Mikhail Gorbachev March 2 .1931-August 30.2022

Former President of the Soviet Union

Excerpted from THE SIGNAL  Current Affairs.Strange World. August 28/22 

The New Gold

What’s driving a global rush for critical minerals?  Lisa Sachs on the environmental challenges of clean technology.

Lisa Sachs is the director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment at Columbia University and the vice-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Mining & Metals.

According to Sachs, cobalt—along with lithium, copper, nickel, and other critical minerals, as they’re called—are essential for building vitally important new technologies, particularly for the kind of products necessary to reduce fossil-fuel consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions.

Critical minerals are the main building blocks of electric-vehicle batteries and potentially key for producing, distributing, and storing clean, renewable energy. And yet, Sachs says, mining these minerals comes with substantial environmental and social costs.

“Mining has always come at environmental and social costs. It’s inherently extractive, whether it’s underground or open-pit. It requires digging up the Earth, disrupting biodiversity, sometimes at substantial and irreversible scales. Mining and processing require enormous amounts of water, and both divert water from other purposes that can be core to livelihoods. Both discharge waste, too, into waterways used for other purposes, including human consumption and agriculture, with potentially devastating consequences—to people and to marine life. Mining and processing are also very energy-intensive. Most energy for mining comes from fossil-fuel sources. More mining and more processing mean more emissions. And mining has historically been implicated in terrible violations of human rights and social disruptions. If a mine is under or near a community, it can mean the displacement of that community, with major consequences for livelihoods and culture. Heritage sites have infamously been cleared to make way for mines.” 

Lisa Sachs

Source: National Mining Association – 101 Constitution Ave. NW Suite 500 East – Washington, DC

There are 66 individual minerals that contribute to the typical computer
but it should be evident that without many minerals, there would be no computers, or televisions. There are others, in addition to those listed.

Computer Component Monitor

Phosphorescent Coating – Transition Metals:

ZnS – Zinc Sulfide

Ag – Silver
Cl – Chlorine Al – Aluminum Cu – Copper

Au – Gold
Y2O2S – Yittrium Sulfate
Eu – Europium
(KF, MgF2): Mn Potasium-Magnesium Floride:

Manganese

(Zn,Cd)S – Zinc Cadmium Sulfate
Zn2SiO4:O4: Mn, As – ZincSilicate, Manganese, Arsenic

Gd2O2S: Tb – Gadolinium Sulfate: Tebrium Y2SiO12:Ce – Yitrium Silicate: Cerium

CRT Glass:

Pb – Lead SiO2

Plastic Case, Keyboard

Thermoplastic – Polypropylene, PVC CaCO2 – additive
TiO2 – White Pigment
Amonium Polyphosphate

Element/Compound

Zn, S

Ag Cl Al Cu

Au
Y
Eu
K, F, Mg, Mn

Cd As

Gd, Tb Ce

Pb Si

Ca Ti P

Mineral Source of Element

Sulfur, Hemmimorphite, Zincite Smithsonite, Franklenite

Ag, Pyrargyrite, Cerargyrite Halite
Bauxite
Chalcopyrite, Boronite, Enargite,

Cuprite, Malachite, Azurite, Chrysocolla, Chalcocite Gold

Alunite, Orthoclase, Nephelite, Leucite, Apophullite; Flourite, Cryolite, Vesuvianite; Lepidolite: Dolomite, Magnesite, Espomite, Spinel, Olivine, Pyrope, Biotite, Talc

Realgar, Orpiment, Niccolite, Cobalite, Arsenopyrite, Tetrahedrite

Monzanite, Orthite

Galena, Cerussite, Anglesite, Pyromorphite Quartz

Calcite, Gypsum, Apatite, Aragonite Rutile, Ilmenite, Titanite
Apetite, Pyromorphite, Wavellite

MINERALS IN TYPICAL COMPUTERS

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Monitors

Pb – Lead
Thin Film Transistors
Ferro Electric Liquid Crystal Indium Tin Oxide

Metal Case

Iron

Flat Screen Plasma Display Monitors

Glass
Pb – Lead
ZnS – Zinc Sulfide Ag – Silver
Cl – Chlorine
Al – Aluminum
Cu – Copper

Au – Gold
Y2O2S – Yittrium Sulfate
Eu – Euopium
(KF, MgF2): Mn Potasium-Magnesium Florite: Manganese

(Zn, Cd) S – Zinc Cadmium Sulfate
Zn2SiO4: Mn, As – ZincSilicate, Manganese, Arsenic

Gd2O2S: Tb – Gadolinium Silicate: Tebrium Y2SiO12: Ce – Yitrium Silicate: Cerium

Printed Circuit Boards, Computer Chips:

Silicon
Cu – Copper

Au – Gold
Ag – Silver Tin
Al – Aluminum

Pb Si Fe Sn In

Fe

Si
Pb Zn, S Ag Cl
Al Cu

Au
Y
Eu
K, F, Mg, Mn

Cd As

Gd, Tb Ce

Si Cu

Au Ag Sn Al

Galena, Cerussite, Anglesite, Pyromorphite Quartz
Hematite
Cassiterite,

Sphalerite (Commonly found with Zinc) Magnetite, Limonite

Quartz
Galena, Cerussite, Anglesite, Pyromorphite
Sulfur, Hemmimorphite, Zincite, Smithsonite, Franklenite Ag, Pyrargyrite, Cerargyrite
Halite
Bauxite
Chalcopyrite, Boronite, Enargite, Cuprite, Malachite, Azurite,

Chryssocolla, Chalcocite Gold

Euxenite
Euxenite
Alunite, Orthoclase, Nephelite, Leucite,

Apophullite; Flourite, Cryolite, Vesuvianite; Lepidolite: Dolomite, Magnesite, Espomite, Spinel, Olivine, Pyrope, Biotite, Talc

Realgar, Orpiment, Niccolite, Cobalite Arsenopyrite, Tetrahedrite

Monzanite, Orthite

Quartz
Chalcopyrite, Boronite, Enargite, Cuprite, Malachite,

Azurite, Chrysocolla, Chalcocite Gold

Ag, Pyrargyrite, Cerargyrite Cassiterite
Bauxite

Transhuman Jared Kushner said the ever fashionable Steve Bannon was like a ‘suicide bomber’ who ‘blew up’ during his time in the White House

The lack of personal chemistry between two of the former president’s closest “whisperers” is of little surprise. One is the clean-cut, preppy and pale 40 year-old scion of a New York property empire. The other, at 68, has a rougher appearance and grew up in a working class, Irish Catholic family in Virginia. Each represents an ideological faction vying for the post Trump limelight and eternal life.

“At my level I don’t go into the weeds.”

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki 

Brenda Lucki COM was appointed the 24th commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on April 16, 2018. 

When Joshua Bryson, who represents the family of victims Peter and Joy Bond asked whether 28 months after this mass casualty event, Lucki had appointed her own board of inquiry into the Nova Scotia mass shooting response, which she has the power to do, Lucki said no.

Bryson said it’s disappointing that many things that went wrong during the shooting response still haven’t been formally looked at by the RCMP or included in cadet training.

CLICK LINK FOR VIDEO

• https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2507074&jwsource=twi

Selected comments from Halifax Examiner editor Tom Bousquet’s Twitter coverage of court proceedings and Commissioner Lucki’s testimony.August 23 & 24.

Donald Trump’s own political action committee, the Save America PAC, will cover most of the costs associated with commissioning portraits of the former president and former first lady Melania Trump to hang in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG).

According to recent Save American financial disclosures reviewed by Business Insider and the Washington Post, the PAC contributed $650,000 toward the portraits, while another donation of $100,000 from an undisclosed donor will provide the rest of the funds required for the commissions. Save America and other Republican PACs have amplified their fundraising efforts and brought in record sums since the FBI’s 7 August raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and resort in Florida.

The artist has been secretly selected to create the Trumps’ portraits, but his identity has not yet been revealed since Court Painter wants it kept a secret and will circulate a Press Release announcing his commission when he is assured he will get paid in advance. A timeline for the portraits’ creation and unveiling has not been announced but Court Painter has bought a new suit,spats and turtleneck in anticipation.

Court Painter has released just a few former portraits of The Donald & sometimes Melania & other Trump associates to give a taste of what’s to come.

Joe Rogan Says Court Painter Could Have the ‘Best Portrait Studio Ever’ If He Could Manage to ‘Loosen Up’

Joe Rogan offered free advice to Court Painter on his art studio enterprise during a recent discussion with the photogenic Jordan Peterson.

At one point during the discussion, he began talking about the best damn paint handler west of the Mason Dixon Line and the Manitoba/ Ontario border.

He commented that Court Painter was the greatest hard scrabble political and celebrity portraitist the Great Dominion ever produced in our lifetime because “he just did the artistic job that he was asked to do by destiny and his inner workings and outer shell.”

“He tried a podcast to expand his thoughts about all things art but swallowed the pod and thank god for the Great Dominion’s universal health care retrevial system . He wanted to do a podcast with his arch nemesis and competitor CC (name available upon request) and it just wasn’t good. It just — it just wasn’t good because he swallowed the pod ,” Rogan said emphatically.

“Well, it’s not that he couldn’t be good at anything he set his mind to…” Rogan continued. “It’s just that he’s this — he’s bigger than everything, you know, he’s the greatest hard scrabble portraitist of pulchritude and pomposity ever. When he goes and does a painting, he can’t just have a whiskey and talk poo. You know, but if he did, it would be gosh darn amazing and good to boot.”

“You mean that he’s restrained,” Jordan Peterson stated quizzingly, after joining the conversation.

“Yes. You would think he’s achieved escape velocity where he could express himself. I mean, he’s done hundreds of masterworks. He can’t be president of The Royal Canadian Academy. So he’s free of that expectation,” Rogan said emphasizing expectation.

“I remember he was talking about people once about how messy and mean people are, you know, that just — things people say about the rigidity of his celebrity portraits, things they don’t necessarily mean but just blurt out in a paroxysm of honesty… And the way he said that, I’m like, I’ve never heard a person of stature like him say that and whimper unapoligeticaly like he did. And I wish he did more of that. You know? I wish someone could talk to him and get him to loosen up and not be so tight and hard scrabble with the rendering of the physiognomy and his hard boiled feelings,” Rogan added.

He concluded, “I think he’s capable of being foot loose & fancy free. I think he could run the best portrait studio ever. I just don’t know what restrains, I mean, it’s, I guess the expectations … what he represents to people that love his rigid hard scrabble, abrasive and gruff manner ways. It’s like, it’s too much. It should be easy for an art star like Court Painter to just be open to his soft vulnerable self when his body-man and Press Attache AHM keep him protected from the moral guardians and immoral groupies that surround his studio on a daily basis.”

This article was edited for brevity ,spelling, obscenities and comprehension.

Poilievre Blamed Climate Taxes While Big Oil Guzzled Profits

As gas prices pinched, the Conservative front-runner followed the right-wing script by ignoring ‘sky high’ billions for oilsands firms.

A cavalcade of right-wing pundits and think tanks echoed this attack on federal climate policy. But the idea that carbon prices were the primary driver behind record-high gas prices is incorrect, according to experts like University of Calgary economics professor Trevor Tombe, who told CBC that “it’s really about global oil prices, and that’s really driven by things far beyond the Government of Canada’s control.”

Reported in The Tyee August 16,2022

Canadian oil and gas companies, along with their shareholders, were doing fantastic. That’s the story contained in recent earnings reports from the top four oilsands producers, which together announced combined profits of over $12 billion for the second quarter of this year. 

“Overall, the first half of 2022 delivered solid results, and we’re positioned for an even stronger second half of the year,” gushed Alex Pourbaix, president and CEO of oilsands producer Cenovus, as his company announced $2.4 billion in earnings for the second quarter of this year. 

“In the second quarter of 2022, Suncor reported the highest quarterly adjusted funds from operations in its history,” interim president and CEO Kris Smith said during an August earnings call as the company reported nearly $4 billion in net earnings. “And we returned record adjusted fund flow right back to our shareholders.”

Imperial Oil meanwhile reported net earnings of $2.4 billion, and CNRL reported $3.5 billion —

Reported from DW Deutsche Welle Germany’s international broadcaster

Court Painter has no comment…

“When enough Americans decide that a cult of personality matters more than a commitment to democracy, we risk becoming a lawless autocracy. This is why we must continue to demand that Trump and his enablers face the consequences of their actions: To cave in the face of threats means the end of democracy. And it would not, in any event, mollify those among our fellow citizens who have chosen to discard the Constitution so that they can keep mainlining jolts of drama from morning ’til night.”

We are going to be living in this era of political violence for the foreseeable future. All any of us can do is continue, among our friends and family and neighbors, to say and defend what is right in the face of lies and delusions.”

Tom Nichols Excerpted from Atlantic Daily article A Deepening Void by Tom Nichols August 15,2022

Court Painter looks to the heavens for extraterrestrial confirmation of wonder!

“Ever since Donald Trump became president, the Canadian commentariat has often blamed unpalatable aspects of our own political discourse on Trumpism. Kellie Leitch proposing a Canadian values test? Trumpism! Quebec passing laws to ban religious garb? Trumpism! Doug Ford becoming premier of Ontario in 2018? Trumpism! And, well, you get the point.

Those takes are lazy and prevent us from looking inward and examining how our own politicians and media ecosystem have contributed to the decline in our political discourse. Additionally, it often leads us to downplay our own domestic issues of extremism, like the problem of white supremacists in the Canadian Armed Forces, or how we tend to punch above our weight when it comes to producing disinformation influencers.”

Excerpted from Canadas’ National Observer article Trumpism 2.0 and what it means for Canada by Supriya Dwivedi | August 15th 2022