Did Trump permanently damage American democracy? This question has spawned a veritable cottage industry of hand wringing over the state of American democracy—understandably so. Never before have we had a president who schemed to overturn legitimate election results, who attacked the press and the civil servants who worked for him, who admired dictators, who blatantly profited from his public office and who repeatedly lied to the public for his own selfish purposes. But while Trump’s four years of rhetoric have been a shock to democratic norms, did they inflict permanent damage on our democracy? My answer is a qualified no. The guardrails of democracy held. The institutions designed to check autocracy are intact.
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Did Trump damage American democracy?
Showing posts with label Damage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Damage. Show all posts
7/15/21
EU _Floods: At least 60 dead, dozens missing as severe floods cause havoc across western Europe
More than 60 people have died and dozens were missing Thursday as severe flooding in Germany and Belgium turned deadly. Great damage was also done in the Netherlans and Switzerland
Recent storms across parts of western Europe made rivers and reservoirs burst their banks, triggering flash floods overnight after the saturated soil couldn’t absorb any more water.
Read more at: At least 60 dead, dozens missing as severe floods cause havoc across western Europe - National | Globalnews.ca
Recent storms across parts of western Europe made rivers and reservoirs burst their banks, triggering flash floods overnight after the saturated soil couldn’t absorb any more water.
Read more at: At least 60 dead, dozens missing as severe floods cause havoc across western Europe - National | Globalnews.ca
2/21/21
The Netherlands: 747 engine turbine blades spear cars in the Netherlands
A Longtail Aviation Boeing 747-400 freighter, operating Flt LGT-5504 from Maastricht in the Netherlands to New York has suffered an engine explosion, and turbine blades from the damaged engine showered down on cars in the village of Meerssen.
According to the Aviation Herald, an elderly lady was “hit by the debris and received minor injuries.”
The pilots declared an emergency and entered a hold to dump fuel and diverted to Liege (Belgium) for a safe landing about one hour after departure. A number of cars on the ground received damage as a result of debris falling. Aviation Herald says a resident in Meerssen reported he “heard a loud bang, spotted the aircraft with streaks of flames from one of the right-hand engines, then metal rained from the sky.”
Read more at: 747 engine turbine blades spear cars in the Netherlands - Airline Ratings
According to the Aviation Herald, an elderly lady was “hit by the debris and received minor injuries.”
The pilots declared an emergency and entered a hold to dump fuel and diverted to Liege (Belgium) for a safe landing about one hour after departure. A number of cars on the ground received damage as a result of debris falling. Aviation Herald says a resident in Meerssen reported he “heard a loud bang, spotted the aircraft with streaks of flames from one of the right-hand engines, then metal rained from the sky.”
Read more at: 747 engine turbine blades spear cars in the Netherlands - Airline Ratings
1/6/21
Brexit: The “Deal” is less than it seems - by Brendan Donnelly
Throughout the month of December commentators and politicians speculated tirelessly on the likelihood of a negotiated trade arrangement between the UK and EU before the end of the year. Many expected that the personal convictions of Boris Johnson and the intransigence of the Conservative Party would prevent the conclusion of any such agreement. On 24rd December, those who took this view were apparently proved wrong. Ursula von der Leyen and Boris Johnson announced the signing of a Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) which would ensure that trade between the UK and EU could continue without quotas or tariffs. The Agreement was hailed as a triumph by the British Prime Minister, but described in distinctly more muted tones by the President of the European Commission. Of the two reactions, the President’s was the more realistic. The TCA will reduce but cannot abolish the reciprocal (although asymmetrical) damage done to the EU and UK by Brexit.
Read more at: Brexit: The “Deal” is less than it seems - The Federal Trust
Read more at: Brexit: The “Deal” is less than it seems - The Federal Trust
10/30/20
Turkey: Deadly 7.0 earthquake rocks western Turkey, Greece
A strong earthquake struck the Aegean Sea on Friday and inflicted damage in both Greece and Turkey, where buildings collapsed killing at least four people with many others trapped in the rubble.
Read more at: Deadly earthquake rocks western Turkey, Greece | Greece | Al Jazeera
Read more at: Deadly earthquake rocks western Turkey, Greece | Greece | Al Jazeera
4/5/20
Dutch flower industry continues to wither amid coronavirus
Growers are preserving what they have in storage or fields, however the reality is that almost all of this 12 month’s harvest
will possible go to waste.
“The loss is huge,” said Michel van Schie of FloraHolland, the world’s dominant flower clearing house for public sales.
“In the intervening time we now have solely 30% of our regular turnover, and ... that during the busiest period of the year.”
Each day gross sales in March typically move 20 million euros ($22 million) of flowers, which continue with strong sales into the Easter vacation and Mothers Day..
In all, 35% of the world's flower and plant exports, valued at 6.2 billion euros over a 12 months period, move through the Netherlands, principally from Dutch growers, but additionally from African and Latin American farms.
Van Schie said the situation became specially acute on March 13 with the flight cancellations and bans on public gatherings at many international events. This meant almost 1 / 4 of flowers up for public sale that day went unsold and had to be thrown out.
“Subsequent on that Monday it was 50%, after which we had to take unpleasant measures and we had to tell our growers ‘please diminish your stock’ as a result much of the stock had to be destroyed.”
Read more: Netherlands willing to contribute €1 billion to EU coronavirus fund | NL Times
“The loss is huge,” said Michel van Schie of FloraHolland, the world’s dominant flower clearing house for public sales.
“In the intervening time we now have solely 30% of our regular turnover, and ... that during the busiest period of the year.”
Each day gross sales in March typically move 20 million euros ($22 million) of flowers, which continue with strong sales into the Easter vacation and Mothers Day..
In all, 35% of the world's flower and plant exports, valued at 6.2 billion euros over a 12 months period, move through the Netherlands, principally from Dutch growers, but additionally from African and Latin American farms.
Van Schie said the situation became specially acute on March 13 with the flight cancellations and bans on public gatherings at many international events. This meant almost 1 / 4 of flowers up for public sale that day went unsold and had to be thrown out.
“Subsequent on that Monday it was 50%, after which we had to take unpleasant measures and we had to tell our growers ‘please diminish your stock’ as a result much of the stock had to be destroyed.”
Read more: Netherlands willing to contribute €1 billion to EU coronavirus fund | NL Times
3/22/20
Croatia: Earthquake rocks Croatia's capital Zagreb
The 5.3-magnitude tremor sent chunks of buildings falling into the streets in Zagreb.
Read more at:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-universal-basic-income-1.5501938
Read more at:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-universal-basic-income-1.5501938
10/12/19
Global Warming ?: Japan hit by biggest Typhoon in decades
Typhoon Hagibis: Biggest Japan storm in decades makes landfall
Read more at:
3/20/19
11/13/17
Middle East: A 7.3 Magnitude Earthquake Jolts Area Around Iran-Iraq Border - by Nasser Karimi and Amir Vahdut
 |
| Damage after a 7.3 earthquake |
Iran’s western Kermanshah province bore the brunt of the temblor Sunday night, with authorities saying the quake killed 407 people in the country and injured 6,700. Kermanshah is a rural, mountainous region where residents rely mainly on farming.
In Iraq, the earthquake killed at least seven people and injured 535, all in the country’s northern Kurdish region, according to Iraq’s Interior Ministry.
The quake was centered 19 miles (31 kilometers) outside the eastern Iraqi city of Halabja, according to the most recent measurements from the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck at 9:48 p.m. Iran time, just as people began retiring for the night.
Read more: A.7.3 Magnitude Earthquake Jolts Area Around Iran-Iraq Border | Time
9/26/17
USA - Earthquake: California could be hit by an 8.2 mega-earthquake, and it would be catastrophic - by Rong-Gong Lin II
 |
| Damage during the last major California Earthquake |
Like California, Mexico is a seismically active region that has seen smaller quakes that have caused death and destruction. But the Sept. 7 temblor is a reminder that even larger quakes — while rare — do occur.
Scientists say it’s possible for Southern California to be hit by a magnitude 8.2 earthquake. Such a quake would be far more destructive to the Los Angeles area because the San Andreas fault runs very close to and underneath densely populated areas.
The devastating quakes that hit California over the last century were far smaller than the Sept. 7 temblor, which Mexican authorities set at magnitude 8.2 and the U.S. Geological Survey placed at 8.1. Mexico’s earthquake produced four times more energy than the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake, a magnitude 7.8, which killed 3,000 people and sparked a fire that left much of the city in ruins.
Southern California’s most recent mega-quake was in 1857, also estimated to be magnitude 7.8, when the area was sparsely populated. (That was considerably stronger than the 7.1 quake that hit Mexico on Tuesday, causing buildings to collapse and leading to a significant loss of life).
A magnitude 8.2 earthquake would rupture the San Andreas fault from the Salton Sea — close to the Mexican border — all the way to Monterey County. The fault would rupture through counties including Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino.
An 8.2 earthquake would be far worse here because the San Andreas fault runs right through areas such as the Coachella Valley — home to Palm Springs — and the San Bernardino Valley, along with the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles. The fault is about 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
In Mexico, “you’ve got [many] people a pretty long way aways from it,” seismologist Lucy Jones said. But in Southern California, “we’d have a lot of people right on top of it. It would be shallow, and it runs through our backyard.”
A magnitude 8.2 on the San Andreas fault would cause damage in every city in Southern California, Jones has said, from Palm Springs to San Luis Obispo.
Read more: California could be hit by an 8.2 mega-earthquake, and it would be catastrophic - LA Times
9/19/17
Mexico: 7.1 magnitude quake kills 55 as buildings collapse in Mexico - by M. Stevenson,C.Christopher, S. Sherman, and P.Orsi
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked central Mexico on Tuesday,
killing at least 55 people as buildings collapsed in plumes of dust and
thousands fled into the streets in panic.
The quake came less than two weeks after another quake left 90 dead
in the country's south, and it occurred as Mexicans commemorated the
anniversary of a 1985 quake that killed thousands.
Mexican media broadcast images of multiple downed buildings in densely populated parts of Mexico City and nearby Cuernavaca.
A column of smoke rose from a structure in one central neighborhood in the capital. Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez reported on Twitter that at least 42 people had died in his state south of Mexico City.
7
Read more: .1 magnitude quake kills 55 as buildings collapse in Mexico
Mexican media broadcast images of multiple downed buildings in densely populated parts of Mexico City and nearby Cuernavaca.
A column of smoke rose from a structure in one central neighborhood in the capital. Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez reported on Twitter that at least 42 people had died in his state south of Mexico City.
7
Read more: .1 magnitude quake kills 55 as buildings collapse in Mexico
9/7/17
USA: Flood Insurance: Most Florida flood zone property not insured
As Hurricane Irma bears down on Florida, an Associated Press
analysis shows a steep drop in flood insurance across the state,
including the areas most endangered by what could be a devastating storm
surge.
In just five years, the state's total number of federal flood insurance policies has fallen by 15 percent, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency data.
Florida's property owners still buy far more federal flood insurance than any other state - 1.7 million policies, covering about $42 billion in assets - but most residents in hazard zones are badly exposed.
With 1,350 miles of coastline, the most in the continental United States, Florida has roughly 2.5 million homes in hazard zones, more than three times that of any other state, FEMA estimates. And yet, across Florida's 38 coastal counties, just 42 percent of these homes are covered.
In the counties being under at least partial evacuation orders Wednesday (Collier, Broward, Monroe and Miami-Dade), where 1.3 million houses are estimated to be in flood hazard zones, the percentage is an even lower 34.3 percent.
Florida's overall flood insurance rate for hazard-zone homes is just 41 percent. Fannie Mae ostensibly requires mortgage lenders to make sure property owners buy this insurance to qualify for federally backed loans, and yet in 59 percent of the cases, that insurance isn't being paid for.
Nationwide, only half the 10 million properties that need flood insurance have it, said Roy Wright, who runs the National Flood Insurance Program. He told the AP last week that he wants to double the number of policies sold nationally in the near future.
Read more: Most Florida flood zone property not insured
In just five years, the state's total number of federal flood insurance policies has fallen by 15 percent, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency data.
Florida's property owners still buy far more federal flood insurance than any other state - 1.7 million policies, covering about $42 billion in assets - but most residents in hazard zones are badly exposed.
With 1,350 miles of coastline, the most in the continental United States, Florida has roughly 2.5 million homes in hazard zones, more than three times that of any other state, FEMA estimates. And yet, across Florida's 38 coastal counties, just 42 percent of these homes are covered.
In the counties being under at least partial evacuation orders Wednesday (Collier, Broward, Monroe and Miami-Dade), where 1.3 million houses are estimated to be in flood hazard zones, the percentage is an even lower 34.3 percent.
Florida's overall flood insurance rate for hazard-zone homes is just 41 percent. Fannie Mae ostensibly requires mortgage lenders to make sure property owners buy this insurance to qualify for federally backed loans, and yet in 59 percent of the cases, that insurance isn't being paid for.
Nationwide, only half the 10 million properties that need flood insurance have it, said Roy Wright, who runs the National Flood Insurance Program. He told the AP last week that he wants to double the number of policies sold nationally in the near future.
Read more: Most Florida flood zone property not insured
8/17/16
Britain: Brexit damage to economy will outweigh modest wage gains, says study - by Anushka Asthana and Larry Elliott
Damage to the British economy caused by Brexit will more than offset
the modest wage gains for British-born workers in low-paid jobs caused
by cutting net migration to the tens of thousands a year, a study has
found.
A report by the Resolution Foundation thinktank said there would be a small pay increase to native-born employees in sectors such as security and cleaning if there was a big cut in the number of workers arriving in Britain from overseas.
But it estimated that these benefits would fail to compensate for the reduction in real incomes caused in the short term by the higher inflation triggered by a falling pound, and in the long term by a slowdown in the economy’s growth rate.
The Resolution Foundation also warned that achieving the government’s target of cutting annual net migration from more than 300,000 to the tens of thousands would present serious challenges for companies that rely on low-paid migrant workers – and could force some of them out of business.
Immigration was a significant factor in the referendum campaign, with a sizeable number of those who voted to leave the EU citing it as reason for supporting Brexit. Early last month, Theresa May, then home secretary, said the government had received a clear message from the electorate and needed to control the numbers of people coming into the UK from the EU.
Read more: Brexit damage to economy will outweigh modest wage gains, says study | UK news | The Guardian
A report by the Resolution Foundation thinktank said there would be a small pay increase to native-born employees in sectors such as security and cleaning if there was a big cut in the number of workers arriving in Britain from overseas.
But it estimated that these benefits would fail to compensate for the reduction in real incomes caused in the short term by the higher inflation triggered by a falling pound, and in the long term by a slowdown in the economy’s growth rate.
The Resolution Foundation also warned that achieving the government’s target of cutting annual net migration from more than 300,000 to the tens of thousands would present serious challenges for companies that rely on low-paid migrant workers – and could force some of them out of business.
Immigration was a significant factor in the referendum campaign, with a sizeable number of those who voted to leave the EU citing it as reason for supporting Brexit. Early last month, Theresa May, then home secretary, said the government had received a clear message from the electorate and needed to control the numbers of people coming into the UK from the EU.
Read more: Brexit damage to economy will outweigh modest wage gains, says study | UK news | The Guardian
7/8/13
Europe floods caused €4.5bn of damage, says Swiss Re
The devastating floods that hit central and Eastern Europe last month caused up to $4.5bn (£3bn) in losses for the insurance industry, said re-insurance group Swiss Re.
Swiss Re meanwhile welcomed the fact that local flood prevention measures had spared many regions from large losses, as in Prague, where mobile flood barriers saved most of the city from significant flooding.
Read more: Europe floods caused €4.5bn of damage, says Swiss Re - Telegraph
Swiss Re meanwhile welcomed the fact that local flood prevention measures had spared many regions from large losses, as in Prague, where mobile flood barriers saved most of the city from significant flooding.
Read more: Europe floods caused €4.5bn of damage, says Swiss Re - Telegraph
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