Dominion Donated to Republicans in Nevada

    Trump's charge is that Dominion Voting Systems donated to Democrats. While my study of the topic continues, the first evidence in is just the opposite -- Dominion donated not to Democrats, but to Republicans in the state of Nevada. 

   The revelation came to light thanks to a tweet from a former Republican candidate for the U.S. House. She was trying to support Trump's claim that Dominion was giving to anti-Trump causes. "Dominion Voting Systems donated thousands of dollars to an anti-Trump Republican PAC linked to our Sec of State in Nevada," Mindy Robinson tweeted. The tweet offered a screenshot of the donation Dominion made to the Republican State Leadership Committee, as found on the secretary of state's website.

   Robinson cited no evidence or reason for her saying the Republican State Leadership Committee is anti-Trump. And, the evidence that has turned up runs counter to that. Says the group's website: "The RSLC and state Republicans are on the offense this year -- and President Trump is powering the way. Across our 12 target redistricting states, at least 115 districts are currently held by a Democrat, but were won by President Trump in 2016. We are going to flip them to Republican when he wins them again this fall."

  That statement indicates support for Trump, rather than opposition. And, either way, the donation was to Republicans, not to Democrats. It might be wrong for Dominion to be giving contributions to a party when it is providing the election equipment for the elections, but if it reflects a bias, the bias is to the Republicans. If Dominion was going to change votes from Trump to Biden in Nevada, why was it donating to the Repubicans?

   

McConnell Received Donations from Dominion's Workers

  While Trump supporters argue Dominion Voting System donated money to Democrats -- and it might well happen we are going to find that true -- at this point we find it is a dominant Republican, no less than Mitch McConnell who received donations.

   This news is found not in a current story, but in one that ran more than a year ago, way back when Robert Mueller made his report. Newsweek, July 26, 2019, cites another news agency, Sludge, as saying that Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck lobbyist David Cohen, who had worked with Dominion, gave McConnell $2000. And, Brian Wild, who works with Cohen, gave McConnell another $1,000.

  Election security was a concern then, and the article notes McConnell "squashed two bills intended to ensure voting security on Thursday, just one day after former special counsel Robert Mueller warned that Russians were attempting to sabotage the 2020 presidential elections 'as we sit here.' "

  So, Dominion people gave thousands of dollars to Republican McConnell. McConnell then upended legislation to provide election security. Now, here we are today worried about election security and we have to reflect that McConnell squashed such legislation. Why would McConnell ever oppose legislation providing election security?  

The Coming of Large Batteries Might Help Chase Fossil Fuels Away

    Are we on the threshhold of finally ridding the world of fossil-fuel-fired power plants? My understanding is that it is now becoming feasible to store energy created at power plants. 

  What does that have to do with renewable energy? For one thing, the knock against wind farms is that they only generate power when the wind is blowing. So, if you were to rely only on wind-generated power, when the wind stopped blowing, the lights would go out. But, if you could save the extra power created when the winds were blowing by placing the extra power in a large battery, then when the winds stopped, you would still have power to keep your lights on.

  And, the batteries might also benefit the hydro power sector. As is, at moments when not enough power is being used to match the power a dam can produce, they have to open a spillway and let the water pass through without it hitting the turbines, thus turning off the energy-making function. If batteries could store that power, though, then we could produce that power without interruption, and thus have more and be freer from needing as much fossil-fuel power. 

Perhaps We Should Provide Explanation of Why Claims were Rejected

    Alas, I did not get to studying the claims the President made, to try to do my own determination whether they are true. Busy day, per usual. The courts have already rejected most if not all of the claims, if I am abreast on that. Still, the President was very convincing in what he said, at least convincing to his followers. They came away reinvigorated that that he is being swept out of the White House wrongly. "Stop the Steal," they yell.

   Though I have trouble believing the courts were not fair in ruling against the President's claims, it does seem to me we should perhaps look at them, review them again. I listened to his full 46-minute speech, but do not know if I will have time to google and search them all -- or even a few of them -- to review why the claims of voter fraud have been rejected. 

Is Trump Turning the Tide?

   President Trump maneuvered himself back into contention Wednesday night. He needs to convince a large enough base that the election was fraudulent to give reason for the Supreme Court to take up the case -- or to give him the power to refuse to leave office Jan. 20.

   Wednesday's pre-recorded speech turned momentum on its ear. It was looking like he did not have enough support. Even Bill Barr had just abandoned him. Then, came his speech, distributed by such outlets as NTD (New Tang Dynasty) News, and Newsmax. Many major news outlets were not even notified he would be speaking, and had to play catch-up the next morning. 

   This might be the most important speech I will ever make, he said, as he opened. This might be the most important thing (correcting voter fraud) I've ever done, he said as he concluded. 

Put Power Generators at More Stations and Grow Our Hydropower

  I pull out a map filled with dots marking where dams are in the United States. They saturate the map. I google to determine how many dams there are -- 84,000, says one website, 90,580 says another, and 2.5 million says a third.

  I look up a list of hydropower stations in America. I scroll down the page, counting them, and come up with less than 70. Hydopower might be one of our least utilized resources, then, regardless how you count it. How many of these dams could be converted into hydropower stations, I do not know. But, it seems plenty.  

  So, I continue, and find a report titled, An Assessment of Energy Potential at Non-Powered Dams in the United States. "In contrast to the roughly 2,500 dams that provide 78 gigawatts (GW) of conventional and 22 GW of pumped-storage hydropower," the report reads, "the United States has more than 80,000 non-powered dams (NPDs) -- dams that do not produce electricity."

   Now, I'm really getting excited. With 80,000 dams not being utilized to generate power, just how much potential is going wasted?

  Then, comes the downer. "Adding power to U.S. NPDs has the potential to add 12 GW (12,000 megawatts or MW) of new renewable capacity -- a potential equivalent to increasing the size of the existing conventional hydropower by 15%."

   The potential is only for 15%? That is not near as much as I had hoped. Still, looking at the total number of dams, I question if there is not a greater harvest of energy to be had. I wonder if we aren't pulling up way short in suggesting only a 15 percent increase. 

The Three Gorges Dam and the Foreshadowing of Earthquakes

    It is said that the largest dam in the world potentially could have slowed the earth's rotation. Call that a myth, but the myth-checkers -- fact-checkers -- have checked it out, and it's true.

   Why this is of importance to me, is that it indicates if reservoirs behind dams can change the earth's rotation, the weight of them could also foster earthquakes.

   Six-hundred-thirty-two square (632) kilometers, is the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam in China. That's a very sizable area.  Forty-two-billion (42-billion) tons does all that water weight. That's a massive amount of weight. If, in constructing the Three Gorges Dam, you shift that much weight from one parcel of real estate to another, isn't it going to affect the seismic plates below? With that much weight bearing down on a different spot on the seismic plating -- leading to thier snapping -- it would seem it is surely going to have an effect.

   Now, the weight of all that water is also being raised. Water once closer to sea level is now higher up as it is raised by the reservoir. That means the spin of the earth is going to be affected. It is the same principle you get with a figure skater. As the skater spins, she tucks her arms in so she can spin faster. Or, a diver. He tucks his body in as he spins. The earth is the same, as it spins, if a large, heavy mass is protruding upward, it slows the spin. Thus, 42-billion ton of weight being raised upward might slow the spin of the planet. 

   The faster the planet spins, the greater the gravity and the tighter things are pressed to the core. Thus, it makes sense that the weight on the seismic plates might also possibly be affected by the slowing of the earth's spin. In addition, you must wonder if slowing the spin would result in the biosphere expanding (since things are not being pressed to the core as much), affecting the density of pollutants and the prism area the sun shines thru -- and thus global warming. I doubt the Three Gorges Dam slowed the earth enough to much impact either (seismic plates or global warming), but who knows. 

   But, still, the weight of the water -- 42 billion tons -- all being shifted, it seems that could have some impact on the seismic plates below. If that much mass might slow the earth's spin any at all, it would seem it could also be enough of significance to change the pressure on the seismic plating below.

  Earth's underground upheavals do not come all at once. Fault lines might exist for centuries before earthquakes are produced. Though it has been decades since the Three Gorges Dam was completed, do we know if the danger is behind us? The plates could be bending -- but not yet snapping -- and when they do snap, there we will have our earthquake.

  Maybe this is happening, maybe it isn't. Who knows.

 (The note below was added the morning of 12/2/20.)

Thinking more, Would the reservoir be raised enough to impact the earth's spin? I go back to the story and see the reservoir is 100 yards above the natural river level. I think of the 42-billion tons being up just 100 feet across 632 square kilometers, Would that affect the earth's rotation? And, if it would, what of the skyscrapers scattered around our big cities? They are not empty, weightless. As tall as they are, they must also, then, have an impact. It appear no single city, though, would have an impact equal to that of Three Gorges. New York City covers but 302 square miles. How much weight in the skyscrapers there? I'm guessing less than 42-billion tons.

(Index -- Climate change info)