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  Off-Year Elections Don't Always Send A Message!  By Hank Silverberg Commentary The results of last week's election have been analyzed, reviewed and pontificated on now for days. A lot has been made about what message they send and how it will affect next year's mid-term elections. Democrats have been applauding, celebrating and claiming it sent a good message for next year. Republicans have nonchalantly passed the election off as irrelevant. Frankly, I think they are both wrong. Certainly the news was good for Democrats here in Virginia, where Governor-Elect Abigail Spanberger's margin of victory was 15%. And she takes to Richmond a General Assembly which now has a supermajority in the House (64-36), and maintains a majority in the Senate. The win was not surprising; the vote totals and the margin of victory were.   In New Jersey, there's been much talk about Donald Trump's candidate Jack Ciattarelli, who lost to Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, ironically a form...
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Shutdown                                            #361 By Hank Silverberg  Commentary The government shutdown is now into its second month, and we are beginning to see the impact on average people. But Congress really isn't paying attention. You have heard all the debate, why Democrats are holding out on any Continuing Resolution to re-open the government and why Republicans won't change the one that Democrats have voted against more than a dozen times.  But lost in all this is the impact on you and me.  With TSA and Air Traffic Controllers working without pay, flying has become difficult. Planes are delayed, some airports have stopped flights briefly at times because of staffing shortages, passengers whether for pleasure or business, are feeling the inconvenience.   Food pantries across the country are dealing with a big increase in patrons as furloug...
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The Trump Ballroom                                                                                 #360 By Hank Silverberg     Commentary  There has been a great deal of controversy over the new Trump ballroom about to be constructed where the East Wing of the White House had stood since FDR had it built in 1942.  Did Trump get the proper permission to build it? The answer is "no". He didn't feel that was necessary, though many in Washington say that is not the case. And he began the project while Congress is distracted by the government shutdown.   What corporations or private individuals are paying the $300 million to construct it? (Despite some claims, Trump is NOT using his own money.) There's a list out now. Take a look:  Here's the list of donor...
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No Kings! What Did It Accomplish?    #359 By Hank Silverberg   Commentary I posted some video and photos of the local "No Kings" protest here in Fredericksburg on my social media pages yesterday. It was small by comparison to the estimated seven to ten million who showed up across the country. We had maybe 2,000 people.  When I posted it on a local neighborhood chat room, I got some interesting comments. Most of them polite. Some not. But here is one good question: what did these protests accomplish? Here's my answer to that: It sends a clear message to the White House and more importantly, Congress, that millions of Americans are so ticked off about current policy that they are willing to march in the streets in big cities and small towns to relay that message. These are not radical leftists or "communists," or "terrorists" as the GOP made them out to be. They do not "hate" America, as House Speaker Mike Johnson said from the seat of America...
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    Renewable Energy Is The Future!        #358   By Hank Silverberg    Go outside. Feel the sun and wind on your face. That is our future. Solar and wind power, along with other types of renewable energy is the future of this planet. There is an unwillingness on the part of the Trump Administration to accept this, and they are doing everything they can to kill a decades- old effort to bring more solar and wind power into the grid. But in reality, fossil fuel will soon be a thing of the past.      (yourhome.gov.au) The chart below lays out the world supply of fossil fuel calculated five years ago. So if you have a child who is ten now, by the time he is old enough to retire, the world supply of oil and natural gas will be gone if consumption continues at current rates without alternatives.    Years of fossil fuel reserves left, 2020 Years of global coal, oil and natural gas left, reported as the reserves-to-product (R...
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A Chance For Peace?                      #357 By Hank Silverberg Commentary I have spent much of the summer intentionally distracted from what is going on in the world. Much of it is depressing, so I focused on baseball. My Red Sox had a pretty good season. I am saddened that they did not go past the first round of the playoffs, mainly because I now have to pay attention to the real world again.  Israel and Hamas will be having indirect negotiations in Egypt this week that could lead to another ceasefire and a hostage release. A new peace deal in the Middle East is being touted as the best possibility to end the war in Gaza and bring some peace to Israel and the Palestinian people. I'd like to write it's a good plan that might work, but I can't. Here are five reasons it is likely to fail: 1) The plan relies on Hamas to return all the Israeli hostages, give up their arms, and submit to some kind of international monitors in...
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