TheNextReport

A hundred million million---that's a whole lot of money; a sum, it is estimated,  that it will cost to repair the damage done to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. That doesn't include the underground parking garage, the MacDonalds the Chinese and other assorted ethnic foods in the assorted food court. These enhancements likely won't happen in the rebuild of what was one of the magnificent pieces of archetecture in the western world. We will stay tuned on this one.

A bigger smile was reportedly seen across the face of President Trump over the weekend as the results of Robert Mueller inquest into Russian interference in the 2018 election were delivered to the nation. The Republicans laughed again, all the way to the bank. Here's the difference: the Democratic Party continues to believe that the political opposition as a whole is moved by an argument based on an appeal to reason, common sense and most of all moral judgments. The term that comes to mind is "hoodwinked"

To the guy upstairs; why would you create something so beautiful only to abruptly take it away? Why indeed; alight with the drama of counting the climate it's Spring. There are no simple answers here. perhaps it can be found in the sky, amazed at its own existence -- fearful, yet eager for the truth -- in the end our only choice is no choice at all--acceptance.

He's got us in his grip that old, archaic, monstrosity that we love so well, making us stare into that magic mirror. And we follow blindly once again, wondering if it even has more than a brake demonstrating our pitiable lack of intelligence. 

Fire in the streets! That became the rallying cry in France as its commitment to building a future based on combating climate change officially entered the French lexicon. The French call it Gilets et Jaune. What began as a local, weekend protest against a government plan to hike taxes on fuel oil has turned into the most serious challenge to the French experiment with democracy since Napoleon caught the last train to Waterloo. The French and Americans have had an unusual, symbiotic relationship ever since the two found common ground during the Revolutionary period. Now, with the American government under siege by the dangerous antics of a billionaire circus clown, some right-wing European politicians who have expressed an admiration for Mr. Trump have realized they have some big shoes to fill. The voices behind the fires are casseurs, adepts at breaking storefront windows and setting things ablaze. Now, back in the US, it has been announced that President Trump has given up. Afte...

There I sat watching France and and The United States tearing themselves apart from the inside, thinking about the US led by a psychopathic circus clown, as big as a true challenge to its democracy. What's at stake in the shutdown was much more than the personal glorification of a crude, dangerous political hack, whose main interest is his bank account and securing his place in America's history book. The Trump presidency has taught us some harsh lessons about structural defects in the political system that has guided us for more than 200 years. Will the governing class of the United States be able to pull itself together to meet the dangers and opportunities that lay ahead? Stay tuned.

As we move into a new year, "courage" will be one of the key operating terms for the U.S. and other industrialized countries, seekimng a way out of. The threat of global, political extremism from both the left and right; the disturbing, ethno-centric turmoil coming from home and overseas; provide the seeds for action from bleeding governments sorely in need, seeking a way out. The questions scream through the headlines: Will we have the courage to finally surmount our stale, dual-sided mindset and beat back the partisan antagonism that has chained us for so long? Will we have the means and the will to withstand the damage done to an economy that is unable to see the benefits of adopting a green economic paradigm?

Today, the circus was in town again -- The damage from the government shutdown has begun to take a foul turn. ts toll. The message: an economy that is not paying its workers is an economy that's headed for the dumper. All aboard!

Just when we thought it safe to go back  to Paris...or Bordeaux...or Toulouse... with everything collapsing around him, French president Emmanuel Macron tried a dribbler. In baseball terms, that means getting the ball back to home-plate before another player (most often the pitcher, catcher or first baseman from the opposing team can do the same. In this case it didn't work. Acting on a plan hatched by the previous government, the proposed cure in French politics turned out to be an attack on the third base line, more suited to a remark by the man guarding third than anyone. The awarding of 100 euros monthly has the rancid aroma of a bribe. The SMIC, the Salaire Minimum Horaire as it is known in France as a bribe) adds some money to the monthly check workers get Macron, who received 70% in some areas of France when he was elected, was not as popular this time.

Just when we thought it safe to go back  to Paris... with everything collapsing around him, French president Emmanuel Macron  tried a dribbler. In baseball that means getting the ball to home-plate before another player (most often the catcher from the opposing team can do the same, In this case it didn't work. Acting on a plan hatched by previous governments, the proposed cure in French politics turned out to be an attack on the third base line, more suited to a remark by  than Woodrow Wilson. The awarding of 100 euros to that the SMIC, the Salaire Minimum Horaire as it is known in France) The the  response by the maddening crowd? "c'est pas just.!"  It was called "Too little, too late Macron, who received  a count of a 70% in some areas of France when he was elected, was not as popular this time.

Tears flowed onto the streets of the Champs Elisee yesterday, as they have been so often in French history;  so often in France the weeping came, the elder cobblestones were being excavated, recruited to act as projectiles aimed at the police. Now did the batons fly, finding bones and flash cracked and crumbled. It was not the first time the French people had thrown rocks and invectives at each other. The vast social revolution of 1968 comes immediately to mind; there was that matter in 1870 when the Kaiser and his hungry Prussian troops entered Paris and ended up dining on rats and other available proteins. The culprit this time? You guessed it---taxes. That little five-letter word so often at the root of social unrest. This time, it was a proposal to raise taxes on carburants--those ranting, carbon-based fuels no one really likes; the ones that eventually spell doom for the planet. Thinking he could do something crazy (like planing for the future by learning from the past) Fr...

The Democratic Party lost the Senate though it won the House of Reps in what was viewed as one of the most important mid-term elections in history. Why see it as a loss for the GOP and a victory and a win for the Dems? The Senate is made up of 100 members called senators. Each state is equally represented two senators, regardless of the state’s population. Unlike members of the House, who represent individual geographic congressional districts within the states, senators represent the entire state. Senators serve rotating six-year terms.

They're almost here. The caravan of lies has reached our shores so get prepared, the mounted hoards will soon be at the gates, knocking down the barriers, heating up the oil. Grab your pitchforks folks, they're sharpening their swords getting their shovels in place, because the great Central American waves--the dark ones-- have breached our defenses; burning the fields, they are breaking the catapults, attacking the protectors of the young ones-- getting their arrows ready; now they are here, taking the women and children, pillaging and raping--making them one of us, making them one of our own.

70 billion dollars in the deaf Defcon president surfaced unexpectedly on the White  House lawn yesterday shocking just about every body in the press corps. For over 20 minutes--that seemed like an  eternity ---the reporter's limited in-your-face--gaggle became a shocking, spur-of-the-moment opportunity to back the president into a corner and pepper him with rarely detailed explanations of the administration's policies. The press corps took the advantage, shouting every question that came to mind. The question that lingered: will the president ever give the First Amendment the chance again?

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania found itself in the gun-sights of a racist anti-Semite on Thursday and learned about a dark corner of American life. It's a world of shadows, of ghosts of the past, a world where atrocities--in spite of the benign changes of  post WW history--never really disappear. It is indeed a world of rule by mindless militarism, of hidden realities that lie in wait for the right moment-- the moment to strike. It is a world that challenges us to be ever vigilant in order to prevent those who feed at the troughs of hatred from achieving their goals. Tragically, they seem today to see far too much, far too often.

Blink your eyes and watch the world change in the Middle East... well maybe not. One thing is for certain--it was one of the most brazen political crimes in recent memory. News columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in a Saudi Arabian consulate right under the noses of the Saudis, a key regional ally of the Trump Administration. The outrage allowed the Trump team to re-direct the international argument over control of immigration, giving the president a boost as the mid-term elections dawned in the east. This week, The NextReport gets back in the saddle after moving its offices temporarily to France. We expect to be back in the thick of things with reports from the United States and from Europe. As we say here in TheNextReport; Stay Tuned and Look out.

Independence? That depends. The United States of America passed its 241st birthday rather quickly, its hands partially covering its eyes.  Mired in the biggest scandal since the impeachment of Richard Nixon in 1974, much of the country has been left wondering how it happened. For those who claim to love democracy, there is a profound discomfort in the air, on television and in social media. It seems to confirm that the Republic is really a delusion. Peer behind that curtain and it hits us right in the face. We are living under the thumb of a homegrown oligarchy, a  twisted coalition of natavist fascism and fundamentalist theocracy, fueled by the deep pockets of a multi-billionaire corporate gentry. Today, the engine of the United States is being run by a legislature that is home to a group of hard-line ideologues, and an incompetent executive that is thoroughly corrupt. Coupled by an ignorant electorate that no longer reads and takes every opportunity to profess its disdain fo...

Oil in the Arctic is a hidden treasure that may provide answers to many of the questions surrounding America's deepest political scandal--the hacking of the 2016 presidential election. A 2008 United States Geological Survey estimates that areas north of the Arctic Circle have 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, recoverable oil (and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids ) in 25 geologically defined areas thought to have potential for petroleum. This represents 13% of the undiscovered oil in the world. In June 2007, a group of Russian geologists returned from a six-week voyage on a nuclear icebreaker, the expedition called Arktika 2007. They had traveled to the Lomonosov ridge, an underwater shelf going between Russia's remote, inhospitable eastern Arctic Ocean, and Ellesmere Island in Canada where the ridge lies 400m under the ocean surface. According to Russia's media, the geologists returned with the "sensational news" that the Lomonosov ridge was l...

All the talk about Jared Kushner and secret "back-channel" communications seems designed to keep people wondering and interested in the Washington intrigue. Back-channel talks between Russia and the US on a range of critical issues have been ongoing since the Cold War and some good has indeed come of it. I worked with a small group of people during the late 90's led by television producer Ren Breck whose whose company (News Center One) provided networked communications for international crises. This was BI (bef ore the Internet) when actual human intervention was often necessary.  News Center One played a key role in networking scientists from around the world who used their expertise to address the problems generated by the Chernobyl disaster. Ren's work earned him the commendation of the Russian Academy of Science and established a measure of trust between the involved parties. The News Center One team helped facilitate a Bay Area back-channel visit b...

The Conductor is having a ball working on the orchestration, pitting himself -- the twittering hero -- against the machine, unable to admit his social glaucoma, unable to admit that he is the machine. His deliberate obstruction of justice seems to have worked. He won't go to jail, however, and when it is all over he will have plenty of "content" at his disposal to construct a variety of entertainment packages, all with hardly a dent made in his personal empire. There's Trump the board game, Trump the caviar, Trump the vodka, Trump the champagne,Trump the lunchbox, Trump the after-shave; Trump luggage, Trump jewelry.  What's next? Perhaps asylum in one of those Persian Gulf principalities or maybe, just maybe, somewhere behind bars in the bowels of North Carolina, in a seat next to Bernie Madoff,...