Western youth are more suscepible to influence than the regional faithful.

March 16, 2015

By Patrick Cockburn

Inside the 'Islamic State' - part two: (click here) Continuing his landmark series on life inside the Islamic State, Patrick Cockburn hears the story of a former Isis fighter who chose to desert rather than take part in the barbarity visited on the jihadis’ enemies

 

This is ethnic cleansing. The Shia have every right to fight these death squads and if Iran wants to assist it is understandable. If they don't fight for their lives in Iraq they will be forced to fight for their lives in Iran.

 

,,,He became conscious that if he stayed in Isis he would soon have to carry out an execution himself. “I don’t like Shia but when it comes to killing them I was shocked,” he says. 

He refused to execute some Sunni accused of working with Iraq’s mostly Shia government “or what they [Isis] call ‘the pagan government’,” he said. Surprisingly, he was not punished for this, but was told by his commander that he would be asked to carry out an execution later and, in the meantime, foreign jihadis would do the job. 

Hamza gives a fascinating insight into the lives led by Isis fighters. “I was paid 400,000 Iraqi dinars (£231) a month in addition to many privileges, including food, fuel, and more recently, access to the internet,” he says....

Part of the ritualistic initiation was to rape women of different faiths. Raping women due to their ethnicity and/or their religious affiliation is genocide. The women don't have to be dead to call it genocide. All they have to do is be pregnant with another ethnic's baby to eliminate the ethnicity over time from existing.

...“On the other hand, there were some Tunisian Muslim girls who came from Syria. Those Muslim girls were sleeping with some commanders under a marriage contract for a week only and then they were divorced and married to another one. I asked one of them how she had come to be in Syria and she answered that she had travelled first to Turkey and then across the Turkish-Syrian border.” The three British schoolgirls who likewise crossed into Syria may well find that they are similarly treated by Isis....

The members of Daesh were seduced by ideology and money. Once again is the poverty ranking of their members. The no longer suffered in poverty, they were elevated to a higher quality of life.

...When they took us to Raqqa, all the fighters became convinced that the boundary between Syria and Iraq is fake and we are all united under the rule of the Caliphate. Psychologically speaking, I was so relaxed and happy to go there because it was a nice feeling to destroy the borders between two governments and pass through them. This was really a great achievement.”...

The leadership in Daesh knows how to expose their soldiers to violence without alienating them. They know exactly what they are doing. Daily rituals of cultural status adds to the psychological stability of what is nothing short of an assassin.

...Asked if he had carried out any executions himself, Hamza said that he had not and explained why. “I was not ordered to do so because according to Isis rules, the trainee needs more than six months to be ready to carry out an execution. But this is not the only criterion. The trainee should also show additional skills in his religious education and military tactics as well as many other tests....

One of the revelations that have come out of hostage accounts is the regular faux beheadings they were exposed to. It is a method of training the hostage to tolerate without question their regular torture. Daesh provides enough regular trauma to the hostage until they become numb and passive to this activity.

When Daesh executes a person by beheading they don't fight back. They simply allow the torture for it to be over. When they are finally killed the hostages have no will of their own.

The reason "Jihad John" is always the one to kill them is so they are passive and not alert to any other reality that might startle them enough to fight back. The hostages don't know it is coming and if they do then they have already accepted their fate.

...It was shortly after he had refused to execute Sunni prisoners (resistance) that Hamza and other Isis volunteers were offered the 13 Yazidi girls for sex. (seduction back into the ranks) He says that the two events together shattered his idealistic enthusiasm for Isis and created doubts in his mind. He gives a compelling description of his mental turmoil at this time, thinking of “the executions, or more horribly the beheadings, as well as the raping of the non-Muslim girls. These scenes terrified me. I imagined myself being caught up in these shootings, executions, beheadings and raping, if I stayed where I was."... (The seduction didn't work with Hamza, so he deserted the ranks of Daesh. He is still worried now about being discovered and killed himself. To leave the ranks of Daesh is peril, but, Hamza valued the after life and knew he could not face death as prescribed by a faux faith in Islam.")

The passive-aggressive methodology is everywhere. Isn't that the black flag in the museum? First Daesh takes possession and then uses genocide to eliminate any cultural evidence. Destroying a culture without any killings is also genocide. 

Hamza stated he refused to execute Sunnis. Daesh isn't about religion, it is about power. It doesn't care the ethnicity or the faith, if Daesh is not accepted as the governing authority the people are executed. All faiths in the region and all ethnicities are in danger. Daesh is not about religion, it is about power.

The methodologies are entirely passive-aggressive leading to genocide. The people entrenched in this control might rise up to fight for themselves if they were alarmed enough to realize their ultimate faith and spiritual death.

If Daesh has to maintain a quietness about the truth of their existence in order for the people to remain calm, it can be undone. 

Westerners have comfort in their lives and religion while important isn't as intensely present in their lives. If Westerners are being handed 'the real Islam' and they are made to feel guilty regarding their faith, they are more susceptible than others already in the region. 

Proof.

Hamza stated women recruited into Daesh are first placed with a Commander in marriage. Then after a few weeks are divorced and placed with others. The girls coming from Europe are being duped with STATUS of a "Commander" (They are special.) and this is simply another method of building an empire through genocide. The young people they can recruit the sooner Europe will no longer exist as it does now. Daesh, while dedicated to forming a caliphate, are not in any hurry. Daesh realizes a larger military is needed to march into other lands.

T

March 16, 2015
By Joseph Serna

10-year LAPD officer (click here) and a second person were charged by federal prosecutors Monday with trying to smuggle a Mexican citizen into the United States in the trunk of a car at the Otay Mesa border crossing.

Officer Carlos Curiel Quezada Jr., 34, and Angelica Godinez, 31, were stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers Saturday evening when they drove a white 2014 Nissan Juke through the border crossing.

• @larrydarrell That's right Larry. He is the designated passenger that would allow the office to use the carpool lane in the event he did not have another passenger. Don't have one? Get one! As an Englishman dressed as a Frenchman once said, "...its very nice!" If you...
  Arjaay
  at 7:35 AM March 17, 2015

The pair showed their passports and said they were headed to Mission Hills, according to the federal charging document. But when the car was inspected by a device that acts like an X-ray machine at a secondary inspection point, authorities noticed something unusual about the trunk....

Pam has moved south of New Zealand

Earth (click here)

In the image below Pam can be noted at 11 o'clock. It remains an intact circulation center (It has an 'eye.') as it moves toward Antarctica.


This is a water vapor image of Antarctica.
Date and time can be noted in the caption in the black strip across the bottom of the satellite.

Get the picture yet?

The Earth's troposphere is divided into circulation regions based in latitudes. 

The Hadley cell, named after George Hadley, is a tropical atmospheric circulation that is defined by the average over longitude, which features rising motion near the equator, poleward flow 10–15 kilometers above the surface, descending motion in the subtropics, and equatorward flow near the surface.

The USA is located in the latitudes of the Mid-latitude Cells. The air in these cells moves from west to east as noted in the picture to the left.

In a more normal troposphere the jet stream would be moving the air mass around the Earth. However, with Spring on the way and realizing only the Coriolis Effect as the sincere force moving air masses now with the Climate Crisis upon us, there is a stalled circulation cell that has settled over the USA. This circulation cell is bringing hot equatorial air to a higher latitude.

 March 17, 2015
1130.18z
UNISYS Water Vapor North and West Hemisphere Satellite Image (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)

It is really quite hot, isn't it?

 
 Wind Map (click here)

The wind map shows air movement from the northern boundary of the circulation cell to the southern boundary of the circulation cell. It is the mixing of the equatorial heat and arctic air that is at all keeping the temperature unseasonably high.

 
This is NOAA's 6-10 temperature outlook. 

Tom Cotton hates Barak Obama. I just does and it is because of his skin color.

August 27, 2013
By Emma Roller

Tom Cotton: Race relations would improve "If we stopped emphasizing race in our public lives." 

Interpretation: Shut up and it will go away.

Arkansas Senate candidate Rep. Tom Cotton (click here) has earned some flack for his Harvard Crimson columns, in which he at turns compares a golf cup to battle, calls libertarians "sanctimonious," brushes off feminism, and says affirmative action is "superficial" diversity. A new trawl through the archives shows Cotton wrote a review for the Harvard Salient, the university's conservative political journal, of America in Black and White by Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom. The thesis of the book seems to be that Democrats refuse to accept how much better life is for black people today (read: in the late '90s) than in the pre-war era....

...Common sense, however, has never been the forte of race-hustling charlatans like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. Unfortunately, it also seems lost on supposedly educated people like Roger Wilkins, Lani Guinier, and Derek Bell. They and other leaders of the civil-rights establishment—one of those many groups that lives off the capital of a noble heritage—blithely ignore all data on racial attitudes in America, as well as all trends of behavior that prove the sincerity of those attitudes. They state that racism is still "as virulent and as obvious as weeds in a garden," racism is "worse today than it was in the '60s," and that "white men are the most lying creatures on the face of the earth."...

FOX News has been running a campaign against Reverend Sharpton. I am sure it makes Mr. Cotton very happy.

FOX believes CNN came in second in ratings because of their news broadcast. As long as FOX News keeps up the attacks against Sharpton the ratings at MSNBC will tank.

Ya know it is a Harvard thing. Texas' Senator Cruz and now Alabama's Cotton; it is beginning to look like one heck of a cabinet line up, doesn't it? I betcha Cotton has dreams of being Secretary of State. 

Yes, sir. A US cabinet of juveniles. That is exactly what the world needs, isn't it?

Is there such a thing as too qualified that scares US Senators for their own misdeeds?

Loretta Lynch's nomination is being held up due to racism. Right wing racism. They want her to remove her nomination . 

The Senate has been voting on other nominations without any trouble at all and they have been sailing through. 

Majority Leader McConnell has chosen to hold up any changes to the human traffiking law because it is a soft target. So as long as McConnell has a soft target and children are waiting in the balance, why not connect US Attorney Lynch's nomination to it as well.

This is nothing but old fashioned racism by the most esteemed of any officials in the entire world, the exact same ones that signed a letter to the Leaders of Islamic Republic(an) of Iran. Those same authors are attempting to force the US Attorney to pull her name from nomination. There is no other reason. The US Senate has been voting on other nominations since last week.

Climate Stress is everywhere.

From left, Kirsten Sedlick, Daniel Connor, Ashley Cook and Brennan Slavik tube-feed the rescued sea lion pups at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, Monday, March 2, 2015, in Laguna Beach, Calif. Since January, more than 1,100 starving and sickly sea lion pups have washed up along California’s coast. Rescue centers have taken in about 800 but are stretched thin by the demand. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

March 16, 2015
By Gillian Flaccus

The starving sea lion pup (click here) was so tiny that it looked like a rock at the base of the seaside cliff until it struggled to raise its head as humans approached.

It bleated weakly as volunteer Brennan Slavik eased it into a crate for transport to a rescue center, where it peered from a child's playpen with woeful eyes made enormous by an emaciated frame.

At almost a year, the pup weighed just 23 pounds — a third of what it should — and staff quietly took it to a private room, euthanized it and moved on.

It's a scenario playing out daily in California this year as rescue centers struggle to keep up with hundreds of sick and starving sea lion pups washing up along the coast. More than 1,650 pups have been rescued since January from beaches, but also from inside public restrooms, behind buildings and along railroad tracks....

The fisheries have probably collapsed again

California needs to build desalination plants. It has no other choice. This is not going to resolve. This past year was the closest California has come to recovering at all from drought, but, it has been to long. California has to address returning water into their environment. Farmers and water evaporation will begin to build in the atmospheric air mass over California. Water vapor has to exist in California again. The day there is dew on the lawns in southern California will be the day California can believe they are recovered from severe drought.

The USA has to assist California with the building of desalination plants. There is no other choice and the USA has to be sure the sixth largest economy in the world remains intact.

California needs to work day and night over the next year establishing desalination plants. One year is not long and the state needs multiple desalination plants.

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY, no different than Superstorm Sandy.

March 16, 2015
By Jason Samenow

As California’s water supply is steadily dwindling, (click here) it is piling up warm weather records at a feverish pace. Disturbingly, the weather pattern responsible for this hot, dry pattern shows no signs of relenting as scientists gain more clues into what’s causing it.
In a must-read Op-Ed published in the LA Times last Thursday, NASA’s Jay Famiglietti called for immediate water rationing in laying out several depressing facts about the state of water affairs in California, due to the drought:

- Groundwater and snowpack levels are at all-time lows

- Water stored in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins was 34 million acre-feet below normal in 2014

- Water stored in the Sacrmento and San Joaquin river basins was 34 million acre-feet below normal in 2014

- It has lost about 12 million acre-feet of total water annually since 2011

- It has about one year of water supply remaining in it's reservoirs

Saudi Arabia (click here) has utilized desalination plants for a long time. They have the largest in the world. Governor Brown needs to travel to Saudi Arabia to tour the facility there to realize how best this science can serve California.

He needs to do that soon. The state legislature has to treat this as an emergency and immediately pass legislation to begin the construction. There are a lot of people in California relying on the government to help them. It is time to get started. Any objections have to be set aside. 

DO NOT BUILD ANY OF THEM OVER A FAULT!!!!!

Robert Redford, Kevin Spacey, Edward Norton, (click here) and other actors narrate a series of videos released Monday by Conservation International designed to send a blunt message about humans’ impact on the planet: “Nature doesn’t need people. People need nature.”

Designed by advertising legend Lee Clow, who cocreated Apple’s seminal "1984" commercial, the Nature Is Speaking videos debuted Monday morning at the opening of the SXSW Eco conference. The initial six videos are gorgeous montages of oceans, forests, and deserts delivered alongside a message that isn’t so pretty.

The videos will be shown on Virgin America flights, Starwood Resorts will feature them on its hotel television network, and Pearl Jam will run the series at concerts, as will the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Nature Is Speaking also will be featured at the United Nations climate change conference in Lima, Peru, in December.

Jeb Bush's view of the world is based in Republican rhetoric. Nothing new. He is as extreme as anyone stating they are a candidate.

Jeb Bush holds two standards of engagement. There was a house party thrown for him in New Hampshire. He was asked a question by a Blogger and refused to answer it. He stated he would get to the media's questions later. And indeed he did. He moved outside the house and out to the road at the end of his time with the party.

- When he engaged the media his favorite statement was "I don't know." His body language reflected an interested person in the politics of the day and not a candidate.

- When he was in the house he engaged every question and never once said, "I don't know as the answer to the entire question." His answers at the house party were that of Republican rhetoric. 

This was his replies inside the house:

- He wants to re-engage in war. He classifies war as the country's foreign policy. He wants Congress to re-engage war immediately and the Senate should pass their legislation with a Super Majority of 60 votes to prove the USA democracy works. Then take the bill to the President. He states the Obama Administration is not good for America, is entrenched and and practices disengagement.

He states, " Our friends don't believe America is reliable. Name a country where the American relationship is better today than when Obama came into office. Possibly Iran, Cuba and I don't know about North Korea. But, American policy is not good for Canada, Egypt, Turkey and the Middle East in general." He didn't believe NATO was engaged and questioned whether NATO was a viable treaty, because, Russia is moving so aggressively. 

He stated the negotiations with Iran are flatly wrong. He believes the USA is negotiating down. I am not sure what that means, but, I suppose there have been concessions for Iran's openness and willingness to negotiate and provide access to Iran's facilities. He doesn't think any of that should have occurred.

"Our friends need to know we have their back and our enemies should fear us."

- This is a new one regarding the USA Debt. Not deficit, but, debt.

He believes the reason the current national debt is not being addressed because the interest rates from The Fed are zero, so why would anyone do something about the national debt. The debt doubled under President Obama and when the percentage rates return everyone will be sorry.

-  Bush states reauthorizing of the K-12 law (Currently called "Race to the Top," which replaced "No Child Left Behind," will be an opportunity to remove the federal government from education. "Common Core" is up to the people and local control is better than federal engagement. Bush has turned away from his own educational program

He did say a proverbial school district needs a definition by federal law.

- Jeb Bush sees his energy policy the same as Bush/Cheney. Natural Gas is the fuel of choice.

He believes the only role the federal government has is more research, such as horizontal drilling. 

Other than that the public should pick through supply and demand to decide the energy works best. He stated the free market is far better than anything the government can do. 

"I don't think industrial planners are neceseary to do this. Governments power should be limited in the energy market..

Unlike "W" he doesn't point to China as a problem with greenhouse gases, but, points to Europe as never reducing greenhouse gases.

- Bush wants to repeal Obamacare, but would take elements of it and provide bipartisan support for a different law. He stated the definition of pre-existing condition is obtuse and needs to be looked at.

Bush sees reduction in utilization by making people healthier. Pre-Obamacare was a model based in treating sickness, but, there should be prevention of illness for every American. He likes managed care. The best option is for people to keep their money and manage their medical expenses themselves (That is known as a health care savings account.) 

Bush wants tort reform to reduce lawsuits. He state the uncertainty of a lawsuit creates defensive medicine. He states his wrist watch is not high tech, but, according to what he understands the new devices can monitor an American's health and it can send messages to the doctor if anything goes wrong.  

- Immigration

He states Americans are afraid of Islamoterrorism because during the Obama Administration the US border became more porous at any other time in the USA. 

He was disappointed in Congress and should have prioritized the border spending. The border can be managed through the US Budget with prioritized spending. There needs to be more money for funding a strategy against fraud.

He states 40% of illegal immigrants come to the USA with an illegal visa. He says 80% of legal immigrants come through family petitioning.

"We don't have an immigration system that is strategic. We have a noble immigration system, but, not a strategic law. The immigration law for the USA should be more or less like a football draft choice."

He states the Congression should have fully funded Homeland Security even though President Obama wrote an illegal Executive Order. He didn't think President Obama has the power to write such an order, but, he also thinks the Texas judge was also outside his authority in denying the order. He was troubled a President could allow 3 million people be provided for with an Executive Order. 

He wants the impact of policy to be reflected in the federal budget. There needs to be a return to annual budgets and not continuing resolutions. He said Congress was still utilizing continuing resolutions for the US federal funding. He wants Republicans to hold on to the majority because Republicans lead best. 

Jeb Bush wants a federal balanced budget amendment. He sees no problem with funding the military with a balanced budget. "All the states have balanced budget laws so the federal government should as well." 

"The Obama economy based in rebuilding the Middle Class is a failure." The USA has to grown at 4 percent.

If the economy grew at 4% per year, (click here) we would create 10 million additional jobs during the next decade, returning the economy to full employment through growth alone, with no rise in government spending.

The regulatory system has to be updated to the 21st generation. The energy revolution was important to the 4% growth. After 10 years of 4% growth the USA would have additional jobs the size of Germany. The 4% growth would supply the US Treasury with an additional $10 billion a year. That is what he said. It doesn't make sense.

He hold The Federal Reserve for many of the problems the USA faces economically. He says there are many accounting problems at the Federal Reserve. 

He is worried about the Baby Boomers coming into retirement. Basically, he is stating the entitlements have to be addressed. In the same breath he says spending has to be  far less with the national debt benefiting by those spending cuts.

Small business owners demand full repeal of the Affordable care act. He finds the ACE flawed to the core, but, understands why a few people benefit by keeping their children on their policies until they are 26 years old. Raising the minimum wage at the federal level would reduce job growth. When asked then why a minimum wage law at all? He didn't reply.

- Veterans
The one African American at the house party asked about Bush's position on Veteran's Affairs. He stated there was strong bipartisan support Veterans Reform because both John McCain and Bernie Sanders support it. However, the reforms of the VA system is only partial for the health challenges our Veterans face. There is long term disability coming from the wars in Iraq and ? Iran ? and the law passed last year was a voucher system. The veterans taking advantage of the VA hospitals was very small compared to the number that requires care. The sequester hurt the VA system a great deal. The USA Veterans need private hospital care no different than anyone else in the USA. 

When asked about alternative energies his only point of view was the point to developing ethanol production in the USA was to introduce it in small increments, not as much as is being marketed today.

New Zealand radar. (click here) 

There are three cyclones visible. Pam is on the east coast of New Zealand. Tides are high, some evacuation in anticipated flooding, but, most of the country is fine at this point. Pam is expected to continue it's path off shore with diminishing effects onshore.

The cyclone Ola is at Australia's northeast coast.

It appears the system off the southern coast of Australia is a tropical depression without a label.
  
March 15, 2015
By Georgina Mitchell
 
..."It will be a long time (click here) until this place is back to normal," Mr Ang posted on Twitter.
While the worst of the storm lasted for just twelve hours, the cyclone has left a lasting mark on the people and infrastructure of Vanuatu, Mr Ang told Fairfax Media while he queued for petrol on the Kumul Highway.
"It was quite scary," he said. "Where we were, we didn't even get the worst of it.
"It sounded like a velociraptor shrieking and all we sort of saw was black, things [were] just banging. There's devastation everywhere... we got hit hard, but drive into town and everyone's been hit so much harder," Mr Ang said....

The UK must install a filter for a new reactor. Any containment leak would devastate the area.

Any containment leak would effect fisheries as well. Installing a filter will not stop the construction or use of the new reactor. The cost is not prohibitive.

March 16, 2015
By Mark Leftly

...Mr Gundersen told The Independent that he is concerned by designs for three reactors proposed for a new civil nuclear plant in Cumbria. A nuclear engineering graduate by background, Mr Gunderson believes that the AP1000, designed by the US-based giant Westinghouse, is susceptible to leaks. The reactor has been selected for the proposed £10bn Moorside plant, a Toshiba-GDF Suez joint venture that will power six million homes. It is going through an approval process with the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR).


Mr Gundersen, who visited the Sellafield nuclear facility in Cumbria last week, warned that any leak would be like “Chernobyl on steroids”, referring to the 1986 nuclear disaster that killed 28 workers within four months. He passed on some of these fears to MPs at an event in Parliament during his visit to the UK.

He said: “Evacuation of Moorside would have to be up to 50 miles. You could put a filter on the top of the AP1000 to trap the gases – that would cost about $100m, which is small potatoes.

“If this leaks it would be a leak worse than the one at Fukushima. Historically, there have been 66 containment leaks around the world.”...

There are international standards. I might mention the climate has effected the UK and Europe's weather. This region of the world has experienced extremely severe weather including hurricanes, record rainfall, flooding and icing and an occasional tornado. There are many reasons the safety of a filter to any reactor is more important than ever before.

2.16. In operational states (click here) and in accident conditions, the containment structures contribute to the protection of plant personnel and the public from undue exposure due to direct radiation from radioactive material contained thin the containment and containment systems. Dose limits and dose constraints as well as the application of the ‘as low as reasonably achievable principle (for the optimization of radiation protection) should be included in the design basis of the structures [1,9, 10]. The composition and thickness of the concrete, steel and other structural materials should be such as to ensure that the dose limits and dose constraint for operators and the public are not exceeded in operational states or in the accident conditions that are considered in the design.

Every possible means are to be employed to protect the operators and the public from any leaks. The filter supplies a safeguard that is not met by design of the reactor alone. There is every reason to believe if the UK does not adopt the standard for their new reactors they will be in violation of these standards.

The poverty of the USA is not local, it is global.

Is there any other reason why the global economy is lagging?

The picture shows consumers. To realize the ridiculous nature of current economy, understand most of those consumers cannot afford a living yet being able to indulge in shopping for higher aesthetics of living.

Walking past a franchised store has become easier and easier the longer the consumer is left without disposable income. 

March 15, 2015

...Retailers (click here) have come under fire after investigations by The Independent revealed that not a single high street retail chain has guaranteed staff the living wage. 

Last week National Express became the first transport company to become an accredited UK-wide living-wage employer, joining 1,200 firms in paying the independently set hourly rate of £7.85, or £9.15 in London. The wage is linked to the cost of living and is set with the aim of ensuring a decent minimum standard of living.

Retailers are conspicuous by their absence from the list, with even “ethically” branded chains such as John Lewis and the Co-operative not signed up. Citizens UK, the charity that launched the living wage campaign and set up the Living Wage Foundation (click here), said retailers employed the biggest group of low-paid staff and needed to consider their social responsibilities. Neil Jameson, director of Citizens UK, said: “Not a single high street retailer has accredited as a Living Wage employer, despite posting huge profits, whilst we, the taxpayers, help top up the wages of their low-paid staff through in-work tax credits. It’s a perverse situation when a supermarket worker, despite having a staff discount, can’t afford to shop in the store they work in because of poverty pay, and a full-time member of staff relies on benefits to make ends meet....

Communist Paranoia is real.

It is necessary to speculate on the location of President Putin. It is the understanding he has been with his long time companion while giving birth to their third child. I hope the baby and mother are doing well.

Sunday, March 15, 2015
By Adam Withnall

Vladimir Putin (click here) has said Russia was so fearful of attack at the height of the Ukraine crisis that it was preparing to arm its nuclear weapons, in extraordinary claims aired on state TV on Sunday night.

Amid ongoing Russian media speculation that the President was watching the Crimea documentary from his sickbed, Mr Putin’s full interview with Rossiya One provided new insight into his country’s involvement in the annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.
In the documentary, which marks a year since the referendum that saw Russia take control of Crimea, Mr Putin described the Ukrainian revolution to oust Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 as an armed coup “masterminded by our American friends”....

This is the problem. The global community runs on economic vitality. When a country the size of Russia withdraws areas of the world from economic vitality from the entire community. Whether people live with a government that is a democracy, communism, a theocracy or socialism they still need a way to produce a livelihood.

IMFEROPOL, Crimea — The McDonald's in the coastal city of Yalta (click here) used to be one of the busiest restaurants on the waterfront. It now stands closed "due to circumstances beyond our control," according to a chewed-up note on the door. While the Golden Arches stay dark, Russian flags top nearby buildings.

Celebrations took take place in Crimea on Monday to celebrate the one-year anniversary of a disputed referendum to join Russia after Moscow's military entered the Ukrainian peninsula. But the festivities in the peninsula's capital of Simferopol did little to hide the isolation that has resulted from the controversial annexation and international sanctions which followed.

McDonald's was not the only international company to withdraw from Crimea: many others followed, including PayPal, Amazon, and even Russian banks.

Once a thriving resort zone, Crimea now stands separated from the rest of the world: international cell phones do not work, and neither do credit cards.... 

This economic strife is not alone in the possessions of Russia.  Abkhazia and South Ossetia are struggling, too. 

Quality of life is important for the happiness of people and an optimistic view of the world encompassing not only economies, but, also the achievement of peace. 

Some of the down turn in Crimea is not unusual until the region stabilizes and it develops a new clientele. But, the other possessions of Russia should have been rehabilitated by now and showing an increase in quality of life. 

The answer to Abkhazia by Russia is to establish a military presence as a method to develop an economy.

2010 (click here) - Moscow deploys S-300 anti-aircraft missiles in Abkhazia after a visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

After the 2008 conflict, (click here) Moscow declared that it would formally recognise the independence of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia's allies Nicaragua and Venezuela followed suit, as did a number of small Pacific island states.
In October 2008, Russia pulled its troops back to the Abkhaz-Georgian border, but stationed a large force in the breakaway republic, with the agreement of the Abkhaz government.
The next year, Moscow also vetoed an extension of the UN peacekeeping mission, and signed a five-year agreement with Abkhazia to take formal control of its frontiers with Georgia proper....

There isn't going to be a return to the Western economy that helped bring an economy to this region. 

August 15, 2013

...South Ossetia, (click here) by contrast, remains totally dependent on Russian subsidies to rebuild infrastructure and industrial capacity destroyed during the August 2008 war with Georgia. That dependence has fueled an ongoing debate as to whether the Republic of South Ossetia should join the Russian Federation, whether as a separate federation subject or through unification with the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania....

"Morning Papers" 

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

The law caught (click here) up with Amy Rodriguez, the accused rooster feed thief of Jim Wells County.

"Good Night, Moon"

This is actually a picture of a daytime crescent moon.

Waning Crescent 

24.6 days old

24.8 percent illumination

The Moon today (click here) is in a Waning Crescent phase. In this phase the Moon’s illumination in growing smaller each day until the New Moon. During this phase the Moon is getting closer to the Sun as viewed from Earth and the night side of the Moon is facing the Earth with only a small edge of the Moon being illuminated. This phase is best viewed an hour or 2 before the sunrise and can be quite beautiful if you're willing to get up early. It can also be a great time to see the features of the Moon's surface. Along the edge where the illuminated portion meets the dark side, the craters and mountains cast long shadows making them easier to observe with a telescope or binoculars.

Did anyone read it? It is important to read it.

The 47 Republicans did not only write to all the Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, they lied. That is where this letter falls into a category all by itself. Is this a citizen's letter conveniently using Congressional stationary or is this an actual function of the US Senate?

I think that is very important to decide about the brevity of THE ACT of writing this letter. This won't go away. It is part of history now. This letter has to be put into  legal context and ACTED ON. 

There has to be a determination as to whether this action by 47 US Republicans was more than simply a political mistake as some like to call it, or was it something more? I think it is something far more than most want to call it.

If this is a political stunt, then there is a violation of law that has occurred. Political rants on US Senate stationary? Really?

One of the reasons this letter will be causing the USA to lose esteem in an international theater is because it is a deception as well as a mistake.

The words state, "...under our Constitution, while the President negotiates international agreements, Congress plays the significant role of ratification...."

All International agreements are not ratified by the US Senate. That is a lie. It goes on from there...

In the case of a treaty the Senate must ratify it by two-thirds vote. That is true, however, all international agreements are not ratified by the US Senate, yet the signators of the letter puts this fact in regard to treaties immediately after a frank lie. It is an obvious contextual lie that is meant to leverage power over talks with Iran.

Then there is this verbiage about a Congressional-Executive Agreement. 

What is a So-Called Congressional-Executive Agreement? Where does that come from in the US Constitution? There is no such thing. The branches of government are separate and autonomous and act as checks and balances to the power of the USA. What the heck is that? It doesn't exist.

Three fifths vote of the Senate? A treaty or any international document to pass through both the House and the Senate requires  a three-fourth's vote. What is McConnell doing signing a document that is completely inaccurate? Was this some kind of joke? A joke on Senate stationary? 

A filibuster needs a two-thirds majority and that is simply by the rules of the Senate. It has nothing to do with the US Constitution.

The only place a two-thirds majority is mandated is when passing an Amendment to the USA Constitution. Is Tom Cotton stating the Iranian document is going to be an amendment to the USA Constitution? What foreign authority is going to understand this letter and quite frankly is going to care about procedural issues of the USA Constitution?

Article V
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state (in this case, state means one of the thirteen original states), without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate
 
Then Cotton and the other 46 signators of the letter start this school room instruction of how the Senate is in office for six years and the President is 4 years. Huh? Why would Iran give a damn about that? 

What Cotton and the rest of the signing Republicans go on to state is the talks of P5+1 doesn't matter a rat's ass. 

Excuse me? There are five other countries involved in the talks with Iran. The talks take up time and money to be conducted. That time and money to all the countries involved, including Iran, is an investment in the future. THE FUTURE. 

Tom Cotton and his signators have done something really terrible in addressing a foreign power without including what the definition of leadership means in regard to "Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Just any leader? The leader of the Iranian Girl Scouts will do? 

This entire venture by 47 Republicans cannot and should not be swept under any carpet. It is a document on Senate stationary addressed to Leaders of a foreign power discussing a delicate issue that will create a balance or imbalance of power in the Middle East. This is not a minor issue.

P5 + 1 are acting on the enforcement of the UN Treaty on Non-Proliferation. The USA is a member of the UN, a signator to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the responsibility of the US Senate is over. OVER! The Executive Branch has the responsibility of carrying out the business of the country. That is what President Obama and Secretary Kerry is conducting. They are not asking pretty please to enforce the UN Treaty, they are taking on the responsibility of the USA in it's status as a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council. There is absolutely no role for the US Senate in this matter. The ONLY role the legislature will have is if the President asks for sanctions by the USA as a unilateral action. 

I also see no reason why President Obama or Secretary Kerry has to explain reality and/or how to interpret the US Constitution, the UN Charter or the Non-Proliferation Treaty. There is no reason for the Executive Branch to be involved with the US Senate at all regarding the talks with Iran. When the President comes to the people with an agreement, then and only then can the USA decide about unilateral actions in addition to the UN agreement.

Got that!

The US Senate has already done it's work when it became a member to the UN and signator to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

Given that reality, what the hell is the letter for except to use official stationary of the US Senate to leverage personal and party politics in an international venue?

It is the responsibility of the Senate Democrats to sort through the ramifications of this letter and bring ethical charges at the very least. Quite frankly, the 47 Republicans wrote a personal view of the world which excluded allies, the United Nations, the Non-Proliferation Treaty or any number of other countries on a Senate letterhead. This has to be litigated. There are serious issues here and there can be no precedent tolerated regarding any of their actions.

Today, because of this letter, the entire world is looking curiously at the USA wondering if they have to understand the US Constitution and it's interpretation to discern whether or not this is a coup government.

There is no excuse for Mr. Cotton and the others. They range in their expertise from months in the US Senate to decades. This is nonsense. A freshman Senator is the tail waging the dog and expects to get away with it? 

This entire episode needs to be addressed through laws and protocols. It is my estimation this letter is a violation to the UN Non-proliferation Treaty as well as a violation in US laws and ethics.

The Letter