Imperfect? Sexism. Women always have to be perfect. Where do eating disorders come from?

October 15, 2016
By Amy Choziick

In the past week, (click here) as a swirl of sexual assault accusations against Donald J. Trump has prompted a loud national discussion about male power and women’s rights, the first woman to be a major party’s presidential nominee was barely heard from.

Though Hillary Clinton has stood at the center of feminist debates for more than two decades, she has at times been an imperfect messenger for the cause. That has never been more apparent than now, as her old missteps and her husband’s history have effectively paralyzed her during a moment of widespread outrage.

The most impassioned speeches on the topic have come not from her, but from the first lady, Michelle Obama, who said Mr. Trump’s words had “shaken me to my core,” and from President Obama and others. When Mrs. Clinton herself spoke, she quickly changed the subject to other groups of people Mr. Trump had insulted, and she tried to lighten the mood with a joke about watching cat videos....

She is imperfect alright.
           

The Flint River Water Project

To sincerely appreciate any aspect of nature one has to savor the culture that named it with pride and promise.

Rivers are full of promise. Lewis and Clark traveled through the USA in discovery, not by mule train, but, by river. 

When Thomas Jefferson (click here) dispatched Lewis and Clark to find a water route across North America and explore the uncharted West, he expected they'd encounter woolly mammoths, erupting volcanoes, and a mountain of pure salt. What they found was no less surprising. See it all on our journey: journal entries, historical photos, drawings, and more....

Rivers are magnificent and powerful. The power we think of today is linked to the climate crisis the the sad scenarios it brings. But, rivers forged this country. The water ways were vital to westward expansion. Climbing mountains didn't speed along what was the great expanse of the USA from 13 original colonies. It was the waterways that proved far safer transport of civilization.

We do not love our rivers enough in the 21st century. 

The Flint River is among some very interesting names that originate from Native American language. Among these magnificent names are simple names as well as Flint and Cass. Interesting, isn't it.

Research is on going.

Thank you. 

The USA Navy did the correct thing before this escalated to a far larger conflict.

Washington — An American warship (click here) stationed off the coast of Yemen fired cruise missiles on Thursday at radar installations that the Pentagon said had been used by Yemeni insurgents to target another American warship in two missile attacks in the last four days.

The strikes against the Houthi rebels marked the first time the United States has become involved militarily in the civil war between the Houthis, an indigenous Shiite group with loose connections to Iran, and the Yememi government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni nations. The strikes were approved by President Obama, said Peter Cook, the Pentagon spokesman, who warned of more to come if American ships were fired upon again.

“These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic.”...

For the USA this is not about Sunnis vs Shia. This is a necessary action to end the assault of USA ships in the region. American naval soldiers are important people.

Iran needs to stop supplying munitions to rebel groups throughout the region. 

Speculation has a legitimate standing with so many women being effected.

Miss America is a scholarship pageant that is held annually and is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 24.

Miss Teen USA is a beauty pageant run by the Miss Universe Organization for girls aged 14–19.

Miss USA contestants must be at least 18 years of age and under 28 years of age by February 1st in the year they hope to compete in the Miss Universe or Miss USA competition.

There is a legitimate concern. I think this all has to be understood. Was it simply a financial transaction? The more that is known about the personal involvement in dressing rooms the more disturbing it becomes. This isn't a joke or females gone wild.

The Clinton campaign needs to prepare for the next debate and the law needs to examine the issues presented by women involved with Mr. Trump and his ownership of beauty pageants. It appears much has been swept under the rug. I don't like the young component to the accusations. I think it needs to be looked at.

September 14, 2016
By Ellen Killoran

Donald Trump has reportedly sold the Miss Universe organization (click here) to WME/IMG. According to Variety, the financial details were not disclosed. WME/IMG had a previous relationship with the organization as producer of the Miss USA, Miss Universe and Miss Teen USA pageants.

“Having worked closely with The Miss Universe Organization in the past, we understand the incredible potential of the events and the star-quality of the participants,” Mark Shapiro, Chief Content Officer for WME | IMG, said in a statement. “The global reach of The Miss Universe Organization and the content opportunities presented by the pageants make this a strong, strategic addition to our portfolio.”

The deal comes just days after Trump announced on Twitter TWTR +0.28% that he had bought out NBC’s 51 percent share of the beauty pageant organization, which the network had co-owned with Trump since 2002. In July, Trump had promised to sue the Comcast CMCSA +0.39%-owned broadcaster after NBCUniversal cut all ties with the controversial GOP presidential hopeful and refused to air the Miss USA pageant, following offensive remarks Trump made about Mexican immigrants during a campaign speech....

This won't go away. There are all probabilities there are more women. The Trump Organization is an international company.

If elected it will follow him into office and it will become a distraction and he will be ineffective. He will ultimately be removed from office. He called his words on the tape as "locker room" talk. 

He is lying. 

He walked through a room where women were changing into bathing suits, so he was guaranteed a good look because it would be different for gowns. His SELF-RIGHTEOUS behavior with women screams out loud.

Now there are women taking the look in their mirror and deciding they have to speak out regardless of the outcome to themselves. There are other women that we won't hear from because the women in such scandals always suffer economically far more than the man involved.

Donald Trump will continue to deny his predatory behavior of women. Why shouldn't he? 

October 12, 2016
By Megan Twohey and Michael Barbaro

Donald J. Trump (click here) was emphatic in the second presidential debate: Yes, he had boasted about kissing women without permission and grabbing their genitals. But he had never actually done those things, he said.

“No,” he declared under questioning on Sunday evening, “I have not.”

At that moment, sitting at home in Manhattan, Jessica Leeds, 74, felt he was lying to her face. “I wanted to punch the screen,” she said in an interview in her apartment.

More than three decades ago, when she was a traveling businesswoman at a paper company, Ms. Leeds said, she sat beside Mr. Trump in the first-class cabin of a flight to New York. They had never met before.

About 45 minutes after takeoff, she recalled, Mr. Trump lifted the armrest and began to touch her....

It certainly takes long enough.

There was a Pakistani man in New Jersey who had a heart attack after being arrested. That was in the first 48 hours after 911. There were probably others, but, I remember hearing that report on the radio. It was just wrong. As an American the violations were palpable. 

October 11, 2016

Washington — The Supreme Court (click here) agreed on Tuesday to decide whether high-ranking George W. Bush administration officials — including John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, and Robert S. Mueller III, the former F.B.I. director — may be held liable for policies adopted after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The case began as a class action in 2002 filed by immigrants, most of them Muslim, over policies and practices that swept hundreds of people into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on immigration violations in the weeks after the attacks. The plaintiffs said they had been subjected to beatings, humiliating searches and other abuses.

The roundups drew criticism from the inspector general of the Justice Department, who in 2003 issued reports saying that the government had made little or no effort to distinguish between genuine suspects and Muslim immigrants with minor visa violations.

A divided three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, let the case proceed last year.

“The suffering endured by those who were imprisoned merely because they were caught up in the hysteria of the days immediately following 9/11 is not without a remedy,” Judges Rosemary S. Pooler and Richard C. Wesley wrote in a joint opinion....

Donald Trump treats women as chattel. I don't care how well he treats his daughters or his spouse, he thinks of women as chattel. That sets the woman's movement back to the age of suffrage.

Naked women were a perk. Amazing. I suppose being sure the women are the real thing is important. No implants, plastic surgeon scars.

October 12, 2016
By Fred Barbash

On an April, 11, 2005, Howard Stern show, (click here) Donald Trump bragged about some of the special perks he enjoyed while owner of the Miss USA pageant. They came not in a locker room but a dressing room.

“I’ll go backstage before a show and everyone’s getting dressed and ready and everything else,” he said. “And you know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore I’m inspecting it.”

Said Stern: “You’re like a doctor.”

Responded Trump: “Is everyone OK? You know they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.”

CBS 2 Los Angeles did a little fact checking and, guess what, this time, no Pinocchios. Tasha Dixon, Miss Arizona of 2001, told the station that Trump just came “waltzing in” while contestants were nude or half-nude as they changed into bikinis....      

August 27, 2016

In late August 2016, (click here) a deep rift widened and an iceberg heaved away from the Porcupine Glacier in northern British Columbia. Glaciologist Mauri Pelto, who has been analyzing satellite imagery of glaciers since the 1980s, called it “the biggest calving event in North America” that he has ever seen....

August 25, 2015

It may not be obvious to everyone, but, the glacier has a pattern of ice movement. This new calving drastically alters the terminus of the glacier.

To most this simply looks like a big piece of ice no longer exists on the glacier, but, it is more than that. It is a change in the "mass balance" of the entire glacier. The ice flows from the higher altitudes will start to descend more quickly and the glacier will become unstable. These changes are not simply lost ice, it is a change in the entire glacier. 

April 15, 2013

Porcupine Glacier (click here) is a 20 km long outlet glacier of an icefield in the Hoodoo Mountains of Northern British Columbia. Bolch et al (2010) noted a reduction of 0.3% per year in glacier area in the Northern Coast Mountains of British Columbia from 1985 to 2005.Scheifer et al (2007) noted an annual thinning rate of 0.8 meters/year from 1985-1999. Here we examine the retreat of Porcupine Glacier and the expansion of the lake it ends in from 1988-2011 using four Landsat images from 1988, 1999, 2010 and 2011. Below is a Google Earth view of the glacier with arrows indicating the flow paths of the Porcupine Glacier. The second images is a map of the region from 1980 indicates a small marginal lake at the terminus....

The glaciers are water resources. It really is a very big deal.

...Glaciers (click here)

The hydrology of much of the southwestern Yukon is tied to glaciers, which influence both streamflow and water quality. Changes to glaciers due to general climate change could have a profound influence on the hydrology of Yukon’s glacier-dominated basins. In 50 years, between 1958 and 2008, the total ice area in Yukon shrank by 22%. Precisely what this kind of change means for Yukon’s freshwater resources remains unclear. As glaciers recede, streamflow will decrease, but the decrease might not happen right away. At first, increased glacial meltwaters will likely contribute greater flows downstream. If some basins lose their glaciers altogether, the result is likely to be a dramatic shift in streamflow patterns. Glacial melt can also lead to short-term, catastrophic effects, such as the formation of unstable glacial lakes and outburst floods....

Given the latest revelation about Donald Trump's sexual prowess, then what is this?

Seriously. Republicans never demand resignations from those with sexually exploitative behavior. With Democrats a candidate or government official is lucky to survive the day, especially in New York. 

So, what this then?

This is not questionable character or integrity? Just locker room talk, huh? The Republicans must spend a lot of time in locker rooms.

Okay, the Clinton campaign managed to bring tears to my eyes. Al Gore has been in the fight longer than anyone, especially in the political realm.

By every estimation Vice President Al Gore should have left the stage long ago.

But, he knows. 

He knows there is no leaving the stage. Leaving the stage means doom. People like Al Gore simply don't believe doom should be realized by the people of the world.

He was first a US House Representative when the issue received his attention and he traveled to Antarctica to speak to the scientists. The scientists that were on the front lines of DISCOVERY of the worst scenario of planet Earth.

His loss of Florida in 2000 was engineered. He lost by less than 400 votes and the voter rolls in Dade County was purged of over 8000 Democratic voters. Florida was his, but, it was stolen. Literally.

He has done the impossible for many years, he has kept a subject of disdain by very big political money on the map. He not only kept it on the map, he has moved it forward. He has enlisted young talent from every corner of the USA to take on the challenge of educating the public. He has succeeded without the spotlight.

I have no doubt he will continue his march to victory against heinous greed to take back Earth from a scenario that is not of god.

I appreciate Secretary Clinton's willingness to bring him to the stage. He is a great man. He deserves more than the stage. A leader is an understatement of this man who saw the future and believed the truth.

More than 25 years (click here) before the star-studded Los Angeles premiere of An Inconvenient Truth, glaciologist Lonnie Thompson was about as far away from the red carpet as possible. It was 1978, and high in the rugged Andes, Thompson and fellow scientists were witnessing the first glimpses of a pending worldwide disaster. Rising temperatures were melting ancient titans of ice and snow. Mammoth glaciers were disappearing at unprecedented rates and withering to the smallest sizes in millennia. The delicate balance of Earth’s climate was upset.

As research mounted, scientists around the world from fields as diverse as chemistry and astronomy were coming to grips with a newfound truth: Carbon dioxide spewed by fossil fuel burning and other greenhouse gases were warming the world at an alarming rate, potentially threatening the health and livelihoods of millions of people. Despite the gravity and urgency of their findings, the scientists’ warnings fell mostly on deaf ears for years.

Until 2006. Six years after his unsuccessful presidential campaign, Al Gore reentered the national spotlight to release An Inconvenient Truth, which heavily featured Thompson’s mountaintop research. Thompson missed the premiere of the documentary because he was gearing up to return to South America’s vanishing ice. But the film did what he and other researchers had been unable to do: “It got climate change on the radar,” Thompson says. Last December, Gore was on hand in Paris as 195 nations committed to the most ambitious pledge yet to fight back against climate change and curb carbon emissions....      

Do what?

Are the profits at Lockheed Martin that bad? I know the F35 contracts were a real blow to the ego, but, we aren't going to war with Saudi Arabia. Did a 911 family member insist on writing this? 

October 11, 2016
By the Editorial Board
 
Airstrikes (click here) by a Saudi-led coalition that devastated a funeral in Yemen on Saturday make it clear that the United States must end its complicity in a civil war that has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in one of the world’s poorest countries and fueled extremism. It is within President Obama’s power to do so. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf state allies depend on Washington for aircraft, munitions, training and in-flight refueling. The United States also helps Saudi Arabia guard its borders.

The administration insists its support for the coalition isn’t a “blank check.” But so far it has offered only stern words in response to an ever widening list of coalition attacks on civilians and civilian facilities that under international law are not legitimate military targets. If the Saudis refuse to halt the carnage and resume negotiations on a political settlement, Mr. Obama should end military support. Otherwise, America could be implicated in war crimes and be dragged even deeper into the conflict. On Monday, Houthi rebels who have been fighting with the Yemeni government reportedly launched a ballistic missile deep into Saudi Arabia, and on Sunday they may have fired on a United States Navy destroyer, but missed....

Saudi Arabia did not ask for this conflict with Yemen. The Yemen Houthis initiated the first border incursion.

August 27, 2016

Najran (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) - A rocket fired from Yemen (click here) killed a three-year-old boy Saturday in the Saudi border region of Najran, a civil defence official said, in the latest cross-border attack by Iran-backed Yemeni rebels.

Major Ali al-Shahrani, civil defence spokesman in southwest Saudi Arabia, told reporters a nine-year-old brother of the boy was also wounded when a Katyusha rocket hit their family's home.

The attack came a day after rockets fired from Yemen struck a power station in Najran, marking a rare hit on Saudi Arabia's infrastructure after months of periodic bombardment of the area....

The editorial makes the single bombing by  Saudi Arabia sound sterile as if there is only one bad guy. It seems as though the Yemeni Houthis have a good enough aim to land missiles near a USA Navy Ship.

October 10, 2016
By Reuters

Yemen's Houthi movement launched a ballistic missile (click here) deep into Saudi Arabia and may also have fired on a U.S. warship, two days after an apparent Saudi-led air strike killed 140 mourners at a funeral attended by powerful tribal leaders.
Saturday's air strike ripped through a wake attended by some of the country's top political and security officials, outraging Yemeni society and potentially galvanizing powerful tribes to join the Houthis in opposing a Saudi-backed exiled government.
On Monday, a Saudi-led coalition waging war in Yemen said it had intercepted a missile fired by the Houthis at a military base in Taif in central Saudi Arabia, striking deeper then ever before in the latest in a series of more than a dozen missile attacks. A missile was also fired at Marib in central Yemen, a base for pro-government militiamen and troops who have struggled to advance on the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa....

Morality is a very big word. It is not an advertisement for taking sides. Morality usually is a balance and carries with it recognition of unequal justice. Morality is principled and requires commitment to values long before the injustice is committed. 

Morality is at it's best when it ends injustice before it starts. The injustices on both sides of the Saudi-Yemen conflict are too fresh for either side to identify morality and it's absence.

...All of this comes at a moment when America’s ties with Saudi Arabia are fraught over Syria and Riyadh’s opposition to the Iran nuclear deal. Mr. Obama has supported the Saudi war effort in Yemen and sold the Saudis a total of $110 billion in arms, including a recent $1.15 billion order for tanks and other weapons, to appease Riyadh’s anger over the Iran deal. The tank sale went forward even though some administration officials have been worried that it could implicate the United States in war crimes. Last month, a Senate effort to block the tank sale failed....

The USA has provided Saudi Arabia with weapons for a long time.

June 3, 2003
Tewksbury, Mass.,Raytheon Company (click here) has been awarded a direct sales contract at an undisclosed amount from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide technical, training and logistics support for the Kingdom's Patriot and Hawk Air Defense Systems.
"Raytheon has built a strong relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the past 36 years and is committed to providing services and equipment of the highest standards to the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces," said Russ Ouellette, vice president of Saudi Arabian Programs for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.
Patriot is a combat-proven air and missile defense system capable of simultaneously engaging and destroying aircraft, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and tactical ballistic missiles. The Hawk system provides robust low-to-medium altitude air defense against air breathing threats and, when integrated with Patriot, low-tier defense against tactical ballistic missiles.
Based in Tewksbury, Mass., Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems provides integrated air and missile defense and naval and maritime war fighting systems, including modeling and simulation capabilities, for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, and strong global integrated capabilities for Army, Navy, Marine Corps and technology customers.
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), with 2002 sales of $16.8 billion, is an industry leader in defense, government and commercial electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Lexington, Massachusetts, Raytheon employs more than 76,000 people worldwide.

When has Yemen not been near collapse?

...Yemen is near collapse, with 80 percent of the country in need of humanitarian aid. Al Qaeda’s affiliate there is becoming stronger and the population more radicalized. The longer the war goes on, the harder it will be to end.

The conflicts are more than simply Yemen and Syria, so to cast a cloud over Iran is not valid. Iran is in violation of the small arms treaty. Start there, but, don't think there is a reason for the USA to enter yet another zone of the world void of authority. Too many people die when the USA is involved. Yes, even though we don't use barrel bombs.

In Iraq, there are at least 165,000 civilian deaths. Add to that the fact the total death count, including combatants, is 251,000 according to "Iraq Body Count" (click here) and realize how a power vacuum is defined. The USA does not belong in the wars in the middle east. 251,000 is one percent of the entire population of Iraq. One percent in the USA would be slightly less than 3,200,000. 

That is a modest estimate of the Iraqi dead. There are some counts estimated over one half a million dead CIVILIANS (women, children and the elderly). There is one count that estimates 800,000 or more. The average USA soldier kills 200 people versus one USA dead soldier.

The USA doesn't belong in wars or conflicts in the Middle East,

It never did.

Perhaps, Mr. Bullough, would rather barrel bombs.

October 11, 2016
By Oliver Bullough

...Otherwise, (click here) the picture is broadly the same. Mr. Putin knows now, like he knew then, that he and his proxies can’t win on the ground, so they are trying to solve their problem from the air. Where infantry won’t go, he’s dropping explosives....

If there have to be bombs to solve the civil war in Syria, it best is done by Russia which can discern a hospital from other buildings and has a budget for bombs and not chlorine.

No one actually believes this is an unjust war, do they? A civil war sparked by the renegade Deash militia that wanted a caliphate. One might ask Europe what they really believe about Russia's role in Syria. 

There is an entry on this blog; the date I am unsure of; when the American neocons lead by "W" wanted to bomb Syria, too. Damascus then had a population of 2 million people. 

Don't preach what you don't know and there are dearly few Westerners that look at Syria honestly for the outcome of ultimate stability.

Most often The West is smiled on for ending WWII. The war was nearly lost and it wasn't The West that secured the initial final blow.

... Those of us who visited the city afterward were stunned by the destruction. It had become acres of shattered buildings, scrunched factories and shredded fences. Today some suggest — as Russia has done in the last week — that Western states are just as bad. But they aren’t. They can’t be: Any Western government that did what Mr. Putin did to Grozny, or is doing to Aleppo, would fall, and would deserve to....

Baghdad, Iraq still has layer after layer of blast walls. The only difference between Western aggression and Russian aggression are those making the film for the nightly news.

"Dawn" journalist detained. The international community should take note.

If retractions of information is in order than the Dawn should do that, but, if the government is leveraging for the benefit of propaganda, then the Dawn has a real fight on it's hands.

Quite frankly, the entire global community knows Pakistan has ties to militants. The USA lost a helicopter during a raid on the compound of one of them. It is well known bin Laden had close ties to then General Musharraf. It is a known fact the Pakistan ISI is corrupt (click here). Pakistan needs to stop denying they are scared of militants and do something about it.

October 11, 2016

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) (click here) on Tuesday demanded the government immediately withdraw all restrictions on Dawn staffer Cyril Almeida and address grievances "in accordance with the law, due process and universally acknowledged freedoms of opinion and expression."

"Barring Cyril Almeida from travelling abroad and the apparent pressure on his employers, the highly respected Dawn newspaper, will cause distress to all those, at home and abroad, who believe in the freedom of expression and the rights of journalists. This is not the time to turn the international journalist community against Pakistan," the HRCP said.

"It seems that the authorities are overreacting to a story by Cyril, which touches on journalists’ responsibilities in times of trial. HRCP believes that civil-military relations are not a subject beyond the concerns of working journalists or the people at large."

Cyril Almeida, who wrote the news report "Act against militants or face international isolation, civilians tell military", was put on the country's Exit Control List (ECL) after the Prime Minister's Office issued three contradictions to the report....             

October 4, 2016
By Matt Macfarland

Both banks (click here) outlined new liquidity models and frameworks for triggering subsidiary support if the parent companies fail.

The five banks have tried this before and it was not accepted.

April 13, 2016
By Jessie Hamilton and Elizabeth Dexheimer

JPMorgan Chase & Co., (click here) Bank of America Corp. and three other major U.S. banks failed to persuade regulators they could go bankrupt without disrupting the broader financial system and could now face a tighter leash from Washington after government agencies used one of the most significant post-crisis powers bestowed under the Dodd-Frank Act.

The banks -- also including Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and State Street Corp. -- must scrap their resolution plans, or living wills, after the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said versions submitted last year failed to satisfy their requirements. The lenders will have until Oct. 1 to rewrite the plans -- but under the pressure that another failure would give regulators power to subject them to more capital or liquidity constraints on their businesses.

“The FDIC and Federal Reserve are committed to carrying out the statutory mandate that systemically important financial institutions demonstrate a clear path to an orderly failure under bankruptcy at no cost to taxpayers,” FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said in a statement Wednesday....

My understanding of this strategy is to keep subsidiaries operational should the primary bank fail. It would reduce the impact on the economy. The liquidity of the banks is the question. A good deal of the financial picture for the banks is supported by the Federal reserve. The banks are required to maintain a percentage of their deposits in liquidity. It is a low percentage of about 15 percent, but, that was some time ago. The banks, especially the big banks, like to invest in exotic financial instruments and liquidity does not fit into that picture.

That aside, there is a function of The Federal Reserve little bother to understand. Local economies should investigate the possibility to funding their interests independently rather than through banks that offer a higher interest rate than the current rate from The Fed. 

The community development function (click here) within the Federal Reserve promotes fair and informed access to financial markets for communities and individuals, recognizing the particular needs of underserved populations. It does so by convening stakeholders to collaborate on community and economic development initiatives, conducting and sharing applied research, and identifying emerging issues....

Wow, that is awesome Warren Buffet!

March 21, 2014
By Dan Alexander
  
...Think Warren Buffett (click here) is worried about paying someone $1 billion for a perfect bracket? Think again.

The second-richest man in America had already made $1 billion before the second day of March Madness had even tipped off.

Shares in his investment company Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A +% went up 1.7% from yesterday’s opening whistle at 12:15 p.m. to this morning at 9:36 a.m. That slight change was enough to bump Buffett’s net worth up $1.05 billion to $64 billion.
He wasn’t handed $1 billion in cash, but on paper, he had made 10 figures in less than 24 hours....

It just seems as though Donald Trump is more of a gambler than others. A billion dollar loss is not the experience of everyday Americans. A loss like that is thought of as shameful, but, Mr. Trump considers it good business. I thought businesses were suppose to make profits, with the exception of a bad year here and there.

Thank you, Mr. Buffet. It was very decent of you to participate in the country's facts.

October 10, 2016

By Patricia Cohen

...Acknowledging for the first time that he (Donald Trump) had avoided paying federal income taxes for years by claiming nearly a billion dollars in losses in 1995, Mr. Trump then tried to shift attention to his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, accusing some of her wealthy supporters of exploiting tax laws to their own advantage.

“Many of her friends took bigger deductions,” Mr. Trump said. “Warren Buffett took a massive deduction.”

Actually, he did not.

“I have paid federal income tax every year since 1944,” Mr. Buffett wrote in a letter released Monday.

“My 2015 return shows adjusted gross income of $11,563,931,” he revealed. “My deductions totaled $5,477,694.” About two-thirds of those represented charitable contributions, he said. Most of the rest were related to Mr. Buffett’s state income tax payments.

Mr. Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the richest men in the world, went on to say: “My federal income tax for the year was $1,845,557. Returns for previous years are of a similar nature in respect to contributions, deductions and tax rates.”...

October 10, 2016
By Ahmed Elumam

Libyan pro-government forces (click here) are advancing into the last area controlled by Islamic State in the coastal city of Sirte, surrounding the militants after a five-month campaign backed by U.S. air strikes, military officials say.

At least eight pro-government fighters were killed over the weekend as their forces pushed into the 600 block, an area in central Sirte, with snipers and booby traps posing the main obstacles to their advance, the officials said.A Reuters reporter on the ground said forces advanced across two streets on Sunday, but were facing resistance and discovering explosive devices in many buildings.

Islamic State took over Sirte a year ago, exploiting the chaos and violence that have dogged Libya since the overthrow of leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 in order to carve out a new base, far from its main territory in Iraq and Syria.

Losing the city would be a major blow to the group, but officials believe some of its fighters and commanders escaped before Sirte was surrounded, and may continue to wage guerrilla-style attacks even after it falls....

The Libyan military is doing well. It has found a strategy that works. An autonomous fighting force is possible.

October 9, 2016
The first-ever Libyan (click here) to graduate from the US’ prestigious Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama, is due to return to Libya in the next couple of weeks and resume his military duties.

Colonel Nasser Bousnina, previously the post-revolution acting commander of Benghazi’s Benina air force base, graduated from the air college this summer, one of more than 40 air force colonels from all over the world.

Bousnina, who trained at Misrata Air Academy and in Ukraine, was for several years before the revolution an instructor and then commander at Martuba air base and following that assistant commander of helicopters at Benina. In early 2011, he led other air force officers in joining the revolution.

Until he went to the US air college he was in charge of the helicopter forces in the east....

Really?

October 10, 2016
By Jane Onyanga-Omar

Two missiles fired from rebel-held territory in Yemen (click here) landed near a U.S. warship in the Red Sea, the U.S. Navy said Monday.

Ian McConnaughey, a spokesman for U.S. Navy Forces Central Command, said it was unclear if the USS Mason — a guided missile destroyer — was specifically targeted, but the missiles were fired in its direction in the space of an hour from 7 p.m. local time Sunday....

Someone has a death wish.

The US Navy has a right to defend itself, especially in international waters. 

I have a suggestion. Give the Houthi rebels a massive supply of Samsung's Galaxy Note 7. The rest will take care of itself. 

Mike Pence states he believes in second chances. How many?

The only change needed in the USA economy is an increase in the minimum wage.

She must be accommodated. The American culture does not shame women.

Being concerned for her safety, there should be a remote location where judges can monitor her participation. I believe it is too dangerous for an American woman to enter Iran. A remote location can provide participation without hate of a woman qualified to win the championship. 

October 7, 2016
By Katie Rogers 

Nazi Paikidze-Barnes, (click here) a United States women’s chess champion, has said that she will boycott next year’s world championship in Iran because religious law would require her to wear a hijab.

In a series of posts on social media, Ms. Paikidze-Barnes, a Russian-born Georgian-American, has said that requiring women to wear a hijab is a human rights issue.

“I think it’s unacceptable to host a Women’s World Championship in a place where women do not have basic fundamental rights and are treated as second-class citizens,” she wrote in a post on Instagram.

Ms. Paikidze-Barnes, 22, also organized a petition calling for the competition’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale des Échecs, or World Chess Federation, to either move the competition from Iran or persuade Iranian officials to make wearing a hijab an option instead of a requirement....