JoNova

The Blockbuster rolls on. Books will be written about this week in politics. The FBI have apparently found a gargantuan 650,000 emails. They have also got a search warrant. The news rattled markets and currencies. It’s being called a bombshell, and political TNT. Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile said it was “Like an 18-wheeler smacking into us.” At least one mainstream columnist says the Democrats should ask Clinton to step aside before the election.

Excuses are flowing but the Clinton campaign has only itself to thank for this PR disaster

Count the ways the Clinton’s could have prevented this trainwreck. 1,2,3…

The Clinton’s raised the stakes from the start — earning something like $57 million on-the-side during the four years that Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State. This is not illegal, but it raises red flag questions of “conflict of interest”. Anyone playing this game while in charge of trade deals for the largest economy on Earth had better play straight, be careful, and be totally transparent. Hillary apparently did none of the above. The combination of an incoming river of money, with the mysterious disappearance of 30,000 emails added a radioactive glow to what was just a […]

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner was a few days ago. The traditional charity event is the last time both candidates will probably speak at the same place before the election. They were roasting each other. The jokes get sharpened to bleeding point. I love the idea of this charity bash as a quasi fourth debate. The two candidates are jousting with satirical jabs, able to say things that they may not have been allowed to say in any other context. It is a high and difficult art.

I’d like to see it in Australia (though I fear the laughs would be few and far between). Both US candidates are high caliber performers, both can deliver a line with the right timing. Both were composed. Both probably had good speech writers.

Some would say that Trump crossed the “line” with his pointed barbs, where the jab is a little too sharp, and too thinly disguised. (There’s a certain ratio of joke to message that carries the meme to the most people.) I would say satire is meant to make to make a point, otherwise it’s just stand up comedy.

In terms of the psychology of speeches, for this 15 […]

Lo and Behold — climate change “may” help feed the starving Ethiopians and turn the nation into a “food exporting country”.

( That sounds pretty serious. Pay billions — Stop That Now!)

With so many climate models, sooner or later one was going to turn up something good — in much the same way that Lotto somehow “finds” the winner. Incredibly the happy possibility even made it into a press release.

Perhaps it is safe to admit that climate change may help people in a country where the UN is not wanting to scare the voters into buying carbon credits?

Where are the headlines “Burn Oil and help feed Ethiopia?”

Where are the Green NGOs who see an opportunity here to get Ethiopia on its feet? Don’t they believe the climate models — Or is it that they don’t really give a toss about hungry black kids?

Climate change may help Ethiopia, increase the country’s access to water

A team of researchers from Virginia Tech have predicted that water availability in the Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia may increase in coming decades due to global climate change. It could also lead to increased crop production, spur massive hydroelectric […]