D- Day January 6, 1944

The beginning of the end of World War II

Which cities have the fastest-growing millionaire populations?

Who cares? Just info of millionaires and billionaires. This was posted by Henley & Partners an investment advising company.

City/Area	Country	HNWIs (USD 1m+)	Centi-millionaires (USD 100m+)	Billionaires (USD 1bn+)	Residence by investment options
New York City	USA	40%	340,000	724	58	Find out more
Tokyo	Japan	-5%	290,300	250	14
The Bay Area	USA	68%	285,000	629	63	Find out more
London	UK	-15%	258,000	384	36	Find out more
Singapore	Singapore	40%	240,100	329	27	Find out more
Los Angeles	USA	35%	205,400	480	42	Find out more
Hong Kong	Hong Kong (SAR China)	-27%	129,500	290	32	Find out more
Beijing	China	70%	128,200	354	43
Shanghai	China	72%	127,200	332	40
Sydney	Australia	35%	126,900	184	15	Find out more
Chicago	USA	24%	124,000	295	24	Find out more
Toronto	Canada	29%	105,200	193	18	Find out more
Frankfurt	Germany	20%	102,200	170	16
Zurich	Switzerland	35%	99,300	250	12	Find out more
Houston	USA	65%	98,500	280	20	Find out more
Seoul	South Korea	30%	97,000	229	24
Melbourne	Australia	42%	96,000	123	10	Find out more
Paris	France	-3%	93,000	126	16

“COP28 is now on the verge of Complete Failure”

This AP (Associated Press) article is worth displaying in full. The world has a problem that needs attention now.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Countries moved closer to reaching what critics called a watered-down final deal on how to act on climate change on Monday, to the disappointment and anger of nations who called to phase out planet-warming fossil fuels as the United Nations summit in Dubai neared its culmination.

A new draft released Monday of what’s known as the global stocktake — the part of talks that assesses where the world is at with its climate goals and how it can reach them — called for countries to reduce “consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.”

The release triggered a frenzy of fine-tuning by government envoys and rapid analysis by advocacy groups, just hours before the planned late morning finish to the talks on Tuesday — even though many observers expect the finale to run over time, as is common at the annual U.N. talks.

Anger grew as people had more time to read the document.

In a closed-door meeting late Monday, some country delegation chiefs needled COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber’s frequent calling of the goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since preindustrial times his “north star,” saying the president’s proposal misses that star.

“It is not enough to say 1.5, we have to do 1.5. We have to deliver accordingly,” Norway minister Espen Barth Eide said.

A person inside the room said several negotiating blocs, including those for small island states, Latin American countries, the European Union and developing countries, all spoke against the new draft, saying its ambition wasn’t strong enough. The person spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak without fear of affecting the negotiations.

Some Pacific Island nations argued the text amounted to a death sentence.

The proposed text “doesn’t even come close to delivering 1.5 as a north star,” Tuvalu’s delegation chief Seve Paeniu said. “For us this is a matter of survival. We cannot put loopholes in our children’s futures.”

Small island nations are some of the most vulnerable places in a world of rising temperatures and seas. Final decisions by COPs have to be by consensus and objections can still torpedo this. Activists said they feared that potential objections from fossil fuel countries, such as Saudi Arabia, had watered down the text.

German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan said Europe is “extremely unified” in opposing the COP presidency’s text, calling it unacceptable.

“We’re prepared to stay as long as it takes to get the course correction that the world needs,” Morgan told The Associated Press as she walked into the heads of delegation meeting.

Zhao Yingmin, China’s vice minister for Ecology and Environment, said at the meeting that “the draft fails to address the concerns of developing countries on some key issues” and in particular the idea that greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025.

United States climate envoy John Kerry says the language on fossil fuels in the text “does not meet the test” of keeping 1.5 alive.

“I, like most of you here, refuse to be part of a charade” of not phasing out fossil fuels, Kerry said. “This is a war for survival.”

Kerry’s remarks received a round of applause from the room.

A combination of activists and delegation members lined the entry into a special late-evening meeting Monday of heads of delegations, with their arms raised in unity as delegations walked through, creating a tunnel-like effect. A few activists told delegates passing by: “You are our last hope. We count on you.”

Negotiators broke well after midnight, and it wasn’t clear when talks would resume.

“We need to find a solution that has maximum ambition and maximum equity,” South Africa minister Barbara Creecy said as negotiators left the room. “One without the other will not solve the conundrum we face.”

In the 21-page document, the words oil and natural gas did not appear, and the word coal appeared twice. It also had a single mention of carbon capture, a technology touted by some to reduce emissions although it’s untested at scale.

Activists said the text was written by the COP28 presidency, run by an Emirati oil company CEO — Al-Jaber — and pounced on its perceived shortcomings. It fell fall short of a widespread push to phase out fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal altogether.

Al-Jaber skipped a planned news conference and headed straight into a meeting with delegates just after 6:30 p.m. It was the second time for him to cancel a press briefing on Monday.

“We have a text and we need to agree on the text,” al-Jaber said. “The time for discussion is coming to an end and there’s no time for hesitation. The time to decide is now.”

He added: “We must still close many gaps. We don’t have time to waste.”

Critics said there was a lot to do.

“COP28 is now on the verge of complete failure,” former U.S. Vice President and climate activist Al Gore posted on X. “The world desperately needs to phase out fossil fuels as quickly as possible, but this obsequious draft reads as if OPEC dictated it word for word. … It is deeply offensive to all who have taken this process seriously.”

Jean Su from the Center for Biological Diversity said the text “moves disastrously backward from original language offering a phaseout of fossil fuels.”

“If this race-to-the-bottom monstrosity gets enshrined as the final word, this crucial COP will be a failure,” Su said.

But Mohamed Adow of Power Shift Africa said the “text lays the ground for transformational change.”

“This is the first COP where the word fossil fuels are actually included in the draft decision. This is the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era,” he said.

Also on Monday, the latest draft on the Global Goal on Adaptation — the text on how countries, especially vulnerable ones, can adapt to weather extremes and climate harms — was released on Monday.

The adaptation is “utterly disappointing” and “an injustice to communities on the frontline of the crisis,” said Amy Giliam Thorp of Power Shift Africa.

“The text is even weaker, more vague in many areas, and lacking in ambition,” she said. It’s “set to corrode trust between developed and developing nations. A framework focused on action without concrete targets, especially to support developing countries, is pointless and toothless.”

Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio, a senior advisor for adaptation and resilience at the U.N. Foundation said “the new text doesn’t have the strength that we were hoping to see.”

On Monday morning, visibly tired and frustrated top U.N. officials urged COP28 talks to push harder for an end to fossil fuels, warning that time is running out for action.

“We can’t keep kicking the can down the road,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “We are out of road and almost out of time.”

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Associated Press journalists Olivia Zhang, Malak Harb, Bassam Hatoum and David Keyton contributed to this report.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

“Washington, D.C. is broken.”

Republican Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (representing Arizona’s 8th Congressional district) announced that she will not seek reelection in 2024.

Lesko cited a broken government that is not accomplishing much and the time she spends away from her family as the reasons for her decision.

In four simple words, Lesko warned that “Washington, D.C. is broken.”

There is still no end in sight for the high-stakes speakership battle after House Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy more than two weeks ago. Without a speaker no laws can be passed.

Even worse Rep. Drew Ferguson of Georgia said in a statement that after voting against Jim Jordan, his family started receiving death threats: “That is simply unacceptable, unforgivable, and will never be tolerated.”

Axios reported that Ferguson told other House Republicans in a Thursday meeting “that he’s had to have a sheriff stationed at his daughter’s school over death threats from the far right. Also one at his house.”

The New York Times reported that the wife of Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska “has begun sleeping with a loaded gun after receiving increasingly menacing anonymous calls and texts.”

Citizens of our country and people around the world are wondering what has happened to the United States.

An El Niño winter is coming. Here’s what that could mean for the US

California is a likely victim of substantial rain. NOAA has provided this graph.

Bitter and Stunned

Reported on USA Today on this date.

Trump gets brutal news as a Florida lawyer files a federal lawsuit to disqualify Trump from the 2024 presidential race due to the “disqualification clause” in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment than bans “insurrectionists” from office.

But it gets WORSE for Trump…

The lawyer declared in his lawsuit that it is “crystal clear” that Trump’s actions leading up to, on, and after January 6 show that he “both engaged in an insurrection and also gave aid and comfort to other individuals who were engaging in such actions, within the clear meaning of those terms as defined in Section Three of the 14th Amendment.”

The lawyer also argues that “the 800-plus page report issued last year by the congressional committee that investigated Trump’s role in alleged efforts to thwart the electoral process, as well as accusations he incited the violence on Capitol Hill that day, are grounds for disqualification.”

The amendment was ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, during Reconstruction, and also addressed the citizenship status of freed slaves and the re-integration of the defeated Confederate states back into the Union.

Applying the 14th Amendment’s disqualification rule to Trump has been a rising talking point this month.

The lawyer and a growing chorus of legal scholars, even prominent conservative ones, say that the amendment does not even require a conviction in the courts — but simply a finding that he violated the clause.

This lawsuit will end up in the Supreme Court. If Trump is barred from running for president will that result in a civil war? After all millions of people love the man. Six of the eight GOP candidates would support his candidacy even if he is found guilty in the obstruction trials.

It is Time to Impose Age Limits for those Holding Office in Congress and the Presidency

This should apply to members of the Supreme Court too!

Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has fallen multiple times this year and is now using a wheelchair after a speaking freeze for roughly 28 seconds during a press conference on Wednesday. He is 81 years old.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., appeared confused during a vote on a defense appropriations bill Thursday, which prompted a fellow Democratic senator to step in. About 15 seconds into Feinstein’s speech, an aide whispered in her ear. Committee chair Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., then told Feinstein: “Just say aye.” “Aye,” Feinstein said. Feinstein is 90 years old.

From The Hill

Two teachers posted on The Hill. One of the most frequent questions we receive from students when we are teaching about the U.S. Constitution is: why are there minimum age requirements for federally elected offices, but not maximum age requirements?

Although we might be accused of ageism, we think there are legitimate reasons for considering amending the eligibility requirements in Articles I & II of the Constitution.

First, dementia and other cognitive declines increase with age, as many studies indicate. Although many older Americans function well at older ages, federal elected officials are not immune from Alzheimer’s and other cognitive issues. We know that there have been cases in the past where elected officials have become unable to perform their duties, such that their staff members have to compensate. For example, Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), who served in the Senate until the age of 100, had to have help with everything from what questions to ask in hearings to physically walking to the floor of the Senate. His chief of staff became his office’s chief decision-maker, which means that an unelected staff person was making decisions for an elected member of Congress. This threatens democratic legitimacy.

Second, although there have been more people elected to Congress in recent election cycles who are under 40, membership in both chambers is still disproportionately much older than the American population. According to the Congressional Research Service, the average age of House members is 58.4 years and that of Senate members is 64.3 years. By comparison, the median age of U.S. residents is 38.2, and nearly half of the population is a member of the generation Z (born 1997 or later) or millennial (born 1981-1996) generations.There’s no denying our new climate reality: We must rethink disaster management The Supreme Court’s ‘anything goes’ attitude on the death penalty

There are important reasons to want more younger Americans to serve in public office. First, political science research has found that citizens feel higher levels of external efficacy—the idea that government listens to your concerns and reacts to them—when their representatives look more like them, which is called descriptive representation. Therefore, we could expect higher levels of efficacy and participation among younger Americans if there were more of them in Congress. Additionally, a maximum age would allow younger elected officials with a better understanding of contemporary issues to make decisions on issues like online privacy or the impact of the student loan burden on the nation’s economy. Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony in 2018, in which he infamously had to explain how the internet works to senators, likely would have gone very differently had there been a few younger Americans asking him questions.

The same arguments also apply to the presidency. Although we’ve had younger presidents, like Barack Obama, elected in this century, the last two presidents—Trump and Biden—are of an entirely different generation than most Americans. With the possibility that they could face each other in a rematch in 2024, when Trump is 77 and Biden is 82, the question raised by our survey is applicable: how old is too old?

David McLennan is a professor of political science at Meredith College and director of the Meredith Poll. Whitney Ross Manzo is an associate professor of political science at Meredith College and associate director of the Meredith Poll

A constitutional amendment is needed.

Abolish America’s Electoral College

The fight to reform or abolish the electoral college began almost as soon as it was created, by those who created it. In 1802, Alexander Hamilton, one of the original architects of the electoral college, was so displeased with how it was being executed that he helped draft a constitutional amendment to fix it. Since then there have been more than 700 efforts to reform or abolish it, according to the Congressional Research Service reported the Washington Post

In a 2020 Gallup poll heading into the 2020 presidential election, three in five Americans favored amending the U.S. Constitution to replace the Electoral College with a popular vote system, marking a six-percentage point uptick since April 2019. This preference for electing the president based on who receives the most votes nationwide is driven by 89% of Democrats and 68% of independents. Far fewer Republicans, 23%, share this view, as 77% of them support keeping the current system in which the candidate with the most votes in the Electoral College wins the election.

George W. Bush in Bush vs Gore won his election in the Electoral College but lost the popular vote. Donald Trump won the presidency despite getting fewer popular votes than Hillary Clinton.

The January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol would not have happened if there was a popular vote system. There won’t be any fake electors. The Vice President’s job of ceremonial counting of electoral votes would be eliminated.

There are more than 80 countries that select their president by direct vote. That includes countries in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. If the election was simply by popular vote California, the north Atlantic seaboard, some “liberal” parts of Florida, and the Seattle metro area would likely determine the presidency. That is a good thing. It is where most of us live. The Red Area Features A Total Population Greater Than The Grey – Coast Contact (wordpress.com)