90 Miles From Tyranny

Friday, December 15, 2017

US Climate Scientists Emigrating to France

Good Riddance!

French government broadcaster France24 claims President Macron’s offer of fifty grants is luring climate scientists away from the US to work in France.

Eighteen climate scientists, 13 of them based in the United States, were on Monday named the first beneficiaries of the research grants linked to French President Macron’s “Make Our Planet Great Again” project, which will see them relocate to France.

“The selected projects are of very high standards and deal with issues that are particularly important,” the jury said in a statement, noting its members had received a total of 1,822 applications, of which 1,123 came from the US. A second round of laureates will be announced “during the course of the spring of 2018”, it said.

Emmanuel Macron

✔@EmmanuelMacron

Thank you for your answer to this first call, your decision to move and come to Paris. Here you have a hub to do more.

4:59 PM - Dec 11, 2017

78 Replies

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In all, a total of 50 research grants will be handed out, lasting a minimum of three years and worth between €1 million and €1.5 million each.

Among Monday’s 18 laureates were senior researchers from prestigious US universities, including Venkatramani Balaji from Princeton, Nuria Teixido from Stanford University and Louis Derry from Cornell University. Although the vast majority of the laureates are currently based in the US, they also include researchers from Canada, India, Italy, Poland and Spain.

…

I don’t believe most climate research and government sponsored energy projects yield sufficient benefit to justify public funding, but it is possible to oppose public funding, yet still feel sorry for people who are about to lose their jobs.

If France is happy to step into the breach, who are we to argue? The French people set their own priorities. I’m glad US climate scientists on the brink of losing their funding have other options.

US climate scientists worried about their financial future should accept the...

OMG Of Course! This Should Definitely Work!

The city of Cologne has announced they will be handing out “respect” wristbands to encourage understanding between individuals on New Year’s Eve and prevent the kind of sex attacks that occurred in 2015.

The wristbands are part of a new campaign called “respect” which is sponsored by the city government and controversial Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker. Many have slammed Reker and the campaign on social media likening it to comments she made shortly after the 2015 attacks calling on women to keep men at “arm’s length”, Kronen Zeitung reports.

At a press conference, Reker said that the campaign would focus on telling people not to sexually attack others or shoot fireworks at individuals, buildings or police. The wristbands themselves are meant to inform others to be respectful when approaching the wearer and prevent potential sex attacks.

On social media, some users reacted to the move with scorn and criticism. One user asked the city of Cologne and Mayor Reker, “What are you doing? Is this appeasement, a gesture of submission or the self-stigmatizing of a culture that is surrendering?”

On New Year’s Eve around 3,000 police are expected to be on duty in Cologne as well as 400 employees from private security firms to maintain order.

Cologne police chief Uwe Jacob said, “We expect a similar occurrence as in the previous year,” and noted that police were prepared for drunken party-goers adding, “I do not care about the nationalities of the revellers, with all due respect. The rules apply to everyone.”

Last year the Cologne police dramatically increased their presence and the level of security around the central Cathedral which led to a rapid decline of sexual and violent...

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) reviewed his questioning of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday, adding that it appeared that three FBI officials were “conspiring or plotting” to decide the election.

Here’s what he said:

“This is a really bad fact pattern,” Gowdy said of the revelations about bias at the FBI and Justice Department.

“I hate it for Rod Rosenstein that he’s the one explaining it because he’s not [FBI official] Peter Strzok, and he’s not [Deputy FBI Director] Andy McCabe, and he’s not [former FBI Director] Jim Comey, so he’s having to do a little bit of clean up,” he explained. “But these are really bad facts if you care about an impartial, objective Department of Justice and FBI.”

“I’m still trying to figure out why three FBI agents are discussing politics in the Deputy Director’s office, because you’re not supposed to discuss politics on federal ground and FBI agents aren’t supposed to engage in politics for Hatch Act reasons,” he added.

Gowdy was referring to texts that show Strzok talking about an “insurance policy” against Trump winning the 2015 election. The text was in a trove of interactions obtained by the media and released Tuesday.

Predicts McCabe will be fired

Gowdy went on to say that he would be surprised if Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe were not fired from his position within the week.

“But the notion that three bureau agents would be conspiring or plotting on how to handle the outcome of a presidential election is the opposite of what you want in an objective, dispassionate, neutral FBI,” he explained.
Mueller in a no-win situation of his own making

Gowdy said that although he defended Mueller before, the special counsel has to explain how he hired people who were so biased against Trump. He added that Mueller was in a...