Ending illegal e-waste dumping

I just found out about the Basel Action Network, http://www.ban.org which is an organization in Seattle doing great work. I have an old keyboard to dispose of, and though I take it to my City e-waste Recycling Center in Durham, NC, I don't really know where it will end up. Hopefully not creating toxic fumes or land poisoning in Africa or Asia.
Here is some e-waste in Nigeria in 2005

NPR has a show about this issue:

After Dump, What Happens To Electronic Waste?

Say NO to Fracked Gas Plant at Duke University

There was a public hearing last night (Mar 27) at Duke for community stakeholders to weigh in on Duke's plan to partner with Duke Energy to build a new power plant on campus. It is called a CHP plant (Combined Heat & Power) and will run on fracked gas.

 Not many people at this last minute hearing. Duke has an alliance with nearby neighborhoods, but I guess they *forgot* to alert them about this to avoid negative press. Most of the affected community in Durham has no idea that Duke has plans to pollute our neighborhoods with toxic fracked gas emissions.

Please check the talking points at NC Warn.  and contact Duke immediately. 
There is an advisory subcommittee that is making recommendations on Friday, Mar 31.
Here is where you can submit comments:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJ7LnzcRXsVrHSofYWjH09WkvJOcqUGespOzdxhHsc3-yXMw/viewform?c=0&w=1

If you can do this before Friday, we might get them to reconsider, and  e-mail  your message directly to President Brodhead also. President@duke.edu.

Duke claims it will reduce their carbon footprint, but it seems that they have some tricky way of calculating that, ignoring some types of emissions, and that in actuality, it will increase air pollution. There was a representative from NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) there who said they had offered to help evaluate the project repeatedly over the last 7 months and that Duke has not cooperated. Jim Warren and others from NC Warn spoke about the harm this plant will cause and the secrecy in the way it has been planned.

It is not a done deal yet, so you can help stop it by contacting Duke's President Brodhead at President@duke.edu. Duke prides itself on its efforts to be a leader in climate protection, but this is really a major step backwards, that will cost $55,000,000 dollars, largely paid by Duke Power customers throughout NC for the next 35 years.

Duke has been considering a project to capture methane from hog farms and use that as a bio fuel instead of the fracked gas. That would be awesome, but they should not build the plant first before making sure the captured methane supply will be reliable. There is a lot of room for more solar power at Duke also.

The Nightmare of Trump's America

"Alternative" Facts?

 
"President" followed by "Trump" seems like an oxymoron to me. No one is more the antithesis of Presidential, so I will refer to him as T.

Everything he does seems Orwellian. His dark vision of America in carnage, people jobless, beset by gangs, murderers and rapists who invaded our formerly safe, wonderful and wealthy home is a trope that his supporters lap up and believe. He talks in doublespeak, as does Fox News.
In his essay "Politics and the English Language", George Orwell said,

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible … Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness … the great enemy of clear language is insincerity. Where there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms

T has gaslighted his way into the most powerful position in the world... which matches his narcissistic view of himself as the great savior. As he said, "Only I can fix this."

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or members of a group, hoping to make targets question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target's belief.

T said he would release his taxes as soon as the audit is done. Another lie! Perhaps a judge can order the release of his taxes, but before that happens T and the Republican congress will appoint conservative judges to hundreds of court vacancies that they refused to fill throughout President Obama's tenure.

  A Fox for Every Henhouse

His cabinet picks at best have little to no experience or training for the departments they are going to lead. At worst they have promised to dismantle the very agencies they will now lead (to ruin?), as in Rick Perry wanting to eliminate the Department of Energy. Or take Betsy DeVoss who has never attended public schools, did not send her children to public schools, and is an activist for privatizing schools, now is in the most powerful position to supposedly protect our system of free public education?
As Michael Moore tweeted,
If you're still trying to convince yourself that a 21st century coup is not underway, please, please snap out of it.

Sister March in Raleigh

It's come to this. With Trump's win, I will have to take the time to start blogging again. I was heartened to take part in the Sister march in Raleigh, NC, where 17,000 worried and angry women and their allies marched on January 21st, the first day after that Gloom and Doom inauguration.