It was probably my crazy schedule at times that I don't necessarily get all the details to the news. I thought Manafort had a confidential arrangement to withhold information about his crimes, but, there they are "conspiracy against the U.S. and conspiring to obstruct justice."
Interestingly enough, I have read a few reports about the Russian affiliated soldiers. They aren't doing well. Ukraine seems to be turning the tide on the eastern border with Russia. They weren't reports out of major news media, but, they seemed fairly trustworthy.
It is incredible to think about in relation to the Manafort involvement in the elections of Yanukovych. It has been years and hundreds of people dead if not thousands since the turmoil over the 2004 Constitution and President Yanukovych. An American should never be involved with such processes. Russia is not a democracy and there is no reason to believe any Russian politician will actually value democratic principles. It was just wrong and has caused a great deal of suffering.
October 1, 2018
By Darren Samuelsohn
The sit-down stems (click here) from a guilty plea that requires the former Trump campaign chairman to cooperate with the special counsel's probe.
Paul Manafort met Monday with special counsel Robert Mueller’s office as part of his cooperation agreement in the special counsel’s investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The sit-down at the special counsel’s downtown Washington D.C. office stems from Manafort’s guilty plea last month, which requires the former Trump campaign chairman to cooperate “fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly…in any and all matters as to which the government deems the cooperation relevant.”
Spokesmen for Manafort and Mueller declined comment on the meeting.
POLITICO spotted two attorneys for Manafort — Richard Westling and Tom Zehnle — outside Mueller’s office early Monday afternoon speaking with one of the special counsel’s lead prosecutors, Andrew Weissmann. The men parted ways to buy lunch and then were seen returning with their food to the secure building where the special counsel’s team is headquartered.
Manafort pleaded guilty last month in a federal court in Washington to conspiracy against the U.S. and conspiring to obstruct justice. As part of the plea, Mueller’s team dropped charges against Manafort including money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent for his work on behalf of Ukrainian political parties. They also agreed to dismiss deadlocked bank- and tax-fraud charges from a Virginia trial with the condition Manafort would conclude a “successful cooperation” with the special counsel....
Monday, October 01, 2018
Hawaii Kilauea Volcano Eruption Lava Tube Formation LATT #4 (click title for news article - thank you)
It is time to take a look at the surfacing of the devil as the magma continues to erupt from one of the lava tubes of the mountain. The devil has not been spotted yet, but, at one point it was thought it could be an occurrence until a pick up truck was spotted melting in the lava (see video below).
September 30, 2018
The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory uses a diverse set of instruments to monitor active volcanoes in Hawaii. These include seismometers, gas sensors, Global Positioning System stations and webcams. Each provides a unique type of data critical to understanding volcanic systems.
However, electronic tiltmeters are the instruments that often are the first to alert us to changes in a volcano that could lead to an eruption. This is because they are exceptionally sensitive, capable of measuring very small ground deformations that suggest the movement of magma into shallow parts of volcanoes.
While tiltmeters respond to many subsurface processes, they are particularly effective for tracking inflation and deflation of subsurface magma reservoirs, such as the shallow Halema‘uma‘u source at Kilauea’s summit. As magma moves into a subsurface reservoir, the reservoir expands to accommodate additional magma. This causes the ground above the reservoir to bulge, depending on how shallow it is.
As it bulges upward, the slope of the ground surface changes in certain places and in a specific pattern. This change in slope is what a tiltmeter measures, much like a carpenter’s level....
...Volcano activity updates
At Kilauea’s lower East Rift Zone, the most recent significant incandescence visible within the fissure 8 cone was on Sept 15. At the summit of the volcano, seismicity and ground deformation remain low. Hazardous conditions still exist in the lower East Rift Zone and at the summit. Residents should stay informed and heed county Civil Defense closures, warnings and messages (http://www.hawaiicounty.gov/active-alerts).
No collapses at Pu‘u ‘O‘o have been observed during the past two weeks.
The combined sulfur dioxide emission rates at Kilauea’s summit, Pu‘u ‘O‘o and in the lower East Rift Zone remain at less than 1,000 tonnes per day — lower than at any time since late 2007.
The USGS Volcano Alert level for Mauna Loa remains at Normal (https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vhp/about_alerts.html).
HVO continues to closely monitor Kilauea and Mauna Loa and will report any significant changes on either volcano. Daily Kilauea updates are posted at https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/status.html. Monthly Mauna Loa updates are posted at
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna_loa/status.html.
Two earthquakes with three or more felt reports occurred in the Hawaiian Islands this past week: a magnitude-3.2 quake 15 km (9 mi) north-northwest of Waikoloa Village at 32 km (20 mi) depth at 5:42 p.m. Sept. 26 and a magnitude-3.7 quake 18 km (11 mi) southeast of Volcano at 6 km (4 mi) depth at 1:56 a.m. Sept. 21. Small aftershocks from the May 4 magnitude-6.9 earthquake are still being generated on faults located on Kilauea’s south flank....
September 30, 2018
The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory uses a diverse set of instruments to monitor active volcanoes in Hawaii. These include seismometers, gas sensors, Global Positioning System stations and webcams. Each provides a unique type of data critical to understanding volcanic systems.
However, electronic tiltmeters are the instruments that often are the first to alert us to changes in a volcano that could lead to an eruption. This is because they are exceptionally sensitive, capable of measuring very small ground deformations that suggest the movement of magma into shallow parts of volcanoes.
While tiltmeters respond to many subsurface processes, they are particularly effective for tracking inflation and deflation of subsurface magma reservoirs, such as the shallow Halema‘uma‘u source at Kilauea’s summit. As magma moves into a subsurface reservoir, the reservoir expands to accommodate additional magma. This causes the ground above the reservoir to bulge, depending on how shallow it is.
As it bulges upward, the slope of the ground surface changes in certain places and in a specific pattern. This change in slope is what a tiltmeter measures, much like a carpenter’s level....
...Volcano activity updates
At Kilauea’s lower East Rift Zone, the most recent significant incandescence visible within the fissure 8 cone was on Sept 15. At the summit of the volcano, seismicity and ground deformation remain low. Hazardous conditions still exist in the lower East Rift Zone and at the summit. Residents should stay informed and heed county Civil Defense closures, warnings and messages (http://www.hawaiicounty.gov/active-alerts).
No collapses at Pu‘u ‘O‘o have been observed during the past two weeks.
The combined sulfur dioxide emission rates at Kilauea’s summit, Pu‘u ‘O‘o and in the lower East Rift Zone remain at less than 1,000 tonnes per day — lower than at any time since late 2007.
The USGS Volcano Alert level for Mauna Loa remains at Normal (https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vhp/about_alerts.html).
HVO continues to closely monitor Kilauea and Mauna Loa and will report any significant changes on either volcano. Daily Kilauea updates are posted at https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/status.html. Monthly Mauna Loa updates are posted at
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna_loa/status.html.
Two earthquakes with three or more felt reports occurred in the Hawaiian Islands this past week: a magnitude-3.2 quake 15 km (9 mi) north-northwest of Waikoloa Village at 32 km (20 mi) depth at 5:42 p.m. Sept. 26 and a magnitude-3.7 quake 18 km (11 mi) southeast of Volcano at 6 km (4 mi) depth at 1:56 a.m. Sept. 21. Small aftershocks from the May 4 magnitude-6.9 earthquake are still being generated on faults located on Kilauea’s south flank....
Immigration reform is long overdue and could end all this heartache.
October 1, 2018
by Brenda Medina
...But during the interview, (click here) she was asked to step out of the office. Twenty minutes later, she was told that her husband, who had a deportation order pending from long ago, had been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Oscar, 42, who crossed the Mexico border in 2004 undocumented, has been held since then in an immigration detention center in Broward County. He could be deported at any time.
“I went to the immigration appointment with a lot of confidence because it was an interview. I never imagined they would take my husband away under arrest,” Maria said of the meeting Tuesday. “We are trying to do the right thing.”
Arrests of immigrants during the marriage interviews in USCIS offices is becoming more common in South Florida, according to attorneys in an agency that offers legal assistance to immigrants.
Immigrants with old deportation orders are following the procedures for obtaining legal status known as Petition for Alien Relatives and turning up for required interviews but “some of them are finding that ICE agents are waiting to arrest them,” said Alexandra De León, an attorney with Americans for Immigrant Justice.
An ICE spokesman in Miami, asked about the Hernández case, told el Nuevo Herald that any undocumented immigrant facing a deportation order can be detained by the agency at any time....
Yerkes Observatory was known for it's architecture as well as it's accomplishments. Today it is closing.
By Ted Gregory
Monday’s closing (click here) of the renowned Yerkes Observatory after 121 years hits Kate Meredith professionally and personally.
As education outreach director there, Meredith has scrambled over the last few months to find a temporary new home for the program, which has been located at the ornate observatory for about 20 years.
And since she and her family live in a house on the bucolic Yerkes site on the shore of Geneva Lake, she has to move now too.
“When I stop moving some days,” she said one hectic afternoon, “I just fall asleep.”
A cherished southern Wisconsin landmark that has been home to Nobel laureates and important scientific achievements, Yerkes has now outlived its research usefulness. Sometime Monday, University of Chicago, which owns Yerkes and is selling it, will lock entrance gates to the observatory grounds. About a dozen full-time employees, including Meredith, have lost their jobs, she said.
“When you’re coming from Yerkes, nothing looks pretty,” Meredith said of her new office, a little more than a mile away. “But it’ll be our home and it will be drama-free, hopefully.”...
By Todd Ackerman
MD Anderson immunologist Jim Allison, pictured in 2015, discovered a natural brake on the immune system, then developed a drug to release it, jump-starting the era of cancer immunotherapy.
Houston scientist Jim Allison (click here) was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine Monday for his pioneering research that has led to a new type of cancer treatment that frees the immune system to attack tumors.
Allison, MD Anderson Cancer Center's chairman of immunology, conducted research that's led to a class of drugs that unleash immune system brakes. The research realized the tantalizing promise of immunotherapy, which is now taking its place alongside surgery, radiation and chemotherapy as a prime weapon against cancer....
...The drugs developed by Allison and others belong to a class known as checkpoint inhibitors. In some patients, they have produced lasting benefits in advanced cancers considered incurable, particularly in such diseases as lung cancer and melanoma. Scientists around the world are experimenting with different combinations of immunotherapy and other treatment in a bid to extend the benefits to more patients.
Allison started his career at MD Anderson in 1977, one of the first employees of a new basic science research center located in Smithville. He was recruited back to MD Anderson in November 2012....
...Allison in 2015 won the Lasker Award, which is often called the American Nobel. He has been awarded dozens of other prizes.
Allison will be honored at Nobel ceremonies in Stockholm in December.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has now been awarded 108 times to 214 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2017.
Thousands of children in desert internment camps, without any school facilities and transported under the cloak of darkness.
There is chronic emotional stress in their lives without any indication of ending. Because Trump has made such hideous changes to immigration law, the children are not necessarily claimed.
They are in the desert without anything to do, except, grieve for their family. These children are not doing well and being in the desert without a person to care for them, they will succumb to dehydration and disease. I am not hopeful for a good resolve for these children under this administration.
Congress has not yet passed immigration reform and this is the consequence. Children alone and at high risk of illness and worse. Congress needs to act to return safe havens for these children, including schooling and a path forward for them and all the other Undocumented in the USA.
Someone needs to be reviewing the records of these children regularly. There needs to be doctors regularly caring for them and being sure they are adequately fed and hydrated. There needs to be teachers to engage the future for these children. They have no hope. I am not optimistic for their outcome.
September 30, 2018
By Caitlin Dickerson
...The system for sheltering migrant children (click here) came under strain this summer, when the already large numbers were boosted by more than 2,500 young border crossers who were separated from their parents under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy. But those children were only a fraction of the total number who are currently detained....
They are in the desert without anything to do, except, grieve for their family. These children are not doing well and being in the desert without a person to care for them, they will succumb to dehydration and disease. I am not hopeful for a good resolve for these children under this administration.
Congress has not yet passed immigration reform and this is the consequence. Children alone and at high risk of illness and worse. Congress needs to act to return safe havens for these children, including schooling and a path forward for them and all the other Undocumented in the USA.
Someone needs to be reviewing the records of these children regularly. There needs to be doctors regularly caring for them and being sure they are adequately fed and hydrated. There needs to be teachers to engage the future for these children. They have no hope. I am not optimistic for their outcome.
By Caitlin Dickerson
Like the border wall, (click here) a tent city is a physical manifestation of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda
...The system for sheltering migrant children (click here) came under strain this summer, when the already large numbers were boosted by more than 2,500 young border crossers who were separated from their parents under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy. But those children were only a fraction of the total number who are currently detained....
Nuclear workers wear badges to determine their exposure and supposedly after a period of time should they be exposed to too high a dose they can return to work safely.
What the Massachusetts study is actually saying is that there is no safe dose that will degrade over the life of a person. So, the idea a person contaminated with too many rads can simply have a few weeks off and return without a worry is nonsense.
You have to realize the reason there are nuclear rods in cooling pools forever, is because the degradation time of the rods is far longer than one human life time. So, if the rods are in cooling pools without being able to safely dispose of them, then the dust is not going to degrade either.
I hate nuclear anything. It is such an insult to the biology of living things that it has no place believing it is a benevolent and good thing. That is the problem with these right wing wackos, like Trump, they embrace nonsense. They will argue and win elections with the attitude, "You are just to scared of anything nuclear to admit it is the fear that stifles you."
So, this is our national defense and we are supposed to be okay with this because the national defense requires it to be so. NO! "W"rong! No one is required to be okay with any of it! Jerks!
Trump held a conference last week with the UN Security Council. Country after country came forward to REPORT the atrocities of the United States of America. Trump's reply was basically, "Too bad." Well, that is not the attitude of a president that cares for the people of this country either. The reason Trump has the "Too Bad" attitude is because this is exactly what keeps American Presidents from doing the right thing. Nuclear weapons cause the "Too Bad" attitude and we need to end this mess!
If Trump didn't have nukes within his arsenal, THEN the world would see the man he truly is not!
I would love to see American politicians have to make policy UNPLUGGED from nuclear weapons. It would be an incredible sight to see.
Did you know that Valarm (click here) can detect nuclear radiation? The Valarm Pro Android app is compatible with the Mazur Instruments PRM-8000 and PRM-9000 geiger counters. Are you curious about how radioactive your environment is? With Valarm and a geiger counter you can detect and map radioactivity in real-time....
September 28, 2018
By Ralph Vartabedian
Studies by a Massachusetts scientist (click here) say that invisible radioactive particles of plutonium, thorium and uranium are showing up in household dust, automotive air cleaners and along hiking trails outside the factories and laboratories that for half a century contributed to the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons.
The findings provide troubling new evidence that the federal government is losing control of at least some of the radioactive byproducts of the country’s weapons program.
Marco Kaltofen, a nuclear forensics expert and a professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, said he collected samples from communities outside three lab sites across the nation and found a wide variation of particle sizes. He said they could deliver lifelong doses that exceed allowable federal standards if inhaled.
“If you inhale two particles, you will exceed your lifetime dose under occupational standards, and there is a low probability of detecting it,” he said.
A peer-reviewed study by Kaltofen was published in its final form in May in Environmental Engineering Science. Kaltofen, who also is the principal investigator at the nuclear and chemical forensics consulting firm Boston Chemical Data Corp., released a second study in recent weeks.
The Energy Department has long insisted that small particles like those collected by Kaltofen deliver minute doses of radioactivity, well below typical public exposures. One of the nation’s leading experts on radioactivity doses, Bruce Napier, who works in the Energy Department’s lab system, said the doses cited by Kaltofen would not pose a threat to public health.
Such assurances have been rejected by nuclear plant workers, their unions and activists who monitor environmental issues at nearly every lab and nuclear weapons site in the nation....
What the Massachusetts study is actually saying is that there is no safe dose that will degrade over the life of a person. So, the idea a person contaminated with too many rads can simply have a few weeks off and return without a worry is nonsense.
You have to realize the reason there are nuclear rods in cooling pools forever, is because the degradation time of the rods is far longer than one human life time. So, if the rods are in cooling pools without being able to safely dispose of them, then the dust is not going to degrade either.
I hate nuclear anything. It is such an insult to the biology of living things that it has no place believing it is a benevolent and good thing. That is the problem with these right wing wackos, like Trump, they embrace nonsense. They will argue and win elections with the attitude, "You are just to scared of anything nuclear to admit it is the fear that stifles you."
So, this is our national defense and we are supposed to be okay with this because the national defense requires it to be so. NO! "W"rong! No one is required to be okay with any of it! Jerks!
Trump held a conference last week with the UN Security Council. Country after country came forward to REPORT the atrocities of the United States of America. Trump's reply was basically, "Too bad." Well, that is not the attitude of a president that cares for the people of this country either. The reason Trump has the "Too Bad" attitude is because this is exactly what keeps American Presidents from doing the right thing. Nuclear weapons cause the "Too Bad" attitude and we need to end this mess!
If Trump didn't have nukes within his arsenal, THEN the world would see the man he truly is not!
I would love to see American politicians have to make policy UNPLUGGED from nuclear weapons. It would be an incredible sight to see.
Did you know that Valarm (click here) can detect nuclear radiation? The Valarm Pro Android app is compatible with the Mazur Instruments PRM-8000 and PRM-9000 geiger counters. Are you curious about how radioactive your environment is? With Valarm and a geiger counter you can detect and map radioactivity in real-time....September 28, 2018
By Ralph Vartabedian
Studies by a Massachusetts scientist (click here) say that invisible radioactive particles of plutonium, thorium and uranium are showing up in household dust, automotive air cleaners and along hiking trails outside the factories and laboratories that for half a century contributed to the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons.
The findings provide troubling new evidence that the federal government is losing control of at least some of the radioactive byproducts of the country’s weapons program.
Marco Kaltofen, a nuclear forensics expert and a professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, said he collected samples from communities outside three lab sites across the nation and found a wide variation of particle sizes. He said they could deliver lifelong doses that exceed allowable federal standards if inhaled.
“If you inhale two particles, you will exceed your lifetime dose under occupational standards, and there is a low probability of detecting it,” he said.
A peer-reviewed study by Kaltofen was published in its final form in May in Environmental Engineering Science. Kaltofen, who also is the principal investigator at the nuclear and chemical forensics consulting firm Boston Chemical Data Corp., released a second study in recent weeks.
The Energy Department has long insisted that small particles like those collected by Kaltofen deliver minute doses of radioactivity, well below typical public exposures. One of the nation’s leading experts on radioactivity doses, Bruce Napier, who works in the Energy Department’s lab system, said the doses cited by Kaltofen would not pose a threat to public health.Such assurances have been rejected by nuclear plant workers, their unions and activists who monitor environmental issues at nearly every lab and nuclear weapons site in the nation....
We have to do better than this. I imagine there is a lot of man/woman hours and boats involved.
With this number of buoys covering that distance, it seems as though there needs to be more than NOAA in maintaining this warning system. The maintenance has to be more local with specific time lines to inspection and monies dedicated for that purpose and for repairs. There is no sense to even deploying a warning system people will count on, if it can't be maintained to standard and reliable.
If the lifetime of one of these buoys is a year or less, there needs to be replacements at a cost that is affordable that are deployed annually while the old ones are brought ashore to be refurbished. Reliability is the problem and people cannot count on a system that isn't working to protect them so much a political stunt.
We used to "Duck and Cover" at one time, too.
30 April 2010
By Matthew Harwood
If the lifetime of one of these buoys is a year or less, there needs to be replacements at a cost that is affordable that are deployed annually while the old ones are brought ashore to be refurbished. Reliability is the problem and people cannot count on a system that isn't working to protect them so much a political stunt.
We used to "Duck and Cover" at one time, too.
30 April 2010By Matthew Harwood
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (click here) is having a hard-time maintaining its network of expensive high-tech tsunami detection buoys, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Wednesday (.pdf).
Known as the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) program, this network of 39 buoys makes up the early-warning system to protect 767 U.S. communities at risk of tsunamis—large, devastating waves, typically generated by seismic events or undersea landslides—that can destroy coastal and island communities.
The last significant tsunami hit U.S. soil in September 2009, when a series of waves hit American Somoa, killing 190 people and wiping out coastal infrastructure. In February, NOAA scientists initially feared Hawaii could get pounded by a massive tsunami after the 8.8 earthquake off Chile, but fortunately only 3-foot tsunami waves hit the state's shores.
The DART system consists of surface-level buoys connected by mooring lines to ocean-floor-anchored recording devices that monitor seismic activity. Data from the recording devices is transmitted to a satellite in 15-minute intervals until an event triggers transmissions at 15-second intervals. The satellite then delivers that data to two tsunami warning centers based in Alaska and Hawaii, respectively. The centers are responsible for warning U.S. coastal states, island territories, and over 90 countries when a tsunami threat occurs.
The buoys, however, are expensive and temperamental. Last year, DART operation and maintenance cost $12 million, or 28 percent, of NOAA's total tsunami budget for the fiscal year....
This is why there is such anger among Americans. The technology the USA invested in is not doing it's job and the cost was high to deploy them in the first place. I betcha there has been no real research done to the longevity of these buoys, huh?
This is a humanitarian effort our national treasury help support and it is not doing it's job. That is not acceptable. Do not do this stuff and provide false hope.
There needs to be a permanent budget for the tsunami buoys in the federal budget.
May 19, 2012
By Tom Banse
Honolulu - One quarter (12 of 39) of U.S.- (click here) operated tsunami warning buoys in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans are out of service. That includes the two tsunami detection buoys directly off the Pacific Northwest coast. But the warning system has some redundancy built in.
Normally, there’s a tsunami detection buoy anchored more than 200 miles off the mouth of the Columbia River and another roughly that far offshore of Coos Bay, Oregon. But both buoys broke from their moorings this winter and spring, probably because of storms. The earliest they’ll be replaced is September. So does that leave us vulnerable in the meantime?...
This is why there is such anger among Americans. The technology the USA invested in is not doing it's job and the cost was high to deploy them in the first place. I betcha there has been no real research done to the longevity of these buoys, huh?
This is a humanitarian effort our national treasury help support and it is not doing it's job. That is not acceptable. Do not do this stuff and provide false hope.
There needs to be a permanent budget for the tsunami buoys in the federal budget.
May 19, 2012By Tom Banse
Honolulu - One quarter (12 of 39) of U.S.- (click here) operated tsunami warning buoys in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans are out of service. That includes the two tsunami detection buoys directly off the Pacific Northwest coast. But the warning system has some redundancy built in.
Normally, there’s a tsunami detection buoy anchored more than 200 miles off the mouth of the Columbia River and another roughly that far offshore of Coos Bay, Oregon. But both buoys broke from their moorings this winter and spring, probably because of storms. The earliest they’ll be replaced is September. So does that leave us vulnerable in the meantime?...
There are fears hundreds could be buried in Indonesia.
The buoys have to be maintained. They do not take care of themselves. As for the ones stolen or otherwise, there needs to be follow up to stop the theft.
Stealing those buoys is a serious crime. It is disregarding human life and the potential of the government to protect the citizens. Indonesia of all countries need these protections and the crime in removing them in any way or allowing them to deteriorate or sabotage of them kills people.
The buoys use a relatively simple mechanism to set off the alarms. What the heck do people want in stealing them? They have to be a distance at sea in order to provide a warning siren.
1 October 2018
Stealing those buoys is a serious crime. It is disregarding human life and the potential of the government to protect the citizens. Indonesia of all countries need these protections and the crime in removing them in any way or allowing them to deteriorate or sabotage of them kills people.
The buoys use a relatively simple mechanism to set off the alarms. What the heck do people want in stealing them? They have to be a distance at sea in order to provide a warning siren.
By Amilia Rosa, Karuni Rompies, Jewel Topsfield and James Massola
Palu: Indonesia has said it will accept international aid to cope with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Sulawesi on Friday as officials warn that hundreds of people could still be buried under rubble....
...Twenty-five to 35 buoys designed to warn about a tsunami approaching Palu had been out of order since 2012, Sutopo said.
"Some people stole them. Some did vandalism on the units as they didn't know what they were."...
...The official death toll has now risen to 844 according to National Disaster Management Board spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho....
...Twenty-five to 35 buoys designed to warn about a tsunami approaching Palu had been out of order since 2012, Sutopo said.
"Some people stole them. Some did vandalism on the units as they didn't know what they were."...
...The official death toll has now risen to 844 according to National Disaster Management Board spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho....
...The tsunami that hit Palu, (click here) Donggala and Mamuju in Central Sulawesi on Friday evening was triggered by a 7.4 magnitude earthquake.
Tsunami survivor Rosina Mursidin yelled for her children to get out of the house after the earthquake.
"That's when we all saw it, it wasn't your regular wave, it was the colour of cigarette ash," she said. "So me and my family and a few neighbours, about 20 people, climbed the mango tree in the yard. Just as the water hit us, the tree fell, it pinned my mother, but we hung onto it."
Rosina said she gripped the twig from which her two-year-old nephew was hanging and prayed: "Please God save him, he is innocent".
"All the while I prayed, I was totally submerged, I drank a lot of water, barely able to breathe, but I kept my grip up. I don't know for how long, but when the water slowed and lowered down I took a deep breath and check my family.
They survived but others have not been so lucky.
Callouts for missing people are being posted on Twitter.
Puji Lestari posted she was looking for her 20-year-old sister, Denny Ayu Lestari, whom she had been unable to contact for a day.
In regard to the Climate Crisis I find those most responsible for the USA's derelict methods of insulting the climate without remorse, it is the legislature at the federal level that is most responsible. They have the power to pass laws to curb greenhouse gas emissions and they have the ability to override a presidential veto to that legislation.
So, when reflecting on measures at The Hague, do not simply look to the White House and it's administration, also realize there is a legislative branch with power to do more than the President can.
Trump's policies regarding the climate are human rights violations.
So, when reflecting on measures at The Hague, do not simply look to the White House and it's administration, also realize there is a legislative branch with power to do more than the President can.
Trump's policies regarding the climate are human rights violations.
Sounds like a presidential order to me.
Former Director Comey has stated it may take longer than a week for the FBI to complete it's investigation of the reopened background check of Kavanaugh.
September 30, 2018
President Donald Trump said Saturday (click here) that the FBI has “free rein” to investigate his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual assault and sexual misconduct.
“The FBI as you know is all over, talking to everybody … ” Trump told reporters Saturday in Washington on his way to a rally in West Virginia. “They have been all over it already. They have free rein to do whatever they have to do.”
On Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee formally requested the White House instruct the FBI to conduct a supplemental background investigation, saying it should probe “current credible allegations” against Kavanaugh.
Complying with the Senate’s request, Trump directed the FBI Friday night to re-open its background investigation into Kavanaugh with the probe “limited in scope and completed in less than one week.”...
Perhaps more than anyone else within the issue of Kavanaugh's appointment; he should have a cognitive interivew.
September 30, 2018
President Donald Trump said Saturday (click here) that the FBI has “free rein” to investigate his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual assault and sexual misconduct.
“The FBI as you know is all over, talking to everybody … ” Trump told reporters Saturday in Washington on his way to a rally in West Virginia. “They have been all over it already. They have free rein to do whatever they have to do.”
On Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee formally requested the White House instruct the FBI to conduct a supplemental background investigation, saying it should probe “current credible allegations” against Kavanaugh.
Complying with the Senate’s request, Trump directed the FBI Friday night to re-open its background investigation into Kavanaugh with the probe “limited in scope and completed in less than one week.”...
Perhaps more than anyone else within the issue of Kavanaugh's appointment; he should have a cognitive interivew.
I find it fascinating that no one is writing about or talking about the ludicrous nature of the Republican Party.
Republicans line up an operative for the Supreme Court straight out of Republican privilege and affiliation that is a violent sexual offender. No one in the party knew about Kavanaugh’s preferred lifestyle of drunken bashes and sexual exploited?
In addition to that, Republicans never become unnerved when one of their own has issues with infidelity. I believe they don't care about women at all.
The reason given for Trump instituting an FBI investigation of the allegations against his nominee was because some of the Republicans were on the fence about their votes. That is dearly few Republicans, and I am guessing they are women, that actually find even allegations more than should be tolerated yet alone the drinking.
October 1, 2018
By Greg Sargent
The White House appears (click here) to be playing all kinds of crafty rhetorical games to obscure the answer to a simple question: Has it deliberately placed limits on the scope of the FBI’s renewed background check into allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh, or not?
As of this morning, there are conflicting reports about who will now be interviewed by the FBI. The New York Times reports that the White House directed the FBI to interview only four people: Mark Judge, who is alleged by Christine Blasey Ford to have acted as Kavanaugh’s accomplice in the sexual assault; P.J. Smyth and Leland Keyser, who Ford claims were also in the house; and Deborah Ramirez, who has accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her at Yale.
Meanwhile, The Post reports that Kavanaugh will also be interviewed, but that a third accuser — Julie Swetnick — will not be. It’s also not clear whether Ford herself will be contacted — she has not yet been, according to her lawyer.
You’ll be startled to hear that instead of providing clarity, White House officials have sown further confusion. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Fox News that the White House is “not micromanaging this process.” Similarly, counselor Kellyanne Conway told CNN that, while the investigation will be “limited in scope,” the White House is not setting those limits, which will be “up to the FBI” to set. Conway pointed to President Trump’s weekend tweet saying the FBI should “interview whoever they deem appropriate,” and insisted (somehow without dissolving into giggles at her own disingenuousness) that Trump respects the FBI’s “independence.”...
Typical Republicans that don't know where to point their guns. If Kavanaugh makes it to a vote and has a real chance at sitting on the court, I look forward to the day when he is charged with sexual assault due to drunkenness because there is nothing to inhibit his behavior with a life long appointment and whatever inhibitions he may have will be turned loose. I firmly believe that.
He is already beginning with perjury before a US Senate Committee.
October 1, 2018
By Lauren Fox and Kate Sullivan
A Yale classmate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (click here) accused him on Sunday of being untruthful in his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee and making a "blatant mischaracterization" of his drinking while in college.
"I can unequivocally say that in denying the possibility that he ever blacked out from drinking, and in downplaying the degree and frequency of his drinking, Brett has not told the truth," Chad Ludington said in a statement to CNN.
Ludington said in the statement he often drank with Kavanaugh when they were classmates, and said Kavanaugh had played down "the degree and frequency" of his drinking in his testimony. Ludington said he often saw Kavanaugh "staggering from alcohol consumption," and said he often became "belligerent and aggressive" while drinking.
In his testimony to the judiciary committee Thursday, Kavanaugh denied ever blacking out from drinking....
This is almost hysterical in the choice Trump made. He chose Kavanaugh from a list of the Federalist Society and more than likely due to Kavanaugh's fluidity in decision making when it comes to impeachment and because he is fifty something. That is age discrimination by the way. But, think about it. How close at the age of fifty something is Kavanaugh's liver to collapse? I suppose he'll have to do a Cheney and get a liver transplant, but, here is an age discriminated choice with a liver that is about to fall apart. Amazing.
Prognosis and life expectancy in chronic liver disease (click here) depend on stage, cause, and symptoms of chronic liver disease; age; and possibilities of treatment. ... Patients with alcoholic chronic liver disease have the poorest prognosis.
Republicans line up an operative for the Supreme Court straight out of Republican privilege and affiliation that is a violent sexual offender. No one in the party knew about Kavanaugh’s preferred lifestyle of drunken bashes and sexual exploited?
In addition to that, Republicans never become unnerved when one of their own has issues with infidelity. I believe they don't care about women at all.
The reason given for Trump instituting an FBI investigation of the allegations against his nominee was because some of the Republicans were on the fence about their votes. That is dearly few Republicans, and I am guessing they are women, that actually find even allegations more than should be tolerated yet alone the drinking.
October 1, 2018
By Greg Sargent
The White House appears (click here) to be playing all kinds of crafty rhetorical games to obscure the answer to a simple question: Has it deliberately placed limits on the scope of the FBI’s renewed background check into allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh, or not?
As of this morning, there are conflicting reports about who will now be interviewed by the FBI. The New York Times reports that the White House directed the FBI to interview only four people: Mark Judge, who is alleged by Christine Blasey Ford to have acted as Kavanaugh’s accomplice in the sexual assault; P.J. Smyth and Leland Keyser, who Ford claims were also in the house; and Deborah Ramirez, who has accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her at Yale.
Meanwhile, The Post reports that Kavanaugh will also be interviewed, but that a third accuser — Julie Swetnick — will not be. It’s also not clear whether Ford herself will be contacted — she has not yet been, according to her lawyer.
You’ll be startled to hear that instead of providing clarity, White House officials have sown further confusion. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Fox News that the White House is “not micromanaging this process.” Similarly, counselor Kellyanne Conway told CNN that, while the investigation will be “limited in scope,” the White House is not setting those limits, which will be “up to the FBI” to set. Conway pointed to President Trump’s weekend tweet saying the FBI should “interview whoever they deem appropriate,” and insisted (somehow without dissolving into giggles at her own disingenuousness) that Trump respects the FBI’s “independence.”...
Typical Republicans that don't know where to point their guns. If Kavanaugh makes it to a vote and has a real chance at sitting on the court, I look forward to the day when he is charged with sexual assault due to drunkenness because there is nothing to inhibit his behavior with a life long appointment and whatever inhibitions he may have will be turned loose. I firmly believe that.
He is already beginning with perjury before a US Senate Committee.
October 1, 2018
By Lauren Fox and Kate Sullivan
A Yale classmate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (click here) accused him on Sunday of being untruthful in his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee and making a "blatant mischaracterization" of his drinking while in college.
"I can unequivocally say that in denying the possibility that he ever blacked out from drinking, and in downplaying the degree and frequency of his drinking, Brett has not told the truth," Chad Ludington said in a statement to CNN.
Ludington said in the statement he often drank with Kavanaugh when they were classmates, and said Kavanaugh had played down "the degree and frequency" of his drinking in his testimony. Ludington said he often saw Kavanaugh "staggering from alcohol consumption," and said he often became "belligerent and aggressive" while drinking.
In his testimony to the judiciary committee Thursday, Kavanaugh denied ever blacking out from drinking....
This is almost hysterical in the choice Trump made. He chose Kavanaugh from a list of the Federalist Society and more than likely due to Kavanaugh's fluidity in decision making when it comes to impeachment and because he is fifty something. That is age discrimination by the way. But, think about it. How close at the age of fifty something is Kavanaugh's liver to collapse? I suppose he'll have to do a Cheney and get a liver transplant, but, here is an age discriminated choice with a liver that is about to fall apart. Amazing.
Prognosis and life expectancy in chronic liver disease (click here) depend on stage, cause, and symptoms of chronic liver disease; age; and possibilities of treatment. ... Patients with alcoholic chronic liver disease have the poorest prognosis.
IRS hobbled
I have it on very good authority that the IRS has new software for evaluating tax returns. There is one very significant problem, the IRS employees cannot open old tax returns. Why does that sound like a benefit the White House and friends appreciate?
Can someone please investigate the reason for this, where to lay blame and find a way to begin to end the insufficieny of the IRS? I would expect there are hearings taking place to espionage tax liability because of this software problem.
Can someone please investigate the reason for this, where to lay blame and find a way to begin to end the insufficieny of the IRS? I would expect there are hearings taking place to espionage tax liability because of this software problem.
20.5 day old moon
66.8 percent lit
September 18, 2018
By Robin George Andrews
The moon (click here) is often thought of as a lifeless and inactive place. But a new study reminds us that our pale celestial guardian is more dynamic than it seems from afar. Fresh measurements of its flimsy atmosphere back up the idea that our lunar companion is surrounded by an electric shell, and that shell seems to gather power when Earth shields it from the fury of the sun during a full moon....
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