I found this notice from Google when I opened the blog a short time ago.

European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent.
As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies.
You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. Learn more about this notice and your responsibilities.

So, my take is that Europeans want to read the blog but can't because it lacks a warning. Since I don't know anything about international laws or how they impact American blogs I don't have a problem if there is a notice on the blog.

Welcome, all. 

PS: If anyone finds this notice unnecessary or wrongly put in place my email is there. 

What does a man do before he carries out a murderous rampage?

July 27, 2015
By AP

LAFAYETTE, La. — The stranger clenched his fists (click here) and shook his head, recounting a time when he tried and failed to beat a cat to death with a steel rod. His audience, two women lunching at a Lafayette bistro on a Saturday afternoon, sat across from him, shocked and silent. The man in a Hawaiian-print shirt had pulled a chair up to their table minutes earlier. He stroked their dogs and started to ramble: People spend too much money on their pets. There should be a cheaper way to euthanize an animal. The man said he once took in a stray cat and it got sick, so he bashed its head with the rod but failed to kill it.
“He was hurt that the cat lived,” recalled Bonnie Barbier, who listened in horror to the bluster for 30 minutes. “It was this twisted sense that he was doing the right thing.”
Days later, John Russell Houser’s photograph flashed onto television screens across America as the man who opened fire in a Louisiana movie theater....

There have been significant earthquake activity in Oklahoma today.

July 27, 2015
By Staff from wire reports

The U.S. Geological Survey (click here) gave a 4.5 magnitude designation to an earthquake felt around the Tulsa area Monday afternoon.

According to the USGS, the temblor was recorded at 1:12 p.m. with an epicenter near Crescent in Logan County.

The USGS also had recorded two 3.9 magnitude and a 4.0 magnitude earthquake since Saturday....

This has been all day. USGS (click here) 

There is also movement along the Caribbean Plate as well. There is several. It looks fairly obvious to me with movement within the North American plate enough tension has worked up in the Caribbean plate.

The Oklahoma earthquakes are unrelated to techtonic movement of the plates.

April 21, 2015
CUSHING, Okla. – In recent years, (click here) earthquakes have become a common occurrence for many residents across Oklahoma.

20 years ago, experts say earthquakes in the Sooner State were few and far between.
Now, it is common for the Oklahoma Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey to record at least one small quake a day across the state.
For months, many residents and business owners have been wondering what is behind the increased activity....

Oklahoma is on the North American craton. I worry about the people in Oklahoma and Texas. They have fracked that land for decades and this is the result. The petroleum industry recently put this commercial out that fracking has a long history of success and it is safe. That is a blatant lie. Success, sure, they got stuff out of the ground. Safe, ain't no way.

I am waiting for Oklahoma to become one big quick sand pit. It is probably happening, but, no one hears about it. It is a matter of when not if.
 This graphic shows (click here) the thickness (in kilometers) of the North American lithosphere. The blue area is about 250 km thick and composed of a 3-billion-year old craton underlain by younger lithosphere deposited as ocean floor subducted under the continent within the past billion years. The green, yellow and red areas are younger and thinner continental lithosphere added around the margins of the original craton, also by subducting sea floor. The thick broken line indicates the borders of the stable part of the continent.
Credit: Barbara Romanowicz and Huaiyu Yuan, UC Berkeley 

Delta has it goin' on. Wow.

Those Silver, Gold and Platinum folks are getting to be to much for Delta. Delta is probably running out of first class seats. So, the executives figured out a way to sell more seats per jet and they even milk $300 or so from the elite passenger. Amazing.

Only in America can a person be a platinum customer and have to still pay $300 for a flight seat. 

July 27, 2015
By Casey Smith

Soon, Delta (click here) will allow its most elite passengers to drop another few hundred dollars and upgrade their commercial flight reservations to a seat on a private jet.

According to Bloomberg Business, the option of paying an additional $300 to $800 to upgrade to a seat on a private jet will be available to the air carrier's most valuable "Diamond Medallion" members....

The Washington Post sorted through the facts. I also believe Hillary Clinton is unaware of these facts as well.

There are inaccuracies in the reporting and I appreciate the Washington Post in coming to the forefront to help clear it up. I also believe Hillary Clinton is unaware of many of these details.

The political machine of the right wing is simply looking for something that actually will result in significant damage to Hillary Clinton. So, this is the type of mess that is created. It ultimately has to be the Attorney General that brings any information forward. Until the Attorney General has sifted through this there is no real fact. Whoever brought this forward probably did the former Secretary a great favor. Then again, I don't know; even when President Obama brought his long form birth certificate to the public it didn't do a darn thing. 

July 27, 2015
By Erik Wemple

...The lede of the story, (click here) published online last Thursday night, now states, “Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open an investigation into whether sensitive government information was mishandled in connection with the personal email account Hillary Rodham Clinton used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday.”

In deference to Baquet — and as pointed out by Sullivan — the Times was not the only outlet to get confirmation that a criminal referral was in the works. And staffers told Sullivan that this was no one-source wonder. Matt Purdy, the story’s direct editor, noted that the original piece rested on “multiple, reliable, highly placed sources.” Perhaps in light of what unfolded on Friday, Purdy will reconsider that second adjective.

In a Friday statement, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), ranking member of the House oversight committee, lumped the Clinton e-mail story in with other instances in which news outlets have attempted to report on documents they’ve never seen. ABC News in 2013 famously mis-portrayed some Obama administration e-mails regarding Benghazi in large part because they were described by sources — and not handed over in full. A month ago, Politico, apparently relying on the same sourcing strategy, inaccurately abridged an e-mail exchange between Clinton and loyalist Sidney Blumenthal. “This is the latest example in a series of inaccurate leaks to generate false front-page headlines—only to be corrected later,” said Cummings in a statement....

Any Governor of any state can open up state jobs when he or she wants to and let citizens fund their campaign.

July 26, 2015
By Dee J. Hall 

Gov. Scott Walker, then-chairman of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., participates in a WEDC board meeting in late 2013 in La Crosse along with CEO Reed Hall, left, and then-chief operating officer Ryan Murray. Walker, a candidate for president, recently removed himself from the board after a negative audit and critical news coverage of the job-creation agency.

Tomahawk Metal Products and North American Finishing promised to provide hundreds of jobs; WEDC made loans despite warning signs

The King of Rhetoric cover ups his scandals.

Despite signs of trouble within the companies, (click here) Gov. Scott Walker’s jobs agency loaned about $1.4 million in taxpayer money to two northern Wisconsin firms that now have failed to fully repay the loans or create hundreds of promised jobs.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. sued the companies — Tomahawk Metal Products of Tomahawk and North American Finishing of Suring — along with four others for failure to repay state taxpayer-funded loans or comply with grant terms. The others sued since 2014 are TJ’s Taylor’s One Price Cleaners of Madison, Ratio Inc. of Monona, Building Committee Inc. of Milwaukee and Green Box NA Green Bay of De Pere.

They defaulted. 

WEDC made the ill-fated deals with Tomahawk Metal Products and North American Finishing (click here) in the first two years of the Walker administration as the governor attempted to fulfill a first-term promise to create 250,000 jobs. Walker fell short of that goal by about 100,000 jobs, and Wisconsin has remained in the bottom half of job-creating states throughout his tenure.

Late Friday, the agency disclosed it has settled its $360,933 claim against Tomahawk Metal Products for $125,360. In a statement, WEDC spokesman Mark Maley said the agency feared the company owner would declare bankruptcy, significantly delaying repayment to the state....

Tomahawk Metal Products, (click here) formerly known as Universal Industries, occupied this city-owned building in Tomahawk until the business closed there in 2014. The company was delinquent on its taxes and rent before the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. loaned it $375,000 for expansion in 2011. WEDC and the company have now settled for a repayment of $125,320....

Obama and Cameron are really getting around.

Cameron is focusing efforts with Indonesia, the third largest democracy in the world. Indonesia is also the largest Muslim country in the world.

...'Evil threat' (click here)
Speaking at the presidential palace in Jakarta, Mr Cameron, who met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, said IS posed an "evil threat" faced by both nations.

"We have agreed to step up our joint efforts both to tackle the terrorist threat and to counter the extremist narrative," Mr Cameron said.

He said the UK would "seek to learn" from Indonesia's approach to countering extremism "with an exchange programme between religious and community leaders here and in the UK to foster a better understanding of what works".
IS and other militant groups have been using propaganda in local languages and their support is thought to be growing internationally. 

The threat from terrorism will also be discussed with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak later in the tour.

Earlier, Mr Cameron suggested the UK could take military action against IS if there was an imminent threat to British lives....

There is a problem in Indonesia with a British national slated to be executed in a drug trafficking charge. Prime Minister Cameron should ask to bring her home so her family can visit and continue a prison sentence. 

July 27, 2015
By Jon Donnison

...But there's one issue (click here) the prime minister might be less keen to talk about.

Lindsay Sandiford, a 59-year-old grandmother, finds herself on death row in Indonesia's notorious Kerobokan Prison, not knowing when she might face a firing squad.

It's two-and-half years since the former legal secretary from Cheltenham was sentenced to death after being caught smuggling 4.8kg (10.6lb) of cocaine from Bangkok to Bali.

Her lawyers argued she was pressured into smuggling the drugs by a criminal gang....

Indonesian law can be very tough. There have been Australians that experienced it's sting. Indonesia is a country of islands and crime can occur without detection by the government and being able to protect citizens. It seems to me Indonesia would want to send this woman to Great Britain and avoid the international problem execution would bring.

It is also summer time and Americans are having more confidence in taking a vacation.

Vacations are important, especially with children. They have their parents all to themselves and parents have the attention of their youngsters. It makes for more than great pictures, it is very valuable bonding that carries into the home and school environment.

I heard some talk about the $15.00 minimum wage and the fact it would ONLY bring Americans to the top of the poverty line but remaining within that definition. That is a good thing. By today's standards most people are working more than one job and their confidence in earning enough for savings and looking toward the purchase of a home is extremely valuable, adds confidence to the housing market and provides hope for the future.

The fact that people will be moving out of the perils of abject poverty is extremely wonderful. And for the treasuries of states and the federal government; supplemental programs like food stamps have graduated participation. The people with extremely little income receive more food stamps than those at the top of the poverty line. This upward movement will result in better outcomes for state and federal treasuries. Absolutely.

And don't forget, health insurance now helps carry the financial burden for American families. So, health is important and the fact bankruptcies will decrease is great news for the American economy. 

"I'm goin' ta Disney World." 

July 28, 2015

WASHINGTON (AP) 
" Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods (click here) posted a sizable gain in June, reflecting a surge in demand for commercial aircraft. Meanwhile, a key category that reflects business investment rebounded after two months of declines.

Orders for durable goods jumped 3.4 percent in June from May, when orders had fallen 2.1 percent, the Commerce Department reported Monday. The gain was the best result since March.

A category viewed as a proxy for business investment plans increased 0.9 percent, then best showing since a 1.6 percent rise in March. This category had declined in April and May and had been weak for a number of months. Some economists are hopeful that manufacturing will show stronger gains in coming months as consumers boost spending.

U.S. manufacturers have struggled this year from the effects of a strong dollar and a plunge in energy prices. The higher value of the dollar against foreign currencies makes U.S. goods more expensive and less competitive in major export markets. The big drop in oil prices has led energy companies to cut investment plans....

I said a short time ago, the oil companies were riding the tide of cash flow to stay alive and not profits and mergers would follow.

Here it is. I have been watching the petroleum industry and it's corruption for so long I can practically hear the talk in their board rooms.

July 27, 2015
By Collin Eaton

HOUSTON — Halliburton (click here) has cut nearly 14,000 jobs and Baker Hughes has laid off 13,000 employees since they began trimming their headcounts last year to cope with the oil-market crash, officials said Monday. 

Those figures, shown in quarterly securities filings Friday and confirmed by company spokeswomen on Monday, are several thousand more jobs than the last time the oil field service companies gave an estimate of their planned layoffs in April.

Halliburton’s latest layoff estimate exceeds its April figure by 5,000 jobs, bringing its cuts up to16 percent of its workforce. And Baker Hughes’ estimate is up by 2,500 jobs, up to 21 percent of its headcount. Halliburton’s payroll peaked at more than 80,000 last year, spokeswoman Emily Mir said. Baker Hughes had 62,000 at the end of last year, according to regulatory papers.

That means the world’s top four oil field service companies – Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Weatherford International – have either cut or planned to cut 58,000 jobs this year in response to the collapse of crude prices.
The companies have reduced their headcounts and consolidated facilities across the United States and elsewhere. Houston-based Halliburton and Baker Hughes, which are in talks with antitrust regulators about sealing a $34.6 billion merger, say they haven’t cut any positions because of the deal, but rather because of the global slump in drilling activity.

“With market conditions remaining challenging, we have taken decisive actions to strengthen our revenue and reduce our cost structure company wide to improve profitability and remain competitive in this environment,” Baker Hughes spokeswoman Melanie Kania said in an emailed statement....

Whoever heard of a hospital with a budget surplus?

July 26, 2015
By Daniel Chang

Jackson Health Care sees a need for continued budget surpluses to plan for future need.

More patients (click here) and more taxpayer support added up to a record $14 million budget surplus in June for Jackson Health System, Miami-Dade’s public hospital network, providing critical reserves for future needs, including expanded operations and reduced government funding.

The June results bring Jackson’s total surplus to $68.7 million, and raise projections for the year-end margin to reach $70 million through Sept. 30.

In a report to the Public Health Trust that oversees Jackson, CEO Carlos Migoya attributed the strong showing to an increase in patient services, including more surgeries and outpatient procedures than the prior year. But Jackson also has been riding a wave of swelling sales tax support that has exceeded expectations by an average of $1.7 million a month....

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article28659394.html#storylink=cpy

The First Lady is at the Special Olympics.

July 27, 2015

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (click here for schedule of venues) - The Special Olympics World Games was scheduled to kick off over the weekend (after Los Angeles Downtown News went to press), and this week the region will be filled with competitions, festivals and other happenings....

Closing ceremonies are August 2, 2015.

Two 14 year olds were a long way from home.

July 27, 2015

(Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard (click here) on Sunday afternoon found an overturned and empty boat belonging to two teenage boys who went missing off the Florida coast during a fishing expedition two days ago, the service said.

The 19-foot single-engine boat was located off the coast of Ponce Inlet, a town about 180 miles north of Jupiter, where the boys were last seen, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen, both 14, remain missing.

Airplanes, helicopters and speedboats had covered more than 14,000 square nautical miles in the search for the pair, who were last seen on the white fishing boat in the waters of Palm Beach County, Coast Guard said....

Did they have AND WEAR life vests?

The two young men have a hero, the famous football star Joe Namath. He is resolved to find them and has a sizable reward for their return. He is their neighbor and obviously cares about them. He should be congratulated in his resolve. It is very decent of him.

I'm so grateful he is on video.

There is some online videos the Pro-Choice folks are upset about. Carlin was good at presenting the perverse agenda of the Pro-Life. 

Pro-Life needs to produce their own videos about the consistency of the message by the anti-abortion groups. They have no consistency. Fetus becomes babies, children and teens. If one is pro-life propaganda there absolutely no compassion for the woman's life circumstances.  

The pro-life folks never address poverty economics or the idea that women's health becomes compromised bearing more than two children. It is all studied and it's documented. The pro-life folks value propaganda based in emotion. The pro-life are Americans, right? When are they going to recognize an unwanted pregnancy is reality and it has nothing to do with raising children? 

Pro-lifers operate in a vacuum. Fill in the vacuum.

Former Secretary Clinton is to address the climate crisis policy.

Amazingly, but completely predictable, American media is creating a new e-mail crisis than paying attention to initiative to defeat the climate crisis. That too is predictable. 

July 26, 2015
By Liz Kreutz

Hillary Clinton today attacked (click here) the Republican presidential contenders who deny "the settled science of climate change" and laid out two renewable power goals in a new video that outlines part of her plan to tackle global warming.

"It's hard to believe there are people running for president who still refuse to accept the settled science of climate change, who would rather remind us they're not scientists than listen to those who are," Clinton narrates over a graphic that shows quotes from Republican presidential candidates, including Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump.

"You don't have to be scientist to take on this urgent challenge that threatens us all. You just have to be willing to act," she continues.... 

Syrian No Fly Zone. It took Turkey long enough to get the memo.

July 27, 2015 
Kareem Shaheen and Constanze Letsch

Turkey and the US (click here) have agreed on the outlines of a plan to drive Islamic State out of a strip of land along the Turkey-Syria border, according to reports, in a landmark deal that will draw Turkey further into Syria’s civil war and looks likely to increase the intensity of the US air war against Isis.
 
The agreement to create an “Islamic State-free zone”, as officials are calling it, comes days after a wave of violence linked to the Syrian war prompted Turkey, a Nato member, to launch air strikes for the first time against Isis and to allow a coalition led by the US to use its air bases to bomb militant targets in Syria.
 
It is a diplomatic victory for Turkey, which has long demanded the creation of a safe haven in northern Syria, across the 500-mile (800km) border that links the two countries, as a precondition for joining the battle against Islamic State.

But it remains unclear how the safe haven will be policed, whether it will have to include a de facto no-fly zone patrolled by coalition planes, and what the response will be if troops loyal to the regime of the embattled Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, attack American allies including the Kurdish militias or Syrian opposition fighters battling Isis in northern Syria.... 

The Kurds are not responsible for the attacks on Turkey's border towns.

27 July 2015
 

Kurdish forces in Syria (click here) have accused Turkey of repeatedly attacking their units across the border.

Turkey said it was investigating the claims but insisted the Syrian Kurdish units remained "outside the scope of the current military effort".

Turkey launched air raids on Islamic State fighters in Syria and positions of the Kurdish militant PKK in Iraq following violent attacks in Turkey.

Turkey has also said it has no plans to send ground troops into Syria.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the main Syrian Kurdish party (PYD), said that Turkish tanks had shelled the Kurdish-held village of Zormikhar inside Syria late on Sunday evening.

It added that, an hour later, one of its vehicles had come "under heavy fire from the Turkish military east of Kobane in the village of Til Findire".

In a statement on Monday, the YPG said: "Instead of targeting IS terrorists' occupied positions, Turkish forces attack our defenders' positions. This is not the right attitude....

It isn't just Huckabee, it is audience and the media that carries those repulsive messages.

July 27, 2015
By Anna Brand

...Presidential (click here) candidate Mike Huckabee called the Iran deal "idiotic," and likened it to events of the Holocaust, saying that President Obama will ultimately "take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven." 

That comment is racist, both, as the President is an African American and this is fear mongering of the Muslims. Mocking President Obama is not a good idea. I take it Jeb Bush lead into a civilized American and stated Huckabee is propagating violence and hate.

The Republican and former governor of Arkansas, who has been vocal about his disdain for a deal with Iran and has a history of citing the mass genocide of Jews by the Nazis in his debates, pushed the envelope in an interview Saturday. 

"This president's foreign policy is the most feckless in American history. It is so naive that he would trust the Iranians," Huckabee told Breitbart News....

Republican learned a new word a couple of months back. They expanded their rhetoric with the word "feckless." Typical of Republicans there is no criticism of Huckabee. It was the same with Swift Boaters and Secretary Kerry; the public was clamoring for civility and Bush stated 'hands off.' This crass political speech is typical of Republicans that have to attract the Low Information Voter.

Are police targeting "Black Lives Matter" in recognition of it's message and job security?

July 27, 2015
By Andrew Hewitt

This is the moment (click here) a white policeman uses pepper spray against activists leaving a conference to discuss escalating tensions between officers and black people. Hundreds of people from across America were attending the Movement for Black Lives event when the drama unfolded. The conference in Cleveland, Ohio, follows the deaths of a number of black people involved in police incidents. The footage, uploaded to LiveLeak, shows people clutching their eyes in pain with others trying to flee the scene. With tensions running high a number of scuffles between police and activists broke out, reports RT.com....

Please tell me police aren't targeting conferences of black Americans. Give me a break already. A 14 year old is perceived as drunk and is arrested. The young man doesn't look drunk to me. He walked just fine. So, what's the deal?
 

She never regained consciousness.

July 26, 2015
By TMZ Staff

Whitney Houston (click here) and Bobby Brown's daughter Bobbi Kristina has died at the age of 22.
She passed away outside Atlanta in the hospice care facility where she's been since June 24 ... when her family decided to take her off all meds. As we first reported, a specialist had told them there was no chance of recovery. 
The family says Bobbi Kristina was surrounded by family and, "She is finally at peace in the arms of God."
Bobbi Kristina was found submerged in her bathtub on January 31, and police believe she was underwater for anywhere between 2 and 5 minutes. Paramedics were able to resuscitate her, but she was in a medically induced coma and placed on life support. 
Ultimately, Pat Houston and Bobby -- co-guardians for Bobbi Kristina -- had to make the decision to withdraw medications. It was a rare moment of agreement for the Browns and Houstons ... who had battled about BK's condition throughout her hospitalization.
TMZ broke the story ... the D.A. has been gearing up for a murder case, and her boyfriend Nick Gordon would be their first person of interest. Police said there were bruises on Bobbi Kristina's face and body after Gordon and a friend, Max Lomas, found her in the tub....

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

July 24, 2015
By Adam Gopnik

...This genuinely insane circumstance (click here) —an ongoing national tragedy with an inarguably simple and available solution—once seemed to have merely depressed President Obama. But now, in this oddly rich harvest time of his Presidency, it seems to have properly outraged him, too. “It ought to obsess us,” he said about American gun violence after the Navy Yard gun massacre—remember that one?—“It ought to lead to some form of transformation.” On Thursday, in an interview with the BBC, the President stated, eloquently and succinctly, the basic circumstance of American case: “The United States of America is the one advanced nation on Earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense gun-safety laws. Even in the face of repeated mass killings.” He also pointed out that, in the years since the September 11th attacks, fewer than a hundred Americans have been killed by terrorism, and tens of thousands by gun violence.   (One can only imagine what laws we would have instated had organized terrorists instead of random terror killed so many.) Indeed, Obama spoke to the BBC a few hours before the Louisiana shooting. Think of it: even as he was articulating his frustration at our collective failure to create common-sense gun laws to stop mass killings, another one was about to happen. Speak of gun deaths in the United States, and you are likely to anticipate them....

There may be indecision among the people as to the wisdom of controlling the type of gun on the shelves of gun shops. There may be a reality of our current gun population among the American populous that seems to define violence over legislation. "If Americans can arm themselves this would not happen." 

Limiting guns to the type used most in recreational use and home security is vital to the future to end the violence. It doesn't matter if Americans believe gun legislation is hopeless in it's ambitions. What does matter is to start now to end the danger within our citizens. The future of gun violence is as important as the reality Americans face today.

"Good Night, Moon"

The Waxing Gibbous

10.2 day old moon

78% lit











Will "Arbys'' stop using the Pope in their commercials. It is as tasteless has its' food.