25 December 19
Christmas Day, 1971 - 2019
Yoko Ono and John Lennon
(Happy Christmas Kyoko)
(Happy Christmas Julian)
(Happy Christmas Julian)
So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And a happy new year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And a happy new year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
A new one just begun
And so happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
And what have we done
Another year over
A new one just begun
And so happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over, if you want it
War is over now
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over, if you want it
War is over now
Happy Xmas
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24 December 19
The Washington Post Editorial Board | Saudi Arabia's Khashoggi Verdict Is a Mockery of Justice
The Washington Post Editorial Board
Excerpt: "Saudi Arabia has delivered a shameful travesty of justice in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Following a closed trial, authorities announced Monday that five people implicated in the Oct. 2, 2018, killing had been sentenced to death, and three more were given prison sentences."
READ MORE
The Washington Post Editorial Board
Excerpt: "Saudi Arabia has delivered a shameful travesty of justice in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Following a closed trial, authorities announced Monday that five people implicated in the Oct. 2, 2018, killing had been sentenced to death, and three more were given prison sentences."
READ MORE
So what do you do if, after a few drinks, Uncle Ted starts screaming that the world is flat? (photo: fitopardo.com/Getty Images)
How to Fend Off Your Conspiracy Obsessed Relatives During the Holiday Season
Matthew Cantor, Guardian UK
Cantor writes: "It's the holidays: time for eggnog, ironic Christmas sweaters, and interactions with relatives you'd avoid like the plague if you didn't share DNA."
READ MORE
Matthew Cantor, Guardian UK
Cantor writes: "It's the holidays: time for eggnog, ironic Christmas sweaters, and interactions with relatives you'd avoid like the plague if you didn't share DNA."
READ MORE
Church. (photo: Lisa Forseth/Lightstock)
The War Between Christian Papers Over Trump Is Escalating
Alex Lubben, VICE
Lubben writes: "A journalist at the Christian Post, an evangelical newspaper, is resigning over the paper's plans run an editorial slamming its competitor, Christianity Today, for running a story that called for Trump's removal from office."
READ MORE
Alex Lubben, VICE
Lubben writes: "A journalist at the Christian Post, an evangelical newspaper, is resigning over the paper's plans run an editorial slamming its competitor, Christianity Today, for running a story that called for Trump's removal from office."
READ MORE
Billionaire Mike Bloomberg's entrance into the Democratic presidential race is sparking even more debate about wealth. (photo: Rick Scuteri/AP)
Mike Bloomberg Exploited Prison Labor to Make 2020 Presidential Campaign Phone Calls
John Washington, The Intercept
Washington writes: "Former New York City mayor and multibillionaire Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg used prison labor to make campaign calls."
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John Washington, The Intercept
Washington writes: "Former New York City mayor and multibillionaire Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg used prison labor to make campaign calls."
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Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer at the White House in 2017. The three are named in the lawsuit filed by A.J. Delgado. (photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
Daniel Politi, Slate
Politi writes: "A former staffer from Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign is suing the commander in chief and his campaign for pregnancy and sex discrimination."
The lawsuit claims that after Delgado announced her pregnancy, the campaign “stripped” her “of her job responsibilities and duties throughout for the remainder of her employment from late December of 2016 and through the Inauguration in late January of 2017.” Among the ways this change in attitude was evident was that she “immediately and inexplicably” stopped received emails and other messages regarding the campaign and other projects she had been working on. “Plaintiff was excluded from participating in the communications work of the Inauguration or in any capacity, even though she was still formally part of the Communications Transition team,” according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit names Trump, the campaign, and several officials, including Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon.
Miller had been selected to be the communications director for Trump’s administration but ended up withdrawing after his affair with Delgado became public. He later became a CNN commentator but left that job following a September 2018 story in Splinter that reported on court documents in a separate lawsuit filed by Delgado claiming Miller had dosed a woman he had an extramarital affair with an abortion pill after she told him she was pregnant. He vehemently denied that was the case and sued Splinter for publishing the story. A judge ruled in favor of Splinter in the defamation suit.
Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the YMCA in Gaza City. (photo: Walid Mahmoud/Al Jazeera)
Gaza: Palestinians in Limbo for Christmas After Permits Reversal
Muhammad Shehada and Walid Mahmoud, Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "As tourists from across the globe arrive in Bethlehem and Jerusalem for the Christmas holiday, hundreds of members of the Palestinian Christian community in the besieged Gaza Strip were anxiously awaiting news on whether they would be granted permits to travel to the holy cities."
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Muhammad Shehada and Walid Mahmoud, Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "As tourists from across the globe arrive in Bethlehem and Jerusalem for the Christmas holiday, hundreds of members of the Palestinian Christian community in the besieged Gaza Strip were anxiously awaiting news on whether they would be granted permits to travel to the holy cities."
READ MORE
Heavy equipment sits on the edge of a rocky stream bank as part of U.S. Bureau of Land Management-Forest Service reclamation efforts for abandoned oil and gas wells in the eastern U.S. (photo: Bureau of Land Management)
As Fracking Companies Face Bankruptcy, US Regulators Enable Firms to Duck Cleanup Costs
Justin Mikulka, DeSmogBlog
Mikulka writes: "In over their heads with debt, U.S. shale oil and gas firms are now moving from a boom in fracking to a boom in bankruptcies."
Justin Mikulka, DeSmogBlog
Mikulka writes: "In over their heads with debt, U.S. shale oil and gas firms are now moving from a boom in fracking to a boom in bankruptcies."
EXCERPTS:
Including Cleanup Costs Would Make Extraction 'Uneconomic'
Federal and state regulators have been failing to require companies to fully fund expected cleanup liabilities, which helps mask the true cost of oil and gas production. Passing environmental cleanup costs on to the taxpayer amounts to a backdoor subsidy for the oil and gas industry.
Requiring oil and gas companies to pay for shutting down and cleaning up wells would greatly increase the cost of drilling for many oil and gas wells. The fracking industry already can't make money pumping fossil fuels out of shale in the U.S., and that's without these firms coming even close to fully funding their cleanup costs.
However, more state governments are realizing the scale of this problem and starting to look at increasing and enforcing bonding requirements for oil and gas well cleanup. However, in oil-rich places like Alberta, Canada, and Alaska, regulators are realizing that the money just isn't there.
Hey @jkenney @Alberta_UCP after your sustained attacks on the Liberal government, why are you now begging for taxpayer money to clean up Alberta's abandoned oil wells? Oil companies must pay for that. Not us. Hands off our tax dollars. The oil shareholders should pay. #cdnpoli
In 2018, the natural gas driller Amaroq Resources acquired the Nicolai Creek assets in southwest Alaska from the bankrupt Aurora Gas. This transaction was delayed when the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) announced $7 million in bonding required for the gas wells associated with the purchase. This is the point where the state government had the power to make Amaroq provide adequate bonding for well cleanup.
The AOGCC then agreed to reduce that amount to $200,000 and the deal went ahead.
Since that deal, the commission increased the minimum statewide bonding level to $400,000 per well for the first one to 10 wells. Amaroq would be required to abide by these new regulations and has appealed this decision. Company president Scott Pfoff explained that these new bonding requirements make the business "uneconomic."
Fracking Industry Wants to Dump Wastewater in Streams and Rivers to Save Money
Failure to require adequate bonding for oil and gas cleanup costs is just one of many backdoor government subsidies for the oil and gas industry. The failure to regulate flaring and venting of the potent greenhouse gas methane during oil drilling is another example.
Fracking firms, which spend a lot of borrowed money to pump out a lot of oil and gas for not much (or any) profit, are experiencing a collapse in financing. Thanks to the industry's failed business model, these companies are desperate for ways to cut costs.
One of the major costs associated with hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is acquiring, pumping and disposing of water, which, after a driller is finished with it, typically contains corrosive levels of salts and contaminants including naturally occurring radioactive materials, chemicals and oil residues. This area has become a major target for the industry to save money.
As The Washington Post pointed out in 2015 (and as I highlighted last year), when it comes to fracked shale oil and gas production, "currently there is no way to treat, store, and release the billions of gallons of wastewater at the surface." The industry's current range of (legal) approaches to disposing of its massive amounts of wastewater involves injecting it underground, which in some cases is tied to increased earthquake activity, using it to irrigate crops or de-ice roads, and sending it to municipal water treatment plants lacking equipment to properly treat it.
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