The riots in Europe are based in profoundly sad realities.

This is a demonstration in Spain. (click here)

The austerity cuts were to people in the margins. Austerity is an atrocity and grotesque when it costs the lives of innocent people. 

That isn't where cuts should occur, they should occur in places where these citizens are not an issue, like the military and the next new method to kill each other.

By Ariana Eunjung Cha

The next morning, (click title to entry - thank you) Perris took the hand of his ailing 90-year-old mother. They climbed to the roof of their apartment building and leapt to their death.

The double suicide, in a working-class neighborhood in the Greek capital in late May, is just one incident among thousands of suicides this year that have shaken European societies as mounting job losses, cutbacks in public services and shrinking government pensions due to the continent’s financial upheaval take a toll on mental health....

The Farm Bill needs to be passed!

Blue Mount Dairy in Minnesota is an example of the state of the art farming in the USA that relies on consistent policy from the government to sustain its operation.

Blue Mont Dairy in Wisconsin produces artisan cheeses. These are local businesses. They are family businesses. Imagine being a family taking care of a large dairy business and having a bunch of clowns in DC playing with their futures. It is Un-American to hold vital legislation for political fodder. The farmers of the USA are under stress. The dairy industry is dependent on grains and hay operations to carry out their missions. It is time to put people in DC that actually care about people rather than money.

The fuel costs to these local, family businesses are hideous. Every farmer needs to belong to a local Farm Cooperative where biodiesel to power their operations produce their supply for an entire year at cost to member farmers. Due to Wall Street profits and a warming planet the cost of grains and hay are going to impact on the agricultural operations across this country and the Do Nothing Congress, led by those like Congressman Paul Ryan have left them out on a limb without support to continue their operations to feed our nation.

These are the people relying on clean water in their aquifers to water their livestock and irrigate their crops. The food for our nation are produced by people as dedicated as those here. They understand their operations to a microscopic level. Imagine the veterinary costs to a dairy operation and realize that is only one cost to the enterprise. We do need Canadian Oil Sludge destroying a healthy food supply to the nation. We don't need another pipeline through the USA. We need biodiesel production and clean energy such as wind farms to power our nation. Clean energy to match a healthy nation.

Why would anyone want it differently? 

Blue Mont Diary (click here)

Willi Lehner, a Swiss-American cheesemaker and owner of Bleu Mont, brings his experience of authentic Alpine cheesemaking to a collection of Wisconsin original cheeses. Made in small batches, these complex, full-bodied cheeses reflect the mountain tradition of using raw, organic milk from pastured cows. They are aged in a special cave, built into the landscape. Varieties include Bandaged Cheddar (English-style), Gouda, Farmstead Käse, Driftless Select "Earth Schmier," Irish Gems, and Lil' Will's Big Cheese. Cheesemaker Lehner is always experimenting with new cheeses as well.

Bleu Mont Dairy
3480 Cty F
Blue Mounds, WI 53517
Phone: 608-767-2875

Contact:
Willi Lehner
608-767-2875

Ryan as the Vice Presidential by Romney is a solid endorsement for Wall Street over Main Street.

The Ryan Plan for Medicare would destroy the program accepting all the elderly and providing care.

The elderly with health problems would be left adrift when the Medicare Program failed after all the cream was skimmed off the top by the insurance industry.

...—and replace it with a scheme in which beneficiaries would be given “premium support” to help them buy coverage on the private market. Yes, the traditional Medicare program would continue to be a choice under the 2012 version of Ryan’s plan, but it would have to compete with private insurance companies. And because, under Ryan's plan, insurers would be able to cherry-pick the healthiest seniors, the traditional Medicare program would likely be unable to survive over the long haul. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Ryan's wife is a former lobbyist for the health insurance industry....

One has to wonder what drew Romney to Ryan and why a sour pick to win the election was so important. The Romneys have to feel a gratitude to some extent to Mrs. Ryan, a former health insurance industry lobbyist.

The Paul Ryan attack on Medicare was fostered by his wife. Ryan is not the boy genius everyone wants to believe. The GOP threw in with Ryan's wife, not Ryan. Tell me they didn't know.

...The Affordable Care Act outlaws many of the most egregious practices of the insurance, such as refusing to sell coverage to people with preexisting conditions and charging older people many times more than what they charge younger people for the same coverage. Ryan proposes not only to privatize Medicare but also to scrap those consumer protections, by repealing the reform law....

Romney's choice of Ryan is about raising campaign funds too, but, they sincerely want to scrap the Affordable Care Act and throw everyone back to the old paradigm of being UNINSURABLE and without health care. The focus on Ryan's Medicare plans has to include the fact the Affordable Care Act will be eliminated from the American landscape. It isn't just Medicare Reform it is a return to the lack of substantial change to insure the nation while funneling government monies to Wall Street. It is the worst of all worlds. 

The answer for Medicare exists, but, it isn't with the idea that it can be privatized with premium support. It is ridiculous. The Ryan Plan for Medicare is the plan that destroys equity for the nation against the profits of Wall Street. The profits of Wall Street are exorbitant, can the American citizen say they are better off because of it?

...Mitt Romney is trying to muddy the issue. On the day he announced Ryan as his running mate, Romney accused President Obama of using the reform law to cut $700 billion from the Medicare program. That’s not true. In reality, that figure is what the Congressional Budget Office estimates will be saved over the next several years as a result of changes in the way Medicare pays doctors, hospitals and drug companies—changes that doctors, hospitals and drug companies endorsed....

The Stand Your Ground Law was not the only offensive legislation by ALEC.

...Lawmakers (click title to entry - thank you) proposed 62 photo-ID bills 

in 37 states in the 2011 and 2012 sessions, with multiple bills introduced 

in some states, including two by Democrats in Rhode Island. Ten states 

have passed strict photo-ID laws since 2008, though several face legal 

challenges.


A News21 analysis found that more than half of the 62 bills were sponsored 

by members or conference attendees of the American Legislative Exchange 

Council (ALEC), a Washington-based, tax-exempt organization.

Pennsylvania's law, which is counted among that group, was sponsored by 

Republican State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, an ALEC member. The law has been 

challenged in court and a decision is expected this week. Signed into law on 

March 14, the law requires an acceptable photo ID....

Germantown nonagenarian at center of voter ID lawsuit under doctor's orders to rest (click here)

August 14, 2012

By Aaron Moselle for NewsWorks

...Exhausting process

Though she has made it a personal point to tell her story, the whole thing has become a bit daunting at times.

"It's fair to say that the attention has been a little overwhelming," said Sara Mullen, associate director of the Pennsylvania ACLU. "I've been limiting the calls and the interviews."

Applewhite, who is in a wheelchair, traveled to Harrisburg to testify last month. Not long afterwards, she was aboard a bus that was involved in an accident on Roosevelt Boulevard.

The collective toll of it all has left Applewhite with doctor's orders to rest up, according to Mullen, who noted in an email to NewsWorks that the nonagenarian is not feeling "terribly well."

Judge Robert Simpson is expected to hand down a decision any day now. An appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is almost guaranteed regardless of the ruling....

Viviette Applewhite, 93, has been inundated with attention and interview requests related to the voter ID lawsuit. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)

Every woman should see this film. A man is charged with murder for a miscarriage of a 19 week fetus.

Take a good look at the power women have in their lives in the USA before agreeing with the Pro-Life movement extremism. This is the theocracy the Right Wing wants, except for the clothing, maybe. It is chronically mired in pain and hostility. Is there any wonder why these extreme culturalisms are violent? The relationships at any level are always conflicted.

It is only one election away.

H.R. 374: Life at Conception Act (click title to entry - thank you)

112th Congress, 2011–2012

To implement equal protection under the 14th article of amendment to the Constitution for the right to life of each born and preborn human person.

The risk is proving to be worth it. The industrialization of the green economy in the USA has to be pushed over the top.

With the increase of fuel economic autos in the country, there was less foreign oil imports this year which is a new successful bench mark for the USA.









By Jon LeSage
Posted August 13, 2012 8:06AM

Consumer demand for fuel efficient vehicles and a federal mandate to reach 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 has helped bring back 236,000 badly-needed U.S. auto industry jobs since 2009, says a report issued by DrivingGrowth. A portion of this growth – 66,300 new jobs – occurred in the Midwest in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, along with new jobs in 500 facilities in 43 states that manufacture components and technology that contribute to fuel economy improvements. Driving Growth is a project backed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Wildlife Federation and the League of Conservation Voters. The numbers don't include the million-plus jobs stabilized by the federally-orchestrated and funded post-bankruptcy bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler.

Creating green jobs in the U.S. amidst the troubled, changing global economy has been a strong message from the Obama administration since 2009, but this year it hasn't been mentioned as often. Still, Mitt Romney is criticizing federal involvement in green jobs....

Representative Paul Ryan was among the leadership with a dismal approval rating.

Congressional Job Approval (click title to entry - thank you)

Gail Collins: Congressional approval rating is low (and getting lower) (click here)

...All the members are off on a five-week recess, after which they'll return for a few days, then go away again, then hobble back as lame ducks. This is going to do terrible things to the congressional approval rating, which had climbed all the way up to 17 percent at one point this year. Now it's sunk to BP oil spill level, and it's only a matter of time before we're back to the point where poll respondents say they have a more favorable attitude toward "the U.S. becoming communist."...

I know Romney was hoping for another Palin, but, I think he got a Quail. Even within the party there are not high approvals of Ryan. What was he thinking? If he wanted a Palin he should have gone with Palin. I don't see the upside to any of this. Ryan's budget and Medicare proposal are morphing all the time. One never knows if Ryan is serious or getting testing the waters, yet again.

I don't doubt he is sincere about the nation's problems or that he is a nice man, but, in all honesty he isn't ready to be President. Romney should have chosen the mature ticket and gone with Pawlenty. Ryan is not ready, but, neither was Dan Quail. The GOP does this all the time.

Poll: 39% Hold Favorable Opinion of Ryan (click here)
Saturday, 11 Aug 2012 12:01 PM

Voters have 39 percent favorable opinion of Mitt Romney's vice presidential running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, according to earlier polling, while 25 percent held a negative review, according to pollster Scott Rasmussen.
Ryan is relatively unknown to the nation at large. Only a third of voters have a strong opinion in either direction. ...

Romney and Ryan are poured from the same mold. Ryan doesn't have hundreds of millions yet, but, he is working on it.

The question is, "Whom's prosperity does Ryan have in mind?"

By Michael Finnegan

August 12, 2012, 5:41 a.m.

With business investments and a family inheritance, Rep.Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and his wife have accumulated millions of dollars in assets and generated income last year well above his congressional salary, according to his most recent financial disclosure statement.

Mitt newly announced running mate reported assets in the range of $2 million to $7.7 million. The largest was the interest that his wife, Janna, holds in a trust resulting from the 2010 death of her mother, Prudence Little. Her interest in the trust falls in the range of $1 million to $5 million, Ryan reported.

Ryan also reported investment income that, along with a distribution from the inheritance, supplemented his $174,000 congressional salary – somewhere between $168,000 and $1.2 million....

So, if the Catholic Bishops want to know why Ryan is insensitive to the needs of the people of the USA, they can look at his disclosure statements and income tax returns.

Climate skeptics are becoming history. Ya think?

By David Horsey

August 2, 2012, 12:38 a.m.

...UC Berkeley physics professor Richard A. Muller says that, after years of paying for studies by global warming skeptics, the Koch brothers honestly want to get the science clarified. They helped fund Muller who, only three years ago, doubted that the Earth was heating up to dangerous levels due to human activity. Now, with his Koch-funded research complete, he has reversed himself.

In a column published in the New York Times, Muller wrote, “Call me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.”

Muller can now be welcomed into the enormous club of scientists who have, for years, been warning about this impending threat to life as we have known it on this planet....

"Morning Papers" - Its Origin (click title to entry - thank you)

The Rooster
"Okeydoke"

"Good Night, Moon"

Waning Crescent

25.1 day old moon

20.3 percent lit

Proverb:

When the ax came into the forest, the trees said, "The handle is one of us."

It is up to us to stop gun violence.

The Sun has an eleven year sunspot cycle. A little over a decade. This cycle is due to reach a peak in 2013.

Sunspot Numbers

In 1610, shortly after viewing the sun with his new telescope, Galileo Galilei (or was it Thomas Harriot?) made the first European observations of Sunspots. Continuous daily observations were started at the Zurich Observatory in 1849 and earlier observations have been used to extend the records back to 1610. The sunspot number is calculated by first counting the number of sunspot groups and then the number of individual sunspots....

Considering we have all lived through cycles of the sunspots of the sun, it is safe to say we are used to it by now. I would not expect a civilized society such as our own would ever be completely unprepared for such emergencies as EMP. 

The Sun is predictable. It is something we can rely on. We don't have to worry about it as much as some seem to believe we do. 

A couple other things. Human Induced Global Warming is not caused by the Sun, it is caused by our own recklessness with the natural state of Earth. 

Other than that, we are expected to have a second Sun some day. Yes, it is predicted.

Below is an entry from Ingus at the blog section of "The Baltimore Sun."

That red star (click here) that marks Orion the hunters shoulder may explode in a type II supernova at any time.

Betelgeuse would become an intense white dot as bright as the full moon. It would not be safe to look at and it would turn the night sky blue.

It would not destroy our world but it could influence mutations and change the course of evolution.

Feb Astronomy

Now, I don't know about the mutant part. That one is a new one on me, but, Betelguese (Pronounced Bettle Juice) is considered close to Supernova and it will emit a different light. So, one day we may wake up and find a different pattern to Orion's shoulder and we'll know that Betelguese has breathed one of it's last breaths, so to speak.

This huge burp from the Sun occurred on July 12, 2012. We didn't get fried with an X1.4.

By ALON HARISH

July 14, 2011

The sun's surface earlier this week will likely collide with Earth this weekend, scientists say.

The coronal mass ejection on Thursday, caused by the release of excess solar energy, is classified as an X1.4 event. That means the storm is probably too weak to affect satellites used for cell phone communication, but communication using shorter wavelengths, such as radio, may be affected, said John Raymond, a physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

"Imagine something with the mass of a mountain being ejected at a speed of a million miles an hour," Raymond said, adding that by the time the storm reaches Earth, its energy will have been spread out over an enormous area. Scientists expect the storm to arrive Saturday morning, and it is still possible that it will miss Earth....

Location, location, location.

Location of Earth.

Location of Sun.

Location of Solar Activity on the Sun.

Location of Solar Flair.

The solar flare peaked at 12:52 p.m. EDT (1652 GMT) as an X-class sun storm, the most powerful type of flare the sun can have. (click here"

It erupted from Active Region 1520, which rotated into view on July 6," NASA officials said in an alert. Active Region 1520, or AR1520, is a giant sunspot currently facing Earth.

Hm. If the government agencies hold all this information in their knowledge bases, I suppose we can relax just a little as to how much we don't know and how prepared we don't have to be for such disasters as an "EMP" from the Sun. That was electro-magnetic-pulse from the Sun.

We live in a different world from our parents. We live in a world made more complicated by computers, but, those computers also make the impossible; possible. I am quite sure there are ways of handling a sustained black out of electricity across the country should the Sun have a flare aimed directly at our path. But, it would have to be a very big solar flare with high intensity that would not be diluted by the solar wind and Earth electro-magnetic field.

I would think we could look to New York City as an example as how to respond to such an emergency. They had that grid black out. People didn't get crazy, they didn't loot each other and cause problems. They knew they were all in it together and they were rather remarkable. 

I would think we would be like that if such an emergency hit the global electric grid. I can't guarantee Wall Street wouldn't go crazy though. Nope, that is an unknown. Maybe the Zombies will arise there. But, for the average person, it is my estimation they would shake their fist at the Sun and simply find their way through the day, while trusting each other and waiting for the lights to come back on.

This is a close up shot. You won't catch me taking the next flight out, I'll tell you that much. 

That is beautiful though, isn't it? Hydrogen. Amazing. One would expect it to blow apart for the amount of a power as it is. 

The universe comprised of tiny atoms, perfectly ordered. Amazing. And we live.

Betcha think this is a sun spot? Nope. (click title to entry - thank you)

 

This is the "Transit of Venus." Venus and Earth are comparable in size, so the transit of Venus is a good comparison in some ways to the size of Earth in relation to the Sun. Now, realize Earth is further away from the Sun in a place called, "The Habitable Zone" of our Solar System, so the size is actually smaller because of distance.

Venus and Earth Compared (click here)

Venus, the second planet from the Sun, lies, on average, 108 million km from the Sun, about 30% closer than the Earth. Venus is often referred to as our sister planet because of similarities in size, mass, density and volume. It is believed that both planets share a common origin forming at the same time out of a condensing nebulosity around 4.5 billion years ago.

Welcome to the real paranoia about our Sun. Those wanting control of the rest of their lives even seek to control the Sun's effect on Earth.

The Solar Electromagnetic Pulse.

It creates Zomby Invasions to be feared by all Preppers across Earth.

I mean for real. These guys are for real. (click title to entry - thank you)

You are about to enter the Twilight Zone of Coronal Madness.

This is Hurricane Daniel & hurricane Emilia in the Eastern Pacific this season.

Yes, that is the Baha Peninsula and the west coast of Mexico and the USA.

This film loop runs through a two day cycle. When the blue of the ocean gets dark blue it is nighttime and there is no sun overhead. But, when the blue starts to lighten again that is the sunrise and continued sun exposure of the Eastern Pacific.

Now, if one pays close attention at 0:10 through 0:11 and then again at 0:22 the 'direct sun rays' are reflected off the ocean. They will not only be reflected off the ocean they will be reflected off the ocean EXACTLY BENEATH the two hurricanes. And not just beneath the two hurricanes, but, beneath the two hurricanes and in a straight line.

I frequently refer to 'the direct rays of the sun' when I describe certain activities in the troposphere related to heat. Now, at least this shows exactly the intense nature of our sun over Earth. The hurricanes are due to water vapor and temperature. This clearly illustrates the tandem of hurricanes are a result of available water vapor at the level of direct solar rays.

The LIfecycle of the Sun - from nebula to black dwarf. (click title to entry - thank you)

Our sun has a name.

Sol.

Sol is a yellow-orange, main sequence dwarf star.

Be grateful for that. Sol has about a billion or so years left before it gives us profound trouble. The kind of trouble no military armament is going to stop.

So, you probably believe our Sun is the center of every aspect of existence. You are wrong.

This is the Milky Way Galaxy viewed from Earth. 

The Sun is within the Milky Way, but, not at its center. The Sun actually rotates through its own orbit within the Galaxy. 

Our solar system (click title to entry - thank you) is at the edge of a spiral arm called the Orion Arm, and is about two-thirds of the way from the center of our galaxy to the edge of the starlight. The Earth is the third planet from the sun in our solar system of nine planets.

Our Solar System, the Milky Way Galaxy, is 4.5 billion years old. Earth is the same age.

The age was calculated by Radiometric Dating. 

RADIOMETRIC TIME SCALE (click title to entry - thank you)

The discovery of the natural radioactive decay of uranium in 1896 by Henry Becquerel, the French physicist, opened new vistas in science. In 1905, the British physicist Lord Rutherford--after defining the structure of the atom-- made the first clear suggestion for using radioactivity as a tool for measuring geologic time directly; shortly thereafter, in 1907, Professor B. B. Boltwood, radiochemist of Yale Uniyersity, published a list of geologic ages based on radioactivity. Although Boltwood's ages have since been revised, they did show correctly that the duration of geologic time would be measured in terms of hundreds-to-thousands of millions of years....

While I am on the subject of Earth elements, I though the table of elements might be interesting.

Hydrogen is over 91 percent of the Sun's composition. It appears first in Earth's Table of Elements.

Helium is nearly 9 percent of the Sun's composition. It appears as the second element of Earth's Table of Elements.

That brings the composition at the photosphere to nearly 100%, yet there are so many more elements in Earth's table of elements other than "Rare Earth Elements." 

If one knows anything about the Table of Elements of Earth, it is obvious there are increases in the number of protons with each additional element in the table. Lithium has three while hydrogen has one and helium two. Beryllium has four protons and so one through the entire table. The protons are considered the atomic number to any of the elements. 

So, where did all this come from? If the Sun is primarily hydrogen and helium where did the rest of the mess come from?

It comes from heating and cooling. Intense heat as found in the center of the Sun and the center of the Earth is an oven that literally melts protons to combine with each other. Therefore, two hydrogens were thrown together, hence helium. And so on and so forth. 

There is no mysticism surrounding the elements, the Sun or Earth anymore. We don't worship the sun gods of the Greeks and Romans, but, seek to understand where and what we are in the universe we live.