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Johnson will govern like he campaigned, by running away from the press.

Hes barely back from his post-election Carribean holiday but we it is already clear that Boris Johnson will govern as he campaigned by hiding from the press.

After Boris Johnson chickened out of an interview with Andrew Neil during the election campaign, his ministers are now going to avoid appearing on BBCs Newsnight.

According to the Mail, the governments excuse for this is that Newnight has appointed a journalist called Lewis Goodall as its policy editor and hes apparently too left-wing.

Goodall has joined Newnight from Sky News, where he worked as a political correspondent for right-wing billionaire Rupert Murdoch.

The governments evidence that Goodall is anti-Tory, the Mail says, is that he is the author of a string of aggressively anti-Tory comments on social media.

So what did he say? F**k Tory scum. All hail Corbyn.? No, just the kind of reasoned criticism every political journalist makes about any party. The most anti-Tory example the government/Mail could dig out is this one:

And of course, hes also been critical of Labour too. He called Labours election performance lamentably bad and accused Corbyn of looking stiff and robotic at Prime Ministers Questions.

The government/Mails other piece of evidence against Goodall is that, when he was a student, a Guardian profile described him as a Labour activist.

But plenty of political journalists used to be active in politics in their youth.

Today Show presenter Nick Robinson was the chair of the Young Conservatives and the BBCs Andrew Neil used to be a Conservative Party researcher and now edits the right-wing Spectator magazine.

Yet Johnson dodged Neils election interview and his ministers have been told to avoid Robinsons Today Show. So it looks like its not Lewis Goodall but any media scrutiny they are afraid of.

This impression is reinforced by government moves to change the location of press briefings from parliament to Downing Street where they can control the guestlist more tightly.

At present, any media outlet with a parliamentary pass can attend government press briefings. If theyre moved to Downing Street, publications which displease the government could be disinvited.

If this is the case, lets hope that the favoured journalists and outlets stand up for press freedom and boycott the briefings.

Joe Lo is a co-editor of Left Foot Forward

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Johnson's government continue to hide from press scrutiny by dodging Newsnight - Left Foot Forward

A high-tech space capsule malfunctioned Friday morning during its first NASA test mission, temporarily stranding the unmanned spacecraft in the wrong place and dealing a blow to Boeing, its developer.

The failed launch is a setback for NASA as it scrambles to finish work on a pair of new spacecraft that the space agency wants for carrying astronauts to the International Space Station. The new capsules could finally end the American space programs long reliance on Russian capsules.

Boeings CST-100 Starliner transport launched atop a two-stage Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6:36 a.m.

The initial phase of the mission went according to plan. A few minutes after launch, NASA announced that the Atlas had completed its burn. United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin consortium that provided the rocket, went on social media to boast of its success.

We had a successful launch and initial indications are that we demonstrated the launch-vehicle test objectives, performance enhancements and the mission-unique modifications developed for the safety of human spaceflight, ULA president Tory Bruno said.

NASA expected the Boeing capsule to rendezvous with the International Space Station at its orbit some 250 miles above Earth on Saturday. A successful meet-up could have cleared the way for NASA to use the Starliner to carry astronauts to the space station beginning in mid-2020.

But it was soon apparent that the 15-foot-diameter Starliner had screwed up. Starliner has an off-nominal insertion, but Boeing has spacecraft control, NASA announced. The guidance and control team is assessing their next maneuver.

It turned out that the 15-ton capsule, which is designed to operate mostly autonomously with very little interaction with a human crew, mistimed the firing of its maneuvering thrusters. The ill-timed burn gobbled up precious fuel.

Now short on gas, the Starliner wasnt able to maneuver its way to the space station, NASA determined. "It's safe to take off the table at this point, given the amount of fuel that we burned," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a hastily-called news conference.

The good news for Boeing and NASA is that the Starliner, which has been in development since 2010 at a cost of more than $4 billion, is safe where it is, orbiting around 120 miles over Earth. Mission controllers expect to be able to land the capsule at a military missile range in White Sands, New Mexico as early as Sunday.

In the meantime, Boeing and NASA can still conduct some trials with the temporarily stranded capsule. The team is assessing what test objectives can be achieved, NASA stated.

Chicago-based Boeing tried to put on a happy face. We are proud of the team for their professionalism and quick action to protect the vehicle and enable a safe return, the company stated. We look forward to reviewing and learning from the data that has been generated from this mission so far.

But further root-cause analysis is needed, Boeing conceded.

SpaceX, which scored a $2-billion NASA contract to develop its own Dragon capsule, remained silent on social media while the Starliner fiasco unfolded. The Hawthorne, California-based rocket company stands the benefit the most from the Starliners stranding.

Starliner and Dragon are broadly similar and, under NASAs plan, would perform the same kinds of missions. Having access to two separate capsule designs, each backing up the other, could help NASA wean itself off of Russias Soyuz capsules. The Russian capsules have been the only way to get to and from the International Space Station since NASA retired its last Space Shuttle back in 2011.

SpaceX actually beat Boeing to the station. An unmanned, passenger-capable Dragon docked with the orbital lab back in March. SpaceX expects to carry astronauts for the first time in 2020. If Fridays mishap delays Starliners transition to routine, manned missions, Dragon could in theory take up the slack.

But Dragon has suffered its own accidents. The same capsule that completed the initial hook-up with the International Space Station back in March was destroyed a few weeks later during a botched ground test of its thrusters.

At the Friday press conference, NASA administrator Bridenstine urged calm. The Starliners stranding wouldnt have endangered the crews lives had anyone actually been on board, Bridenstine explained. In fact, he said, an on-board crew might have been able to troubleshoot the thruster problem, correcting the capsules course before it wasted its fuel.

The NASA administrator declined to say whether Boeing would be able to meet its 2020 deadline for manned flights with Starliner. I think it's too early for us to make that assessment.

The U.S. Air Force put an optimistic cap on an anxious day for the American space program, in the form of a social-media post from the 45th Space Wing, which manages the Cape Canaveral launch site. Trial and error are building blocks to great success, the wing stated.

Read more:
NASA Mission to Space Station Goes Horribly Wrong - The Daily Beast

After being accused of abusing his power and obstructing Congress, President Donald Trump was impeached on Wednesday by the House of Representatives. The Senate is set to hold a trial early next year to determine whether the president should be removed from office. Trump is the third U.S. president to be impeached.

"We gather today under the dome of this temple of democracy to exercise one of the most solemn powers that this body can take: The impeachment of the President of the United States," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday. "If we do not act now we would be derelict in our duty. It is tragic that the President's reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice."

Despite the House vote, Trump is still president, and it's unlikely that two-thirds of the Republican-controlled Senate will vote to convict and remove him from office. For that to happen, 20 Republican senators would need to defy party and vote against Trump.

Impeachment vote

The Washington Post

The road to impeachment has been controversial and polarized, to put it mildly. Democrats have generally framed the months-long impeachment inquiry as a necessary check on a clear abuse of presidential power and, subsequently, an obstruction of Congress.

Meanwhile, Trump has spearheaded the GOP's strategy, which has been to flatly deny the claim that Trump withheld aid to Ukraine in exchange for personal political favors, and to paint the inquiry as the latest in a series of bad-faith attempts (or, in Trumpian terms: "witch hunt," "scam," "hoax") by Democrats to bring down the president by any means necessary.

In short, it's a mess a sad mess. Both sides explicitly agreed on that much this week, though for different reasons, of course. To help make sense of it all, the Harvard Gazette asked some of the university's expert alumni about what impeachment means for Trump and the state of our politics and media. Here's what a few of them had to say.

David Gergen, J.D. Former White House adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Public Service Professor of Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School.

Alice Stewart. CNN political analyst, former communications director for presidential campaigns of Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Mike Huckabee.

"There are no winners or losers in impeachments, there are simply political consequences and collateral damage. The saga of the Democrat impeachment of President Donald Trump has been three years in the making: starting on election night in 2016, with the final chapter being written on Election Day of 2020.

The impeachment in the Democrat-led House of Representatives was predicted, an acquittal in the Republican-led Senate is expected, and the consequences for the 2020 election remain to be seen. If history is any guide, I expect the impeachment quest to ultimately be beneficial to President Trump and conservatives, and damaging to Democrats who sought to subvert the outcome of the 2016 election. The real damage will be in swing districts, congressional districts won by President Trump in 2016 that are currently held by Democrats. Their vote for impeachment is almost a certain first step to being voted out of office."

Nancy R. Gibbs. Former editor in chief, Time magazine. Lombard Director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School.

"The dramatic democratization of media since then has brought all kinds of benefits, but at a moment like this we are also weighing the costs. We are watching lawmakers talk past one another to distinct audiences who can't hear each other; we've seen partisan identity, fueled by partisan media, become the defining division of our time, quite apart from differences over issues or ideology.

For more and more people, team red and team blue have become their church; the mainstream media is no longer gospel. So we should differentiate between media, which is arguably more powerful than ever, and the press, which still has a crucial civic obligation to fulfill and yet faces economic, political, and cultural challenges unlike any we've ever seen before."

Joseph S. Nye Jr., Ph.D. '64. Author of "Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump" (2020). Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus, Harvard Kennedy School.

"In the role of commander in chief, presidents have a lot of leeway in foreign policy, but it is not unlimited. As Edward Corwin once wrote, the Constitution creates "an invitation to struggle" for control of foreign policy. President Trump had the right to define the American national interest in Ukraine as corruption rather than defense against Russia, but when he withheld, without explanation, funds that Congress had appropriated for the latter cause, Congress had the right to investigate, and Trump did not have the right to obstruct Congress.

President Trump also had the right to ask President [Volodymyr] Zelensky for a favor, but not one for personal gain that involved foreign involvement in our elections (which the Founders warned against). Corruption is the abuse of public power for personal gain, and that high immorality was at issue when Trump invited Zelensky to announce an investigation of a principal likely opponent in the 2020 election."

Leonard L. Glass. Contributing author, "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" (2017). Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.

"Mr. Trump, caught in the humiliating spotlight of impeachment, will react as he always does: Deny any responsibility for his predicament and seek to degrade and vilify his accusers.

His disparagement of the truth-tellers who testified before Congress reliably predicts his response to impeachment: claims of victimization and a thirst for revenge.

From a psychological perspective, Trump's impeachment has played out with the inevitability of a Greek tragedy. Arising from character flaws that were clearly evident at his inauguration, his impeachment inexorably has traced that classic arc. He remains blind to his offenses, insisting he wrote a "perfect" letter and has been subjected to a witch hunt. That is Mr. Trump's hallmark: externalizing all blame as though his inflated self-image would be irreparably punctured by any acknowledgment of his own imperfection."

To read the full questions and answers, head over to the Harvard Gazette.

Related Articles Around the Web

Originally posted here:
Trump's been impeached here's what Harvard scholars believe will happen next - Big Think

T.J. Warren scored 23 points on 10-for-16 shooting to help the Indiana Pacers cruise to a 119-105 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night in Indianapolis.

Dec 20, 2019; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers guard Victor Oladipo (4) and Sacramento Kings guard Yogi Ferrell (3) share a laugh during warm ups before the game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Myles Turner added 17 points as Indiana won its fifth straight game and for the 13th time in 16 games. Domantas Sabonis contributed 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists, T.J. McConnell recorded 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting and added eight assists while Malcolm Brogdon and Doug McDermott had 13 points apiece.

Richaun Holmes scored 20 points on 9-for-10 shooting and collected nine rebounds for the Kings. Marvin Bagley III added 17 points, and rookie Justin James matched his season high of 14 points.

The Kings Nemanja Bjelica scored 13 points in the first quarter and was scoreless the rest of the way. Buddy Hield had just seven points on 3-for-15 shooting, including 1 of 9 from 3-point range.

Cory Joseph had 10 points for Sacramento, which shot 45.1 percent from the floor and went 10 of 32 from behind the arc. The Kings have lost three of their past four games.

Aaron Holiday added 11 points for Indiana, which shot 52.3 percent from the field, including 14 of 31 from 3-point range.

The Kings trailed by 11 points at halftime before Indiana opened the third quarter with an 11-4 run to increase its lead to 79-61.

Bagley knocked down a 3-pointer to bring Sacramento within 81-66 with 6:22 left before the Pacers scored the next seven points. Holiday capped the spurt with a 3-pointer to give Indiana a 22-point lead with 4:26 left in the quarter.

The Pacers again led by 22 after McConnells layup with 1:49 left. But the Kings responded with the final nine points of the quarter with James draining a 3-pointer with 12.7 seconds left and also hitting a buzzer-beating shot from just inside the midcourt line to bring Sacramento within 92-79 entering the fourth quarter.

McDermott and Justin Holiday made each made 3-pointers 32 seconds apart early in the final stanza to give Indiana a 104-86 advantage.

Warren knocked down a corner 3-pointer to make it a 23-point lead with 5:18 to play to help put away Sacramento.

Indiana shot 64.3 percent from the field in the first half to take a 68-57 lead into the break.

Field Level Media

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Pacers control Kings, extend win streak to 5 - Reuters

A partially filled flood detention pond under construction at the Woodridge Village construction site.

As it always does, Christmas is coming to Kingwood. But this year, for some residents whove been flooded, it wont be the same.

When Nancy Veras home in Kingwoods Elm Grove subdivision flooded for the first time in May, the family carefully saved all their holiday decorations. But those boxes didnt survive when Tropical Storm Imelda hit in September, just four months later.

I dont have any Christmas decorations. I lost everything, Vera said. Thats one of my big heartbreaks.

Vera said she was at work during the first flood.

And Im seeing that Kingwood is flooding. My area is flooding. And Im like, that doesnt make sense. We dont flood, Vera said.

But they did flood two feet of muddy water damaged her home. Vera said they used to be surrounded by woods until a year ago, when a developer, Perry Homes, cleared the trees to make room for Woodridge Village, a 260-acre residential development under construction next door to her house. Veras home is right on the county line she lives in Harris County, while the development is in Montgomery County.

She and other Elm Grove residents decided to sue. They argue theyre flooding because the developers violated state law by causing more runoff, while the developers say this years storms were simply more intense. The lawsuit raises questions about how the expanding Houston area is grappling with new development in a changing climate.

A Montgomery County official told Houston Public Media the flooding was caused by the rainfall intensity, not the new development. Vera disagreed.

Hes an idiot, Vera said. Because there were trees there, and for 30 years we never flooded.

In May, she and her husband decided not to rebuild their house right away. Thats because, a few days after that first flood, it rained again.

I stayed home and I saw the retention pond fill up, with less than an inch or two of rain. And I said, well that doesnt make sense. How are we not going to flood again, if its barely any rain at all? So we said were going to wait and see, Vera said.

Houston City Councilmember Dave Martin, whose district includes Elm Grove, said something needs to be done quickly to address the problem.

When you have a two-inch rainfall that youre scared to death about, Martin said, whats going to happen over these next months and years?

The lawsuit

In May, neighbors in Elm Grove banded together to sue the companies responsible for the development, including Perry Homes subsidiary Figure Four Partners Ltd., PSWA, Inc. and Rebel Contractors, Inc. They allege the project violated the Texas Water Code. In court documents, they said were going to flood again which turned out to be true, just a few months later.

Jim Blackburn, a law professor with Rice University, has seen cases like this for decades, where residents blame new development for creating flooding.

We dont really have time to fool with simple issues like getting runoff right from new developments, Blackburn said. Thats a problem that simply should not occur. We know enough to keep that from happening, and if it takes litigation to stop it, so be it. We have strong laws we should use them.

With suburbs continuing to expand all around the edges of Harris County, and climate change producing more intense storms more often, the legal arguments in this case matter to many neighborhoods, not just Elm Grove.

Perhaps the more unusual thing is that in this case it appears that the problem has been discovered in a more timely manner, Blackburn said. But theres a long history in Texas of suing over what one neighbor does to another neighbor with regard to flooding.

The storms

The Elm Grove case hinges partly on one big question was the rainfall in May actually worse than in Hurricane Harvey, when the homes didnt flood?

In the defendants motion to dismiss the lawsuit, the attorneys said rainfall in Elm Grove on May 7 was unprecedented: Early reports show rain fell at a rate of up to 6 inches per hour, with a total of 16 inches within a 24-hour period. This massive rainfall was of historical significance; the rate of rainfall in and around the Elm Grove area over such a short time period surpassed even that of Hurricane Harvey.

Space City Weather meteorologist Eric Berger said, based on data from the Harris County Flood Control District, rainfall in the area on May 7 was very intense, but does not necessarily match that claim.

That is not in the Harris County data, but they may have some more localized information theyre using from some other source, Berger said. Some of the closest [rain gauges] did show rainfall rates above three inches per hour, which suggests that near Elm Grove or just upstream of Elm Grove it certainly could have been higher.

According to the Harris County Flood Control District, the Kingwood area received a four-day total of around 30 inches during Harvey in 2017. In this years storms, the Kingwood area received 6-7 inches total during the May 7 rain event, and a four-day total of around 17 inches during Tropical Storm Imelda in September.

It would be really interesting to know the source of the data behind the claims for total rainfall and rainfall intensity that the defendants are basing their defense on, Berger said. And I think that will be pretty important to deciding the outcome of the case. There could have been localized storm totals not reflected in the government observation sites.

In response, a Perry Homes spokesperson said, That portion of Montgomery County has few, if any, publicly reported rain gauges as far as we know. Because the rainfall information in this portion of Montgomery County is sparse, Figure Four retained a nationally recognized expert to determine accurate rainfall amounts for the 2019 flood events.

Whats next

After the flooding during Tropical Storm Imelda, Martin was outraged. The city of Houston filed cease and desist orders, which Martin hoped would keep that land undeveloped. Martin reached out to Kathy Perry Britton, the CEO of Perry Homes, to talk about incentives to turn the land back into green space.

I wanted to sit down and have coffee with her to discuss some of the things that I think would work well, and they didnt think that was a necessary step, Martin said. Lets have a conversation and see if we can protect the neighborhood, maybe do something unique Perry Homes could be proud of, instead of building a development theyre not going to be proud of, and that the neighbors arent going to want.

Beth Guide, the Elm Grove Homeowners Association Director, said she would like to see the development stopped, too.

Im hoping that human decency wins out in the end and they walk away, Guide said.

A spokesperson with Perry Homes said Montgomery County signed off on the Woodridge Village drainage plan after an engineering firm found that the development wouldnt negatively impact nearby homes. That plan includes detention basins to hold water, which are under construction now.

Houston Councilmember Martin said hes concerned about the region, not just Elm Grove.

What we really need to do, Martin said, is look at our policies and do we continue to build in the floodplains? To put peoples homes and lives at risk?

As for Nancy Vera, shes working on putting her home back together.

I dont know what Im hoping for, Nancy Vera said. Its hard to say. Im just taking one day at a time. Im going through the motions. Because what else are you supposed to do?

Read the original post:
Were Going To Flood Again: This Houston Neighborhood Got Hit Twice In 2019 - Houston Public Media