism from Granholm last week, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), pointed to the exception for emergencies.

“If the President declares an emergency resulting from an energy supply disruption, the Secretary has full authority to utilize the SPR—HR 21 will not change or hamper that,” Rodgers said in a written statement, adding that the legislation “simply addresses the politically-motivated use of the SPR.”

Last year, in response to fuel price spikes following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Biden announced the largest-ever release of oil from the U.S.’s strategic reserve.

The move faced backlash from Republicans, who argued that it was political and used it to critique the administration’s energy policies.

In defense of its move, which it called an appropriate use of the reserve, the Biden administration has pointed to a Treasury Department analysis that found the move, in coordination with similar ones from other countries, reduced the price of gasoline by between 17 and 42 cents per gallon.

FAILED STATE

Lights out in Pakistan as energy-saving move backfires

 

A shopkeeper use a battery light at his mobile selling shop to deal customers during a national-wide power breakdown, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Much of Pakistan was left without power Monday as an energy-saving measure by the government backfired. The outage spread panic and raised questions about the cash-strapped government's handling of the country's economic crisis.

 (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

MUNIR AHMED
Mon, January 23, 2023 

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Most of Pakistan was left without power Monday as an energy-saving measure by the government backfired. The outage spread panic and raised questions about the cash-strapped government’s handling of the country's economic crisis.

It all started when electricity was turned off during low usage hours overnight to conserve fuel across the country, officials said, leaving technicians unable to boot up the system all at once after daybreak. The outage was reminiscent of a massive blackout in January 2021, attributed at the time to a technical fault in Pakistan's power generation and distribution system.

Many major cities, including the capital of Islamabad, and remote towns and villages across Pakistan were without electricity for more than 12 hours. As the electricity failure continued into Monday night, authorities deployed additional police at markets around the country to provide security.

Officials announced late Monday that power was restored in many cities, 15 hours after the outage was reported.

Earlier, the nationwide electricity breakdown left many in this country of some 220 million people without drinking water as pumps powered by electricity failed to work. Schools, hospitals, factories and shops were without power amid the harsh winter weather.

Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir told local media that engineers were working to restore power across the country and tried to reassure the nation that power would be fully restored within the next 12 hours.

According to the minister, electricity usage typically goes down overnight during winter — unlike summer months when Pakistanis turn to air conditioning, seeking a respite from the heat.

“As an economic measure, we temporarily shut down our power generation systems" Sunday night, Dastgir said. When engineers tried to turn the systems back on, a “fluctuation in voltage" was observed, which “forced engineers to shut down the power grid" stations one by one.

Dastgir insisted the outage did not constitute a major crisis and that electricity was being restored in phases. In many places and key businesses and institutions, including hospitals, military and government facilities, backup generators kicked in.

By late afternoon Monday, Dastgir told reporters at another press conference that Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif ordered a probe into the outage.

“We are hoping that the supply of electricity will be fully restored tonight,” he said.

Before midnight, power was back in Karachi, the country's largest city and economic hub, and in many other major cities including Rawalpindi, Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore, the capital of eastern Punjab province.

In Lahore, a closing notice was posted on the Orange Line metro stations, with rail workers guarding the sites and trains parked on the rails. It was unknown when the metro system would be restored.

Imran Rana, a spokesperson for Karachi's power supply company, said the government's priority was to restore power first to strategic facilities, including hospitals and airports.

Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org said network data showed a significant decline in internet access in Pakistan that was attributed to the power outage. It said metrics indicated that connectivity was at 60% of ordinary levels as many users struggled to get online Monday.

Pakistan gets at least 60% of its electricity from fossil fuels, while nearly 27% of the electricity is generated by hydropower. The contribution of nuclear and solar power to the nation's grid is about 10%.

Pakistan is grappling with one of the country's worst economic crisis in recent years amid dwindling foreign exchange reserves. That has compelled the government to order shopping malls and markets closed by 8:30 p.m. to conserve energy.

Talks are underway with the International Monetary Fund to soften some conditions on Pakistan’s $6 billion bailout, which the government thinks will trigger further inflation hikes. The IMF released the last crucial tranche of $1.1 billion to Islamabad in August.

Since then, discussions between the two parties have oscillated due to Pakistan's reluctance to impose new tax measures.

___

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

 

Pakistan power grid hit by nationwide breakdown with outages in all major cities

Pakistan power grid hit by nationwide breakdown with outages in all major cities

Shweta Sharma
Mon, January 23, 2023 

Much of Pakistan was left without power for several hours on Monday morning after an energy-saving measure by the government backfired.

Electricity was turned off across the country during low usage hours overnight to conserve fuel, leaving the grid unable to meet demand at daybreak, officials said.

Mobile phone masts and airports were among the facilities left without power, causing wider chaos.

The outage spread panic and raised questions about the cash-strapped government's handling of the crisis.

Blackouts were reported in most cities including Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore.

Supply to some areas has been suspended by up to 90 per cent, according to initial reports.

The contry’s energy ministry said the system frequency of the national grid was reduced at around 7.34am on Monday, which resulted in “widespread breakdown in the power system”.

“System maintenance work is progressing rapidly,” it said in a tweet.

Electricity supplies are regularly cut off across the country during low usage hours overnight, especially during winters, to conserve fuel. Pakistan’s power minister Khurrum Dastagir confirmed to Geo News that power generation units had been temporarily shut down on Sunday night as a fuel-preserving measure, with the country reeling from an ongoing economic crisis.

Officials said that when technicians went to turn on the system after daybreak, the network failed.

Mr Dastagir denied it was a “major crisis”.

“When the systems were turned on at 7.30am this morning one by one, frequency variation was reported in the southern part of the country between Jamshoro and Dadu. There was a fluctuation in voltage and the systems were shut down one by one,” said Mr Dastagir.

After 10am local time, the energy ministry said in an update that restoration work on the power grids had begun and some grids, including those operated by the Islamabad Supply Company and Peshawar Supply Company, had been at least partially restored.

More than six hours later with key facilities including factories, hospitals and schools grinding to a halt due to the outage, Mr Dastagir told Reuters supplies were partially restored and engineers are working to restore the grid fully by 10pm local time.

“We are trying our utmost to achieve restoration before that.”

He added that power had been partially restored in Islamabad, Peshawar, Multan and Sukkur.

Videos on social media showed a train stuck on a bridge and passengers trapped inside walking on foot on the tracks.



The Civil Aviation Authority said there were significant issues from power outages at airports across the country, though backup systems mean the situation was “under control”.

“The situation is under control thanks to the alternative systems. We are using standby power to provide uninterrupted electricity to all the airports,” the authority’s spokesperson said in a statement.

Several private power distribution companies also confirmed the breakdown at their end amid massive power outages across the country.

The Quetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO) said two transmission lines in towns between Sindh province and Quetta had tripped. It said that 22 districts of Balochistan, including Quetta itself, are without power.

The Islamabad Electric Supply Company said 117 grid stations were without electricity, adding that “no clear reason has been given by the Region Control Center”.

In the first week of January, authorities in Pakistan ordered shopping malls and markets to close by 8.30pm as part of a new energy conservation plan aimed at easing Pakistan‘s economic crisis.

Pakistan is grappling with one of the country’s worst domestic and foreign financial crises following unprecedented floods last year and dwindling foreign exchange reserves.

The government is attempting to save energy and curtail the costs of imported oil, on which Pakistan spends $3bn annually. Most of Pakistan’s electricity is generated by using imported oil.

It gets at least 60 per cent of its electricity from fossil fuels, while nearly 27 per cent of the electricity is generated by hydropower. The contribution of nuclear and solar power to the nation’s grid is about 10 per cent.

The cash-strapped nation is also in talks with IMF to soften some conditions on its $6bn bailout deal, which the government thinks will cause a further increase in inflation.

A similar power outage occurred in Pakistan in October 2022, when a large part of the country was without electricity for almost 12 hours.

 

China, Russia show freedom’s role in ‘disruptive’ science


the Monitor's Editorial Board
Mon, January 23, 2023 

Big and new ideas in scientific research don’t always originate in well-equipped labs or with more money. Sometimes the greatest resource is freedom. To see why, look at the exodus of people – especially creative innovators and entrepreneurs – from Russia and China over the past year.

Russia’s exodus of talent began with Western economic sanctions imposed after the Ukraine invasion, new restrictions on the internet, and later a harsh military draft of young men. Tens of thousands of high-tech workers fled to Israel, Georgia, or Kazakhstan, where they could find opportunities and free expression in safe havens. Those countries welcomed them as potential founts of innovation.

The exodus from China began with a crackdown on its biggest tech companies, especially their founders, as well as a draconian lockdown of cities against COVID-19. Many of the country’s most creative people moved to the United States, Singapore, and Japan to avoid China’s increasing techno-authoritarianism, or a top-down approach to research.

“Now that they have lived free of fear in other countries, they are reluctant to put themselves and their businesses under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party again,” wrote The New York Times. One founder of a crypto banking startup cited the need to have a say in how government makes rules. “There are many other places [than China] where you can do things,” said Aginny Wang, a co-founder of Flashwire who moved from China to Singapore.

These two waves of talent emigration, both of which may set back each country’s science and technology, are timely reminders about the most basic element for breakthroughs in scientific thought: freedom. They come as yet another study suggests global science has been in a slump in producing “disruptive” discoveries, such as lasers, airplanes, and transistors.

The study, conducted at the University of Minnesota and the University of Arizona, looked at 45 million papers and 3.9 million U.S. patents from 1945 to 2010 to see which research pointed to groundbreaking disruptions in fields from physics to social science. This “disruption index” showed a decline in basic discoveries after World War II and then a leveling since the 1990s. Also noted was an increase in the use of words like “improve” and “enhance” over language such as “make” and “produce.”

OF COURSE THEY SAY THAT , WITHOUT REFERENCING THE SOVIET DISCOVERY OF THE BIOPHAGE

As in China and Russia today, many researchers may feel less free to pursue novel and radical ideas. In the West, scholars are publishing research more than ever but in increasingly narrower silos of knowledge. Many spend half their time applying for government grants, which are often given out based on demands for immediate, risk-free results.

“Rather than minting revolutionary ways of thinking, science and technology are increasingly polishing the same conceptual pennies,” writes science commentator Anjana Ahuja in The Financial Times.

The study’s authors say scientific workers can find greater freedom in undirected research and more sabbaticals. Long-shot research begins with short-term liberties to think, explore, make mistakes, and share ideas freely. The best research centers are small in number with high trust and no compulsion for conformity. Or just the opposite of what authoritarian leaders prefer. More freedom may be the greatest disruptor in the world of science seeking disruptive ideas.

SUPPLY CHAIN VS RIGHT WHALES
U$ Feds deny emergency call to slow ships, ease whale strikes

 A North Atlantic right whale feeds on the surface of Cape Cod bay off the coast of Plymouth, Mass., March 28, 2018. On Friday, Jan. 20, 2023, the federal government denied a request from a group of environmental organizations to immediately apply proposed ship speed restrictions in an effort to save right whales, a vanishing species. 

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File) 

PATRICK WHITTLE
Mon, January 23, 2023 

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The U.S. government has denied a request from a group of environmental organizations to immediately apply proposed ship-speed restrictions in an effort to save a vanishing species of whale.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is considering new rules designed to stop large ships from colliding with North Atlantic right whales. The whales number less than 340, and they are vulnerable to ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear.

The proposed rules would expand “slow zones” off the East Coast and require more vessels to comply with those rules. The environmental groups had asked NOAA to immediately implement pieces of the proposed rule that would aid the whales this winter and spring, when the whales travel from their calving grounds off the southern states to feeding grounds off New England and Canada.

The agency informed the conservation groups on Jan. 20 that it was denying the request on the basis that it is “focused on implementing long-term, substantive vessel strike risk reduction measures,” according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. NOAA also told the groups it was concerned the time needed to develop emergency regulations would prevent their quick implementation.


Members of the conservation groups, including Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity and Massachusetts-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation, said they felt NOAA's decision was wrongheaded. Protecting the whales while they are on the move is especially important because mother whales and their young are at risk, said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation.

“We know that the risk is there,” Asmutis-Silvia said. “You can't recover the population unless you have kids, and we want to make sure the kids survive.”

The population of right whales has been declining in recent years, and that has raised alarms among marine biologists, animal welfare activists and government regulators. Some scientists have said the warming of the ocean has caused the whales to stray outside of existing protected areas as they search for food.

Conservation groups and commercial fishermen have also been at odds over the correct way to protect the whales. The conservationists want new restrictions on lobster fishing to prevent the whales from getting entangled in gear, but those restrictions are currently on hold.

EVANGELICAL EXCORCISM
Wisconsin poses latest setback for conversion therapy opponents


Brooke Migdon
Sun, January 22, 2023

Wisconsin LGBTQ advocates and lawmakers are recalibrating after state GOP legislators last week voted for a second time to block a ban on conversion therapy from taking effect.

“I’m very concerned about young people in Wisconsin who live in communities where it is once again allowed, being subjected to this really cruel and unscientific form of therapy,” state Rep. Greta Neubauer (D), one of six openly LGBTQ members of Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature, told The Hill.

“Conversion” or “reparative therapy” is a blanket term that refers to a host of interventions designed to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. It’s been denounced by major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Psychological Association, in part because such practices are underpinned by a belief that LGBTQ identities are pathologies that need to be cured.

Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have laws or policies in place that ban conversion therapy for minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank that tracks state legislation impacting the LGBTQ community. Five states, including Wisconsin through a 2021 executive order issued by Gov. Tony Evers (D), have partial bans.

Three states — Alabama, Georgia and Florida — are unable to enforce bans on conversion therapy because of an injunction in the 11th Circuit that prevents them from doing so.

“Professional consensus rejects pathologizing sexual and gender identities,” the AMA wrote in an issue brief last year. “In addition, empirical evidence has demonstrated a diversity of sexual and gender identities that are normal variations of human identity and expression, and not inherently linked to mental illness.”

While members of the religious right have posited that conversion therapy — often administered by religious leaders or institutions — can be beneficial to individuals struggling with their identities, Wisconsin Republicans claim their decision to block the state’s ban had nothing to do with the practice itself but whether the state Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) could legally enforce the ban under Wisconsin law.

A DSPS examining board responsible for licensing counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists in 2020 developed a rule that classified conversion therapy as unprofessional conduct. State GOP lawmakers suspended that rule during the 2021 legislative session, calling it government overreach.

The rule briefly went back into effect in December, at the end of last year’s legislative session, prompting last week’s vote.

Neubauer said she’s expecting GOP lawmakers to introduce legislation this year to permanently strike down the DSPS rule — despite the high likelihood of a veto by Evers — “effectively reopening the opportunity for people to perform conversion therapy in Wisconsin for the next two years.”

Neubauer, who serves as Wisconsin’s House minority leader, said the legislature has hit a dead end in terms of passing a statewide ban on conversion therapy, and Democrats will likely have to wait until the next election cycle to make any meaningful strides.

“We do not have another option right now,” she said.

Still, several communities within Wisconsin, including the city of Racine, which Neubauer represents, have instituted bans on conversion therapy within their own boundaries, and more are coming down the pike.

In the absence of legislation prohibiting conversion therapy in states such as Wisconsin, advocacy groups are working behind the scenes to stop the practice, even if it means taking on health care providers one by one.

Mathew Shurka, the co-founder and chief strategist of Born Perfect, a civil rights group working to end conversion therapy nationwide, said his organization frequently encourages conversion therapy survivors to file complaints against their health care providers with their state licensing board, in multiple instances resulting in the revocation of the provider’s license.

“These people hide behind their licensure to make themselves credible,” Shurka, who was sent to conversion therapy from 16 to 21 years old, told The Hill. “They know they’re not supposed to be doing these things.”

As a teenager, Shurka said, his own therapist prescribed Viagra to help him have sex with women, among other unethical practices. At the time, he didn’t understand that what was happening to him was wrong and trusted his health care provider to make decisions with his best interests in mind.

“I loved my therapist. I thought he was a great guy,” he said. “That’s what’s so dangerous about a professional creating a safe space and inviting you into something that’s completely discredited and shaming you and giving you no option out.”

Multiple inquiries have found that the effects of conversion therapy are damaging and long-lasting.

A 2020 report from the Williams Institute, a public policy think tank, found that lesbian, gay and bisexual people in the U.S. were nearly twice as likely to report having suicidal thoughts when they were exposed to conversion therapy.

The same study found that 7 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual 18- to 59-year-olds had experienced conversion therapy at some point in their lives, most of them from religious leaders but approximately one-third from a health care provider.

A 2022 study from The Trevor Project, a national LGBTQ youth suicide prevention group, found that around 17 percent of LGBTQ youth had been threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy.

Wagner financier Prigozhin launches campaign aimed at portraying himself anti-corruption crusader

Sun, January 22, 2023 

Evgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Peskov

On Jan. 21, Prigozhin’s personal press service distributed a letter from a family of a fallen Wagner mercenary, which mentioned “indifferent” local officials who did not help with their son’s funeral, as opposed to Prigozhin, who listens to their appeals.

Read also: Wagner’s Prigozhin using success in Soledar to bolster his group’s reputation, says ISW

In the letter, Prigozhin is referred to as “the only person (…) who is not indifferent to the fate of the Defender of Russia and his family.”

Prigozhin also harshly criticized the officials of Russia’s Sverdlovsk Oblast, apparently showing solidarity with the “common man.”

Read also: Prigozhin boasts of his impunity after brutal murder of Wagner mercenary

“Prigozhin claimed on Jan. 20 that he would not mind if someone brought a criminal case against him because he would be able to participate in Wagner PMC from prison,” ISW analysts wrote.

“Wagner Group continues to operate militia training centers in Kursk and Belgorod oblasts in a likely effort to provide military support for regions that the Russian MoD supposedly neglects to defend, although neither faces any risk against which Wagner Group could defend."

Read also: Former Wagner mercenary who fled to Norway to tell about war crimes of Wagner Group

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, HUR, previously reported that Prigozhin, is looking to strengthen his influence in the circle of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin at any cost, and is a driving impetus behind the desperate Russian attempts to seize the towns of Soledar and Bakhmut.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine

WHITE AMERICAN PROTESTANTS
Tensions with evangelicals threaten Trump White House bid

Julia Manchester
Sat, January 21, 2023

Tensions between Donald Trump and evangelical leaders have spilled into public view, posing a potential threat to the former president’s election chances in 2024.

In an interview earlier this week, Trump said evangelical leaders are showing “signs of disloyalty” because they have yet to endorse his third presidential bid.

The comments highlighted the changing dynamic in GOP politics as the leaders of one of Trump’s most supportive demographics appear to distance themselves from the former president.

“It’s going to make these next few months uncomfortable for evangelical leaders because they’re going to have to, in essence, answer that question: Are you for Trump or are you not?” said David Brody, the chief political analyst at the Christian Broadcasting Network, who conducted the interview with Trump.

Trump’s comments come after influential evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress interviewed former Vice President Mike Pence, who is also evangelical, on stage at First Baptist Church in Dallas last week.

Pence is a potential 2024 Trump rival and Jeffress is a longtime supporter of Trump but has notably held off on endorsing him ahead of next year’s presidential election.

But in an interview with The Hill on Friday, Jeffress said he believes the former president will be the GOP presidential nominee in 2024 and that his decision to hold off on endorsing the president is “just a matter of timing.”

“I just don’t see a need to make an official endorsement two years out,” Jeffress said.

“Just let me cut to the chase,” he said. “I think President Trump is the presumptive nominee for 2024. I expect he will be the nominee in 2024 and I believe he’ll be the next president of the United States.”

However, Jeffress said that if Pence decides to run in 2024 he will be “a strong contender.”

White, evangelical Protestants played a key role in Trump’s coalition in 2016 and 2020 and have historically been a loyal Republican voting bloc. According to Pew Research, 84 percent of white, evangelical Protestants voted for Trump in 2020, while 77 percent voted for him in 2016.

The conservative voting bloc was drawn to Trump for his stances on issues like abortion and immigration. Trump, who appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices, has largely been credited for setting in motion the overturning of Roe v. Wade — one of his key campaign promises.

“He’s very much action-oriented and so therefore if he made promises and he delivered on those promises, which he did for four years, he’s going to say ‘well, what’s the problem here?’” Brody said.

While notable group leaders are choosing to wait to endorse the former president — despite him delivering on those promises — many are now wondering if it’s a signal that Trump’s support is softening among evangelicals ahead of the 2024 Republican primary.

“I think Trump is not helping himself here,” said Robert Jones, founder of the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute. “Trump did not really gain the votes of white evangelicals through white evangelical leaders in 2016.”

Jeffress publicly broke with Russell Moore, the-then president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, over Trump in 2016. Moore has been a vocal critic of the then-GOP candidate, while Jeffress embraced him.

“If you had just listened to evangelical leaders, you would have thought there was a great divide in the evangelical community on this,” Jones continued. “Of course when it came time to vote in primaries, the rank and file of white evangelicals lined up quite handily behind Trump.”

“There was never a divide on the ground in the way there was among evangelical leaders,” he said. “I think Trump himself may misunderstand the dynamics that evangelicals were never waiting on their leaders to tell them who to vote for.”

Brody said that broadly evangelical leaders and voters also have not been turned off by the controversies that have dogged Trump for decades, arguing that they always knew what they were signing up for.

“If chaos was there before — and it was — and chaos was here now, what has changed? Nothing has changed,” Brody said.

There is a trend in some early polls showing Trump’s support wavering among Republican voters as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) gains traction. Forty-nine percent of Republican primary voters said they would support the former president in 2024 and 54 percent of evangelical voters said they planned on supporting him in his third bid, according to a New York Times-Sienna College poll released in October ahead of the midterm elections.

However, polling this week showed Trump running ahead of DeSantis. A new Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey released on Friday showed Trump leading DeSantis 48 percent to 28 percent. Meanwhile, a Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday showed Trump leading DeSantis 48 percent to 31 percent.

But if multiple Republican contenders jump into the primary, which is likely to happen, evangelical support could be divvied up.

“Evangelicals are going to have a decision to make and Trump will probably end up losing some of that support,” Brody said.

And experts say they doubt that Trump’s support among evangelical voters themselves will suffer drastically anytime soon.

“When you look at Trump’s favorability numbers, they have moved down a bit since he was in office among white evangelicals but not very much,” Jones said. “To me, unless the numbers look significantly worse than they did in 2016 for him, I would not count him out, and they do not.”

“Hundreds of thank yous are not hundreds of tanks.”

T62 USED IN UKRAINE

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was typically blunt. 

After thanking the United States for a $2.5 billion contribution of arms, atop $3 billion announced several weeks ago, he said: “Hundreds of thank yous are not hundreds of tanks.”

In an appearance on German television, he said: “If you have Leopards, then give them to us.”

American officials were clearly frustrated after their negotiations with the German government this week. Germany had begun by saying that it would send Leopard tanks, and authorize others to, if the United States sent its M-1 Abrams tank as well. 

The United States declined, saying the tank is such a gas guzzler — it employs a jet engine — and requires such a supply line to keep running that it would not be useful in Ukraine’s environment. (The officials dodged questions about why a tank so difficult to operate on European battlefields is in the American arsenal.)

The British Challengers and German Leopards are more flexible and easier to run. 

THEY TAKE DESIEL

But in public, Austin and others avoided criticizing Scholz, who in their view has managed the biggest reversal of German foreign policy — starting with the suspension of two pipelines bringing gas from Russia — quite skillfully.

The NATO Alliance Is Holding Strong on Ukraine. But Fractures Are Emerging. (yahoo.com)

 

Ukraine war: Can NATO tanks and training turn the tide?

Anna Mulrine Grobe
Mon, January 23, 2023 

As the defense chiefs of 54 nations gathered Friday to chart the next steps forward in repelling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reiterated the urgency of their mission.

“Russia is regrouping, recruiting, and trying to reequip,” he warned, urging colleagues to “dig deeper” in their efforts to bolster Kyiv’s defenses with weapons and training as the first anniversary of Russia’s war in Ukraine – and an expected spring assault – approaches.

He then patched in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy via video, who noted that the assembled Ukraine Defense Contact Group has done so much for his country that it would be “absolutely just” to tender “hundreds of thank-you’s.”

“But,” he added in a pointed proviso, “hundreds of thank-you’s are not hundreds of tanks.”

For days before – and after – the Ramstein meeting, the talk was of tanks: specifically whether the United States would greenlight its M1 Abrams for Ukraine. Such a move by the U.S. appears to be Germany’s tacit precondition for releasing its own Leopard 2 tanks, desperately desired by President Zelenskyy and his troops for their war effort.

Those tanks did not materialize at this meeting, though Poland vowed last week to send some of its own Leopards – never mind German arms export laws. The German foreign minister has signaled that Berlin won’t stand in Warsaw’s way.

Still, many military analysts say that such vehicles and more long-range firepower will ultimately be necessary. The new infusion of heavy weapons – and the intensive troop training that goes with them – buoys Ukrainian hopes of potentially turning the tide toward victory. At the very least, it raises the hope of Ukraine holding its own in the conflict’s next phase.

New equipment will continue to require “brutal prioritization” on the battlefield, however, says retired Gen. Frederick “Ben” Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe. And those sorts of decisions about how to distribute scarce resources, he adds, like everything about this war, “will be hard.”
Ukraine seeking firepower and mobility

The goal for the extensive – if accelerated – training that Ukrainian soldiers began this month is to give them the skills to penetrate Russian positions that have been hardening for months and, in some cases, years.

This will be particularly necessary in the face of a new round of Russian mobilizations, which will “probably bring a lot of new recruits into Ukraine in roughly April,” says Rafael Loss, coordinator for pan-European data projects at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

More than ever, Ukrainian soldiers “will need to be able to move around under fire, and for that, you need armored vehicles,” he notes, adding that up to this point, troops have often been using pickup trucks. “Any piece of shrapnel shreds the aluminum.”

To help avoid this, the U.S. last week promised, along with other armored personnel carriers, 59 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, renowned not only for their ability to protect soldiers but also – given the 7-foot-long gun barrels mounted to their turrets – for their considerable firepower.

Equally important to this latest arms package, military analysts say, is the training that will come with it. It will focus on how to maneuver the new vehicles while wielding existing weapons – known in military parlance as “combined arms” training – “as opposed to just pounding one another with artillery,” a senior defense official said in a briefing earlier this month. “Equipment is one thing. Using the equipment is another.”

The idea, ultimately, is to “change this dynamic that you see right now where it’s inches forward” on the front lines, Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia and Ukraine, said in a Pentagon briefing this month. The point is to instead use the new vehicles, artillery, and other firepower together to “make greater progress on the battlefield and really push back on these Russian positions,” she added. “So that’s what we’re looking forward to seeing in the coming months.”

For NATO, the stakes involve not only aiding a democratic ally but also defending Europe more broadly against the threat posed by a more aggressive Russia under Vladimir Putin.

The new armored vehicles and other support are enough to equip the equivalent of two brigades of Ukrainian fighters, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said at Ramstein Friday. Training on the Bradleys is now taking place in Germany.

Across the Atlantic, in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Ukrainian soldiers are learning to operate Patriot missile defense systems, to allow them to shoot down incoming Russian air attacks. While such instruction can take up to one year, the U.S. Army is “expediting” this training for Kyiv to “several months.”

“The longer these troops are off the line,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder observed, “they’re not actually engaged in combat.”
Can you “maintain it, operate it, fuel it?”

Key to this operation will be Ukraine’s ability to keep these ever more powerful and complex vehicles and weapons systems running – and that will take practice, too.

Some of it will involve “tele-maintenance,” which is “exactly what it sounds like,” Ms. Cooper says. The near-rocket-scientist skill level required for repairs of the M1 Abrams has been the chief reason the Pentagon has raised for not giving Kyiv its much-coveted tank to date.

It’s “a very complicated piece of equipment,” Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, has noted. “It’s hard to train on. It has a jet engine.” Plus, it uses “about three gallons to the mile with jet fuel.”

This could prove a disadvantage on the battlefield, says Brigadier General Ryder. “If I’m going to provide you with a piece of equipment, are you going to be able to sustain it, maintain it, operate it, fuel it? Is it going to be an albatross around your neck, so to speak?”

That said, Ms. Cooper acknowledged, “We absolutely agree that Ukraine does need tanks.”

For now, NATO allies are helping to refurbish Russian-made T-72 tanks for Ukraine, which currently has some 800 Soviet-era tanks on the battlefield, says retired Col. Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who has made a comprehensive study of armaments in the war.

One problem, however, is that “the production line for T-72 ammunition is really limited outside of Russia,” says Mr. Loss at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “And Russia is of course not going to sell that to Ukraine.”
Pressing Germany

Great Britain has provided 14 of its Challenger 2 tanks – widely seen as an effort to spur Germany to provide its widely lauded Leopard 2 tanks. But a dozen or so such tanks won’t turn the tide of battle, analysts say.

The benefit of the Leopard 2 tanks is that “there are enough out there, hither and yon, that you could cobble together numbers that are significant,” Mr. Cancian says. Ukraine would like at least 300 of them, and “you could definitely get 100,” which, he adds, “is enough to outfit a significant part of the Ukrainian armored force.”

Countries that use the Leopards would likely come together to build a coalition to supply the tanks as well, “ensuring a steady supply of ammunition and spare parts,” Mr. Loss says.

For these reasons, Germany is under heavy pressure to let their tanks go to Ukraine.

Secretary Austin was asked, repeatedly, at Ramstein whether Germany was showing “real leadership” in the war effort. “Yes,” he replied. “But we can all do more.”

Still, as the latest round of equipment and training flows into Ukraine, its soldiers build their skills. And as that happens, analysts point out, Kyiv is in an ever-better position to lobby President Joe Biden and other allied leaders for the big guns of their respective arsenals.

For this reason, it is likely not a matter of whether Kyiv will get more tanks, they add, but when.

“The Ukrainian people are watching us,” Secretary Austin said Friday. “The Kremlin is watching us. And history is watching us.”