Presidential election in the USA: “We’ll get rid of him!”

October 27, 2020 by drbyos

The presidential election has also been running in New York since Saturday. On the first day, there are mainly people who reject Trump from the bottom of their hearts.

Queuing to vote: Susan McHenry, Jona Inniss, Angela Howard (from left to right) Photo: taz / Dorothea Hahn

NEW YORK taz | Jona Inniss, Angela Howard and Susan McHenry waited four years for this opportunity. After two hours in the queue, the entrance to the Brooklyn Museum with the polling station is now in sight and their anticipation is growing. “We can do it”, exults Jona Inniss, “we will vote him out”.

At 19, she is the youngest of the three women. When Donald Trump took office, she was still in school. She had since demonstrated against his policies. But this is their first opportunity to give their opinion at the ballot box. She has a sticker that says “No Malarkey” – no nonsense. The Irish-American slang word is part of Joe Biden’s repertoire. He’s also used it on his two tumultuous televised debates with Trump.

It is the first day of pre-voting in the New York state presidential election. The early voting, which in New York begins ten days before the actual election date, is intended to straighten out the crush in the polling stations on November 3rd and offers an additional alternative to postal voting.

In particular, “risk groups” were expected to be early voters, people for whom infection with the virus could be life-threatening. But this Saturday, in the largest city in the country, the majority of young people flock to the 88 polling stations across New York. Among them are particularly many “POC” – brown and black Americans.

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“Vote” – vote! – stands on masks of those waiting. You speak of “civic duty”, of “the power of the people” and of “change”. Some sit on camping chairs that they push a few steps closer to the polling station every few minutes. Everyone wears masks (mandatory at the polling station) and everyone tries to keep the six-foot safe distance.

Halfway down the line, a group offers free drinks and snacks. The city’s elected ombudsman, Jumaane Williams, praises early voting as a guarantee that the vote “gets into the system and is counted on election day”.

Postal voting is riskier. First, the Post is understaffed. Second, Trump is waging a campaign against postal voting that he claims is an invitation to vote fraud. Third, most states count absentee votes after all other votes. In many places this will mean that the results of the postal vote will only be known days after the vote on November 3rd.

The half-kilometer line in front of the Brooklyn Museum is a demonstration against Trump. “Black Lives Matter” is written on T-shirts. Some also have a picture of Biden’s vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris. New Yorkers: Inside knew the real estate speculator Trump, his towers, his racism and his vanity long before he was elected to the White House. But never were they so motivated against him.

Many are unemployed on Broadway

In the past few years, Ariel Samara has often feared that Trump could win again. That changed with the first television debate, in which he spent an hour and a half in front of millions of television viewers: bullied, insulted and twisted the truth. Since then, she has been “hopeful” that Biden will win.

Jill and Ira Mont are stagehands from Broadway. You are among the more than 30 million people in the United States who lost their jobs in the pandemic. You have been unemployed for months. Since the end of July they have also lost state aid for unemployment benefits. Because Trump failed in the virus crisis, they are confident that Biden and Harris will make it. The Monts even believe that the Democrats can win back a majority in the Senate.

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This is what democracy looks like. #Election2020 #VoteEarly pic.twitter.com/nBQnvfzlvK

— Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) October 24, 2020

A polling officer comes to the back of the line at the Brooklyn Museum. He invites the oldest people waiting to come to the front with him, and he informs the others that only those who reach the entrance by 4 p.m. can vote on that day. “Come back another day,” he advises. But nobody goes. And in the end everyone can cast their vote.

There are similar scenes this Saturday in all five New York boroughs. The election workers were prepared for the rush. But nobody expected well over 90,000 early voters in New York City on the first day. A great many of them stood in line for four or five hours.

The death of George Floyd shook them

Nationwide, over 57 million people in the US had already voted by Sunday. If this trend continues through November 3rd, this presidential election will see its highest turnout in more than a century.

First-time voter Jona Inniss has been politically active since 2016, when the elders presented Trump. But this year the commitment of the African American has intensified. One reason for this was the death of George Floyd under a cop’s knee in Minneapolis. Another the electoral suppression across the Republican-controlled southern states. In the queue in which she is standing in line with her mother, Angela Howard, and has deepened the conversation with Susan McHenry, she assures: “We will get rid of him”.

Corona in the White House: Chief of Staff von Pence has Covid-19

October 27, 2020 by drbyos

There is a new corona case in the official residence of US President Trump. Marc Short, the chief of staff for Vice President Pence, is infected with the virus.

Marc Short (l.), Chief of Staff to US Vice President Mike Pence, has contracted Covid-19 Photo: reuters / Mike Segar

WASHINGTON afp / dpa | There is another corona case in the vicinity of the administration of US President Donald Trump. Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, had tested positive for the corona virus, a White House spokesman said on Saturday (local time). Short had gone into quarantine and supported the authorities in tracking contacts.

Pence and his wife Karen had tested negative, the spokesman said. Both are “in good health”. In consultation with the doctors in the White House, Pence will continue his election campaign as planned.

The number of new corona infections in the USA recently rose to a new record high. On Saturday, the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reported 88,973 cases of infection within 24 hours. This clearly exceeded the record value of almost 80,000 new infections announced the previous day.

A good week before the presidential election, the corona pandemic plays a central role in the election campaign. US President Trump, who survived a corona infection himself, has repeatedly downplayed the danger posed by the virus. His challenger Joe Biden of the opposition Democrats accuses the Republican of failing to manage the crisis.

Trump is downplaying the pandemic

With more than 224,000 coronavirus-related deaths, the United States is the most severely affected country in the world by the pandemic in absolute terms. There have already been a number of corona infections in the vicinity of Trump. In addition to the president himself, the first lady Melania Trump and the presidential advisor Hope Hicks were infected with the virus.

Trump, who many voters in polls do not trust to master the corona crisis, consistently downplayed the pandemic in the face of the poor numbers.

“I had it, here I am,” announced Trump, alluding to his Covid-19 illness at one of the campaign appearances. “And now they say that I’m immune.” Trump had been treated with an antibody drug that was still experimental, which he called a “cure”.

At each of the appearances, he also said that his 14-year-old son Barron had been declared healthy again by the doctors shortly after the positive test. In the three speeches, Trump gave three variants of how quickly it went: after 15 seconds, after 15 minutes and the next day.

Trump attributed the rise in corona infections in the country to the fact that more tests were carried out than before. “If we were to test half as much, the number would be half as high.” In general, there is constant talk of the virus in the media. “If you turn on the television:” Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid “, complained the President.

Independence from the USA and the climate: will China stop coal expansion?

October 26, 2020 by drbyos

CHina’s political elite retired on Monday for a retreat in the mysterious Jingxi Hotel in Beijing, which is the most secure in the country due to its proximity to the headquarters of the military leadership. For four days, the members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party will discuss the economic policy course for the coming years behind closed doors. Even after the end of the session on Thursday, only the basics, but hardly any details, of the five-year plan, which the People’s Congress is expected to adopt next March for the years 2021 to 2025, will be published.

Particular attention is being paid to how Xi Jinping’s ambitious climate promise will be reflected in specific targets. The head of state and party first formulated a long-term climate policy goal at the UN General Assembly in September: China should become CO2-neutral by 2060. As a result, changes were hectically inserted into the draft of the five-year plan, the main features of which had already been lashed in April.

Construction freeze for coal-fired power plants?

The new direction could be reflected in a new upper limit for the capacities of coal-fired power plants. Climate policy advisors to the government are calling for the construction and financing of new coal-fired power plants to be halted immediately, although China’s provincial governments have already approved or are planning plants with a total capacity of 300 gigawatts.

Requirements for promoting renewable energies and technologies for capturing and storing CO2 are also to be expected. According to a calculation by the Development Research Center, a state think tank, it would be necessary to double wind and solar energy capacities to around 500 gigawatts by 2025.

Two circles against America

In May, state and party leader Xi Jinping had formulated another key word for the deliberations on the fourteenth five-year plan since 1953: his strategy of “two cycles”. Hidden behind the cloudy formulation is the effort to make the Chinese economy less prone to external shocks in the face of the frontal confrontation with America. For example, through a greater emphasis on domestic demand and less dependence on American semiconductor technology. A lower dependency on food as well as oil and gas imports is also sought.

It is unclear whether the 14th five-year plan will again mention a specific growth target or rather a target area. Expectations in this regard were dampened in advance. For months it was debated whether it even made sense to mention such a goal. Behind this is also the fear that local governments could go into unnecessary debt in order to meet the growth target.

“Speculations about power struggles” are censored

In addition to numbers, the five-year plan primarily provides clues as to where the Beijing management sees the most important opportunities and risks in the coming years. At the meeting of the Central Committee, a vision for long-term development up to 2035 is also defined, which should give the Communist Party new legitimacy. It is a kind of intermediate step towards the “goal of the century” for 2049 to make China a “modernized socialist country”.

The goals for 2035 have recently received more attention because some see them as Xi Jinping’s claim to remain in office until then. In any case, the 370 members of the Central Committee should unequivocally support him once again this week. In the new statutes for the Central Committee, Xi Jinping is stipulated by name as the top party leader. This is also intended to dispel speculation about power struggles in the leadership before the next party congress in 2022.

To ensure that there were no unwanted headlines in the four days of the plenary session, the operators of social media were once again warned in advance to be more vigilant and provided with a long list of keywords that should be censored. Including: “Speculation about power struggles”.

After presidential elections in Bolivia: Before a new beginning

October 26, 2020 by drbyos

The left party MAS clearly wins the elections in Bolivia. Your candidate Arce has promised to rule differently than before. Others seek revenge.

Cheers from Arce supporters in La Paz after the first numbers were announced Photo: Martin Mejia / ap / dpa

BOGOTA taz | It’s quiet in Bolivia after Election Sunday – and that’s news. No protests on the streets in La Paz. No police and army. The controversial interim president Jeanine Áñez and the defeated ex-president and historian Carlos Mesa (Comunidad Ciudadana) congratulated Luis Arce, the candidate of the MAS (Movement for Socialism) of ex-president Evo Morales, on his victory days ago.

“That is certainly one reason why it remained calm,” says music student Rolando Benito. Benito voted for Arce. He trusts the election result, “mainly because of the international election observation”.

Isolated protests in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Sucre and Potosí come from groups close to third-placed candidate Luis Fernando Camacho. The far-right evangelical entrepreneur from the agribusiness stronghold of Santa Cruz in the lowlands was a leader of the opposition to Morales in 2019. Although he emphasizes that he is not a politician, he scored 14 percent with his Creemos (“We believe”) movement as things stand.

There are still threats. The human rights activist and former rector of the UMSA University in La Paz, Waldo Albarracín, made public on Tuesday that he had received death threats and feared for the safety of his family. Morales supporters set his house on fire in November 2019.

Political scientist Nadia Guevara reports that acquaintances have considered leaving the country because of threats and anonymous calls from MAS circles. She deleted friends on Facebook who had used aggressive MAS threat rhetoric after election Sunday.

Trenches in Bolivian society

Rolando Benito reported on similar attacks in the opposite direction – under a pseudonym out of fear – in 2019 after Morales’ resignation. Friends stopped talking to him because he was a MAS fanatic. Now that’s changing again.

“How are you? How good that this is now over, ”he says at least seven friends would have written him after months of radio silence. He answered them. But he avoids political issues. It will take some time before the rifts in Bolivian society are closed.

Thursday morning over 90 percent of the votes were counted. Luís Arce (MAS) was ahead with over 54 percent, while Carlos Mesa (Comunidad Ciudadana) in second place was 29 percent. For Arce, that’s significantly more than pre-election polls predicted, and even more than Morales is said to have achieved in the controversial 2019 election. In addition, there was a record voter turnout on Sunday.

The technocrat Luís Arce won more than 50 percent of the vote because of three promises, the journalist Pablo Ortiz analyzes: Firstly, he criticized Morales’ administration and promised a government with a new, young management team. Second, Arce promised to rule for only five years, dispelling fears that the MAS would never let go of power. Third, he promised that he would not bring back political persecution and revanchism.

MAS supporters vilified

Political scientist Guevara, who is afraid of revanchism, took to the streets a year ago against a fourth term in office by Morales. Today she can understand that a majority voted for MAS. The protesting youth wanted a change after 14 years of “Evo” and more democracy in 2019 – instead they got interim president Jeanine Áñez with the ultra-right, Bible-waving Camacho.

“Ancient ultra-conservative leaders joined in,” says Guevara. MAS supporters have been denigrated as stupid. “It went so far that people without face masks came along on the street masistas were equated. “

The inferior right-wing candidate Carlos Mesa has not clearly distanced himself from these far-right, says Guevara. That cost him votes. Above all, unlike in 2019, he did not campaign at all among ordinary people, only on television and on social media. Many people in Bolivia do not have a stable internet. Arce and even Camacho, on the other hand, went out to the poorer neighborhoods and the countryside.

“Mesa is super intelligent, an intellectual,” says Guevara of the loser in the election. “It’s a pleasure to listen to him. But I cannot imagine that he has ever bought vegetables at the market. ”He lacks empathy for people outside of his middle-class academic world. His vice is similar, while Arce scored with an indigenous vice.

Bolivia is in deep crisis. The currency will likely need to be devalued. “Ordinary people are more likely to accept this step from Arce because they like it,” says Guevara. Arce could also take better action in the Covid pandemic: “If we have to go back to quarantine, no one can say that it is a conspiracy of the right.”

TV debate between Trump and Biden: it works!

October 26, 2020 by drbyos

The second TV duel in the USA was more informative than the first debate. Trump intervened less often.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the livestream at the TV duel on Thursday Foto: Xinhua/imago

WASHINGTON taz | In defiance of all expectations, US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden managed to conduct a civilized and largely informative debate. The two top candidates faced each other on the stage on Thursday evening in the last TV duel before the presidential elections. The personal and political differences between the two were again clearly expressed.

In contrast to the first meeting almost a month ago, Trump held back this time. Heckling and personal attacks from the President were the exception rather than the rule. The result was a substantial discussion that allowed the audience to get a final picture of the two candidates and their plans.

The organizers’ decision to mute the desk microphones if necessary turned out to be spot on. The presenter Kristen Welker, who normally reports from the White House for the US broadcaster NBC, also managed to keep the 90-minute debate on track.

With the first focus, the ongoing corona crisis, Biden made his ambitions for the presidency clear. “220,000 Americans are dead. If you don’t hear anything different from what I should say tonight, hear this: someone responsible for so many deaths should stop being President of the United States.”

Biden: Trump still has no plan against Corona

The former vice president harshly criticized the president’s crisis management. “It’s the same guy who told you it was all over by Easter. It’s the same guy who said, ‘Don’t worry, it’ll be all over by summer,’ ”Biden said of Trump’s plans to fight the virus. “We are facing a dark winter and he still has no plan.”

The number of corona infections has risen sharply again in many regions of the USA in recent weeks. For the past seven days, the United States had an average of more than 58,000 new infections per day. Fourteen states reported new records for hospital admissions last week.

Trump defended his move and announced that a vaccine would be available within a few weeks. In so doing, he again contradicted the leading scientists within his own government. They assume that a vaccine will not be available until the middle of next year. When asked by the moderator, the 74-year-old finally revised his statement and stated that he could “not guarantee” the vaccine will spread within a few weeks.

Trump: Corona deaths are not my fault, it’s China’s

When Biden asked him to finally take responsibility for the more than 220,000 corona deaths in the country, Trump said a sentence that was the statement of the evening for many on social networks: “I take responsibility, but it’s not my fault that it came to us. China is to blame for that ”. An admission of guilt that wasn’t.

Despite the latest polls, in which Trump is up to ten points behind, it was Biden who seemed more aggressive throughout the debate. Among other things, he accused the president of negotiating with “thugs”, criminals and tyrants. He was alluding to his relations with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Trump tried to counter this, but apart from unproven conspiracy theories accusing the former vice president of corruption, the president had little to offer.

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Trump’s best moment of the evening came when it came to the future of the oil and gas industry. Despite the increasing share of renewable energies in the country, oil and gas still play an important role in the economies of many US states. Above all, fracking, with which it is possible to extract fossil raw materials from previously inaccessible rock layers, is up for debate.

Trump also wants to enable the oil and gas industry to drill holes in previously undeveloped regions or on state-owned land in a second term. Biden, on the other hand, wants to replace both fracking and the oil and gas industry with renewable energies in the next few decades. For him, it is environmentally harmful technologies that contribute to climate change.

Biden for renewables, Trump for the oil industry

“Would you shut down the oil industry?” Trump asked his opponent. “Yes, I would initiate an exit from the oil industry,” Biden replied.

In Texas, North Dakota or in Swing State Pennsylvania you shouldn’t have liked to hear this. Trump also claimed that 77-year-old Biden plans to nationalize the U.S. healthcare system. Trump wants to abolish the Obamacare health system created by President Barack Obama. The US Supreme Court will hear about its legality on November 10th.

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It was by far the most enlightening debate. However, it remains to be seen whether it has changed anything in the minds of the voters. The election will take place on November 3rd, but because of the high percentage of postal voters this year, it is expected that an official result will only be known days or maybe even weeks later.

Venezuela: Leopoldo López fled the country and arrived in Spain | Latin America

October 27, 2020October 25, 2020 by drbyos

He didn’t let himself be seen, so there are no photographs or statements. One of the main leaders of the Venezuelan opposition, Leopoldo López, who last year carried out a military coup against the government of Nicolás Maduro, fled the country and arrived at Madrid, Spain, at noon on Sunday.

On Twitter, Juan Guaidó, who led the failed uprising with him, ridiculed Maduro and his security apparatus, which did not detect the escape. “Mature, you don’t control anything”, he wrote in a tweet. “By deceiving the repressive apparatus, we managed to get our Commissioner for the Government Center, Leopoldo López, out of the country”.

Mature, you don’t control anything.

By circumventing your repressive apparatus, we managed to get our Commissioner for the Center of Government, Leopoldo López, to international territory.

His contribution for Venezuela continues from this new space of action.

– Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) October 24, 2020

López had been at the Spanish embassy in Caracas since last year, taking refuge there in order not to return to prison – he was found guilty of the violence of the 2014 protests against the Government, in which more than 40 people died, and sentenced to almost 14 years of prison, having in 2017 passed to the regime of house arrest.

His party, Popular Will (center-right), confirmed the escape, but no details were given on the operation that took place despite the security services’ surveillance of the Spanish embassy in the Venezuelan capital.

It is known that López left the embassy on Friday and took the plane that took him to Madrid on Saturday in Colombia. And the Venezuelan opposition, cited by the newspaper The country, says that following the escape, two people were arrested, a Venezuelan embassy official and an employee of the López family.

The Venezuelan security services also made a “reconnaissance” in a building where employees of the Spanish embassy reside.

The arrests and searches led the Spanish Government to clarify that López left by “personal and voluntary decision” and to condemn “arrests of personnel at his embassy” and “searches at personnel’s homes, or acts that suppose the breach of the obligations of the Convention Vienna on Diplomatic Relations ”.

It is known that from the airport – where journalists were waiting, but did not leave through the usual passenger door – López went to the family’s home. His wife, Lilian Tintori, and his father, businessman Leopoldo López Gil, already live in Madrid.

The opponent left a message to supporters on Twiter: “Venezuelans, this decision was not easy, but rest assured that you can count on this server to fight wherever you go”.

In prison and under house arrest, Leopoldo López maintained his political activity, having coordinated the work of Juan Guaidó, alongside those who emerged in the attempted failed military revolt. Guaidó took the lead in the revolt against Maduro and his government, and as president of the National Assembly with a majority of the opposition he proclaimed himself President, invoking the Constitution, being recognized at the time by more than 50 countries, including Portugal.

The anti-Maduro movement, however, lost momentum. And in a statement, Vontade Popular said that López will announce in the next few days what he intends to do to “coordinate new initiatives and promote freedom in Venezuela”.

His escape comes a month after Venezuela’s legislative elections, which the opposition will boycott.

López saw his political activity stopped by Spain while he was at the embassy. Madrid Foreign Minister Josep Borrell (now head of EU diplomacy) said Spain would not allow its embassy to be used as the center of the opposition.

Borrell also said at the time that Spain did not hand over López to the Venezuelan authorities, but that if the opponent wanted to apply for political asylum he would have to do so in Spanish territory and not at the embassy.

Election campaign in the USA: Obama attacks Trump

October 25, 2020 by drbyos

Ex-President Obama intervenes in the US election campaign on behalf of Joe Biden. According to US intelligence agencies, Russia and Iran are trying to manipulate voters.

Ex-President Barack Obama on Wednesday in Philadelphia Photo: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

WASHINGTON afp | Former US President Barack Obama attacked incumbent Donald Trump at his first election rally in support of presidential candidate Joe Biden. In a speech in Philadelphia on Wednesday, Obama described the president as “unable to take the job seriously.” The office at the head of the state is “not a reality show. This is the reality, “said Obama, referring to Trump’s previous role in the TV series” The Apprentice “.

Posting messages on Twitter “while sitting in front of the TV doesn’t solve the problem,” said Obama of Trump. The ex-president appealed to the supporters of his Democratic Party not to believe they were in a false sense of security because of the current positive poll numbers for Biden.

He referred to the misleading polls for the presidential election four years ago, which predicted a victory for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton over Trump. At that time, many people had become “lazy and complacent” as a result of these surveys and did not vote. This should not be repeated.

Both in the national polls and in the polls in individual states that are considered to be decisive for the election on November 3, Biden is ahead of Trump. Pollsters assure that they learned from their mistakes four years ago and improved their methods.

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In recent months, Obama, highly respected by many Democrats, had backed Biden in video messages, who had served him as Vice President for eight years. But now he appeared for the first time directly in front of followers.

Obama performs at drive-in event in Philadelphia

However, because of the corona pandemic, his rally was organized as a drive-in event, at which the audience had to remain seated in their cars. Philadelphia is located in the state of Pennsylvania, which is counted among the key states in the election. In 2016, Trump surprisingly won against Clinton there.

Prior to his speech, Obama met with African-American community leaders in Philadelphia. He accused Trump of massive failures in dealing with the corona pandemic. Many people would not have died if there hadn’t been so much “incompetence” in the government and it hadn’t spread so much “misinformation”, said Obama.

With around 8.3 million cases of infection and more than 220,000 fatalities, the USA is the country in the world hardest hit by the corona pandemic.

Russia and Iran are said to have tapped voter data

According to US intelligence, Russia and Iran have tapped data from voters. Both states wanted to use these to send false information to registered voters, said the US intelligence coordinator John Ratcliffe in a press conference in Washington on Wednesday. The aim is to “create confusion, sow chaos and undermine confidence in American democracy”.

According to Ratcliffe, Iranian agencies have already sent “fake” emails to intimidate US voters, incite social unrest and “harm” President Donald Trump. Iran had also distributed a video that was intended to induce people to send in incorrect postal votes.

Over the past few months, Trump has repeatedly claimed that postal votes are extremely susceptible to fraud – although experts disagree with him. Because of the corona pandemic, there are now very many postal voters.

Hacker attacks and the use of false identities as early as 2016

There had been repeated information about covert foreign interference in this year’s US election campaign in recent months. According to the US secret services, Russia had already intervened massively in the 2016 election – in favor of Trump and to the detriment of his defeated rival Clinton. This was done, among other things, through hacker attacks and Internet campaigns under false identities.

Shortly before Ratcliffe’s press conference, threatening emails to voters registered as members of the Democratic Party caused a stir. According to media reports, voters in Alaska, Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania received such emails asking them to vote for Trump. The sender was an address belonging to the right-wing radical Proud Boys group. However, she denied being behind the emails.

“We have all of your information”, it says in the emails whose addressees are named. “You are currently registered as a Democrat, and we know this because we have been given access to the entire electoral infrastructure. You will vote for Trump on election day or we will get you. ”In the US, a lot of voter data is publicly available.

On Thursday evening, Trump and Biden will compete against each other in their second and last television duel before the election.

USA: In Nevada, a fish in the desert puzzles researchers

October 24, 2020 by drbyos

Die Region Nevada

SIf you are in hot Las Vegas, which is completely surrounded by desert, the name of the US state is hardly apparent: Nevada translated from Spanish means snowy or snow-covered. Snow lies in the world-famous gambling metropolis that shapes the image of the state that joined the United States in 1864, but hardly ever.

But probably on the peaks of the more than a dozen mountain ranges that run through Nevada. The highest point on the border with California is Boundary Peak at over 4000 meters. The Spanish missionary Padre Pedro explored the area on an expedition in the 1770s. He named the mountains clad in white Sierra Nevada.

This is in California, but the neighboring state, which was barely inhabited at the time, was later named after him – which holds a weather record: With less than 200 millimeters of rain per year, Nevada is the driest US state. Not much more thrives than bushy mugwort for long stretches, and strange creatures like the grasshopper-eating scorpion mouse live there.

Which brings us back to the desert, which is rich in geological attractions: bizarre pinnacles and cathedral-like stone formations can be admired in Cathedral Gorge State Park, petrified shifting dunes in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada’s oldest national park.

Source: WORLD infographic

The rarest fish in the world

He lives in a crevice filled with 32 degrees warm water, called Devil’s Hole, in the middle of the Amargosa desert, and is considered the rarest fish in the world: the devil’s paw (nodon devils), of which there are currently only around 130 copies.

Why and when did the fish choose the hole in the rock, how did it get there and how did it survive there? Open questions for the researchers.

Other fish would die in the deoxygenated water. Not so the shimmering blue devil guy: He saves energy by barely moving and has even regressed a pair of fins in the course of a mutation and adjusted his metabolism.

Art for fans of cars

Gold used to be discovered in Nevada – Goldfield is one of the locations. Once 20,000 people lived there, today there are only 400. Goldfield’s treasures are now made of automotive scrap: Even the scrap yard with old US sledges is interesting for car enthusiasts.

An increase then in the place where a collector hoards bizarre vehicle creations that are used as moving art objects at the Burning Man Festival.

The highlight for car freaks is the International Car Forest of the Last Church: on the outskirts, two devout artists have dug over 40 vehicles upright into the ground – an ensemble of limousines, buses and vans decorated with graffiti.

Der International Car Forest of the Last Church in Nevada, USA — Quelle: Getty Images/Gary Yeowell

Good luck and bad luck in Las Vegas

It is estimated that there are 200,000 slot machines in the gambling metropolis. The biggest single win a player can win on a slotmachine bagged, is almost 40 million dollars – that was in 2003 in the hotel “Excalibur” on the famous Las Vegas Strip. The desert city before Corona counted around 40 million visitors annually, 80 percent of whom recently tried their hand at gambling, an average of 2.7 hours a day.

After gambling was banned in Nevada in 1910, the state legalized it again in 1931. In 1941, the first casino hotel, the “El Rancho Vegas”, opened, but in 1960 it burned down.

Some of the oldest trees in the world

Some of the oldest trees in the world grow in the Great Basin National Park, at an altitude of around 3,000 meters. The Bristlecone Pines (Long-lived Pine; Finns aged) are 3000 to 5000 years old and compete with the olive trees on the Mediterranean Sea or some pines in Scandinavia.

The oldest known pine tree (4844 years old) was cut down by a student in the 1960s in order to use the wood to research climate change. Since then, the title for the oldest Bristlecone Pine has gone to the Californian part of the Inyo Forest, which extends to Nevada.

Rock engravings sacred to the indigenous people

In the 1940s, the locals dumped rubbish where one of America’s most traditional cultural treasures lies. They rolled rocks aside, whistled at the notches. These were probably the oldest engravings discovered in North America.

Today’s Grimes Point Archeological Area includes around 1000 so-called petroglyphs, which were sacred places for the indigenous people of the Paiute-Shoshone tribe, where people also prayed. The age of these engravings is estimated to be 10,000 years.

Nevada (USA): The Grimes Point Archeological Area comprises around 1000 so-called petroglyphs — Source: WORLD infographic

The quote

“I can confess without shame that I expected to find tons of silver lying around everywhere”

Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, in “Through Thick and Thin” about his luckless treasure hunt in Nevada. Twain first wrote under his stage name in 1863 in the “Territorial Enterprise” published in Virginia City, once the richest city in America, in which large silver deposits were discovered in 1859. Nevada’s nickname The Silver State is reminiscent of the silver rush.

Bruno Valdez defended America’s physical trainer: ‘He’s the best in Liga MX’

October 25, 2020October 23, 2020 by drbyos

Bruno Valdez, defense of America exploded against the criticism made by the fans towards Giber Becerra, the club’s physical trainer, which have increased in recent months, due to constant injuries.

Through his Instagram account, the Paraguayan wrote a text in which he reproached the lack of support from Azulcrema followers and defended Becerra, ensuring that he is the best physical trainer in the Liga MX.

“I do not understand how there are people and fans of the club who throw shit at a person who prepares every day. He is the best physical trainer in Mexican football, he has more presence in finals than any other colleague of his; And people give their opinion without having a minimum idea of what is happening at the club ”, reads the text published by the player.

Although he also pointed out that the media have been in charge of misinforming the club’s injury issue, something that affects Becerra.

“But worst of all is that there are media that” report “to report, to do their job and harming a top like Mr. Giber,” accused the Paraguayan in another part of the text.

In the end, Bruno reaffirmed his support and endorsement of Giber and I leave between seeing that, when the successes arrive, many will want to get on the ship.

“I bank you to death, man. We follow, and then they are going to get on our boat, ”Valdez said.

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Record turnout in the US: 36 million have already voted

October 23, 2020 by drbyos

Many people in the US vote by letter. On election evening, it should therefore not be clear whether Trump or Biden won.

Atlanta-based Ashley Nealy is one of 36 million who have already cast their vote Photo: Christopher Aluka Berry / reuters

WASHINGTON taz | The duel between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden could set a new record in just two weeks before the official election day. As an initial analysis of voter turnout in the various states has shown, at least 35.9 million US citizens have already made use of the option to vote early.

Four years ago, around 47 million Americans voted before the official election date. The almost 36 million votes now correspond to more than a quarter (25.9 percent) of all votes from 2016. This was confirmed by Professor Michael McDonald from the University of Florida, who collects and processes the data on the current voter turnout.

However, the increase is likely to have less to do with the two candidates and much more with the expansion of the postal voting system and the extension of the “early voting” period due to the ongoing corona pandemic.

Important “Battleground States” such as Wisconsin, Arizona and Iowa have significantly expanded their respective postal voting systems this year by simplifying participation. For the first time ever, people in the small east coast state of New Hampshire are allowed to vote by post.

Also more “early voting”

This year, more Americans are also taking advantage of the option of early voting. When the first polling stations opened in Georgia last week, there were long lines.

The author and professor at Roy University Alexis Henshaw reported on her Twitter channel of a waiting time of even nine hours, four minutes and 45 seconds.

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There were similar scenes in Texas and Virginia. Despite the increased voter turnout, it can currently be assumed that no winner can be determined on the evening of the election on November 3rd. The reason is the expansion of postal voting in many parts of the country.

In some states, therefore, there were delays of a week or more in the counting even during the primaries. Only in the event of a landslide victory could the election winner be determined on election night. However, since this is considered extremely unlikely, this choice could become a test of patience.

“A choice we have never seen before”

“We have to prepare with a very high probability that the correct and serious evaluation of an election that we have never experienced before will take a little more time,” said David Becker, the director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, the Wall Street Journal.

A repetition of the election drama in 2000, when the Supreme Court declared the Republican George W. Bush the election winner, is not to be expected. Currently, the greatest threat to the integrity of this year’s election comes from Trump himself. He has been criticizing the postal voting system for months, claiming that it is a breeding ground for large-scale manipulation.

Trump has no proof of this claim. “What Trump is doing here is incredibly dangerous,” said electoral law expert and professor at Hamline University David Schultz on “ABC News”. The president tried to question the legality of the elections, said Schultz. “If he loses in November he can say, ‘I haven’t really lost […], but because of electoral fraud ‘. “

Trump advisors are already blaming themselves for defeat

Recent media reports confirm that Trump and his team are beginning to doubt their renewed election victory. Loud Axios Trump’s advisors are already blaming each other for a potential defeat. “A lot is up to the president himself,” said one advisor. “You cannot help a patient who does not want to admit the diagnosis.”

Trump himself is trying to turn the tide with appearances in important battleground states. In a 54-minute campaign speech at an airport in Erie, Pennsylvania, the 74-year-old criticized the plans of his three-year-old opponent on Tuesday evening. “It is a choice between our plan to destroy the virus or Biden’s plan to destroy the American dream,” Trump said in front of thousands of supporters.

Trump tried to score again with well-known topics such as border security, health insurance, the economy and the corona crisis. In the latest polls, he is still more than 10 points behind his rival. According to the survey portal FiveThirtyEight, Biden’s lead at national level is currently 10.3 percentage points (52.2 to 41.9 percent).

On Thursday evening, Trump and Biden will meet again in the last TV debate.