Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corporation and one of the world's richest men and philanthropists, has written a new book that hits the stores on February 16^th. Unlike his two previous books, this one is not about software and the digital revolution. Mr. Gates' new book covers grounds far beyond the author's background in software engineering and his active philanthropic interests in global development, public health and U.S. public education via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (founded in 2000).

According to the blurb for How to Avoid A Climate Disaster, "In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical — and accessible — plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe." In the introduction, Gates explains how he got involved with the climate change field via the problem of energy poverty that he came across in looking at issues of public health in developing countries. In field visits to parts of India and Sub-Saharan Africa, the initial impression of "why is it so dark, where are the lights?" naturally led to understanding that an essential part of poverty was the lack of reliable access to electricity for over a billion people in the world, half of them in Africa. Gates asks, "Where is the reliable and affordable electricity for offices, factories, and call centres, for lights to read by and for keeping vaccines chill in working refrigerators 24/7?"

The first parts of the book give readers an idea of Gates' intellectual journey. He cites the Cambridge physicist David Mackay who showed the link between per capita income and per capita energy use. This historical correlation between energy use and standards of living led Gates "to think about how the world could make energy affordable and reliable for the poor." The work of economist Vaclav Smil on the essential role of fossil fuels in the evolution of human civilization is also commended by Gates.

"All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working hours or shorter rations. And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because, being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice." — George Orwell, 1984

Let's be clear about one thing: the impeachment of Donald Trump is a waste of time and money.

Impeaching Trump will accomplish very little, and it will not in any way improve the plight of the average American. It will only reinforce the spectacle and farce that have come to be synonymous with politics today

While the nation allows itself to be distracted by yet more bread-and-circus politics, the American kakistocracy (a government run by unprincipled career politicians and corporate thieves that panders to the worst vices in our nature and has little regard for the rights of the people) continues to suck the American people into a parallel universe in which the Constitution is meaningless, the government is all-powerful, and the citizenry are powerless to defend themselves against government agents who steal, spy, lie, plunder, kill, abuse and generally inflict mayhem and sow madness on everyone and everything in their sphere.

So here's what I propose: let's impeach the Deep State and its cabal of government operatives from every point along the political spectrum (right, left and center) for conspiring to expand the federal government's powers at the expense of the citizenry.

We've been losing our freedoms so incrementally for so long — sold to us in the name of national security and global peace, maintained by way of martial law disguised as law and order, and enforced by a standing army of militarized police and a political elite determined to maintain their powers at all costs — that it's hard to pinpoint exactly when it all started going downhill, but we're certainly on that downward trajectory now, and things are moving fast.

Even now, we are being pushed and prodded towards a civil war, not because the American people are so divided but because that's how corrupt governments control a populace (i.e., divide and conquer).

These are dangerous times.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday appeared in the Jerusalem District Court for the resumption of his trial on corruption charges

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pleaded not guilty to corruption charges this morning at the resumption of his trial, six weeks before voters again head to the polls to pass judgment on his leadership, Reuters reported.

"I confirm the written answer submitted in my name," Netanyahu said, standing before the three-judge panel in the heavily guarded Jerusalem District Court.

He was referring to a document his lawyers gave the court last month in which they argued that Netanyahu, 71, was not guilty of charges of bribery, breach of trust, and fraud.

The Israeli government previously slammed the ICC decision as "anti-Semitic". So far, only two countries - the United States and Australia - have officially objected to the ICC ruling.

Tel Aviv intends to lure "dozens of" its allies to convey a "discreet message" to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Fatou Bensoud, pressuring her not to proceed with the probe into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the occupied territories, an Axios report said Sunday.

The ICC ruled on Friday that it had jurisdiction to open an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley said Sunday that she was "haunted" by the scenes of black custodial staff cleaning up after the "white supremacist mob" that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Pressley joined Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union" and discussed the criticism of former President Donald Trump's upcoming impeachment trial with some saying that it isn't necessary and that "we need to move on" from it.

"The reason why it took a violent insurrection, a white supremacist mob seizing the Capitol, waving the Confederate flag, erecting a noose on the west lawn of the Capitol, injury and loss of life, for many to appreciate the threat that white supremacy is to every American, and to our democracy ... is because as a country, we have been turning the page," she said.

What do you get when you mix gaslighting, hypocrisy, and a smattering of insanity? You get Rep. Maxine Waters' (D-CA) Sunday morning appearance on MSNBC in which she claimed to be as innocent as a dove when it comes to inciting violence with her rhetoric.

Waters participated in an interview with MSNBC's Ali Velshi, who, surprisingly enough, confronted her on comments she made in 2018 about members of Trump's cabinet. In light of the fact that the team of lawyers defending former President Donald Trump during the impeachment trial planned to use footage of Waters and other members of Congress calling for violence, he questioned whether or not her remarks constituted incitement to violence.

Video footage shows the lawmaker saying: "Let's make sure we show up wherever we have to show up, and if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out, and you create a crowd, and you push back on them. You tell them that they're not welcome anymore anywhere! We've got to get the children connected to their parents. The children are suffering."

Chinese authorities have formally arrested the detained Australian citizen Cheng Lei "on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas", prompting fresh calls for the journalist to be treated humanely.

Cheng, an anchor for the Chinese state-owned English-language news channel China Global Television Network, has been detained in China since mid-August, but the decision to proceed to the next stage of criminal proceedings marks a blow to her hopes of release.

The Australian foreign minister, Marise Payne, said the Australian government had been advised that Cheng had been formally arrested in China on Friday, about six months after she was first detained.

"Chinese authorities have advised that Ms Cheng was arrested on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas," Payne said in a statement issued on Monday.

Amid ongoing diplomatic and trade tensions between the two countries, Payne also revealed that Australian embassy officials had visited Cheng six times since her detention, most recently on 27 January.

She said the Australian government had "raised its serious concerns about Ms Cheng's detention regularly at senior levels, including about her welfare and conditions of detention".

Ukrainian authorities are reportedly considering bringing a criminal case against a journalist who they believe questioned the country's statehood and asked whether it would fare better if it were run from Moscow.

Alyona Berezovskaya made the remarks in an interview with Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the 'Opposition Platform - For Life' bloc, broadcast by RT Russian. On Friday, local media reported that the SBU - Kiev's successor to the Soviet-era KGB - had begun an investigation into whether her line of questioning breached the law.

"Information relating to this individual is being looked into," the agency's press service told journalists. "An appropriate legal assessment of her statements and actions will soon be given."

Berezovskaya asked Medvedchuk "whether it would be better for Ukrainians to join Russia, which would be easier and easier." She told RIA Novosti that, "as far as I understand, it's possible that a criminal case will be opened."

Kiev has recently begun a crackdown on media organizations that challenge its pro-Western outlook. Last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law a decree that banned eight news outlets from the airwaves, leveraging "special economic and other restrictive sanctions" onto a media group his government says is linked to Medvedchuk.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced America will "re-engage" with the UNHRC as an "observer" in a bid to pressure the international body to dispense with what he called its "disproportionate" focus on Israel.

Touting the Biden administration's supposed return toward "a foreign policy centered on democracy, human rights, and equality," the newly-appointed diplomat tore into the council over its efforts to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing violations of international law.

"We recognize that the Human Rights Council is a flawed body, in need of reform to its agenda, membership, and focus, including its disproportionate focus on Israel," Blinken told reporters on Monday, declaring that "effective use of multilateral tools" was central to Washington's mission.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) put up hurdles to executive orders prepared by President Donald Trump while fast-tracking the ones prepared by President-elect Joe Biden during the transition period leading up to Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, according to former Trump senior adviser Peter Navarro.

"Bill Barr, President Trump's attorney general, actually turns out to be Joe Biden's first attorney general," Navarro told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo in an interview aired on Feb. 7. "We had over 30 executive orders queued after Election Day, ready to go, but we kept running into all these roadblocks and hurdles. It turns out that Bill Barr's Office of Legal Counsel was fast-tracking all of these Biden EOs [executive orders], and basically, it was a deep-state coup."