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Trump’s Impeachment Trial Kicks Off With GOP Moderates Under Pressure

Trump’s Impeachment Trial Kicks Off With GOP Moderates Under Pressure

(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump’s impeachment moves to the GOP-controlled Senate where the president and Democrats will battle over a small group of Republicans whose votes will determine the course of a trial on whether he should be removed from office. The Senate proceedings will begin formally on Thursday with a show of pageantry that includes the reading of two impeachment articles and U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts swearing in 100 senators as jurors. Yet one of the most pressing and contentious issues — whether to meet Democratic demands for witnesses — will remain unresolved for more than a week. The seven House Democrats chosen by Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday to argue the impeachment case will have their best shot when the trial fully gets under way early next week to persuade at least four Republicans that new witnesses must be heard and new evidence presented. Despite Trump’s conflicting statements about wanting witnesses to defend him during the Senate trial, White House officials said Wednesday the president’s team is seeking a short trial and that no additional testimony is needed. The trial is almost certain to end with Trump’s acquittal on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress; 67 votes are required to convict and no Republican senator has said the articles laid out by House merit his removal from office. But the entire proceeding will hang over his bid for re-election as well as his legacy. Before the trial fully gets under way on Tuesday, the Senate must summon the president to respond to the charges and make other procedural moves, including adopting a resolution setting the rules. McConnell has said they would parallel those set out for the 1999 impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton. Assuming that resolution is adopted by 51 senators without changes, the impeachment managers will have several days to be present their case, followed by the defense, questions from senators and then either votes to extend the trial or wrap it up and declare Trump guilty or not guilty. Once the House managers and Trump’s counsel begin presenting their cases, senators will find themselves in an unusual setting. They’ve been told they must stay seated at their desks for the proceedings with only reading material related to the case and have been admonished to avoid even talking to neighboring senators. Their telephones and other electronic devices will be kept in special cubbies in the cloakrooms, and access to the Senate side of the Capitol will be unusually limited for both reporters and staff. The trial may go on for six days a week. The managers can file certain preliminary motions under the rules of impeachment, and also file a trial brief stating its overall case. Nadler said one focus of House legal arguments from the start will be to argue for the allowing of evidence not considered or available in the House’s impeachment investigation. The attempt to sway Collins, Romney and the other GOP senators had begun well before the first arguments are made on the Senate floor. “Above all, a fair trial must include additional documents and relevant witnesses,” Nadler said. Among the additional evidence, Nadler cited the materials turned over by Lev Parnas, a former associate of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who was central to the attempt to pressure Ukraine A lawyer for Parnas, who is under indictment on campaign finance-related charges, turned over to House investigators a trove of notes, emails and text messages that Democrats said “further corroborates the findings and evidence related to the president’s scheme, which was laid out in the Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report.” The material includes a May 2019 letter from Giuliani to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy requesting a meeting “in my capacity as personal counsel to President Trump and with his knowledge and consent.” Schiff said the materials from Parnas showed that Giuliani’s back-channel effort to influence Ukraine was directed by Trump. “There is no fobbing this off on others,” he said. “The president was the architect of this scheme.” He said the documents are only a “small sample” of the kinds of material that were withheld by the White House during the House investigation. “Those documents should be demanded by the senators,” Schiff said. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas said an impeachment trial is a “unique process” that is unlike a regular court proceeding. “They call us a jury but we’re hardly disinterested,” Cornyn said. “So the analogies we are all trying to make” to judicial trials “have their limitations.” Nick Note: Well the circus is about to begin. I immensely dislike Donald Trump…. BUT this impeachment  saddens me. I know he wlil never be convicted. And their is a good chance he will be reelected by the stupid majority. The great threat to democracy is when the masses figure out they can vote for themselves largesse from the treasury. Want to destroy a man. Pay him not to work. He will become stupid, lazy and he will end up looking for something to fuck, something to fuck up and something to get fucked up on. In other words you created a Fuck Up.

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China, U.S. sign initial trade pact but doubts and tariffs linger

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China will boost purchases of U.S. goods and services by $200 billion over two years in exchange for the rolling back of some tariffs under an initial trade deal signed by the world’s two largest economies, defusing an 18-month row that has hit global growth.

Key world stock market indexes climbed to record highs after the deal was signed on Wednesday in Washington, but later stalled on concerns it may not ease trade tensions for long, with numerous thorny issues still unresolved. While acknowledging the need for further negotiations with China to solve a host of other problems, President Donald Trump hailed the agreement as a win for the U.S. economy and his administration’s trade policies. “Together, we are righting the wrongs of the past and delivering a future of economic justice and security for American workers, farmers and families,” Trump said in rambling remarks at the White House alongside U.S. and Chinese officials on Wednesday. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He read a letter from President Xi Jinping in which the Chinese leader praised the deal as a sign the two countries could resolve their differences with dialogue.

The centerpiece of the deal is a pledge by China to purchase at least an additional $200 billion worth of U.S. farm products and other goods and services over two years, above a baseline of $186 billion in purchases in 2017, the White House said.

Commitments include $54 billion in additional energy purchases, $78 billion in additional manufacturing purchases, $32 billion more in farm products, and $38 billion in services, according to deal documents released by the White House and China’s Finance Ministry. Liu said Chinese companies would buy $40 billion in U.S. agricultural products annually over the next two years “based on market conditions” which may dictate timing of purchases in any given year. Chinese companies will import U.S. agricultural goods according to consumers’ need, and demand and supply in the market, Liu told reporters, according to CCTV. Although the deal could be a boost to U.S. farmers, automakers and heavy equipment manufacturers, some analysts question China’s ability to replace imports from other trading partners with more shipments from the United States.

The deal does not end retaliatory tariffs on American farm exports, makes farmers “increasingly reliant” on Chinese state-controlled purchases, and does not address “big structural changes,” Michelle Erickson-Jones, a wheat farmer and spokeswoman for Farmers for Free Trade, said in a statement.

Oil prices rose, helped by expectations of more Chinese purchases of U.S. oil and gas. Trump, who has embraced an “America First” policy aimed at rebalancing global trade in favor of U.S. companies and workers, said China had pledged action to confront the problem of pirated or counterfeited goods and said the deal included strong protection of intellectual property rights. Washington’s insistence on enforcement mechanisms “with real teeth” could tear the deal apart if any tariffs are re-imposed for non-compliance. The deal touted new wins for U.S. companies looking to access China’s $40 trillion financial sector, but many of the changes were already in the works with Beijing stepping up the pace of opening up in the past year.

TARIFFS TO STAY

The Phase 1 deal canceled planned U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made cellphones, toys and laptop computers and halved the tariff rate to 7.5% on about $120 billion worth of other Chinese goods, including flat-panel televisions, Bluetooth headphones and footwear.

But it will leave in place 25% tariffs on a $250-billion array of Chinese industrial goods and components used by U.S. manufacturers, and China’s retaliatory tariffs on over $100 billion in U.S. goods.

Trump, who has been touting the Phase 1 deal as a pillar of his 2020 re-election campaign, said he would agree to remove the remaining tariffs once the two sides had negotiated a “Phase 2” agreement. “We’ve already begun discussions on a Phase 2 deal,” Vice President Mike Pence said in a Fox Business Network interview. Nick Note: Talk about a nothing burger! What bullshit what crap… People are buying into this bullshit hook line and big titted blonds………  for me and you this will be a GREAT pay day.  in essence short the shit out of this joke trade deal,,,,….,,,.. I’ll show you how.

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Iraq oil supplies vulnerable as Mideast tensions flare, IEA says

LONDON (Bloomberg) – Oil supplies from Iraq, the Middle East’s second-biggest producer, are “potentially vulnerable” amid rising political risks in the country and the broader region, the International Energy Agency warned. Crude prices briefly soared to a three-month high above $70 a barrel last week as tensions between the U.S. and Iran erupted in neighboring Iraq, where America assassinated an Iranian general and Tehran struck U.S. military bases in response. Though hostilities faded, the threat of escalation still menaces Iraq, which was already grappling with domestic protests that spread to its oil-rich southern region. Iraq’s oil exports have doubled during the last decade to reach 4 million barrels a day, with half these volumes flowing to China and India, the two major centers of global demand growth, the Paris-based IEA said in its latest monthly report. The country relies heavily on shipping crude through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has periodically threatened to close. Still, the clash between Washington and Tehran hasn’t yet caused any supply disruption, and protests inside Iraq have had only minimal impact on oil operations, the agency said. Global oil markets have a “solid base” of ample inventories and swelling U.S. shale-oil output to weather any shocks, it said. Iraq’s fragile security situation may limit its plans to expand oil-production capacity in the medium-term, making it difficult for the global industry to meet rising demand in the second half of the decade, the IEA warned. The agency advises most major economies on energy policy. Ironically, Baghdad is obligated to reduce output in the coming months as part of its agreement with fellow OPEC nations to keep world markets in balance. It pumped 4.59 million barrels day last month, and will need to reduce by 130,000 barrels a day to comply with the accord.

Saudi Arabia, the biggest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, already delivered all of the additional curbs promised before they formally took effect, pumping 9.68 million barrels a day in December.

Even if OPEC and its allies fully implement the deeper cutbacks announced last month, world markets will still face a surplus of about 800,000 barrels a day in the first half of the year, the IEA predicted.  The agency kept forecasts for global oil supply and demand mostly unchanged. Nick Note: I do not like how oil is trading at all.   It has bear trap written all over it. I am out of the market for now. I smell a big screwing coming. To much bearish information……. Best to wait them out!!

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EIA  Weekly Petroleum Report for week ending January 10, 2020

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) decreased by 2.5 million barrels from the previous week. At 428.5 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are at the five year average for this time of year.  U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 17.0 million barrels per day during the week ending January 10, 2020, which was 76,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 92.2% of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.3 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased last week, averaging 5.2 million barrels per day. U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.6 million barrels per day last week, down by 179,000 barrels per day from the previous week. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.6 million barrels per day, 13.1% less than the same four-week period last year. Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 443,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 202,000 barrels per day. Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 6.7 million barrels last week and are about 5% above the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline and blending components inventories both increased last week. Distillate fuel inventories increased by
8.2 million barrels last week and are about 3% below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 0.9 million barrels last week and are about 21% above the five year average for this time of year. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased last week by 14.5 million barrels last week. Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.9 million barrels per day, down by 1.0% from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.7 million barrels per day, down by 0.9% from the
same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.5 million barrels per
day over the past four weeks, down by 6.9% from the same period last year. Jet fuelproduct supplied was up 2.0% compared with the same four-week
period last year.
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Wells Fargo EPS drops 50% in Q4

Part of the mystery solved this dead broke cheating piece of shit is part of the money black hole the Fed is trying to fill

Wells Fargo said on Tuesday that its revenue in the fourth quarter of 2019 was $19.9 billion, falling from $21 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.60 in the same three-month period, declining 50% year-on-year. Net income in the fourth quarter of 2019 was $2.9 billion, which compared to net income of $6.1 billion in the last three months of 2018. In the full-year 2019, net income was $19.5 billion on diluted EPS of $4.05. Net income fell 12.7% and diluted EPS declined 5.4% year-on-year. The bank’s revenue was reported at $85.1 billion for the entire 2019, declining 1.5% year-on-year. CEO Charlie Scharf said: “Even in my short time at the company, it is clear that our opportunities to improve our performance are substantial when we finish this work. Our cost structure is too high, and I believe there are many areas where we will be able to increase our rate of growth. ” Nick Note: This is one of the largest mortgage originates, Credit card issuers and If you have a drivers licence (even if its expired) car loans at twice what the car is with lenders.

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Kindness Comes Naturally To Parrots: Study Shows Their Extraordinary Selfless Behavior

The galah /ɡəˈlɑː/ (Eolophus roseicapilla), also known as the pink and grey, is one of the most common and widespread cockatoos, and it can be found in open country in almost all parts of mainland Australia.

TENERIFE, Spain — Parrots have long been considered intelligent birds, but a new set of research focusing on African gray parrots finds that besides just being smart these fascinating animals are also very kind to one another. Over the course of the experiments, the studied parrots exhibited selfless tendencies, prosocial behavior, and cooperativeness — even when there were no obvious opportunities for reciprocation. Furthermore, these extraordinary birds returned favors or good deeds amongst one another, and never became jealous whenever a particular bird received a larger reward than others. These traits are exceedingly rare in the animal kingdom, with only great apes behaving in similarly selfless ways.

All in all, these findings make a strong case that parrots are among the smartest animals on the planet, rivaling crows, apes, and dolphins in terms of overall and social intelligence.

Prosocial parrots
In the behavioral experiments, the parrots receive metal tags, which they can then exchange for food. (Photo credit: Comparative Cognition Group)

The research team hailed from the Max PlanckInstitute for Ornithology in Germany, but had been stationed at the outpost for parrot comparative cognition in Spain. Let’s take a look at a female parrot, Bella, as an example. Bella has learned to accept metal tokens given by researchers, and exchange them with another researcher for food. However, Bella’s exchange opening has been blocked off. So, she has some metal tokens but can’t use them at the moment. Instead of hoarding her tokens, Bella decides to give them to her neighbor, Kimmi. Kimmi and Bella’s living spaces are connected via an additional opening, and while Kimmi’s exchange hole connecting him to the researchers is still open, he doesn’t have any tokens. Selflessly, Bella gives her tokens to Kimmi, and watches in a relaxed manner as Kimmi exchanges the tokens and eats the food he receives in return. The research team were astounded by Bella’s altruistic actions, especially given the fact that she didn’t appear to become jealous at all of the food Kimmi enjoyed using her tokens. This is especially noteworthy because there were no clear signs that Kimmi would reciprocate in the future and do something nice for Bella. “Our parrots indeed seem to have grasped that another individual requires their help in order to achieve a goal,” comments first author Désirée Brucks in a statement. Moreover, when researchers recreated the same situation but with both Bella and Kimmi’s exchange openings blocked off, Bella didn’t bother to give her tokens to Kimmi. A surefire sign that the parrots understood the situation, and were able to recognize when a fellow bird would actually benefit from sharing tokens. A second experiment was conducted that illustrated the parrots’ overall prosocial attitude, or willingness to help and care for one another. This experiment also revealed that parrots are capable of reciprocating good deeds from one to another, a trait that is considered an integral building block in the evolution of cooperation. In this scenario, the parrots were given an option of choosing two different types of tokens: one token that only provided food for themselves, and another that provided food to both the subject and their immediate neighbor. “Initially the parrots chose randomly, without paying any attention to the wellbeing of their neighbor”, explains first author Anastasia Krasheninnikova. “As soon as the parrots were tested alternatingly with their neighbor, they very rapidly learned to choose the token that benefitted both birds.” A third experiment revealed that parrots rarely, if ever, become jealous of one another. In this setting, two parrots performed the same task, but one bird was given a larger reward than the other. “At first, this finding came as a surprise, given that a ‘sense of fairness’ is considered a prerequisite for the evolution of cooperation,” says Auguste von Bayern, the leader of the comparative cognition research group. Even primates become frustrated when faced with unfair situations like the one described above, and usually end up boycotting the entire activity. Researchers theorize that parrots don’t react in this way because they usually stay bonded with a single partner throughout their entire life, while primates tend to move on from one partner to another. “Given that parrots are so closely bonded with a single individual and thus so mutually interdependent, it does not make any difference if one of them gets a better pay-off once in a while. What counts is that together, they function as a unit that can achieve much more than each of them on their own (in addition to raising their joint offspring). This is probably why parrots are much more tolerant towards unequal treatment than species that are not long-term monogamous, while still being excellent cooperators,” Auguste von Bayern explains. Nick Note: Phoenix is my best friend. She is a parrot in the cockatoo family. She by far is the most intelligence animal on the farm. Come to think of it she is smarter and for sure kinder then most people i know. I inherited from the kids when they went off to school.  She lives in my office and is content to watch me work. When i get excited like on a tape you can hear her joining in the fun. She perches on her branch or my microphone boom. She comes for hugs a few times a day. She likes to lift up her wings so i can scratch her feathers. And she does not like anyone else touching her.  When i have strawberries she goes crazzy for the stems. When night comes i cover her. She has done an amazing thing. She cut a hole in the cover at her eye level so she can watch me at night. Sometimes she hops off the branch or the boom and walks around on my desk. When on the desk if i ask her to she will bring me a pen. What a incredible animal!

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As Justice Department Pressures Apple, Investigators Say iPhone Easier to Crack

Security experts question necessity of latest battle over encryption as new tools emerge

Forensic tools used to hack into iPhones have been enhanced recently, making iPhones like this iPhone 7 easier to crack. Photo: regis duvignau/Reuters

The escalation of a long-running encryption conflict between the Justice Department and Apple Inc. AAPL -1.35% has puzzled security experts who say that new hacking tools have made it possible to gain access to many of the company’s devices in criminal investigations. Attorney General William Barr ratcheted up pressure on Apple on Monday, painting the company as unhelpful to the government as it seeks to unlock two iPhones belonging to an aviation student from Saudi Arabia who authorities say killed three people at a Florida Navy base last month. Mr. Barr described the phones as “engineered to make it virtually impossible to unlock them without the password.” “We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements,” President Trump said in a Tweet Tuesday evening. He called on the company to help “NOW!” Justice Department officials said they spent a month seeking ways to access two phones used by Second Lt. Mohammed Alshamrani, a member of the Saudi air force who allegedly opened fire in a classroom at Naval Air Station Pensacola on Dec. 6 before being shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies. After consulting with experts and vendors and failing to break into the devices—an iPhone 5 and an iPhone 7—investigators reached out to Apple directly, officials said. In a statement Monday, Apple said the company was notified a week ago that the Federal Bureau of Investigation needed additional assistance. Apple was contacted on the day of the shooting and provided iCloud backups, account information and transactional data for one iPhone, a spokesman said. On Wednesday, Jan. 8, Apple received a subpoena related to a second iPhone, he said. Just a few years ago, many iPhones were almost impossible to crack, but that is no longer true, security experts and forensic examiners say. Companies including Grayshift LLC, Israel’s Cellebrite Mobile Synchronization Ltd. and others offer methods to retrieve data from recent iPhones. “We’ve got the tools to extract data from an iPhone 5 and 7 now,” said Andy Garrett, a chief executive of Garrett Discovery, a forensics investigation firm. “Everybody does.” Four years ago, in the final year of the Obama administration, the Justice Department tried to force Apple to create a software update—a “backdoor”—that would allow law enforcement to gain access to a phone linked to a dead gunman responsible for a 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif. Apple refused, and it continues to refuse to grant access via a software update, saying it could be exploited by others. The FBI turned to a third party, spending more than $1 million to obtain data from an encrypted Apple iPhone 5C. Today, the bureau could likely obtain that data for $15,000 or less, thanks to new forensics tools it has purchased over the past two years that have made breaking into an iPhone much less daunting. The changing security dynamics have undermined the Justice Department’s argument that Apple’s security is hampering investigations, forensics experts say. “It’s a cat-and-mouse game. Apple locks things, but if someone wants to find a way to get into these devices, they will find a way,” said Sarah Edwards, a digital forensics instructor with the SANS Institute, an organization that trains cybersecurity investigators. In 2018, Grayshift began selling an iPhone hacking device for as little as $15,000 to law enforcement customers in the U.S. The Grayshift device leveraged bugs in Apple’s products to access the phone. Today, Israel’s Cellebrite offers software that can also retrieve data from recent iPhones. In the past two years, Grayshift has sold its products to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI. The FBI has spent more than $1 million on Grayshift products, according to federal procurement records. Georgia’s Gwinnett County, for example, started using the Grayshift device in 2018 and gained access to about 300 phones that year. Now, Chris Ford, an investigator with the district attorney’s office, is using the device to reopen cases that had gone cold due to phones that were previously unreadable. His office is now producing about three times as much forensics data as it did before Grayshift, Mr. Ford said. “It’s really opened the door for us in our investigation,” he said. Grayshift representatives didn’t return messages seeking comment. Cellebrite representatives didn’t return messages seeking comment for this article. Cellebrite has been able to gain access to data on the iPhone 5 since at least 2015, according to forensic investigators and an online training video. The other phone involved in the Pensacola shooting—an iPhone 7, according to people familiar with the investigation—is also more easily readable than it once was. Forensic tools used to hack into iPhones have been enhanced recently, thanks to software called Checkm8 that exploits a vulnerability in Apple’s hardware. It allows forensics tools to download data, such as deleted files, that is often hidden from even the users of the iPhone, security professionals say. A forensics tool built with Checkm8 works on all iPhone devices from the iPhone 5s to the iPhone X, and exploits a hardware bug that Apple is unable to patch, they say. Investigators caution that there are many factors that can limit the data available to investigators on an iPhone, such as the version of the operating system, the complexity of the user’s passcode and the state of the iPhone itself. If the phones were powered off when the FBI obtained them, then investigators would have to crack the iPhone’s passcode before they could obtain detailed data on the phone, said Ms. Edwards, the digital forensics instructor. But cracking the passcode is something that both Cellebrite and Grayshift’s device are designed to do, forensics experts say. “It may just take a while to crack the passcode,” Ms. Edwards said.

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API  show a small weekly climb of 1.1 million barrels in U.S. crude supply

The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that U.S. crude supplies rose by 1.1 million barrels for the week ended Jan. 10, according to sources. The API data also reportedly showed a stockpile climb of 3.2 million barrels for gasoline, while distillate stocks rose by 6.8 million barrels. Inventory data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday. The EIA data are expected to show crude inventories climbed by 500,000 barrels last week, according to analysts polled by S&P Global Platts. They also forecast supply increases of 3.3 million barrels for gasoline and 1.3 million barrels for distillates. February West Texas Intermediate crude CLG20, +0.10% was at $58.25 a barrel in electronic trading. It settled at $58.23 Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Pompeo reiterates claim of “imminent” attacks Soleimani was plotting

POOL

Although he did not mention “imminent” attacks in his remarks at the Hoover Institution today, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did reference such attacks during the Q&A portion of the event. Responding to a question about why the American people should trust the intelligence about the reported “imminent” threats from Qasem Soleimani, Pompeo said, “There was in fact a set of imminent attacks that were being plotted by Qasem Soleimani.”  “It was unmistakable,” he said. Pompeo said the intelligence community’s view was “that the risks were real and growing and that the actions that we took that day reduced that risk. It never eliminates it. But it reduced that risk.” However, Pompeo, a former CIA director, told the audience that “the intelligence community makes mistakes, all the time.”

“Right? It happens. But the depth and breadth and intellect, the capacity and reach of America’s intelligence capability is enormous. And they do their level best to present this accurately,” he said. “I can say to the American people, you should have enormous confidence in the intelligence community, that their efforts are genuine, they are real, they are authentic, they are trying to provide good data sets to, now I’m on the other side, as the policy adviser for the president, receiving this intelligence, informing our decision-making.”

Iraqi Prime Minister’s office says there is “no agreement with the US” to keep troops in Iraq

Iraq has no agreement to keep US troops in Iraq to continue the fight against ISIS, the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office spokesman William Warda said today. Warda told CNN the Iraqi government would back the Iraqi Parliament’s Jan. 5 vote to expel American troops from the country, in response to a Turkish official saying otherwise in an interview with CNN on Monday.  Earlier today, İbrahim Kalın, a spokesman for the Turkish president, said, “Although the Iraqi parliament passed an recommendary resolution, I think they [the US and Iraq] have or they are about to reach an agreement to continue the fight against ISIS.” Warda said, “Until this moment, the Iraqi government is committed to implement the Iraqi Parliament decision, which states that all foreign troops should withdraw from Iraq. Foreign troops does not mean only American troops but all other foreign troops presence in Iraq.” He added, “There is no agreement with the US administration on keeping the troops and the government is on the track to implement the decision of the Iraqi parliament.”

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U.S. coal-fired power plants closing fast despite Trump’s pledge of support for industry

SUCKER:

(Reuters) – U.S. coal-fired power plants shut down at the second-fastest pace on record in 2019, despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to prop up the industry, according to data from the federal government and Thomson Reuters. Power companies retired or converted roughly 15,100 megawatts (MW) of coal-fired electricity generation, enough to power about 15 million homes, according to the data, which included preliminary statistics from the Energy Information Administration and Reuters reporting. That was second only to the record 19,300 MW shut in 2015 during President Barack Obama’s administration. The replacement of coal with power generation from natural gas and renewables has cut total U.S. carbon emissions in four of the past five years. Gas emits about half the carbon dioxide, a leading contributor to global warming, as coal. The coal industry has been in steep decline for a decade due to competition from cheap and abundant gas and subsidized solar and wind energy, along with rising public concern over coal’s contribution to climate change. Trump has downplayed climate change threats and sought to revive the coal industry to fulfill pledges to voters in coal mining states like West Virginia and Wyoming, mainly by rolling back Obama-era environmental protections. Still, since entering office in 2017, an estimated 39,000 MW of coal-fired power plant capacity has shut. If that trend continues, more coal plants will have shut during the first four years (2017-2020) of the Trump administration – an estimated 46,600 MW – than during Obama’s second term (2013-2016) – around 43,100 MW. Last week, Tri-State Generation and Transmission announced it would accelerate the retirement of two of its coal-fired power plants in Colorado and New Mexico as both states pursue ambitious targets to slash carbon emissions. In 2019, U.S. emissions linked to climate change fell 2.1% as coal-fired electricity output dropped 18% to the lowest level since 1975, according to an estimate by independent researcher Rhodium Group. But Rhodium said further big emissions reductions from coal retirements would be harder to achieve because many of the remaining facilities are commercially competitive. Nick Note: Do I not seem to recall that TRUMP was going to make COAL great again. Can you believe those assholes believed him….. Well you get what you pay for. The stupids are rising up they are taking your money… Soon they will come for you and kill you . you have been warned! This will be much worse then a zombie apocalypse