text:
openpolitics.com
ted nelson
Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Excellence
A former dean of the Yale Law School sounds a warning.
Anyone who has followed the news from college campuses over the past few years knows they are experiencing forms of unrest unseen since the late 1960s.
Now, as then, campuses have become an arena for political combat. Now, as then, race is a central issue. Now, as then, students rail against an unpopular president and an ostensibly rigged system. Now, as then, liberal professors are being bullied, denounced, demoted, threatened, sued and sometimes even assaulted by radical students.
But there are some important differences, too. None of today's students risk being drafted into an unpopular, distant war. Unlike the campus rebels of the '60s, today's student activists don't want more freedom to act, speak, and think as they please. Usually they want less.
Most strange: Today's students are not chafing under some bow-tied patriarchal WASP dispensation. Instead, they are the beneficiaries of a system put in place by professors and administrators whose political views are almost uniformly left-wing and whose campus policies indulge nearly every progressive orthodoxy.
So why all the rage?
The answer lies in the title of Anthony Kronman's necessary, humane and brave new book: "The Assault on American Excellence." Kronman's academic credentials are impeccable — he has taught at Yale for 40 years and spent a decade as dean of its law school — and his politics, so far as I can tell, are to the left of mine.
But Yale has been ground zero for recent campus unrest, including a Maoist-style struggle session against a distinguished professor, fights about "cultural appropriation," the renaming of Calhoun (as in, John C.) College, and the decision to drop the term "master" because, to some, it carried "a painful and unwelcome connotation."
It's this last decision that seems to have triggered Kronman's alarm. The word "master" may remind some students of slavery. What it really means is a person who embodies achievement, refinement, distinction — masterliness — and whose spirit is fundamentally aristocratic. Great universities are meant to nurture that spirit, not only for its own sake, but also as an essential counterweight to the leveling and conformist tendencies of democratic politics that Alexis de Tocqueville diagnosed as the most insidious threats to American civilization.
What's happening on campuses today isn't a reaction to Trump or some alleged systemic injustice, at least not really. Fundamentally, Kronman argues, it's a reaction against this aristocratic spirit — of being, as H.L. Mencken wrote, "beyond responsibility to the general masses of men, and hence superior to both their degraded longings and their no less degraded aversions." It's a revolt of the mediocre many against the excellent few. And it is being undertaken for the sake of a radical egalitarianism in which all are included, all are equal, all are special.
"In endless pronouncements of tiresome sweetness, the faculty and administrators of America's colleges and universities today insist on the overriding importance of creating a culture of inclusion on campus," Kronman writes.
"They stress the need to respect and honor the feelings of others, especially those belonging to traditionally disadvantaged groups, as an essential means to this end. In this way they give credence to the idea that feelings are trumps with a decisive authority of their own. That in turn emboldens their students to argue that their feelings are reason enough to keep certain speakers away. But this dissolves the community of conversation that the grown-ups on campus are charged to protect."
This is a bracing, even brutal, assessment. But it's true. And it explains why every successive capitulation by universities to the shibboleths of diversity and inclusion has not had the desired effect of mollifying campus radicals. On the contrary, it has tended to generate new grievances while debasing the quality of intellectual engagement.
Hence the new campus mores. Before an idea can be evaluated on its intrinsic merits, it must first be considered in light of its political ramifications. Before a speaker can be invited to campus for the potential interest of what he might have to say, he must first pass the test of inoffensiveness. Before a student can think and talk for himself, he must first announce and represent his purported identity. Before a historical figure can be judged by the standards of his time, he must first be judged by the standards of our time.
All this is meant to make students "safe." In fact, it leaves them fatally exposed. It emboldens offense-takers, promotes doublethink, coddles ignorance. It gets in the way of the muscular exchange of honest views in the service of seeking truth. Above all, it deprives the young of the training for independent mindedness that schools like Yale are supposed to provide.
I said earlier that Kronman's book is brave, but in that respect I may be giving him too much credit. Much of his illustrious career is now safely behind him; he can write as he pleases. Would an untenured professor have the guts to say what he does? The answer to the question underscores the urgency of his warning.
Source: www.nytimes.com
Tags: academia, anthony-kronman, aristocracy, assault, bully, capitulation, coddle, debase, demote, denounce, diversity, double-think, embolden, feelings, honor, independent-minded, political-correctness, radical-egalitarian, respect, revolt, safe-spaces, sue, threaten, yale
Guatemala Declares War on History
Looking for help on immigration, the Trump administration is silent in the face of Guatemala's effort to seal its dirty war archive.
With the quiet acquiescence of the Trump administration, the Guatemalan government is threatening to bar access to a collection of national archives that have been at the core of various attempts to prosecute Guatemalan politicians and officers responsible for some of Latin America's most heinous atrocities.
The move to suppress the archives is part of a larger campaign by Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, who faces allegations of receiving illicit campaign funds, to undercut the rule of law through the purge of judges, police officials, and archivists who have been at the forefront of Guatemala's effort to investigate corruption, narcotrafficking, and war crimes, according to foreign diplomats and independent experts.
But senior U.S. officials in Washington and Guatemala City have rebuffed appeals from working-level staffers and foreign diplomats to publicly challenge Guatemala's action. And U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, which is seeking Guatemala's help in stemming the flow of asylum-seekers and refugees into the United States, has remained largely silent over these developments.
One U.S. official said that America's reluctance to confront Guatemala is part of a crude unwritten bargain between Morales's government and the Trump administration: "They promise not to let brown people into the country, and we let them get away with everything else," the official said.
The "assault on the police archive [is part of a] broader attack against human rights, justice, and anti-corruption efforts," said Kate Doyle, a researcher at the National Security Archive and an expert on the Guatemalan archives. "The U.S. is saying nothing. The U.S. Embassy has been incredibly absent on these issues. They are not doing anything."
In the latest sign of U.S. reluctance to challenge Guatemala on human rights, Kimberly Breier, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, blocked the release of a public statement in early June that would have urged Guatemala to back down on its effort to restrict access to the archives.
"These archives are an essential source of information to clarify and understand critical historical truths from Guatemala's history," reads the statement obtained by Foreign Policy, which was suppressed in June. "Access to the archives by historians, victims of abuse recorded in these archives and their families, the public, and the international community, has furthered Guatemala's progress towards accountability, justice, truth and reconciliation."
Foreign Policy sought a response from the Trump administration last Wednesday. The State Department did not respond until nearly an hour and half after this article was published Tuesday.
"The United States strongly supports continued public access to the Historical Archive of the National Police," according to a statement from a spokesperson from the State Department's Bureau of Western Hemispheric Affairs. The Tuesday statement included the two sentence cited by Foreign Policy in the suppressed statement.
The initial decision to block the statement—which had been approved by the State Department press office, the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala, and several other key bureaus—came as the United States was engaged in sensitive negotiations on a so-called safe third country agreement, which would commit Guatemala to process political asylum claims from foreigners, particularly from El Salvador and Honduras, who cross its border in transit to the United States. "My understanding is Kim Breier killed this because she didn't want to do anything that would piss off the Guatemalans," said one congressional aide.
Corrupt Guatemalans' GOP Lifeline
U.S. Republicans are weakening a U.N. anti-corruption investigation into President Jimmy Morales. What are they getting in exchange?
Guatemala's 'Slow-Motion Coup' Rolls Onward
The continuing crackdown on a corruption investigatory body could allow impunity to flourish ahead of this year's elections.
Guatemalan President Offers Trump 'Cheap Labor' To Build Border Wall
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has a laugh at the expense of Donald Trump.
THE CABLE |
During the past two decades, the United States has invested in efforts to strengthen the rule of law in Guatemala,
funding a United Nations commission that investigates corruption and illicit activities by armed groups,
strengthening the judiciary, and
training and equipping police units with expertise in counternarcotics and corruption.
The United States has spent millions of dollars over the years to preserve the police archives, including through the provision of document scanners and the funding of a digitized archive maintained by scholars at the University of Texas at Austin.
Guatemala's bloody 36-year-long civil war resulted in the deaths of about 200,000 people, mostly at the hands of the Guatemalan security forces. A 1996 U.N.-brokered peace agreement paved the way for the return of exiled rebels, established a new national police force, and pried open the door to the prospect of public reckoning for crimes committed during the war. The Guatemalan military and police resisted, denying that they had preserved detailed records of their activities during the conflict. But in 2005, more than 80 million documents and records, dating from 1882 to 1997, were discovered in seven rat-infested rooms at an unused hospital building in Guatemala City owned by Guatemala's now-defunct National Police.
Since then, the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive has helped convict more than 30 military officers, soldiers and paramilitaries, including a former presidential chief of staff, Manuel Callejas y Callejas, convicted of crimes against humanity, and Guatemala's late dictator, Gen. Rios Montt—who was found guilty in 2013 of genocide for overseeing mass atrocities in the early 1980s — though his conviction was later overturned by Guatemala's constitutional court.
The archive has proved a valuable resource for U.S. law enforcement. The Department of Justice and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have used the archive to identify Guatemalan rights abusers living in the United States.
But the management of the archives has long infuriated some of those in Guatemala's most powerful business and security sectors, who believed that it has been used as a tool of the left to gain revenge against their former enemies. They have cited the role of the archive's former director, Gustavo Meoño Brenner, a former guerrilla leader who has recruited staff from the country's left wing to run the archives. In August 2018, the U.N. Development Program, which has helped administer the archive program since 2008, abruptly dismissed Meoño Brenner. He has since fled the country, following death threats.
The move to restrict archive access is only one element of a wider effort to defang justice institutions in Guatemala. In September, a landmark U.N. International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala—known by its Spanish acronym, CICIG—whose corruption investigations landed a Guatemalan president and vice president in jail will shutter its office.
The demise of the commission, which had also exposed alleged illegal campaign contributions in Morales's 2015 presidential campaign, came after a two-year-long effort by the president and his allies, including sympathetic Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials in Washington, to undermine it. Pro-military lawmakers in the Guatemalan Congress, meanwhile, have been pressing to pass an amnesty law that would result in the release of dozens of military officers and death squad leaders from jail. That effort has been stalled by Guatemala's Constitutional Court.
The effort to suppress the archives is being spearheaded by Guatemalan Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart, a popular figure in Washington, who has represented Guatemala in the safe third country negotiations.
In a May 27 press conference, Degenhart announced that his office and Guatemala's National Civil Police would seek greater control of the archive. He also threatened to limit access to the archives by foreign institutions, an apparent reference to the University of Texas at Austin, which has assembled a massive digitized version of a large portion of the police archive. "You can't allow foreign institutions to have the complete archives," Degenhart told reporters.
In response, the U.N. and other foreign envoys invited the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala, Luis Arreaga, to join ambassadors from several other countries, including Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, on a visit to the archive to voice opposition to granting police greater control over the archives. Arreaga declined. The spokesperson from the State Department Bureau of Western Hemispheric Affairs declined to comment on whether Arreaga declined the invitation.
In Washington, State Department officials sought support within the administration for a public statement that would place the United States squarely on the side of those seeking to preserve broad public access to the archives.
"The message [Guatemalan authorities] are getting is we don't care what you do as long as you do everything in your power to prevent" foreigners from reaching the U.S. border, said Rep. Norma Torres, a California Democrat who was born in Guatemala. If that requires "supporting a corrupt government, that is what [the Trump administration] is going to do."
Public messaging and statements from U.S. envoys and the State Department can have an outsized political impact in Central America, former diplomats say. "It's astonishing how important the U.S. voice is in terms of journalists, human rights defenders, civil society … in this region," said Roberta Jacobson, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. "There are clearly things that governments would do, actions it would take, but for the U.S. watching and speaking out," she said.
The lack of response, according to diplomats, emboldened Guatemala to ratchet up its campaign against the archives.
Workers organize thousands of documents found at the former National Police Bomb Disposal Unit headquarters in Guatemala City on Jan. 28, 2008.EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
In early July, the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture and Sports informed the U.N. Development Program, which administers the archive budget on behalf of foreign donors, that it would take over full management of the archives, raising questions about its financial viability. The U.N., which pays staff salaries, was forced to lay off the archives researchers and archivists.
On July 10, Guatemala fired its chief national archivist, Anna Carla Ericastilla, on the grounds that she provided access to foreign institutions, including the University of Texas, and improperly raised funds from donors to pay salaries to archivists.
Degenhart, meanwhile, has overseen a massive purge of Guatemala's reformed police force after being named interior minister in January 2018. The following month, he fired the director of the National Civil Police, Nery Ramos, along with three other top cops. All told, Degenhart fired some 25 ranking officers and more than 100 agents, including 20 of the 45 police agents assigned to work with the U.N. anti-corruption office.
Guatemalans "have observed a systematic process of dismantling the National Civil Police, ordered by the interior minister himself, who seems determined to destroy 20 years of progress," according to an August 2018 study by the Forum of Civil Society Organizations Specializing in Security, or FOSS.
The fate of the archive has become inextricably linked to the White House immigration policy.
The threat to curtail access to the archives came on the same day that Degenhart had signed an agreement with Kevin McAleenan, the acting U.S. secretary of homeland security, for the deployment of 89 agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection in Guatemala to help stem the flow of refugees through the country. It also coincided with the Trump administration's negotiation of a safe third party agreement with Degenhart.
Trump in March ordered all U.S. aid to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras to be cut until they drastically reduced the number of migrants traveling north through Mexico to attempt to enter the United States. Critics, including both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, said the move would only exacerbate the migration crisis, as U.S. assistance helped address root causes of instability that caused people to flee north.
In June, the State Department announced it would release $432 million of the $615 million in aid to Central America, but it warned that new funding would not be released until the Northern Triangle governments took more steps to address migration.
Last week, the Trump administration announced that it had reached agreement on the safe third country pact, which would commit Guatemala to processing political asylum claims from migrants who cross its border in transit to the United States. The U.S. has yet to publish a copy of the pact, leading to speculation about what the deal actually entails.
Still, the move has raised concern about the constitutionality of the agreement. Guatemala's constitutional court has already asserted that such an agreement would require approval by the Guatemalan Congress. Democratic lawmakers and other activists have criticized the move and vowed to fight it in courts. Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said it is "cruel and immoral. It is also illegal."
"Simply put, Guatemala is not a safe country for refugees and asylum seekers, as the law requires," Engel said in a statement released on July 26, after the Trump administration and Guatemalan government signed the agreement.
Source: foreignpolicy.com
Tags: amnesty, amnesty-thugs, anna-carla-ericastilla, anna-carla-ericastilla-non-collaborator, anti-corruption, anti-rule-of-law, asylum, atrocities, cicig-international-commission-against-impunity-in-guatemala, corruption, crimes-against-humanity, cruel, digitize, drug-trafficking, el-salvador, embolden, enrique-degenhart, enrique-degenhart-collaborator, enrique-degenhart-supress-archives, genocide, guatemala, guatemala-archives, guatemala-military, guatemala-third-country-agreement, guerrilla, gustavo-meoño-brenner, history, history-erase, honduras, human-rights, immigration-root-causes, immoral, impunity, instability, internet-archive, jimmy-morales, jimmy-morales-campaign-contributions, judiciary, justice, kevin-mcaleenan, kevin-mcaleenan-collaborator, kimberly-breier, kimberly-breier-collaborator, luis-arreaga, police, rebuff, revenge, rule-of-law, state-department, trump-collaborator-guatemala, trump-collaborators, university-of-texas-guatemala-archives, unwritten-bargain, war-crimes
China Hardens Trade Stance as Talks Enter New Phase
Chinese negotiators emboldened by perception U.S. was willing to compromise
The hardened battle lines were prompted by Beijing's decision to take a more aggressive stance in negotiations, according to the people following the talks. They said Beijing was emboldened by the perception that the U.S. was ready to compromise.
In particular, these people said, Mr. Trump's hectoring of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates was seen in Beijing as evidence that the president thought the U.S. economy was more fragile than he claimed.
Beijing was further encouraged by Mr. Trump's frequent claim of friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and by Mr. Trump's praise for Chinese Vice Premier Liu He for pledging to buy more U.S. soybeans.
An April 30 tweet, in which Mr. Trump coupled criticism of Mr. Powell with praise of Chinese economic policy, especially caught the eye of senior officials. "China is adding great stimulus to its economy while at the same time keeping interest rates low," Mr. Trump tweeted. "Our Federal Reserve has incessantly lifted interest rates."
"Why would you be constantly asking the Fed to lower rates if your economy is not turning weak," said Mei Xinyu, an analyst at a think tank affiliated with China's Commerce Ministry. If the U.S.'s resolve was weakening, the thinking in Beijing went, the U.S. would be more willing to cut a deal, even if Beijing hardened its positions.
That assessment, however, flies in the face of a strong U.S. economy. Gross domestic product in the first quarter rebounded from the end of 2018, with growth clocking in at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 3.2%, up from 2.2% the prior quarter. The jobs report for April, released on Friday, showed the unemployment rate falling to 3.6%, the lowest in nearly 50 years.
But at the same time, China's economy has stabilized this year following months of weakness. Although China's exports dropped unexpectedly in April, its first-quarter growth came in at 6.4%, beating market expectations. The generally improving economic picture gave Beijing more confidence in trade talks, as did a recent conference on the country's vast infrastructure-spending program, called the Belt and Road Initiative, which was attended by about 40 heads of government and state.
Chinese leaders saw the conference turnout "as China has more leverage to improve relations with other countries and with the U.S. business community," said Brookings Institution China specialist Cheng Li. "It made them play hardball."
If China misread the signals—and vice versa—it wouldn't be the first time.
The history of U.S.-China trade negotiations is filled with misunderstandings, as the two nations, with very different political systems, struggle to figure out each other's intentions.
.. In another apparent sign of mixed signals, Trump administration officials had thought they had made it clear that they were weary of negotiations and that it was time for Beijing to make specific commitments to change laws, including adding protections for intellectual property and barring the forced transfer of U.S. technology.
As talks resume Thursday, one big question mark is whether China will agree to U.S. demands for changes in Chinese law to implement the trade deal. Beijing maintains this would impinge on Chinese sovereignty and take too long to implement, but Beijing had made similar commitments in prior trade deals, including those it signed to join the WTO in 2001.
U.S. officials say Beijing has failed to make good on those commitments, while China has promised to further liberalize its economy.
"The U.S. is correct to seek a multiprong approach of not relying solely on commitments but also actually changes to the laws, so as to ensure Chinese leadership intentions are fully conveyed down to all local levels of government," said Harvard Law Professor Mark Wu.
Source: www.wsj.com
Tags: china-intellectual-property, china-us-trade-war, economy, embolden, federal-reserve, interest-rates, trump-china, trump-federal-reserve-criticism, trump-jerome-pay-powell, trump-twitter
Trump's Wall, Trump's Shutdown and Trump's Side of the Story
WASHINGTON — At first, he vowed to "take the mantle" for closing part of the federal government. Then he blamed Democrats, saying they "now own the shutdown." By Friday, President Trump was back to owning it again. "I'm very proud of doing what I'm doing," he declared.
Two weeks into the showdown over a border wall, Mr. Trump is now crafting his own narrative of the confrontation that has come to consume his presidency. Rather than a failure of negotiation, the shutdown has become a test of political virility, one in which he insists he is receiving surreptitious support from unlikely quarters.
Not only are
national security hawks cheering him on to defend a porous southern border, but so too are
former presidents who he says have secretly confessed to him that they should have done what he is doing. Not only do
federal employees accept being furloughed or forced to work without wages,
they have assured him that they would give up paychecks so that he can stand strong.
Never mind how implausible such assertions might seem. The details do not matter to Mr. Trump as much as dominating the debate. After an oddly quiescent holiday season in which he complained via Twitter about being left at home alone — "poor me" — he has taken the public stage this week clearly intent on framing the conflict on his own terms.
People close to the president described him as emboldened since members of Congress returned to Washington after the break, giving him not only a clear target to swing at but helping him focus on a fight that he is convinced is a political winner. One aide said Mr. Trump believes he has gained the upper hand in the public battle.
Although surveys at first showed more Americans blaming him for the shutdown than Democrats, later polling showed the fault more evenly split. And the voters he cares most about, his core conservative supporters, are more enthusiastic than the public at large. He has told people that "my people" love the fight, and that he believes he is winning.
In the past three days, Mr. Trump has appeared in public three times to get his version of the story out while Democrats celebrated their takeover of the House. At a lengthy cabinet meeting on Wednesday, an appearance with border patrol union leaders on Thursday and a news conference with Republican congressional leaders in the Rose Garden on Friday, he engaged in quintessentially Trumpian stream of conscious discussions that ranged widely and unpredictably.
At one point, he argued that the Soviet Union was right to invade Afghanistan in 1979 to stop terrorists, a revisionist version that provoked a strong reaction in Kabul and earned a sharp rebuke from the often supportive editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, which said, "We cannot recall a more absurd misstatement of history by an American President."
At another point, Mr. Trump mocked India for doing no more in Afghanistan than building a library, which generated headlines in New Delhi about the "jab" at its prime minister, not to mention more head scratching because, according to Indian news media, the country has not built a library in Afghanistan in many years.
He repeatedly claimed that the new trade agreement he has negotiated with Mexico and Canada means that Mexico really is paying for the wall, even though the pact has yet to be approved by Congress and has no direct connection to border security. He has made misleading claims about how many terrorists might be coming across the border.
Mr. Trump's version of events differed even from the other people in the room at Friday's meeting at the White House. When Democratic congressional leaders emerged after two hours, they described a "contentious" session with no meaningful progress as the president threatened to keep the government closed for "months or even years." When Mr. Trump emerged shortly afterward, he described a "very, very productive meeting" and predicted the standoff could be "fixed very quickly."
Two people briefed on the meeting said that White House officials viewed the conversation as the first civil discussion that had taken place between the two sides, and it left some of Mr. Trump's aides hopeful. Indeed, Mr. Trump made a point of publicly saying nothing but relatively positive things about the Democrats on Friday.
Optimistic that a deal really is within reach, the president said he would have Vice President Mike Pence; Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary; and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, meet with Democrats over the weekend.
But there were questions about his own side of the aisle. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, unlike other congressional Republican leaders, was not present for the Rose Garden news conference. "He's running the Senate," Mr. Trump explained, even though the Senate had adjourned hours earlier and Mr. McConnell's spokesman said the senator did not know about the news conference.
The president nonetheless was feeling energized by support he said he had received for the fight — including the very federal employees who are not being paid as a result of the partial shutdown.
"A lot of people that you think are upset — and certainly they're not thrilled — but they say, 'Sir, do the right thing, we need border security,'" Mr. Trump said. "And these are people that won't be getting paid."
As for his predecessors, he said, "This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me, and they all know it. Some of them have told me that we should have done it."
By all public accounts, Mr. Trump had not spoken with his living predecessors since his inauguration until former President George Bush died last month. Mr. Trump called Mr. Bush's son, former President George W. Bush, to offer condolences, but the subject of the wall did not come up, according to Mr. Bush's office. A few days later, at the elder Mr. Bush's funeral, Mr. Trump encountered his predecessors for the first time since taking office, but he sat quietly without talking with them during the service.
The younger Mr. Bush built miles of wall and fencing along the Mexico line while he was president, but said it could not cover the entire border and insisted that enforcement should be coupled with an overhaul of immigration law to permit many people in the country illegally to stay. Former President Barack Obama has repeatedly criticized Mr. Trump's proposed wall, and former President Jimmy Carter has said technological improvements would be more effective at protecting the border.
The White House did not say afterward which presidents Mr. Trump was referring to, but a senior administration official said he was probably referring to public comments his predecessors have made about the need for border security, not necessarily for a wall specifically.
As he careened this week from subject to subject and assertion to assertion, an energized Mr. Trump seemed to be enjoying himself. He went on for more than an hour and a half on Wednesday and another hour on Friday.
"Should we keep this going or not, folks?" he asked reporters at one point before noticing that it was a cold January day in the Rose Garden.
"Should we keep this going a little bit longer?" he asked again. "Let me know when you get tired."
One thing Mr. Trump was not was tired.
Tags: border-wall, embolden, fight, government-shutdown, india, manhood, mocking, rebuke, stream-of-consciousness, trump-everything-is-going-well, trump-soviet-union-afghanistan-invaision, virility, wall-street-journal
The Democrats' Best Response to Republican Power Grabs
In Michigan and Wisconsin, lame duck Republican-majority legislatures are enacting laws to limit the powers of incoming Democratic governors. Two years ago in North Carolina, the same happened. These moves are particularly striking examples of recent aggressive Republican procedural hardball. Whatever the right rules are for the separation of powers, they should apply to both parties and not be changed opportunistically.
.. Should they go tit-for-tat and escalate procedural shenanigans, rules-stretching and rules-breaking? Or should they strive, leading by good example, to maintain a system of norms that have provided political stability in the hopes that a more moderate, reasonable Republican Party will re-emerge?
.. Retaliating in kind could aggravate already deep polarization and wreck what's left of our political norms. Restraint, on the other hand, would establish new norms that establish electoral disadvantages for Democrats and embolden Republicans.
.. There is a better option, and it also happens to be the best option. Democrats can use the Republican hardball against them by weaving together the Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina cases into a larger story to take to voters in 2020: the indictment of Republican attacks on democracy accompanied by an aggressive reform agenda for strengthening constitutional norms and democratic procedures.
.. But a very clear narrative or popular revulsion — or both — can change that. Examples are found in the Progressive Era around the turn of the 20th century and again in the immediate aftermath of Watergate, when procedural reform gained traction, for better or for worse, and both term limits and campaign finance reform had moments of widespread popular enthusiasm. There's good reason to think that the next two years offer the opportunity to create such a corruption narrative and to take advantage of what's likely to be growing revulsion.
.. President Trump's administration has made this job easier: The midterm election results showed that its scandals and disgrace have already focused voters' attention. That's not the time for retaliation and escalation. It's the time offer prescriptions for rebuilding the rules that accompany a diagnosis that helps voters make sense of how badly wrong things have gone. Democrats can try to punish Republicans at the ballot box by trying to strengthen rather than weaken democratic norms.
The obvious place to begin is with the White House itself. Proposals to
require presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns,
give teeth to the Emoluments Clause,
strengthen anti-nepotism rules that should keep unqualified family members out of sensitive offices,
extend conflict-of-interest rules to include the president, and
turn blind trust norms into binding rules
won't be hard to understand under Mr. Trump. They will reinforce voters' distrust of the president while also offering ways to prevent his abuses from becoming standard practice.
.. Republican procedural abuses at the state level precede the Trump administration, but they can fairly be connected to it. Most important is disenfranchisement. Democrats should emphasize the sustained nationwide Republican effort to limit access to the ballot and offer proposals to
restore the Voting Rights Act,
end felon disenfranchisement,
undo restrictive voter identification rules,
ease registration,
protect early voting and
ensure that voting places are more widely and evenly distributed.
Not only has Mr. Trump been on the wrong side of those issues, encouraging state crackdowns on imagined millions of noncitizen voters; but voting restrictions in narrowly won Midwestern states got him closer to the White House in the first place.
.. The package of reforms that the incoming House Democratic majority intends to introduce as its symbolic first bill, H.R. 1, contains some of these ideas mixed in with others that I think will muddy the message, but it's the right kind of beginning.
.. Other proposals, from statehood for the District of Columbia to gerrymandering reform, then make sense as part of the same effort to strengthen representation and fair democratic practice.
.. This is also the best approach for Democrats in the short term because they're not in a strong position to retaliate even if an angry activist base wants them to. Despite some losses last month, Republicans remain in control of more governor's seats and more state legislatures. More important, making things worse right now really is the wrong thing to do. If Democrats follow a course of unrestrained but legal tactics, we could find ourselves embroiled in even more severe dysfunction and a constitutional crisis. Tit for tat is sometimes necessary to enforce norms, but escalation in an already seriously polarized environment is dangerous.
.. If Democrats can offer a unifying indictment tying Republican attacks on democratic norms to Trump administration abuses, along with a coherent package of serious proposals to restore procedural fairness, voters will have a way of making sense of new examples of Republican sharp dealing.
.. Proposals to shorten lame duck legislative sessions and to constrain their authority, for example, would reinforce the idea that Republicans have been the party of procedural abuses and unfairness while still setting forth a good neutral rule.
.. This is the alternative to doing nothing or making things worse: seek to punish Republicans in 2020 by offering a vision of how to make things better.
Tags: abuse, anti-democratic, anti-retaliation, constitutional-crisis, dysfunction, embolden, escalation, felon-disenfranchisement, michigan-anti-democratic, norms, north-carolina-anti-democratic, opportunism, power-grab, republican-hardball, rules-breaking, rules-stretching, unfair, voter-registration, voting-rights-act, wisconsin-anti-democratic
U.S. Officials 'at a Fucking Loss' Over Latest Russia Sellout
Current and former American diplomats are expressing disgust and horror over the White House's willingness to entertain permitting Russian officials to question a prominent former U.S. ambassador.
.. "It's beyond disgraceful. It's fundamentally ignorant with regard to how we conduct diplomacy or what that means. It really puts in jeopardy the professional independence of diplomats anywhere in the world, if the consequence of their actions is going to be potentially being turned over to a foreign government,"
.. During President Trump's press conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Putin pivoted a question about extraditing the 12 Russian intelligence officers whom Robert Mueller has indicted into a quid pro quo for going after longtime betes noire currently beyond his reach.
.. Putin singled out Bill Browder, whose exposure of widespread Russian tax fraud led to the passage of a U.S. human rights sanctions law Putin hates. Standing next to Trump, the Russian president accused Browder of masterminding an illegal campaign contribution to Hillary Clinton and alleging vaguely that he had "solid reason to believe that some intelligence officers guided these transactions." Should Trump permit the Russians to question people around Browder, Putin hinted, he will let Mueller's people be "present at questioning" of the intelligence officers.
.. On Wednesday, Russian prosecutors escalated the stakes. The prosecutor-general's office said it wanted to interview Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, another Putin bete noire. McFaul—the Obama-era ambassador to Moscow—replied on Twitter that the Russians know well that he wasn't even in Russia during the relevant time frame for any case against Browder.
.. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to rule out permitting the Russians to question McFaul. Sanders said that there had been "some conversation" in Helsinki about the issue, though Trump made no "commitment."
.. Heather Nauert called the Russian request for McFaul "absolutely absurd"—which was closer in line with how former U.S. diplomats viewed Putin's gambit."If the U.S. would make a former diplomat avail for questioning by a foreign government without evidence of wrongdoing, then that would be quite horrifying," said Ron Neumann,
.. Susan Rice, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Barack Obama's national security adviser, tweeted that the lack of commitment to protecting McFaul was "beyond outrageous.
.. If the White House cannot defend and protect our diplomats, like our service members, they are serving a hostile foreign power not the American people."
.. "To even hint that there's some element of credibility to Russian disruptions and distractions puts a bullseye on the back of any diplomat and invites authoritarian regimes to bully and threaten American public servants for the crime of doing their job
.. Ned Price, a former CIA analyst and spokesman for the Obama National Security Council, said Sanders' comments made Trump look "even weaker" than during Trump's Monday press conference with Putin. "Trump has always been all too eager to cave to Putin, but, as far as we know, it'd been largely in the abstract. He sells out our intelligence community, attacks NATO, shelves our commitment to human rights. But Putin now has specific demands in the form of human beings—one of them formerly our designated representative to Russia," Price said.
.. "By failing to reject the idea out of hand – immediately and forcefully – Trump signaled that absolutely nothing is off limits when it comes to Putin. And just as shocking, he's willing to play Putin's brand of ball, in which the world is purely transactional and lives are expendable."
.. The current U.S. diplomat said the openness to turning over McFaul capped off a shocking week for U.S. geopolitics.
.. "The president has first and foremost his interests at the top of his mind, as opposed to the government's. That's very clear over the past week and a half, between shitting on our NATO allies and kissing Putin's ass," the diplomat said. "He cares more about himself than the nation and any of us who serve it."The diplomat continued: "Either he's compromised by Putin or he's a pussy, in which case he should grab himself."
Source: www.thedailybeast.com
Tags: bête-noire, bill-browder, cave-to, compromised, decline-to-rule-out, defend-staff, diplomacy, disgust, embolden, embolden-authoritarians, expendable, gambit, helsinki-trump-putin, horrifying, horror, ignorant, michael-mcfaul, no-evidence, nothing-off-limits, putin-demands, putin-investigation-offers, putin-pivot, quid-pro-quo, transactional, trump-first, trump-self-interest, vladimir-putin, vladimir-putin-bill-browder, vladimir-putin-michael-mcfaul
Kennedy Retires — It's On!
Whoever accepts President Trump's call for the nomination will be one of the bravest men or women in public life, because he or she is going to be attacked with unrelenting fury from the Left.
.. For a lot of white evangelicals, this moment was worth every migrant child forever traumatized, every refugee family denied safety, every sexual assault victim betrayed, every white nationalist emboldened, every lie told. These are the ends that justified the means.
.. Bears repeating: Had Clinton won, she'd likely have replaced Scalia, Kennedy, and eventually Ginsburg (85) and Breyer (79). -That'd make six relatively young liberal justices and a lasting majority. -Now, it'll be five conservatives, all 70 and under.
.. (Chuck Schumer quite understandably called on McConnell to follow the same policy he did to deny Merrick Garland a hearing in an election year. McConnell, a hardballer if ever there was one, quite understandably didn't take this seriously.)
.. If Trump is re-elected in 2020, and he still has a Republican Senate, there is a decent chance that he could leave office with a 7-2 conservative majority.
.. First, the hearings could well be a catalyst for real violence
.. Let's revisit this January piece from National Review's Michael Brendan Dougherty:
I've started to think that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy may be the one man preventing the United States from political breakdown.
.. both sides have reason to pity themselves as the losers of the [political] system. Partisan Democrats, with some justification, feel that the constitutional system favors dirt (geography), so it rewards Republicans with too many senators and even electoral votes than they would otherwise win. Many partisan Republicans also feel that their votes go for naught, and that elites in the media, donor class, and social scene of Washington, D.C., constantly make Republicans under-deliver on their promises.
.. Kennedy deals out victories and defeats to each side — giving slightly more defeats to social conservatives. In effect, he constrains what each side can do to the other. His mercurial jurisprudence replicates and even gives the savor of legitimacy to a closely divided country.
.. So I've started to worry that if the Court soon consolidates to the left or the right, partisans on the losing end of that bargain will swiftly lose faith in democracy itself. A non-swinging Supreme Court would give the impression of super-charging the ability of one party to act, and restraining its competitor. A consolidated Supreme Court could open up whole new fields of legislation for one side to act against the other. At that point, what would happen?
.. Overturning Roe would only mean that regulating abortion returns to the states. If you live in a socially liberal state now, you don't have anything to worry about. That's not going to make you happy, but it's not Armageddon. And there is no realistic chance that Obergefell will be overturned. But even if it were, again, that only means that the gay marriage question devolves to the states. Gay marriage is overwhelmingly popular. There might be a handful of Southern states (plus Utah) that might vote against it, in a popular referendum. But even they would fall eventually. Same-sex marriage isn't an issue for younger voters, who support it by a wide margin.
.. Kennedy retiring is where the Roy Moore own goal really, really hurts. We now only have 51 votes, but two of those are Murkowski and Susan Collins, who will likely be reluctant to support a 5th pro-life justice. Mitch will have to put the screws on to get to 50.
.. However, had Hillary Clinton won, conservatives would be in the same miserable position today as liberals are.
It is not at all healthy for the republic that the Supreme Court matters so much. But we are where we are.
Source: www.theamericanconservative.com
Tags: abortion, abortion-federalize, anthony-kennedy, anthony-kennedy-retirement, betrayal, embolden, ends-justify-means, evangelicals, family-separation, hardball, lies, lisa-murkowski, merrick-garland, political-hardball, refugees, sexual-assault, supreme-court, supreme-court-imporance, susan-collins, trump-faustian-bargain, violence, violence-potential, white-evangelicals, white-nationalists
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Rick Wilson, "Everything Trump Touches Dies"
Frank Schaeffer on American Evangelicalism and Its Roman Catholic Allies
INTJ's Special Love Language
Was the 2020 Election Stolen?
Did Philadelphia Use Dominion Voting Machines in the 2020 Election?
Donald Trump & Joe Biden 1st Presidential Debate 2020 (Transcript)
President Trump's "Peaceful Transfer of Power" "Bluff"
Naked Quotations
US could have a digital currency in 12-18 months.
Investment Portfolios: Diversification Strategies
What will Democrats have to pay Trump to leave?
Why Did Corporations "Waste their Capital"?
Why did corporations borrow to buy back their stock rather than invest it for productive purposes?
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"A special thanks to you Willow and Vida Events for all the organizing and administrative work you do to make this event better and better every year, we wouldn't be where we are if it wasn't for all your hard work and effort."
Once again the Building Trades of Alberta (BTA) and Vida Events stepped up to the plate to hit a weekend of team building, family fun, and fundraising out of the park! There's a whole lot more than peanuts and Cracker Jacks at this annual event. This year we raised over $2,600.00 for the BTA Charitable Foundation. We loaded the bases with camping, a silent auction, a tug of war competition, and more. Thank you for sharing the day with us and cheering on your favourite Slugfest teams!
Visit the Solidarity Slugfest website for details and photos of last year's action.
New and familiar Slugfest fans gathered at Okotoks On Deck for a great weekend of slo-pitch, fundraising, and family fun. Seven teams consisting of Building Trades of Alberta members demonstrated outstanding camaraderie and sportsmanship throughout the skills competition and tournament games. A roving magician, glitter tattoo artist, and dunk tank entertained those off the field, while a silent auction and 50/50 draw raised over $4,500 for the Calgary Poppy Fund & Veterans' Food Bank!
Congratulations to the Carpenters Local 2103 for taking 1st place in the tournament! Second place went to the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 496, and 3rd to the Insulators Local 110. Thank you to all sponsors, volunteers, and attendees for another successful event!
The Building Trades of Alberta, Vida Events and Affiliated Tournament Unions host a recreational slo-pitch tournament at the Okotoks On Deck Recreation Park called the Solidarity SlugFest. This annual tournament is an opportunity for the Building Trades of Alberta affiliated unions to celebrate the camaraderie within the trades and have some fun with family and friends.
This is a family friendly event that is fun for all ages. With camping available right on-site we encourage players and their families and friends to join us for the entire weekend and take in all the activities. In 2015 over $5,000 was raised in support of the Veteran's Food Bank and the Building Trades Charitable Foundation.
Members from at least eight Southern & Northern Alberta Trade Unions came together on September 12-13th at the Okotoks On Deck Recreation Park to compete in the 3rd Annual Solidarity SlugFest slo-pitch tournament. Activities included bouncy castles, air brush tattoos, silent auction, 50/50, dunk tank and a roving magician/balloon twister. We are proud to continually support the Building Trades of Alberta Charitable Foundation and the Calgary Poppy Fund & Veterans Food Bank through these annual tournaments and we are proud to share that a total of $5691.31 was raised at the 2015 Solidarity SlugFest tournament. Congrats to the organizing committee, players, spectators, supporters and our are generous sponsors.
Members from seven Southern & Northern Alberta Trade Unions came together on September 5-7th at the Okotoks On Deck Recreation Park to compete in the 2nd Annual Solidarity SlugFest slo-pitch tournament. Through a silent auction, 50/50 draw and the team competition $5000 was raised in support of the Building Trades of Alberta Charitable Foundation and the Calgary Poppy Fund & Veterans Food Bank. Thank you to all of our volunteers and generous sponsors/supporters for making this event a success. And, a BIG Congratulations to the Operating Engineers Local 955 for taking home the trophy!!! Check out the event photos HERE!
Members from six different Southern Alberta Trade Unions came together on September 28-29th at the Okotoks On Deck Recreation Park to compete in the 1st Annual Solidarity SlugFest slo-pitch tournament. With a total of 7 teams registered and many family members and friends in attendance the weekend included a 50/50 in support of the Building Trades of AB Charitable Foundation, a variety of activities and entertainment for all ages, player giveaway swag bags, tournament champions and best dressed team prizing and lots of great camaraderie between union members and representatives. A BIG thank you to all of our sponsors, supporters and the organizing committee for pulling off such a great event on such a short timeline. CONGRATS to the Ironworkers Local 725 White team for taking 1st place!


text:
Penelas, who has spent the past 16 years in the private sector, is back on the campaign trail.
Photo: Robert Nickelsberg / Liaison Agency
Penelas - pictured here during his term as mayor - pushed through a half-cent sales tax designed to Metrorail service into South Dade.
Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Former Florida Democratic star Alex Penelas makes a comeback
Amy Martinez | 3/25/2020
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Once the golden boy of the Democratic Party in Florida, Alex Penelas fell out of favor and left the public eye 16 years ago. Now he's running for his old job as mayor in the state's biggest county.
In 2004, Alex Penelas was wrapping up his eighth year as Miami-Dade County mayor and running for U.S. Senate, seeking to replace Bob Graham, who was retiring.
Penelas, who had never lost a campaign since entering politics nearly two decades earlier, seemed a shoo-in. The son of Cuban refugees, he appealed to Hispanic voters and donors. He had charisma and good looks — People magazine named him sexiest politician in 1999 — and he could point to key accomplishments, including universal prekindergarten education and more money for local transit.
But Penelas, a Democrat, also was dogged by allegations of corruption and concerns that he was too close to lobbyists and special interests. Some party loyalists hadn't forgiven him for his criticism of the Clinton administration's handling of Elian Gonzalez, the shipwrecked Cuban boy caught in a tug-of-war between Miami's exile community and Fidel Castro, and for what they perceived as Penelas' tepid support of Al Gore during the 2000 presidential campaign.
That August, Penelas failed to advance beyond the Democratic primary for the 2004 Senate race. Penelas, then 43, threw himself into fatherhood, launched a new career as a real estate investor and generally stayed out of the political spotlight for 15 years until he announced in October he would run again for his old job as Miami-Dade mayor.
"The best thing that ever happened to me was losing that election," he says. "I was burned out. I was ready for a break, and my family really needed me at home."
Penelas, now 58, is the son of a Cuban labor leader who was anti-communist and condemned to death by Castro. The elder Penelas sought sanctuary at the Costa Rican embassy in Havana as Penelas' mother and two older brothers fled to Miami. In 1961, his father joined them in Miami, where Penelas was born later that year.
"I was actually a promise because they didn't think they'd see each other again — if in fact they did, they'd have another child," he says.
Penelas grew up in Hialeah in a house his parents purchased for $17,000. "It was $100 down and $100 a month. I remember my father telling me that if he'd had $1,000 at the time and bought 10 homes, he would've been set for life," Penelas says.
His father worked various jobs, including as a tomato picker and hotel waiter. His mother worked as a seamstress and hotel housekeeper. Penelas, who speaks both English and Spanish, studied political science at Biscayne College, now St. Thomas University, and got his law degree from the University of Miami in 1985.
By his 30th birthday, he'd become a rising star in the local Democratic Party. At 25, he was the youngest person ever elected to the Hialeah City Council. Three years later, he won election to the Miami-Dade County Commission, also as the youngest ever.
In 1996, Miami-Dade voters decided to create a new position of executive mayor and elected Penelas to the first of two four-year terms. "When you're that young, everyone says, 'No, no, no. Wait your turn.' I always pooh-poohed that," Penelas says.
His most difficult test came in November 1999, after a boy, Elian Gonzalez, was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast of South Florida. A small boat carrying Gonzalez and a dozen other Cuban refugees had capsized, drowning most on board, including his mother and stepfather.
The boy's father, who remained in Cuba, and the Castro government demanded that the U.S. return Gonzalez, claiming he'd been taken from the country illegally, but his relatives in Miami refused to give him up. Meanwhile, U.S. immigration policy dictated that Gonzalez should be repatriated unless he went to court and received political asylum.
As anti-Castro protesters gathered in Little Havana to oppose the boy's repatriation, Penelas announced that local police would have nothing to do with the child's removal and said he'd hold the Clinton administration responsible "if blood is shed on the streets," though he later backtracked to say local police would "maintain order" regardless of the administration's decision.
The seven-month saga ended with federal agents taking Gonzalez at gunpoint from the home of his Miami relatives and sending him back to Cuba. Penelas says he was right — and even prescient — in breaking with the Clinton administration over local support for federal immigration enforcement.
"In many ways, I think Elian was the first example of a sanctuary cities case," he says. "I was raked over the coals for saying Miami-Dade County police would not pull the child out of the house, that they're not going to serve as enforcement officials. Today, when a local elected official says something like that, they are widely applauded."
While his stance played well with Miami's Cuban exile community, Democrat loyalists accused Penelas of not being a team player, and the 2000 presidential election and re-count only widened the rift.
After securing his second mayoral term in September 2000, Penelas took a trade mission trip to Spain and made no campaign appearances for Gore in the run-up to the general election. When the Miami-Dade canvassing board decided to stop manually counting ballots amid protests from Republicans, Penelas did not intervene.
George W. Bush ultimately was declared the winner in Florida, and four years later, as Penelas ran for the U.S. Senate, Gore told the Miami Herald that Penelas was the "single most treacherous and dishonest person" he'd dealt with in 2000. Penelas maintained that he was "proud to support" Gore's campaign and did not have the authority to keep the re-count going.
He says he's on good terms with the Democratic Party these days, adding, "They've tried to recruit me at least four times to run for Congress, and they always call for money."
Alex Penelas, 58
Occupation: Real estate investor and attorney
Hometown: Miami Lakes
Education: Law degree from the University of Miami, 1985; bachelor's in political science from St. Thomas University (then Biscayne College), 1981
Family: Married to Lilliam for 26 years. Three children: William, 25; Christopher, 22; and Alexandra, 8
Political Offices: Hialeah City Council, 1987-90; Miami-Dade County Commission, 1990-96; Miami-Dade mayor, 1996-2004
Refocusing
In 2002, as mayor, Penelas scored two major victories: One when Miami-Dade voters approved an additional half-cent sales tax to fund transit projects, and the other when Floridians in favor of an amendment to the state constitution that required publicly funded pre-K education for all 4-year-olds.
Former Miami Herald Publisher Dave Lawrence, who retired from the news business in 1999 to advocate for early childhood education, says universal pre-K would not have happened without Penelas. He says Penelas raised nearly $2 million for the petition drive to get the measure on the ballot and traveled across the state to raise public support. "When it came to the subject of children, he was totally on board," Lawrence says.
In 2004, having reached his term limit as mayor, Penelas joined the race to succeed Graham, a Miami Democrat, as senator. Penelas struggled to distance himself from public corruption scandals. South Florida Sun-Sentinel columnist Buddy Nevins dubbed Penelas "Teflon Alex" because "scandal has swirled around him, but nothing has stuck. Inside deals, payoffs and political kickbacks are a way of life in Miami- Dade County government," Nevins wrote.
Penelas finished a distant third in the Democratic primary to then-U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch and former state Education Commissioner Betty Castor, who ultimately lost in the general election to Republican Mel Martinez.
"I think most of us on the team took it harder than he did," says Javier Alberto Soto, Penelas' chief of staff from 2000-04. "His attitude was very much like, 'It's OK; it wasn't meant to be.' "
Soto, who now heads the non-profit Denver Foundation, Colorado's oldest and largest community foundation, says Penelas had struggled with how much time his career was taking away from his wife, Lilliam, and their two young sons. "He had a sense he was missing out on some really special moments."
After leaving office, Penelas retreated from public life and began investing in apartment buildings in Little Havana and Hialeah. He also became a paid TV pundit for Univision, taught a class in public policy at St. Thomas University and consulted occasionally on government issues for businesses. But he says his priority was always his family. "I spent every night with them on some baseball field, soccer field or basketball court," he says. "I would not trade that for the world."
His strategy as a real estate investor was to buy and hold rental properties. He says he sought apartment buildings in inexpensive neighborhoods to keep financing costs low and ensure that rents remained affordable for middle- and working-class renters.
He says he's gained a new perspective on how government can help or hurt businesses and exacerbate the affordable housing crisis with regulations that drive up costs. He says there's no reason why apartment buildings near bus and rail lines should have to provide two parking spaces per unit — one space for every two units would make more sense, he says — and he believes the county should consider offering a subsidy to investors who buy modest apartment buildings in an up market. Such a subsidy could be tied to a requirement that the new owners not raise rents, he says.
He and Lilliam live in Miami Lakes, a suburb in northwest Miami-Dade, and now have a daughter, Alexandra, a second- grader in public school. Their older son, William, was a finance manager for Miami-Dade's Super Bowl host committee, and their younger son, Christopher, is a law student at the University of Miami.
Lilliam, known for being direct and candid, says she'd prefer her husband not return to politics. "We were at a place in our lives where we had peace and happiness," she says. "We could go where we wanted, no questions asked." Giving up that privacy "is not something I do without reservation," she adds.
A return to public office also would mean a pay cut for Penelas, who says he's doesn't need the money from the job but declines to disclose his annual income or net worth. The current mayor's salary is $250,000.
"Trust me, I'd make less money as mayor," he says. "I'm doing this because I feel I should give back. I think that liberates me to tackle challenges without the concern of 'Oh, is this going to hurt my political career?'"
He says he was motivated to run for mayor again after the county commission voted in 2018 to fund a $243-million rapid-transit bus line rather than a $1.3-billion rail extension in South Dade — a decision he opposed. The half-cent sales tax that passed under Penelas in 2002 carried a promise of extending Metrorail service into south Dade (among other things), but the money mostly has gone to subsidizing existing transit operations and balancing the budget, he says.
In addition to funding rail for south Dade, he's calling on the county to stop using transit tax dollars to balance the budget and to begin paying back the money that was diverted from rail and bus projects.
"The transit mess we have today I predicted 20 years ago. I told the community we were going to have this problem," he says. "I had the courage to do something about it, only to see how that money has been grossly misspent over the last 15 years."
His opponents for mayor include four sitting county commissioners, all of whom are running to succeed the term-limited Carlos Gimenez, who hopes to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in Florida's 26th district.
So far, Penelas has raised about $3.1 million — at least 30% more than his closest competitor, County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava. His biggest donor is Miami billionaire Mike Fernandez, who heads the private equity firm MBF Healthcare Partners.
The Cuba-born Fernandez, a prominent backer of Jeb Bush, broke with the Republican Party in 2016 over President Trump's immigration rhetoric and policies and has given more than $300,000 to Penelas' campaign.
"Some people say he left politics because of conflict with the Democratic Party. Whatever the reason, I believe it works out for the best," Fernandez says. "Lifelong politicians tend to do things because they've been established, not necessarily because they work. You change your perspective once you get into the private sector. The greatest benefit Alex has is his private-sector experience."
In a county where people often make small talk about traffic congestion, mass transit is shaping up to be a major issue. During a debate at a firefighters' union hall last October, Penelas' oppo nents accused him of misleading voters to believe the half-cent sales tax would solve their transportation problems. "Let's not lie to people once again," Levine Cava said.
Penelas acknowledged that the taxes — a total of $3.4 billion since 2002 — had underdelivered, but not because of any overzealous promises he made, he said. "I find it very interesting that some of the very same individuals who have been consistently voting to misspend that money for the last eight, nine or 10 years now have this very convenient political narrative," he said.
In 2018, Penelas quit his job at Univision to campaign for then-Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum. Penelas' appearance on Univision's news programs several times a week made him a familiar face to viewers. "For Spanish speakers, I never left their living room, and the polling shows that," he says.
This time around, Penelas says he has no bigger ambitions than the mayor's office. "I love dealing with complex problems in challenging communities like this. That's what I enjoy. Some would even suggest I'm good at it," he says. "This may sound corny, but I think it's a calling. It's the time and place for me to return. The kind of leadership I can provide is the kind of leadership we need. We don't need someone who's just going to do this because it's the next step on the ladder."
In 2007, Miami-Dade adopted a strong-mayor system, giving today's mayor more control over the county bureaucracy, he says. If elected again, he says, he wouldn't let himself get dragged into "the drama and soap operas that come with politics."
At a recent event for the Miami Lakes Chamber of Commerce, Penelas chatted with local real estate developer Stuart Wylie, president and CEO of the Graham Cos. "I heard you're killing it," Wylie said, referring to Penelas' campaign. Penelas, saying little about how things were going, replied, "If it happens, it happens."
Falling out of Favor
Penelas took a hit from the Democratic Party for his criticism of the Clinton administration's handling of the Elian Gonzalez case and for what many saw as his lukewarm support of 2000 presidential candidate Al Gore, who called Penelas "the single most treacherous and dishonest person" he'd dealt with.
Foreign-Born: 53%
Spanish-Speaking: 66%
College Degree: 29%
Poverty Rate: 19%
Average Commute: 32.2 minutes
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Data USA
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, a former firefighter and fire chief for the city of Miami, has reached his term limit and is running for Congress against Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. Gimenez, a Republican, became county mayor in 2011 after winning a special election triggered by the recall of former mayor Carlos Alvarez, whose decision to raise property taxes during the Great Recession sparked public outrage. Six people, including Alex Penelas, are running to succeed Gimenez in the county's non-partisan mayoral race.
Monique Nicole Barley: The Democrat from north Miami-Dade is a first-time candidate for local office and lives in a county public housing complex with her mother and three children. She's the daughter of former state Rep. Roy Hardemon.
Steve Bovo: The Republican from Hialeah is on the Miami-Dade County Commission and was a member of the Florida House from 2009-11. He's said to be close to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
Daniella Levine Cava: The South Dade Democrat is on the Miami-Dade County Commission and is a former social worker.
Jean Monestime: The Democrat from North Miami is the first Haitian-American member of the Miami-Dade County Commission and works as a real estate broker.
Xavier Suarez: An Independent candidate from Miami, he is also on the Miami-Dade County Commission. He is the father of Republican Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. The elder Suarez was Miami mayor himself from 1985-93 and again from 1997-98.
A Brother's Struggle
While giving a speech at a lunch event for the Miami Lakes Chamber of Commerce, Alex Penelas opened up about his late brother Pedro's lifelong struggles with mental illness and substance abuse.
"I remember how when I was a teenager, Pedro would barricade himself in our home with severe paranoia," Penelas told attendees. "At first, the crises were sporadic, but eventually, they presented themselves every two years or so. As his condition worsened, stabilization took longer and longer — in some cases, close to a year."
Penelas says his parents struggled to find appropriate care for Pedro and resorted many times to the Baker Act, which allows families to petition a court to involuntarily commit a mentally ill person to inpatient treatment for up to 72 hours. When Penelas was Miami-Dade County mayor, Pedro occasionally showed up, unannounced, to his public events, sending his staff scrambling to intervene and prevent any disruption. "It was horrible. When Pedro was in a crisis, he could be very aggressive, especially toward me," Penelas said.
About 10 years ago, after his mother's death and father's stroke, Penelas became Pedro's primary caregiver. In 2018, Pedro died of leukemia at 63. "Pedro lived nothing that resembled a normal life — no spouse, no children, no meaningful employment," Penelas says.
The February event marked one of the few times that Penelas has spoken publicly about his experience with his brother. He kept quiet about it during his eight years as mayor — something he now regrets — and surprised even himself when he opened up about it for the first time at an event last year in Hialeah. An attendee asked him a broad question about mental illness, and as he told his story, impromptu, the room went silent. "Everybody put their phone down and paid attention," he says. "I'm telling you, it's a major issue. I thought, 'maybe I need to talk about this more.' "
Penelas now aims to make mental health a county priority. He supports reforming the Baker Act to allow people with chronic and severe mental issues to be held involuntarily for longer than 72 hours, to end the cycle of "admissions, discharges and readmissions," he says. He also wants to reduce reimbursement barriers to mental health services and is pushing for an electronic mental health record system that makes it easier for doctors, emergency rooms and treatment centers to share patient files.
"Families are the best line of support, and we must do more to support them," he says. "When I was mayor, there were times when, quite frankly, I did not know what was the best option for Pedro. Sometimes I didn't even know where he was. If, as a mayor, I wasn't sure what to do or where to go, what is the public at large going to do?"
Read more in Florida Trend's April issue.
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Export records
Subject Topics: techniques Organisms: viruses Geographical Location: South Africa Author: DU TOIT, P. J
Safeguarding the Union's Livestock Industry. Annual Report of the Division of Veterinary Services [for 1938-40].
BACTERIOLOGY.-The avirulent spore vaccine for ANTHRAX was used on a much wider scale with good results. The issue was begun of a BLACKLEG vaccine to which alum had been added and of which the preliminary tests had given' very good results. The herd of initially uninfected cows in a...
Du Toit, P. J.
Farming in South Africa, 1940, 15, pp 480-484
BACTERIOLOGY.-The results of the block inoculation for ANTHRAX in the Transkei were the most successful recorded so far in that area. Failure to immunize horses with the ordinary vaccine was experienced, but the avirulent vaccine gave good results. Some samples of imported bone meal...
Annual Report of the Division of Veterinary Services for 1937.
The report is divided into two sections dealing with (1) laboratory work at Onderstepoort, and (2) field work. During the year a very heavy call was made on the field staff in connexion with the outbreaks of foot and mouth disease, first in the Barberton district and later in Northern Natal. These...
Farming in South Africa, 1938, 13, pp 496-497; 505-518
Annual Report of the Division of Veterinary Services.
There was a slight increase in the number of outbreaks of ANTHRAX, but the mortality was very low. In December, 1937, more than 50 herds were under regular tests for TUBERCULOSIS, and much valuable information was obtained on the value of the intradermal test with locally-made tuberculin.
During...
18th Report of the Director of Veterinary Services and Animal Industry, Onderstepoort, Pretoria.
The 18th Report of the Onderstepoort Research Laboratories has recently been published. It includes reports of work done in the year ending August, 1932. The report is grouped in ten sections, and the titles of the articles are as follows: -
PROTOZOAL DISEASES.-Bovine Anaplasmosis. A Method of...
Pretoria: Govt. Printer.,
18th Report, Director Veterinary Services & Animal Industries, Union of South Africa, 1932, pp 1094 pp.
Tropical Diseases of the Domesticated Animals. MENSE'S Handbook of Tropical Diseases.
It is stated in the preface of this volume that the manual of which it forms a part is intended for medical men, and certainly it will be of more value to them than to veterinary surgeons, who will not, in all probability, possess the whole series. In other words, the book as a manual of Tropical...
Knuth, P.; Toit, P. J. Du
Johann Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig, Germany
Tropenkrankheiten der Haustiere. Handbuch der Tropenkrankheiten, herausgegeben von Carl Mense., 1921, Edn 2, Vol. 6, pp 889 pp.
UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA. (5)
Knuth, P. (1)
Toit, P. J. Du (1)
Ehrlichia ruminantium (4)
Nematoda (4)
Theileria (4)
Theileria parva (4)
Trypanosoma equiperdum (4)
Anaplasma (3)
rabies virus (3)
Aphthovirus (2)
bluetongue virus (2)
Clostridium (2)
Equidae (2)
Foot-and-mouth disease virus (2)
fowls (2)
Glossina (2)
Haematobia (2)
Metastigmata (2)
Morbillivirus (2)
Rickettsia (2)
rinderpest virus (2)
Aegyptianella (1)
Aegyptianella pullorum (1)
Amblyomma (1)
Amblyomma hebraeum (1)
Ancylostomatidae (1)
antelopes (1)
Arachis hypogaea (1)
Argas (1)
Babesia (1)
Babesia bigemina (1)
Bacillus anthracis (1)
Bovidae (1)
Brucella (1)
rickettsial diseases (5)
veterinary services (5)
animal physiology (4)
Cowdria ruminantium (4)
cowdriosis (4)
death rate (4)
East Coast fever (4)
ectoparasites (4)
ectoparasitoses (4)
heartwater (4)
nematodes (4)
strains (4)
theileriosis (4)


Magic's Fate is the second book by Sela Carsen in the Nocturne Falls Universe and this would be the second book I've read from her too. I definitely enjoyed getting to read some of my favorite Nocturne Falls characters in Magic's Fate. One of many reasons why I love reading the Nocturne Falls Universe stories. I love this world. I definitely wish a town was like this in real life.
Although, this book didn't grab my attention like I wanted it to. It had promise to it. Unfortunately, I didn't click well with one of the characters. Rodion Czernovitch is in Nocturne Falls healing from a serious injury and he's trying his hardest not to fall for his sister's best friend, Carina Valdis. Unfortunately, he definitely didn't listen to himself because he fell for her. His character was mostly not my favorite because of his personality. He also got Carina cursed by his enemy because she ended up getting in the way. Grrr! I did enjoy Carina's character because even though she was cursed, she was determine to be a part of the process of helping get rid of the curse. I also enjoyed reading about the previous characters in the first book Sela Carsen wrote for the Nocturne Falls Universe stories. I love catching up with previous characters.
I give this book 3.5 stars and recommend it to readers of the Nocturne Falls fans and fans of Sela Carsen.


Sunrise and a new lease on life for these vintage (1965/66) diesel locomotives, originally designed & built by General Electric as model GE U20C. Ex SAR (South African Railway) / Transnet Freight Rail Class 33 Diesels now in the livery of cdn - Corredor de Desenvolvimento do Norte. Corredor de Desenvolvimento do Norte operates out of the Port of Ncala - Mozambique's most northern port. It is believed that 7 of these old locomotives are heading for Mozambique - 112 / 111 & 107 (pictured here) in Durban (Maydon Wharf) awaiting the arrival of a ship to take them on to Mozambique.


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Home / Normal / Libya: Algeria, Libya to Bolster Security Co-Operation
Libya: Algeria, Libya to Bolster Security Co-Operation
11/12/2013 Press Articles
Chaos in Libya has prompted Algerian authorities to step up security presence along the border between the two countries and strive for better co-operation against terrorist threats.
In press statements following his meeting with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki in Paris, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal on Saturday (December 7th) said he would visit Libya at the end of the month to discuss security co-ordination with Libyan officials.
The two held talks on the side-lines of the Élysée Summit on Peace and Security in Africa.
"It's necessary to control the security situation in the region," Sellal said. "Without stability, it's not possible to have any kind of development."
The Algerian prime minister said he discussed security issues and "problems in the region" with the Tunisian president, noting, "We don't intervene at all in Tunisia's affairs, but we support any solution in Tunisia."
He added that the Tunisian-Algerian joint committee would hold a meeting later this month, noting "there is real co-operation between the two countries".
Sellal's expected visit to Libya is the second of its type after the Ghadames summit last January between Algeria, Libya and Tunisia.
During that meeting, the three neighbours agreed to enhance security co-operation on the border, stop arms proliferation and monitor the movements of terrorist groups.
During Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan's last visit to Algeria in August, Algerian authorities expressed willingness to support the new Libya, help it in the security sector, rebuild Libya's police and army and collaborate on initiatives to control the border and combat terrorism.
Since last June, Algeria trained two batches of 120 Libyan officers each on various police techniques and criminal investigation methods.
Sellal's visit to Libya comes at a time when Algerian authorities fear heavy weapons may fall in the hands of terrorist groups that are still active in the region, especially following Mokhtar Belmokhtar's attack on the In Amenas gas facility, which was carried out by a group that entered Algerian soil through the Libyan border.
For his part, Algeria's Interior Minister Tayeb Belaiz noted that the Libyan-Algerian border was a main source of concern for Algeria.
In a statement from Ghardaia province last November, Belaiz said that the administration of Algeria's southern and eastern borders was now under the direct supervision of the Algerian army and armed forces to avert weapons smuggling and terrorist infiltration attempts.
He added that the army had seized sophisticated weapons and rockets on more than one occasion along the 1000-kilometre border.
"Libya has become a hotspot of tension posing a threat along its land borders with neighbouring countries, especially in view of the absence of government institutions," said Omar Ben Jana, an expert on security and strategic affairs.
He called on the African Union to help prevent the proliferation of weapons into neighbouring countries and assist Libya with building national institutions to control the situation there.
In her turn, Saida Benhabyles, a former minister, said that Algerian authorities had a duty to take all the measures they deemed necessary to secure the border against all safety concerns.
"The security vacuum in Libya can lead to threats affecting all regional countries because of arms proliferation and weakness of central authority," she said.
She added that Algeria's interest in developments taking place in Mali, Tunisia and Libya showed Algeria's keenness on helping its neighbours restore security, given that stability in Libya means a safer Algeria.
Article by Walid Ramzi, allAfrica.
This article was originally published here.
International Relations and CooperationSecurity Situation
Core Security & Justice ProvidersMinistry of Foreign Affairs
Previous Algeria, Libya to bolster security co-operation
Next Explosion rocks Libyan airbase
Health Situation Political Transition Ombuds and Complaints Mechanisms Budget and Finance Climate Change International Relations and Cooperation Security Sector Governance Training and Education Security Forces Violent Extremism Detention Electoral Process Trafficking and Migration Natural Resources Governance Justice Legislation Border Management Civil Society and Oversight Bribery Security Situation ICT and Media Governance Civil-Military Relations Gender and Security Humanitarian Issues Community Safety Human Rights National Security Security Sector Reform


Getting cracking on the 2014 Mass Build!
Well 2014 is with us tomorrow - time to get started on the Mass Build!
The Dawn Flyer was my vote, I'm hoping for a nice relaxing model for the long balmy summer evenings we're going to have in 2014! I want to complete this build as quickly if I can as I have another build in mid flow! For this reason I bought the CNC pack - saves a lot of time. I will have in all the rest of the wood I need, but if you're new to building and don't have a "stash" of wood you might want to buy the woodpack as well.
now that's a sight you don't see often - my building board clear, well nearly clear!
Next pin the plan down and lay a sheet of clingfilm over that and off we go. We have to sort out F1 and F1A first - they will be glued back to back to make a single double thickness former. But the position of these along the fuselage side is a "moveable feast" - ie its exact position is governed by what motor we're going to use.
I'm planning to use an E-Flite Power 10 that has come out of another model. In theory its a bit small for this model - but its a powerful little number so I think it will be fine. So the length of that sets how far back F1/F1A have to go.
Don't forget to make a right and left-hand side! Its easy to make two rights!
Next weigh those doublers down - a couple of six cell Lipo's do the trick!
OK, we have to leave all that to dry now - and the family are kind of suggesting that I should be doing something else on New Years Eve! But at least we've made a start!
your cracking on with it young man.
just don't forget to finish the tiffie.
Do you have a pic of what it'll look like?
Where would I be without teddy to keep an eye on me?
Don't worry Tony - the Tiffie is looking down on me from the rack, this is just a "breather"!
yeah i try to convince myself like that as well.
Just had a question back stage about side and down thrust on the Dawn Flyer - I meant to mention this but forgot!
Normally you would offset the mount allowing for the right and down thrust so the prop would be in the centre of the nose - as I did here (approximately three quarters of the way down the page) with the Tucano last year, where I went into some detail on this issue and how to calcualte the offset.
But both the right thrust and down thrust specified in this design of Lyndsey's is very small - I don't have the plan in front of me - but its only of the order of one degree! So, given how small the model is, the offset would be about 1/64" - not really worth worrying about! Also - unlike the Tucano which had a pointed nose that had to blend into the spinner - the Dawn Flyer's nose offers plenty of scope for a bit of "cosmetic surgery" to obscure such a tiny offset!
No big deal - just enlarge the hole a little and all is well.
Sorry Danny! Not so neat I know, but it works and no one will see this bit!
And then we can start adding the formers - being very careful to be sure that they are square,..
Normally I would use a fuselage jig here to keep everything square - but the "coffin shaped" fuselage with sloping sides makes that a non-starter! So we just have to be very careful and line everything up as best we can.
When set they will need to be sanded flush to the fuselage sides.
Slow down BEB, you're making me giddy building at this rate. I need the smelling salts.
Yes, teddy is a slave driver! Better fasten your seat belt Colin and keep the smelling salts handy!
Well I've hit the first snag - fitting the motor in! I seem to be destined to have this problem with Mass Build models! I must pick one with a bigger cowl next year. First I fitted the cowl (FC) and then tried trial fitting the motor - it interfered with FC. The only solution was to start sanding away at FC (the motor has to go where the motor has to go!). But there isn't a lot of "meat" on FC - so I decided to fit the top longeron to stiffen things up a bit,..
Now its time to apply the top sheeting. Its from 1.5mm sheet - which feels like tissue paper after sheeting the Tiffie! The trick here is to make a card pattern, you can cut that about and bend it until it fits perfectly, then cut out the wood. You should aim to reach halfway across the central longeron - leaving the other half for the second sheet on the other side.
That's where we are up to - more tomorrow.
Th trusty Swan-Morton. Get loads of blades you need to change them frequently as the only point of using it is how sharp it is! Blunt knives are one of the main causes for people cutting themselves.
I like these engineers squares, nice and heavy so very stable in position.
These mini sash clamps are great - B&Q and the like do them.
For adhesives I have used Aliphatic to join F1 and F1A and attach the doublers. PVA would have done just as well. I also used Aliphatic to fasten down the sheeting. The U/C bearers were attached using epoxy (for strength). All other joints used CA. Personally would not make so much use of CA - though it does have its place - but I want to progress quickly!
Just a small hint - probably not too late. I have finished my Dawn Flyer - and it suffers slightly from COG problems (tail heavy) . I have seen you packed a lot of power into the nose - so this will help for sure - but I have also the battery problem. I cannot move the battery as far forward as I want to as there is not enough room between the battery hatch and the battery holding plate. In the early stage you are now you could probably think about the final battery position.
Nice work BEB glad I have not started yet (can't find plan).
Must add note for new builders, do buy Swann Morton or X-Acto, and not the pound shop look alike X-Acto they are a hazard I know.
My choice is the Swann Morton No2 with 10A blades.
I will use Aliphatic through most of my build as CA is now affecting me.
Very nice BEB, once I have managed to clear all my models out of the house and back into the shed (after losing the roof), I will be restarting mine.
This is the inspiration I have been looking for!
Thanks for the "heads up" on the tail weightiness VA - I shall certainly be keeping that in mind and seeing if I can the battery as far forward as possible.
David - totally agree about cheap knives - the blades are made from some special material - cheese I think - which holds its edge for about 2 cuts and then will never take an edge again! A pukha Swann Morton handle is not expensive - neither are the blades, especially if you buy them by the 50 as I do!
Hi Dylan, good to hear from you again mate. Glad you are enjoying the blog - but I've still a way to go to catch up with you!
OK, most of today I was on "family duties" so I didn't get in the workshop until about 5:00pm - but I did in the end get a decent session.
As you can see I have also sanded the hardwood U/C bearers flush with the fuselage sides. Here I am gluing the wing mounting plate in place having cut two 3mm rebates in the fuselage sides so it will sit flush with them.
Am I the only person who thinks that it looks like I'm building a canoe?
Now we can add the wing mounting supports to the top face of the sides - outside faces flush.
The plan refers to this part as a "keel plate" - there's no doubt about it,...its a canoe, Lynds is having us on! Seriously, this will form the bottom spine of the open rear end. A word here about wood choice. The plan says to use 6mm sq spruce or very hard balsa. I don't have any spruce that size in stock, so its going to be balsa. But what exactly is "hard balsa"? Well what I do is gather together all the 6mm sq balsa I have and start sorting it. Pick each piece up and flex it a bit in your hands - then put it into either the "wet spaghetti" pile or the "promising" pile. Then put all the "wet spaghetti" back in the store and start working through the "promising" candidates sorting them into two piles; the "Could be better" pile and the "oh that's got body" pile. Then work from the latter. This is your "hard balsa"!
This is built over the plan as can be seen. Lots of pins to hold it in place - it is pretty stiff, which is what we chose it to be! The piece over top, held in by being pieced through by two pins either end, is just there to hold the side pieces flat to the board.
I've added a fillet at the end on my own initiative - otherwise I can't see whats holding the ends together! Don't be afraid to use your own initiative - even if its wrong we can always cut it out. Remember, "its only wood"!
Onward and upward! Splice the mainbrace! More rear half tomorrow!
At this stage you might think about adding a pair of thin ply doublers to the rear end of the fus. Where the sides rise behind the wing seat is a real weak spot as the two top rear longerons attach on top of these. The rear end relies on just these two and the lower hard longeron to remain attached. At the first hard landing the rear end will split these off and snap the lower longeron just where it attaches to the keel plate. Guess how I know .
I added a pair of 1mm ply triangle doublers to match the fus sides on the inside behind the rear former and also doubled up the bottom longeron with about 4 inches of 6mm flat carbon. Negligable weight added but strong enougth now to use as a cricket bat. Nothing visible without very close inspection.
I also found it very tail heavy, i have a 2200 3s upfront tight againt the back of f1 but still had to add a bit of extra in the nose.
"Houston, we have a problem"!
Ah, well it looks like we have the culprit - F4 is 3/16" narrower than it should be! At this point I would use a naughty word - I did in fact use several naughty words in the workshop, hence the blue tinge on the photos! - but here it would only upset my fellow mods!
So this shows the problems you can encounter with a CNC pre-cut set of parts - they are only as good as people who cut them! Thinking back I had a similar problem with F1 on the Tucano last year.
1. Remake the tail section, but alter the plan to make it 3/16" narrower. This is undoubtely the best solution - but it will take time.
2. Cut the last two cross pieces out of existing tail section, trim them say 1/8" and 3/16" shorter respectively and reassemble. Messy and probably wouldn't end up being any faster than solution 1.
3. Glue on some 6mm sq "cheek pieces" to the sides of the body to effectively make it wider, mount to this and then try to "cover our sins" with a bit of shaping and sanding to blend everything in. Fast solution but is a bit of a bodge.
Well the term "bodge" is much misunderstood in my view! I believe the term originated among the bands of itinerant carpenters that roamed the medieval countryside. They would move from village to village making simple furniture. One would make legs, another seats, yet another spindles etc. Obviously there was considerable variation in these components. The "bodger" was the member of the team who selected a set of parts such that ithey would need minimum modification in order fit well together, he then performed the necessary "fitting". So in reality he was possibly the most skilled of the troupe in many ways.
Right then, "bodging" it is!
But - a note to those of you with the CNC pack - check that F4! You might want to consider re-cutting a new one based on the plan!
There's a lot be said for "the Artful Bodger" BEB. I've always been heavily dependent on such techniques for getting the chestnuts out of the fire!


Categories: Orion, Aquaculture, Thermo Fisher, Food, Food & Agriculture, Wastewater.
The Thermo Scientific™ Orion™ AQUAfast™ AQ3140 COD colorimeter is a single parameter instrument for determining chemical oxygen demand in water. This colorimeter is designed to give accurate, reproducible results by offering features such as large digital backlit display, automatic switch-off, user friendly keypad, real time clock and date, calibration mode, storage function, waterproof sample chamber, and many more! The AQUAfast AQ3140 COD colorimeter is used in markets such as wastewater, food & beverage, aquaculture, and agriculture.


The following story by Brandon Costa appears on sportsvideo.org, the website for Sports Video Group (SVG). To read the entire article, click HERE.
Construction in the athletic department at Harvard University certainly shows signs of growth as the Crimson have completed renovations on its centralized control room that will now allow for the department's video production team to produce multiple events from the same space.