monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

‘Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence
More than two dozen current and former Liberty University officials describe a culture of fear and self-dealing at the largest Christian college in the world.

t Liberty University, all anyone can talk about is Jerry Falwell Jr. Just not in public.

“When he does stupid stuff, people will mention it to others they consider confidants and not keep it totally secret,” a trusted adviser to Falwell, the school’s president and chancellor, told me. “But they won’t rat him out.”

That’s beginning to change...

...“We’re not a school; we’re a real estate hedge fund,” said a senior university official with inside knowledge of Liberty’s finances. “We’re not educating; we’re buying real estate every year and taking students’ money to do it.”

Liberty employees detailed other instances of Falwell’s behavior that they see as falling short of the standard of conduct they expect from conservative Christian leaders, from partying at nightclubs, to graphically discussing his sex life with employees...

Several Republicans over the weekend criticized President Donald Trump’s plans for a secret now-cancelled meeting with the Taliban at Camp David, which was supposed to be held several days before the anniversary of 9/11.

tugging at our hearts (and eventually wallets) with stirring references to 9/11 and terrorism

While I might have preferred effective criticism from the moderates I think the militarists are actually less popular and may succeed in splitting the base and further weakening the Republican Party,

Americans across party and demographic lines overwhelmingly support expanded background checks for gun buyers and allowing law enforcement to temporarily seize weapons from troubled individuals, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, as President Trump and Republicans face fresh pressure to act.

Although the poll finds a continued partisan divide on more far-reaching gun-control proposals, public opinion is firmly behind Democrats’ push for action as Congress returns to Washington on Monday. More Americans say they trust congressional Democrats over Trump to handle the nation’s gun laws, 51 percent to 36 percent, with independents siding with Democrats by a 17-point margin — a divide that could have political ramifications for the 2020 presidential and congressional elections.

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Americans across party and demographic lines overwhelmingly support expanded background checks for gun buyers and allowing law enforcement to temporarily seize weapons from troubled individuals, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, as President Trump and Republicans face fresh pressure to act.

Although the poll finds a continued partisan divide on more far-reaching gun-control proposals, public opinion is firmly behind Democrats’ push for action as Congress returns to Washington on Monday. More Americans say they trust congressional Democrats over Trump to handle the nation’s gun laws, 51 percent to 36 percent, with independents siding with Democrats by a 17-point margin — a divide that could have political ramifications for the 2020 presidential and congressional elections.

WP

Americans across party and demographic lines overwhelmingly support expanded background checks for gun buyers and allowing law enforcement to temporarily seize weapons from troubled individuals,

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President Donald Trump’s plans for a secret now-cancelled meeting with the Taliban at Camp David,

The field goal attempt was good!

A fascinating poll in June by the Democratic data firm Avalanche found Biden ahead with 29 percent to 17 percent for Sanders and 16 percent for Warren. But when the same voters were asked whom they would make president with a “magic wand,” 21 percent picked Warren, with Biden and Sanders getting 19 percent each.

As for decisions, I've decided to disregard biased and useless data.

Wonder who leaked it?

What would have been one of the biggest headline-grabbing moments of his tenure was put together on the spur of the moment and then canceled on the spur of the moment. The usual National Security Council process was dispensed with; only a small circle of advisers was even clued in.

And even after it fell apart, Mr. Trump took it upon himself to disclose the secret machinations in a string of Saturday night Twitter messages that surprised not only many national security officials across the government but even some of the few who were part of the deliberations.

This line is repeated to often that it has become a liberal birdcall to show how everyone must think this.

What kind of background check?

What kind of troubled individual?

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Large-scale energy storage is likely to remain an intractable problem for a long time

You're slow on the uptake, laddie.

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The 100 MW output of the Tesla battery might appear small compared to South Australia's peak energy demand of about 3000 MW, but its ability to quickly inject electricity within a fraction of a second is a large factor in its success.

AEMO is now working on a new protection scheme, and Tesla's big battery will play a part.

It aims to detect high flows on the interconnector and trigger the battery to start discharging its full output as quickly as possible, while shedding power to homes and businesses if required.

The battery is capable of responding more quickly to problems than coal, gas or hydro

According to AEMO the speed, precision and agility of the battery is unprecedented in dealing with both major power system disturbances and day-to-day frequency variations.

A gas or steam turbine might have taken minutes to respond and adjust.

You will also notice the lack of mentioning the 2013 CDC study on gun violence, it also didn't fit their agenda.

[The report's] conclusions don’t line up perfectly with either side’s agenda. That’s a good reason to take them seriously—and to fund additional data collection and research that have been blocked by Congress over politics. Yes, the facts will surprise you. That’s why you should embrace them.

Here’s the full text of the email from NOAA Acting Chief Scientist Craig McLean about Trump’s phony forecast and NOAA backing Trump up over its own meteorologists who were trying to set the record straight.

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Dear Colleagues,

The fierce storm we know as Hurricane Dorian has concluded its ferocious path through the Bahamas and along the US East Coast. Many of you have contributed to the excellent science that has underpinned the forecasts and current understanding of storms such as this one, which accelerated quite rapidly in intensity. The storm also presented challenges in track which improved with enhanced observations. We know that our collective work, from the scientists in the aircraft penetrating the storm, to the scientists deploying the glider picket line, to the modelers and folks working the physics of the storms, across OAR and in our CI’s, and across all NOAA Lines, we are working the problem in order to give the NWS forecasters the best tools we possibly can to keep America and our neighbors safe. Thank you.


During the course of the storm, as I am sure you are aware, there were routine and exceptional expert forecasts, the best possible, issued by the NWS Forecasters. These are remarkable colleagues of ours, who receive our products, use them well, and provide the benefit of their own experience in announcing accurate forecasts accompanied by the distinction of all credible scientists — they sign their work. As I’m sure you also know, there was a complex issue involving the President commenting on the path of the hurricane. The NWS Forecaster(s) corrected any public misunderstanding in an expert and timely way, as they should. There followed, last Friday, an unsigned press release from “NOAA” that inappropriately and incorrectly contradicted the NWS forecaster. My understanding is that this intervention to contradict the forecaster was not based on science but on external factors including reputation and appearance, or simply put, political. Our NOAA Scientific Integrity Policy and Code of Scientific Conduct make clear that all NOAA employees shall approach all scientific activities with honesty, objectively, and completely, without allegiance to individuals, organizations, or ideology. The content of this press release is very concerning as it compromises the ability of NOAA to convey life-saving information necessary to avoid substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. If the public cannot trust our information, or we debase our forecaster’s warnings and products, that specific danger arises.

You know that the value of our science is in the complexity of our understanding, our ability to convey that understanding to a wide audience of users of this information, and to establish and sustain the public trust in the truth and legitimacy of that information. Unfortunately, the press release of last Friday violated this trust and violated NOAA’s policies of scientific integrity. In my role as Assistant Administrator for Research, and as I continue to administratively serve as Acting Chief Scientist, I am pursuing the potential violations of our NOAA Administrative Order on Scientific Integrity. Thankfully, we have such policies that are independently cited as among the best in the federal community, if not the best. Your NOAA and OAR management and leadership team believes in these policies and principles. I have a responsibility to pursue these truths. I will.

Thank you for your continued excellent work, and your trust. Carry on.

Craig

Russia's ruling United Russia party has suffered major losses in Sunday's election to the Moscow city parliament, nearly complete results show.

The party lost nearly a third of the seats in the 45-member parliament, but remains on course to retain its majority with about 26 seats.

With most opposition candidates disqualified, the Communists, independents and others gained seats.

The exclusion of the opposition candidates triggered mass protests.

Thousands of people have been detained, and riot police have been accused of a brutal crackdown on demonstrators.

With nearly all the results in, United Russia is predicted to get 26 seats in the city parliament (Mosgorduma).

The party's brand has become so toxic lately that all its members ran as independents, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow reports.

In a major upset, the party's leader in the Russian capital, Andrei Metelsky, was not re-elected.

The Communist Party is expected to get 13 seats, while the liberal Yabloko party and left-leaning Just Russia will each have three seats.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny promoted a strategy of "smart voting" after his own allies were all barred from running in this election.

Mr Navalny's team exposed what they called "undercover" United Russia candidates, and campaigned for those best placed to defeat them. He described the result as "fantastic".

State media are mostly presenting the results in Moscow as a win for the governing party in any case, our correspondent says.

But the Kremlin will certainly be studying the real picture, and what it says about the public mood in the Russian capital, she adds.

Turnout in Sunday's election was about 22%.