Notations From the Grid (Special Thursday Edition): On The @UN & The Future

Recently, the United States announced a reduction in its' contributions to the UN Budget--as it also announced that it would withhold direct support for the United Nations Refugee Assistance Agency for Gaza.     The Work of the UN was underscored  with this New Years' Eve Tweet: 

All 193 UN member countries agree the UN budget, which covers our work on peace & security, human rights, #GlobalGoals & much more. https://t.co/vPnTEEfCOY pic.twitter.com/XcqMfl6Rco

— United Nations (@UN) December 27, 2017

Notations On Our World (Special Mid-Week Edition): On #IranProtests; @realDonaldTrump & Politics

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words as this headline from the Paris' Liberation noted as a Woman Protester in Tehran defied Tear Gas with a raised fist.  It made headlines around the World as the protests gathered strength on quite a week already as #2018 has rolled around.  

We have been witness to unprecedented protests in Iran as we have seen the Regime being caught by surprise.  We have seen reports at the highest echelon of the regime in Iran on disagreements as our team has been busy helping to facilitating updates and assessing the state of affairs.   As we went to press, our view was that the Regime will attempt a major clampdown despite all their public posturing about understanding the plight of all who took to the streets.   

Back here in the United States, there is the This is as President Trump returned to Washington with a bang as he threatened North Korea with a bigger Nuclear Button,  threatened to withhold aid to the Palestinians and took credit for Aviation Safety.    There was also the letter announcing "Time's Up" to help once in for all combat Harrasement and Assault against Women.    We had the honor to release the letter to our Twitter Channel last night as we also honored to release the original letter released by 700,000 femal Farm workers that was the inspiration for the open letter --and it is only Wednesday January 3!!!!

But, there is always hope as our team selected this New Years' Message from the leader of the Liberal Democrats , Sir Vince Cable.    It was a bit of a comical "twist" to it--but the message was hopeful, upbeat and frankly authentic--the kind of poltics that is surely lacking and what we aspire to do here in #Outsiders: 

Notations On Our World (#NewYearDay2018 Special Edition): On #Iran; #ClimateChange & Other Thoughts.....

A Student Escaping Tear Gas at Tehran University During Demonstrations 

As we launch our new year here at the Daily Outsider, one of the profound developments we've been assessing is the protests in Iran.    One of the most perceptive analysis has been by Professor Sadri of Lake Forest College that is available by clicking here.    The Iranian President made a number of statements over the past 24 hours that underscored how he and other key members of the System understood the extent of the discontent while Khameini, the ultimate power stays silent.    Our team listened to Rouhani's Statement at his meeting with the Majlis (Parliament) Chairs over the budget as he underscored the profound budgetary challenges the Country faces.  As he spoke about the problems with the retirement fund and conflicting priorities, our team could not help but reflect upon the budgetary challenges faced in the United States as 2018 looms.  This is as President Trump has been on a Twitterstorm in response to the protests.

As President Rouhani touted his Government's accomplishments and called for unity, One of the more striking statements he made was about rainfall in Iran.  He stated that there has been a 55% decrease in Rain over the past 10 years.    Iran has had to again deal with profound air quality issues that is supposedly being mitigated as we went to press with rainfall.     What is happening in Iran is emblematic of the on-going challenges we faced in the World as underscored this reporting done by the Washington Examiner based on a Study reported by Nature in Climate available here.     This is as a recent report by Al Jazeera documented the shrinking of Cuba's Island due to Sea Rises.

Our team decided to note this powerful image of a Desert reported by the Washington Examiner to underscore what Dr. King noted as the Fierce Urgency of Now.   We commend the  Washington Examiner for reporting on this as we also commend the Examiner on an Earlier reporting it did on the situation in Puerto Rico: 

Earth becoming a desert without climate deal, scientists warn Climate researchers are warning that a large chunk of the globe could become a desert if the goals of the Paris climate change accord are not met. The findings published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change show that more than 25 percent of the world's population will live in a perpetual state of drought and growing desertification if the Earth's temperature rises by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. Read the full story here. A Truly challenging year before Us....