I want a "Class Picture."

This is a real coup for the President. The continent is under appreciated as an economic engine. The workers of South Africa proved exactly how intelligent and prepared they are to work. The South African work force has provided incredible profits to companies while they remained in poverty. I hope the unions were invited as well to bring about a perspective on how citizens can be empowered when a company realizes workers are an intricate part of profits. To achieve those profits workers have to have their health, pride in their work and the benefits work brings to them, their family and communities.

There were some strategies in the past to unit Africa, but, it never addressed the innate weakness of government to enforce law. The laws were also not necessarily benevolent laws which, along with poverty, spawned the rebel groups. The rebels tend to organize around religion. Religion lends itself to structure and morality. Unfortunately, it lends itself to the oppression and victimization of women. 

I am confident there is work to do, but, what a wonderful summit to bring all their agendas to the USA and interested companies. I especially liked the forthright statements of the governments seeking to end poaching in their countries. In particular, ending the markets for those living commodities is paramount to success. China needs to instill morality in their populous to end hideous deaths of precious and endangered animals such as elephants. 

These living creatures are more than a market commodity, they are the backbone of tourism which is very, very important to these beautiful countries. I fully expect there will be civilized approaches to any natural commodities. I want no mistreatment of the natural resources of Africa or ANY deaths of citizens in pursuit of such riches. I also fully expect the people of these beautiful countries to receive the rewards of their economies. No exception. This is a magnificent opportunity to begin anew in Africa and I fully expect that to occur. This is a wonderful opportunity for these leaders to begin again their relations with their citizens.

I am sure national security will be high on the agenda of most if not all these countries. I look forward to the people being safe within their borders. These leaders are remarkable people. Within their countries lie many ethnic groups, religious diversity and language. They are an asset to their nation as someone who can make the transition from USA and back to them to bring a message of hope and renewal. The leaders of these nations deserve respect from their nation, but, they will best get that through respect of the people as well.

It's a challenge. President Obama has done the right thing. It was a very brave adventure. I congratulate him. It is impressive.

One last thing. I expect the issue of WATER RESOURCES even if that includes dams and reservoirs for Ethiopia was high on the agenda, too. The USA EPA probably could provide insight to water quality along with the good work of the United Nations to date. The UN has been piecing water quality together in many ways, but, some consolidation to provide consistent water resources would be a very good thing.

First African Summit in D.C. to be largest ever; economic growth on agenda

August 4, 2014
By Anita Kumar and Lesley Clark

...Among the attendees (click here) will be a delegation from Libya, which Ben Rhodes, a deputy White House national security adviser, said the administration was "pleased" to welcome, given the unrest that prompted the U.S. to evacuate its embassy staff there.

"It's important for us to find ways to be able to engage Libyan leaders," Rhodes said.

The summit, which kicks off Monday, will focus on a need for companies to invest in the up-and-coming economies in Africa, as well as democracy-building, education and health care. Business deals worth $900 million are expected to be announced at the event.

“We’ve made enormous progress over the last several years in not just providing traditional aid to Africa...but rather partnering and thinking about how can we trade more and how can we do business together, and that’s the kind of relationship that Africa’s looking for,” Obama told reporters Friday.

Africa survived the economic crisis better than expected with growth in telecommunications, construction, transportation and banking. It has six of the world’s 10 fastest growing economies. Nations have averaged growth rates of 5-6 percent the last decade. By 2050, one in four workers worldwide will be in Africa....

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/08/04/235248/first-african-summit-in-dc-to.html#storylink=cpy

If there are experimental treatments known to work, but, haven't been cleared for use in human beings, DO IT NOW!

I am sincerely not worried about the containment of the microbe. That isn't want this is about. Containment has been very effective with the first strain of Ebola for a very long time. The idea there are experimental medications or otherwise that can give people hope to fight back it needs to be administered. This is a fatal disease. HIV received very fast approval when the studies of AZT in Boston proved incredible new realities.

Why haven't these experimental medications and treatments been administered in West Africa long before now. I also see no reason why anyone coming from West Africa into the USA cannot be held in quarantine until they are proven to be free of the disease. I think the hospital in New York is negligent in taking the complaints of a PATIENT so minimally. 

This isn't the kind of disease that can be fought off by the bodies natural defenses. Perhaps, as the microbe might mutate it will become less and less virulent, but, that is not the reality today. Every experimental treatment and medicine with promise should already be in West Africa and in use. These people are dying. They at least have hope. There isn't funding SOMEWHERE to sponsor these programs? That is hideous. 


August 5, 2014
By Alan Blinder

...Samaritan’s Purse, (click here) which is paying for the transportation and medical costs for both aid workers, said that Dr. Brantly and Ms. Writebol had received doses of an experimental serum while in Africa. But an Emory doctor, Bruce S. Ribner, said at a news conference last week that he anticipated the “critical component” of their treatment here would be what he described as “supportive care.”...

Everyone train for escaping a chock hold, otherwise, the New York Examiner says, "Die."

This is how the NYPD intimidates citizens to end their exposure of illegal techniques and methods during police brutality.

These two individuals are INNOCENT by the charge of police harassment alone. I really don't care where they conduct their social lives AND/OR the ONLY employment available.

The NYPD harassed a 17 year old, charged her and ruined her life because they can't take the heat of their own failings.

Some of the final words by Eric Garner was the FACT he was continually harassed by the police. Where are the arrests of the illegal importers of cigarettes and tobacco? Eric Garner was not the one responsible for undermining the law. He did not purchase illegal cigarettes. Eric Garner dies just so the COPS can say they are doing something about illegal cigarettes on the street. The cops are that pathetic. They can't stop real crime, they have to harass average citizens to say they are earning a dollar. Well, Eric was earning a dollar, too.

YES, I am defending his activities. It is his REALITY!

Man Who Filmed NYPD's Fatal Chokehold Arrested On Gun Charges (click here)

Link: http://gothamist.com/2014/08/04/man_who_filmed_nypds_fatal_chokehol.php

According to the NYPD, at 9:45 p.m. on August 2, members of the "Staten Island Narcotics Module" saw Orta talking to a 17-year-old girl at Bay Street and Victory Boulevard. Cops say the pair walked into "the Hotel Richmond, a known drug prone location, located at 71 Central Avenue. The two suspects are inside only for moments and then depart."

Then, police say, plainclothes cops with their shields out approached the two, but Orta slipped an item into the girl's waistband. The officers then "took control of the two" and found an unloaded .25 caliber Norton handgun on her.

Orta was charged with criminal possession of a weapon while the girl, Alba Lekaj, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and unlawful possession of marijuana....

How to get out of a Choke Hold ! Street fighting

This is the quintessential definition of a MORON.

Brooks is the one sitting down. This is such a stupid statement. It only proves how much the GOP can't see past their own skin color.

August 4, 2014
By Jonathan Capehart

Ron Fournier spoke an objective truth yesterday on Fox News Sunday. “The fastest growing bloc in this country thinks the Republican Party hates them,” the National Journal writer said to Michael Needham, chief executive of Heritage Action for America....
The operative words here is "Ron Fournier" not red, WHITE and blue.
Ron Fournier is a sensationalist. Brooks didn't care about being called a racist he was interested in capturing the attention of Fournier's listening audience. It shows how the GOP pumps populism for something they call an electorate.

...Ron Fournier, (click here) the AP's Washington bureau chief, has such a keen ear, he can practically read the judge's and the senators' minds.

In the polite, white-hot world of confirmation hearings, senators and witnesses can't always say what they want to say. So they speak in code. Here's a translation of what was said in the opening moments of the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings, and what the players actually meant....

So, for example, the audience heard Sotomayor thank her family this morning, and tell the Judiciary Committee, "If I introduced every one that's family, we'd be here all morning."...

It is how they roll, babe!
Allow me to translate. Brooks: Yes, I am Wall Street, I will kiss it's royal behind, I AM YOUR BOY! Throw money my way, I'll make sure the Middle Class disappears along with food stamps and health care insurance. With no contraception they'll multiple like rabbits. What could be better, Pure Profits. YEAH!
The GOP calls it politics. Right. There are real receipts for Wall Street within that racism. Republicans have no conscience, they only have wallets.

They are taking no prisoners. There is a dead general.

By Matthew Rosenberg and Haris Kakar 
August 5, 2014

...Massoud Hossaini, (click here) a photographer for The Associated Press, said that he arrived at the camp’s gate ahead of other journalists, and just as coalition armored vehicles were pulling out of the compound. A coalition soldier manning the roof-mounted gun on one of the vehicles shouted for Mr. Hossaini to “get away,” and then fired an apparent warning shot.

“I don’t know what he fired. It was fired near our car,” he said, adding that he left the scene straight away....

We don't belong in Afghanistan. Dr. Abdullah Abdullah is perfectly able to 
recruit and train soldiers. If the central government can't, too bad. This is 
another Green on Blue attack.

I guess the permafrost holes have to look like space aliens did it before people pay attention.

I've been posting the degradation of permafrost for over a decade now. Somewhere here is a picture of a patch of Alaskan permafrost or what used to be permafrost. It is all dead and dark in color. 

All the evidence and predictions are there. It is all documented. Governments never WANTED it to be real and the truth. The truth about the warming of Earth never served their politics because of the MONEY corrupting it.

June 25, 2014

The new EPA regulations are to CUT greenhouse gas pollution by the USA, not export it. (click here)

By JOHN MCDONNELL
UPDATED: 03:45 EST, 2 June 2011

...Meanwhile, (click here) the thawing of billions of tons of frozen plant matter in the Arctic could result in an acceleration in climate change as locked away organic carbon is released into the atmosphere, according to scientists....

November 25, 2013 

Blake de Pastino

Nov 19,2013

The frozen remains of a horse (click here)more than half a million years old have reluctantly given up their genetic secrets, providing scientists with the oldest DNA ever sequenced.

The horse was discovered in 2003 in the ancient permafrost of Canada’s west-central Yukon Territory, not far from the Alaskan border....

April 30, 2012

April 29, 2012 (click here)

...She and her colleagues say the Beaufort is the best place in the Arctic to assess the stability of undersea permafrost and gas deposits and to fill in big gaps in climate science.
They want to drill down through sediments that have rained onto the sea floor over eons, revealing how the Arctic ice has waxed and waned, and into the thick slabs of permafrost and frozen gas beneath the sea floor that have the potential to accelerate global warming....

On that same page:

David Adam, environment correspondent
Wednesday December 21, 2005The Guardian

Global warming could melt almost all of the top layer of Arctic permafrost by the end of the century. Scientists say the thaw would release vast stocks of carbon into the atmosphere, threaten ocean currents and wreck roads and buildings across Canada, Alaska and Russia....

Science 4 April 2008: 
Vol. 320 no. 5872 pp. 57-58 
DOI: 10.1126/science.1155398

• PERSPECTIVE

CLIMATE

Blooms Like It Hot (click here)

1. Hans W. Paerl, 
2. Jef Huisman
4. A link exists between global warming and the worldwide proliferation of harmful cyanobacterial blooms.

China? Yeah, China.

April 7, 2008

Blue-green algae in Lake Taihu, China.

Credit: Image courtesy of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

You know that green scum (click here) creeping across the surface of your local public water reservoir? Or maybe it's choking out a favorite fishing spot or livestock watering hole. It's probably cyanobacteria -- blue-green algae -- and, according to a paper in the April 4 issue of the journal Science, it relishes the weather extremes that accompany global warming....

The winds kept the bloom at the point where water is brought in for consumption.

August 1, 2014

Algae blooms (click here) have become a regular occurrence on Lake Erie in summer. But it’s not every year that a bloom leads to the shutdown of water supplies in an American or Canadian city.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured the top image, a natural-color view of an algae bloom in the west end of Lake Erie. The image of the coastal waters off of Ohio, Michigan, and southwestern Ontario was acquired at 2:50 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (1850 Universal Time) on August 3, 2014. Algae generally gives the water a milky green color.

The second image shows a closer view of the same area as observed on August 1 by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite. The OLI image includes a special blue wavelength band that allows scientists to adjust for the distortions caused by the atmosphere near the coast.

Gerrymandering.

August 3, 2014
By Robert Barnes
...But a judge in Tallahassee has blown the whistle, (click here) and thrown Florida politics into turmoil. Judge Terry Lewis found that two of the state’s 27 congressional districts were unconstitutional and wants a new congressional redistricting plan drawn in time for November’s election....

Gerrymandering was turned lose ten years ago in a conclusion by the Supreme Court as 'ungovernable.' In other words, politics is anarchy and there is no place for it within the US Constitution.

...241 F. Supp. 2d 478, affirmed. (click here)
Justice Scalia, joined by The Chief Justice, Justice O’Connor, and Justice Thomas, concluded that political gerrymandering claims are nonjusticiable because no judicially discernible and manageable standards for adjudicating such claims exist. They would therefore overrule Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U.S. 109, in which this Court held that political gerrymandering claims are justiciable, but could not agree upon a standard for assessing political gerrymandering claims. Pp. 4—37.

(a) Political gerrymanders existed in colonial times and continued through the framing. The Framers provided a remedy for the problem: the Constitution gives state legislatures the initial power to draw federal election districts, but authorizes Congress to “make or alter” those districts. U.S. Const., Art. I, §4. InBandemer, the Court held that the Equal Protection Clause also grants judges the power–and duty–to control that practice. Pp. 4—37

(b) Neither Art. I, §2 or §4, nor the Equal Protection Clause, provides a judicially enforceable limit on the political considerations that the States and Congress may take into account when districting. Pp. 7—37....

...(2) The Bandemer plurality’s standard–that a political gerrymandering claim can succeed only where the plaintiffs show “both intentional discrimination against an identifiable political group and an actual discriminatory effect on that group,”...

If Texas District 1 isn't a poster child, don't ask me what is.

Did I say ten years ago? Yeah, it was ten years ago. Interesting.

There are many gun supporters unwittingly sympathizing with these extremists. The public needs to be educated.

August 4, 2014

The sovereign citizen (click here) movement is considered the top threat for domestic terrorism, according to a survey of state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies.

Islamist extremists and militia/patriot groups round out the top three threats to communities in the United States considered most serious by 364 officers of 175 state, local, and tribal law enforcement entities, according to a survey conducted by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).

The survey - “Understanding Law Enforcement Intelligence Processes” - found that “52 percent of respondents agreed and 34 percent strongly agreed that sovereign citizens were a serious terrorist threat”as opposed to 39 percent of respondents who agreed and 28 percent who strongly agreed that Islamic extremists were the most serious threat.

A previous sample on terror threats taken in 2006-2007 found that sovereign citizens were the eighth-most serious threat to non-federal law enforcement. Islamic extremists led that survey’s threat index....

A loose grouping of American litigants, commentators, tax protesters and financial scheme promoters. They blend into the right wing politically and receive support through the political dogma of the Republican extremists. They have already proven to murder, yet, when those events become real and lives are taken and other lives effected the killers are denounced as having the same 'spirit' of great Americans that carry guns as a matter of self governance.

They rely on common law to state they actually care about justice. Their justice is at the muzzle of a gun.

The principles and rules of action, (click here) embodied in case law rather than legislative enactments, applicable to the government and protection of persons and property that derive their authority from the community customs and traditions that evolved over the centuries as interpreted by judicial tribunals.

What was the economic scheme of the Bush White House? Yes, there was a scheme and quiet possibly Paul Krugman was the first to pick up on it. Remember?

"Stave the Beast" 

Now, what is obstruction all about?

November 20, 2012

By Bruce Bartlett

...Although (click here) it is commonly believed that the Laffer curve – the idea that tax cuts pay for themselves – is the core Republican idea about tax policy, this is wrong. The true core idea is something called starve-the-beast – the idea that tax cuts will force cuts in spending precisely because they reduce revenue. But there are slight indications that some conservatives have awakened to the reality that not only does starve-the-beast not work, but it also leads to higher spending....

Why do I bring this up? Because the spin of the GOP is tax reform to put the burden back on the Middle Class. These sovereign citizens and their unwitting followers actually think a national sales tax OR 9-9-9 will bring the national deficit under control.

February 21, 2014

By Paul Krugman

O.K., the beast is starving. (click here)  Now what? That’s the question confronting Republicans. But they’re refusing to answer, or even to engage in any serious discussion about what to do.

For readers who don’t know what I’m talking about: ever since Reagan, the G.O.P. has been run by people who want a much smaller government. In the famous words of the activist Grover Norquist, conservatives want to get the government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”...

And other word for the sovereign citizen is ANARCHIST.

These groups and used for political fodder by FOX are ideologues without the means to pay even their lease on federal lands. I suppose if I were in debt to the federal government for fees in the six to seven figure range I'd find god, too. 

The country will recognize the rhetoic of the GOP and their minions such as Bundy if they begin to understand this aspect of 'freedom by a gun.' We are a country of laws and not men or women. The country has become so saturated with guns because of these bozos many households have guns to defend themselves because police can't respond fast enough. The country has been polluted with this political rhetoric and they call it liberty besides.

I'll tell you what liberty is. It is safe streets, safe neighbors and a good quality of life whereby in a capitalist based society people can earn money to pay the basics, for a vacation and savings for the future. 

Why is it Liberty is defined with a gun?

Why? A gun? A citizen has to afford the Liberty in order to enjoy it. That's Liberty? I don't think so.

Does the word FUN ever enter the vocabulary of the world anymore?

War is such a waste of time. This is an inner tube tire motorcycle. It floats. (He cleaned the bike by rinsing it in the water before dismantling it.) Ready for this? It was made in Russia. (clickhere)

The inventor should be marketing the darn thing with patents already secured. 

Rider Groups (click here)

I worry about feeding animal proteins to animals for consumption.

October 28, 2008

A 9-year study (click here) by the University of British Columbia has found that 90% of small fish caught in the world's oceans every year such as anchovies, sardines and mackerel are processed to make fishmeal....

Ever hear of Pasture Raised Chickens? See, feeding cattle animal protein didn't work out so well. These folks nearly apologize for killing the chickens at all which is somewhat of a clue to the outcome of the final meat product they sell to consumers.

High in Omega 3 -(145mg) Raised naturally on our clover pasture for 8 weeks. Whole or cut up, pieces and flash frozen....

...Our chickens (click here) are raised in small batches three times a year. We could raise more, but the meat quality and special attention they need would not be there. We grind our own feed from NON GMO corn that we raise ourselves on our family farm. NO antibiotics or hormones are ever used. No Soy in the feed also....

The question about what exactly a chicken needs is fairly easy. Does corn have protein at all, usually corn is thought to be connected with corn syrup and all the nasty calories that go with it.

...The protein in corn (click here) is approximately 55 to 60 percent escape or bypass protein. Escape protein is protein that is not fermented or degraded by the ruminal microorganisms, but is digested and absorbed by the animal in the small intestine. The remaining 40 to 45 percent of the protein in corn is rumen-degradable protein. Ruminal microorganisms require rumen-degradable protein for use in growth and protein synthesis....

The paragraph above comes from the North Dakota Extension Service and it discusses the use of corn for cattle in comparison to other grains. I guess there is still a part of North Dakota that isn't saturated with oil and cattle still live there. But, at any rate, Table One of this publication indicates a few abbreviations I want to iron out.

TDN % means "Total Digestive Nutrients" in percentage

CP % means Crude Protein in percent

Corn contains 90% TDN and 9.8% crude protein. The publication is amazing, it goes on to discuss all the other nutrients in corn as compared to other grains and at the bottom it even discusses the nutrient variability in corn at different states of maturity. But, the take away message is there is more than sufficient protein in corn for the production of healthy chickens for market.

Meeting the Nutritional Needs of Chickens (click here)

Chickens are production animals and so demand a nutrition-dense diet. Even if you are keeping chickens as pets, they still need plenty of nutrients to grow and lay eggs.

Feeding and Types of Chickens

What do chickens eat depends significantly on the types of chickens you are feeding, and whether you are raising chickens for eggs, or growing chickens for meat....

I thought this article would kind of round out the idea of the return to small family farms, urban farming and how to take back the 'healthy diet' for Americans, not just the 'easy to eat' sugar and carbohydrate diet that exists today. Diabetes is out of control and counting carbs with every meal, every day is the best way to control diabetes and stem the very dangerous effects it has on the human body.

Ever notice that those in politics opposing the existence of the UN, never oppose the existence of the WHO?

Nigeria is now reporting it's second case.

3 August 2014
By Oghogho Obayuwana, Chukwuma Muanya And Emeka Anuforo With Agency Reports

Abuja — "THE Ebola outbreak (click here) in the West African region remains uncontained with number of cases and deaths still increasing."

With these words, the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the weekend stressed that all the countries in the region remain at the risk of "importation" of the virus.

The organisation stressed that it had sent a team of experts to Lagos to work with the Federal and State Governments in putting in place necessary measures to contain the outbreak.

A statement from the body listed members of the team to include its regional and headquarters experts, made up of an epidemiologist and a case management specialist .

"With this assistance, WHO has since made available its guidelines and tools as well as use them to assist in training various categories of health workers on contact tracing, surveillance, laboratory diagnosis, Ebola case management, infection prevention and control and public health education using WHO Standard Operating Procedures, to support the country's efforts in containing further spread of Ebola virus," they noted...

The Rise of Cyanobacteria (Blue-Green Algae) in Freshwater Resources

• Use lawn fertilizers only where truly needed
• Prevent yard debris (e.g., leaves, grass clippings, etc.) from washing into storm drains
• Support local ordinances that require silt curtains for residential and commercial construction sites
• Plant and maintain vegetative buffer strips along shorelines of lakes, ponds and streams. Note: Native plants are much more effective at filtering runoff than the typical grass species found on residential lawns.
• Blue - Green algal toxins are microcystin, cylindrospermopsin, anatoxin, saxatoxin and the most common is microcystin.
• Yes, farms can be an issue, but, it is all due to overland flow (click here) also referred to as surface runoff.

Israel is moving back into Gaza. No surprise there. The tunnels were an excuse.

August 4, 2014
By Bill Cohen

...A few options (click here) for further military activity are being considered,and the IDF is currently building protective areas inside the Strip, a few hundred meters from the border with Israel, in preparation for the possibility that troops might be ordered to stay.

The officer added that Hamas suffered significant damage during the IDF operation and is interested in ending the war, “but not with zero achievements from its standpoint.” The coming days will determine how the fighting will end, he said....

There has to be some international understanding about this RENEWED occupation of Gaza. We all know what is coming next, settlements.

July 19, 2014
By Sam Sussman

Speaking bluntly (click here) in the past three weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has unequivocally ruled out a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a speech at Tel Aviv University on June 29, Netanyahu announced that any peace agreement would include Israeli military control of the West Bank “for a very long time.” Netanyahu repeated himself on July 11, saying at a Hebrew language press conference, “There cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan.”...

Abbas has been working to end deaths, but, Israeli and Palestinian. But, he gets absolutely nothing in return. The Palestinian Authority (Fatah) is mashed in an Israeli blender with "terrorists" and is given no control over the outcome of their own people.

...While the Second Intifada of 2000-04 cost the lives of 764 Israeli civilians, the avowedly non-violent Mahmoud Abbas has worked closely with Israeli security forces to combat Palestinian terrorism since he became President of the Palestinian Authority in 2004. Marginalized militant factions have succeeded in killing only 35 Israeli civilians in the West Bank in the past eight years. [Suffering should never be subject to comparative study, but 1,099 Palestinian civilians died during the Second Intifada, and 179 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli security forces in the West Bank since 2009]....

That is a remarkable change in outcomes, yet he has very few concessions from Israel and the Palestinians are still without borders or their own security forces. President Abbas leadership has worked and Israel is treating it as if nothing he has done matters.

...Campaigning in a suit–instead of the military uniform of Yasser Arafat– Abbas promised to implement George W. Bush’s Roadmap to Peace, which called for the Palestinian Authority to police militants in exchange for an Israeli end to settlement construction....

Netanyahu and his politics of attack, kill, destroy and 'settle' is the problem. He has completely turned his back on the process to peace of any previous administration. Supposed the Olmert administration was so very corrupt even the negotiations for peace with Palestine became tainted. That is the same 'black and white' strategy Netanyahu uses when he targets Hamas. According to Netanyahu Hamas is Palestine and Palestine is Hamas.

While Olmert was in office and negotiating in good faith with Palestine there was nothing but an unending barrage of legal charges. He was found not guilty of all until something finally suck in 2012 when he received a suspended sentence and a fine.

...In September 2012, (click here) Olmert was given a one-year suspended jail sentence and a 75,300-shekel fine (£11,800; $19,170) for breaching the public's trust in connection with his conduct as minister of trade and industry....

...Israel's attorney general decided in August 2009 to close a criminal investigation by police into Olmert's purchase of a Jerusalem property in 2004, in which he paid $325,000 (£162,500) below market value.

The investigation was closed due to lack of evidence....

There are political divisions in Israel. There are those that want a peace accord and an independent Palestine nation. Then there are those that resent any peace settlement and seek only to eliminate Palestine from within what they see as Israel's sovereign borders which includes all the land of Gaza and the West Bank.

Currently, Netanyahu is elected and he subscribes to occupation of all lands within the borders currently stated to be Palestine and Israel. He allows settlements within the West Bank and sees no reason to end them. He wants to eliminate the Gaza Strip from Palestinian lands and only sees Hamas as a terrorist organization that understands only the death of Israelis.

The recent violence was not caused by rockets coming from Gaza, it was spawned to create a greater hatred of Palestine. Remember Palestine is Hamas and Hamas is Palestine. Palestine is littered with all kinds of undesirables that need to be killed. In recent pleadings Netanyahu lied openly about Hamas/other terror organizations firing on schools and hospitals while UN representatives within those communities state upon investigation the bombs originated in Israel.

Israel under Netanyahu is systematically eliminating Palestine from the lands always promised in peace negotiations. Israel is progressively moving to genocide of these people and it needs to move to the world courts to end this atrocity and blatant disregard of international law.

Why this persistence to end any hopes of a Palestinian nation? Ask the Republican Diaspora what they prefer when they spend their monies in the USA and manipulate the 'politics of violence and invasion.' If the money and power brokers in the USA wanted an independent Palestinian nation, it would have already have happened. When indicting Netanyahu there will be no peace until his diaspora is indicted as well. 

St. Jude (Thaddeus)

The flame appearing at the top of his head is considered that of the Holy Spirit which all the apostles received.
 
'The Saint for the Hopeless and the Despaired'. St. Bridget of Sweden & St. Bernard had visions from God asking each to accept St. Jude as 'The Patron Saint of the Impossible'

Named himself as brother of James in his own writings. The names Thaddeus or Lebbeus in definition also indicates the brother of James. St. Jude was known by all those names. He was a full brother to James the Lesser who was stated to be a full cousin to Jesus, hence, St. Jude was not only one of the twelve he was also a full cousin of Jesus.

The 14th-century writer Nicephorus Callistus makes Jude the bridegroom at the wedding at Cana. A legend reports that St. Jude was born into a Jewish family in Paneas, a town in Galilee later rebuilt by the Romans and renamed Caesarea Philippi.


In all probability Jude spoke both Greek and Aramaic, like almost all of his contemporaries in that area, and was a farmer by trade. According to the legend, St. Jude was a son of Clopas and his mother Mary, a cousin of the Virgin Mary. Tradition has it that Jude's father, Clopas, was martyred because of his forthright and outspoken devotion to the risen Christ.

St. Jude asked the question of Jesus, after the Last Supper, why he would not manifest himself to the entire world and not just those that heard him. Jesus replied to Jude, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will keep and make our abode with him." (John 14:22-23) It indicated merit to the miracle and devotion to the Father and Son.

Jude was believed to have practiced his teaching in Mesopotamia and then joined Simon (Not Simon Peter) in Persia. It was there in they both were martyred for their teachings. Jude is known as the patron saint of "desperate causes."

There is mention two grandson of St. Jude by Eusebias. They were questioned by Emperor Domitian as they were of the royal house of David. Because they were poor men and sought a kingdom not of this world, Domitian did not consider them a threat and set them free.

Dr. Sylvia Earle, a woman pioneer, left the leadership of NOAA to bring this message to the world.(click title to entry - thank you)

Life demands we participate. I am at the Traverse City Film Festival and the films are fascinating and teach me more every time I come here.

Participate.

I have two more entries following this. One is about Earth's oceans through the eyes of a genius.

Not to disappoint, read about St. Jude.

Have a great evening, I know I am.