Kansas winter wheat are planted the year before the expected harvest. This is an example of research conducted to help Kansas farmers with crop yields.

...Date of seeding (click here) greatly affects development of tillers in winter wheat, the source of as much 

Table 1. Winter wheat seeding dates and yields at North Platte.
Seeding date	Yield (bu/ac)
Sept. 2	2
Sept. 15	27
Sept. 25	42

as 70% of the grain yield in a normal year. Seeding during the optimum period enables wheat to form sufficient but not excessive tillers. Early seeding results in too many fall tillers, which may compete with each other, become diseased, and deplete soil moisture so that grain yields are low. Late seeding gives plants little time to develop tillers, resulting in an inadequate numbers of spikes (heads) for high yields the following spring....

Yes, the Kansas winter wheat crop is already in the ground.

The winter wheat crop is emerging in Kansas.

Yes, an inferno has just rolled through Kansas with it's winter wheat crop already seeded. The farmers are going to lose their first crop this season and will be facing fiscal decisions NOW!

The last fews days have been interesting.

March 7, 2017
1230.18z
UNISYS Enhanced Infrared Satellite of the North and West Hemisphere (click here)

The intertropical 
convergence zone is attempting to repopulate over South America. The ITCZ has been absent from it's equatorial physics for at least the past month.

March 8, 2017
by Jeremy White and Henry Fountain

After a mild winter across (click here) much of the United States, February brought abnormally high temperatures, especially east of the Rockies. Spring weather arrived more than three weeks earlier than usual in some places, and new research released Wednesday shows a strong link to climate change...

The northern troposphere has become completely bizarre. This satellite below shows the power of the climate crisis. The ITCZ is completely absent of water vapor and the two vortexes in the Pacific off the west coast of North America has soaked up that water vapor.

March 2, 2017
1930.20z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of the North and West Hemisphere (click here for current 12 hour loop - thank you)

The State of Kansas has become an inferno. It is because of the winds of a vortex that has taken residence in the center of the USA.

Flames and smoke (click here) envelope a grain elevator in Sitka, Kan., early Tuesday, March 7, 2017. Grass fires fanned by gusting winds scorched swaths of Kansas grassland Monday, forcing the evacuations of several towns and the closure of some roads. 

The Latest on wildfires burning in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado (all times local):

12:10 p.m.

Three young friends, (click here) including a couple, were overcome as they tried to steer cattle away from the flames of a wildfire in the Texas Panhandle.

Gray County Judge Richard Peet said Wednesday it appears 20-year-old Cody Crockett was on horseback and his girlfriend, 23-year-old Sydney Wallace, was nearby on foot as fire and smoke swirled around them in Gray County.

Peet says Wallace may have tried to run at the last moment Monday evening but she couldn't escape the smoke. He says she died of smoke inhalation.

Crockett suffered burns, as did 35-year-old Sloan Everett who also was on horseback. The bodies of all three were found close to one another.

A fourth person who died in the Texas Panhandle — 25-year-old Cade Koch (cook) — was attempting to drive home Monday night when smoke from a separate fire enveloped him....

Large Incident Fire Maps (click here)
March 08, 2017

A surreal scene of a glowing tree covered in ash and cools after fire swept through. Firefighters from across Kansas and Oklahoma battle a major wildfire near Protection, Kansas, Monday night and early Tuesday morning. The fire driven by winds gusting up to 50 mph threatened the towns of Protection and Ashland. There were reports of numerous structures lost in the fire. (March 7, 2017) Bo Rader The Wichita Eagle

March 7, 2017
By Bryan Horwath, Michael Pearce, Oliver Morrison, Suzanne Perez Tobias and Time Potter

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/state/article136909803.html#storylink=cpy

...Fire burned more than 400,000 acres in 21 counties in Kansas. (click here) By late Tuesday, a half-dozen counties were still burning.

“We’re not out of the woods, by any means,” Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve got to stay on top of this.”

Virtually all of Kansas was under a red flag warning on Tuesday. Fire risk is expected to continue through Thursday. Brownback urged residents to avoid roads near the fires, for their own safety.

“This is just too dynamic of a situation that we’re in now,” Brownback said.

An Oklahoma truck driver died after he was overcome by smoke in southern Kansas on Monday night. Another seven people have been injured in fire-related incidents, state officials said, though none of the injuries have been serious....

WS: 2 tornadoes hit Minn., earliest on record (click here)
March 7, 2017
AP and Dana Thiede, KARE

Grand Forks, Minn.  - The National Weather Service (click here) has confirmed that two rare March tornadoes are the earliest to ever strike Minnesota.

Forecasters say the tornado that damaged buildings and took down trees and power lines near Zimmerman Monday evening was the earliest twister recorded in Minnesota. Previously, the earliest tornado ever reported in Minnesota happened on March 18, 1968 in Truman.

Zimmerman is about 35 miles from Minneapolis-St. Paul. Preliminary survey results indicate it was an EF-1 tornado with peak winds estimated at 107 mph that traveled nearly nine miles....

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/state/article136909803.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/state/article136909803.html#storylink=c

International Woman's Day, it is time for

March 8, 2017

by Tierney McAfee

The former first lady (click here) marked International Women’s Day with a surprise visit to 12 female students at a combined middle and high school in Washington, D.C.

Obama had a roundtable talk with the girls at Cardozo Education Campus, several of whom are from the school’s international program for recent immigrants, including some girls from Africa and Latin America.

She announced the visit on Snapchat Wednesday morning, saying: “We’re celebrating International Women’s Day with a group of amazing young women. We’re going to talk about education — the importance of it in their lives and in mine.”

Another snap showed the moment Obama walked into a classroom and surprised the stunned young women, who responded with a chorus of “Oh my Gods!”

“Did you know?” the former first lady said with a smile. “You didn’t know.”

“This school is amazing,” she added as she greeted the girls.

We really do need for a woman to break that last, hardest ceiling.

March 8, 2017
By Peter Walker

A Wall Street firm (click here) has fitted a statue of a girl in Lower Manhattan to stare down the well-known bronze charging bull on International Women’s Day.

State Street Global Advisors placed the primary school-aged child squarely in the path of the rampaging beast in a plea to fellow companies for more gender diversity.

More than 85 per cent of financial advisors on Wall Street are said to be men, and State Street says 25 per cent of Russell 3,000 Index companies have no women on their boards.

However, a Morgan Stanley report found that since 2011, more diverse companies outperform less gender-diverse counterparts by an average of 1.5 per cent....

From Mozilla:

March 8, 2017
By Michaela Smiley

On International Women’s Day each year, (click here) we celebrate women in our own lives who we respect and admire, and we remember with gratitude women of history who have championed gender equality. We’re also reminded that there is so much more work to be done. Closing the wage gender gap will take 177 years if we don’t pick up the pace; only 14.6% of CEOs are women; women’s leadership in government is strikingly low; and education access and enrollment continues to lag for girls around the world.

Every gender disparity demands laser focus. And, the internet is a building block on which many solutions can be built. Therefore, digital inclusion — the idea that the Internet is accessible, welcoming and safe for all — is essential so that all people, women included, can both contribute to and also reap the benefits of the open Web....

March 8, 2017
By Kaitlan Collins

Melania Trump (click here) hosted a luncheon in the State Dining Room at the White House Wednesday in honor of International Women’s Day.


The first lady received a standing ovation from the 50 or so guests when she entered the room, according to the pool report. Vice President Mike Pence’s wife Karen Pence, Kellyanne Conway, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Sen. Susan Collins, Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon and Ivanka Trump were all in attendance....

A magnificent finding in the world of Marine Mammal biology.

March 7, 2017
By Carl Engelking

The first underwater images of True’s beaked whales offered insights into their coloration patterns and group behavior.

True’s beaked whale (click here) sightings are so rare, that scientists who devote careers to studying these animals may never actually witness one swimming in the wild.

But thanks to an international team of scientists that compiled True’s beaked whale sightings, we can all watch the first underwater video of True’s beaked whales swimming near Pico Island in the Portuguese Azores. Researcher’s collection also included the first close-up images of a young calf of the same species, and a genetic analyses of two stranded whales....

The truth is the global community needs to set standards through the United Nations that are amendments to the "Law of the Sea" that protects all species including endangered marine mammals.

The global community does not have protections for fisheries. As a result countries that do protect their fisheries are sometimes invaded by illegal fishing vessels. International waters remain a place where exploitation still occurs. The United Nations should recognize this valuable resource and protect it more.

The protections should include ending any dumping into the oceans and seas, especially plastics that never degrade. Three quarters of the reason fisheries are in trouble is because of overfishing. Fisheries can be adversely effected by pollution including floating trash. If the oceans were clean, monitored and protected the fisheries would be far healthier and more abundant.

The oceans are the largest part of Earth's surface, does anyone actually believe if they were pollution free there would ever be overfishing?

First abortions, them contraception, then increased adoption rates and then basic health issues.

Planned Parenthood will survive without Donald Trump's gender bias.

March 6, 2017
By Maggie Haberman

The White House, (click here) concerned about the possible political repercussions of the Republican effort to defund Planned Parenthood, has proposed preserving federal payments to the group if it discontinues providing abortions.

The proposal, which was never made formally, has been rejected as an impossibility by officials at Planned Parenthood, which receives about $500 million annually in federal funding. That money helps pay for women’s health services the organization provides, not for abortion services.

“Let’s be clear: Federal funds already do not pay for abortions,” Dawn Laguens, the executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said on Monday. “Offering money to Planned Parenthood to abandon our patients and our values is not a deal that we will ever accept. Providing critical health care services for millions of American women is nonnegotiable.”

But the outreach to allies of Planned Parenthood is a glimpse of the internal struggle inside a White House torn between trying to satisfy the conservative base that elected President Trump and responding to the views of his daughter Ivanka Trump, who urged her father to tread carefully on the Planned Parenthood issue during the Republican primary contest....

When are men going to do their part? They have no problem treating ED, what are they doing about pregnancy? There should be a WARNING LABEL on any ED medication, "Caution: Could cause pregnancy."


March 6, 2017

“My body, my choice.” (click here) So say the signs at the pro-choice marches. It’s a great slogan. Unfortunately it does nothing to promote women’s rights. Feminists, progressives and educated elitist men have sold women a bill of goods.

No one would argue a woman’s rights. I’m just not sure abortion is one of them. One thing is for certain. By taking on the "right" of abortion, men are absolved of any rights as it pertains to a life that is half his. It also effectively absolves him of all his responsibility and dumps it all on the woman.

A little planning and self-control would make abortion a non-issue. Women need to demand that men do their part in proactively preventing an unwanted pregnancy. As long as biology and society’s default position places the lion's share of pregnancies responsibility on the woman, it seems counter productive for women to fight for the right to go it alone.

— Steve Lame, Des Moines

I think I feel left out of these policies and decisions.

This is a huge issue for car makers. I can really see the return of the "Old Car."

New car dealers will literally have entire 2017 inventories sitting on the lot while the used care salesman across the street will be selling out and looking for more.

This is due to the driverless cars again. I have on occasion mentioned "Big Brother" and vulnerability of the driver-less system. Well, here it is.

Practice parallel parking, it is good for you. A sense of accomplishment. Truly.

March 7, 2017
By Craig Timberg, Ellen Nakashima and Elizabeth Dwoskin

The latest revelations (click here) about U.S. government’s powerful hacking tools potentially takes surveillance right into the homes and hip pockets of billions of users worldwide, showing how a remarkable variety of every day devices can be turned to spy on their owners.

Televisions, smartphones and Internet-connected vehicles are all vulnerable to CIA hacking, according to the Wikileaks documents released Tuesday. The capabilities described include recording the sounds, images and the private text messages of users, even when they use encrypted apps to communicate. Vehicles, meanwhile, are vulnerable to a remote hacker gaining control, allowing “nearly undetectable assassinations.”

In the case of a tool called “Weeping Angel” for attacking Samsung SmartTVs, Wikileaks wrote, “After infestation, Weeping Angel places the target TV in a 'Fake-Off' mode, so that the owner falsely believes the TV is off when it is on, In 'Fake-Off' mode the TV operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the Internet to a covert CIA server.”

The documents, which The Washington Post has not independently confirmed, list supposed tools for cracking into such widely popular devices as Apple’s iPhone or the Android smartphones whose operating system is made by Google, but there are marked differences from the 2013 revelations by the National Security Agency’s former contractor Edward Snowden....

The photo is from the CIA museum. I don't recall ever hearing about the CIA directorate 1, 2, 3 or 4. Anyone?

The sign reads, "Analysis Informing American Policy." Hm.

March 7, 3027
By Camila Domonoske

...In February 2016, (click here) then-CIA Director John Brennan spoke with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about, in part, the agency's desire to expand its cybercapabilities.

"The technological changes are taking place at a warped speed," he said:

"So we here at CIA, we recently set up a fifth directorate for the first time in 50 years, a new directorate ... the directorate of digital innovation, so that we can understand all of the opportunities and challenges associated with that digital environment.

"I'm not a technological expert by any means, but I recognize that more and more human transactions and interactions take place in that cyber environment. And it profoundly affects all of our ways of life, and it affects the intelligence mission. So I want to make sure that for CIA to be able to fulfill its responsibilities in the years ahead, we understand what the pitfalls are, what the opportunities are, so that we are able to master that environment consistent with our authorities, so we can carry out our respective missions."

Mike Pompeo, the new head of the CIA under President Trump, said in a written questionnaire accompanying his confirmation hearing that he understood that the agency, "upon direction from the President and working in cooperation with other agencies when appropriate, has capabilities to perform a wide [array of] actions related to all forms of cybersecurity policies."...

Reading is fundamental.

The American Health Care Act has to have it's own webpage made easily accessible to the public just as the Affordable Care Act and Patient Protection Act (click here) did.

The link has a PDF and is AmericanHealthCareAct.pdf

COMMITTEE PRINT
Budget Reconciliation Legislative Recommendations Relating to Repeal and Replace of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

"Affordable Care Act and Patient Protection Act" (click here)

Link: PLAW-111pub/148.pdf

It can also be found here: https://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/about-the-law/

November 9, 2016
By David Reich and Richard Kogan

Republican leaders (click here) may well use a special legislative process called “reconciliation” to advance their fiscal policy agenda in 2017.  Created by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, reconciliation allows for expedited consideration of certain tax, spending, and debt limit legislation.  In the Senate, reconciliation bills aren’t subject to filibuster and the scope of amendments is limited, giving this process real advantages for enacting controversial budget and tax measures.  This paper addresses some frequently asked questions about reconciliation....

Reconciliation is a budget measure. RED IS THE ACA. Blue is the other one. The 21st Century Cures Act will appear in green.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TITLE I—ENERGY AND COMMERCE

Subtitle A—Patient Access to Public Health Programs

TITLE I—QUALITY, AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS

Subtitle A—Immediate Improvements in Health Care Coverage for All Americans

Republican legislation is somewhat simple and uses different numbers for their provisions. The ACA begins with Sec. 1001 under Subtitle A. So be aware that the Republican document begins with Sec. 101 and then goes on to quote the section of the ACA, ie; Sec. 101 cites (a) IN GENERAL - Subsection (b) of section 4002 of 7 as amended by section 5009 of the 21st Century Cures Act., is amended.

The "21st Century Cures Act" is not Obamacare/ACA. It is a free standing law. The "21st Century Cures Act" is cited by the Republicans and mixes it with Obamacare to write the changes to health care in the USA. 

December 7, 2016
By Mike DeBonis

...The 94 to 5 Senate vote (click here) Wednesday followed a 392 to 26 House vote last week. The bill, known as the 21st Century Cures Act, now heads to the desk of President Obama, who praised the bill Wednesday and said he would sign it.

The bill provides for $4.8 billion in new funding for the National Institutes of Health; of that, $1.8 billion is reserved for the “cancer moonshot” launched by Vice President Biden to accelerate research in that field. Another $1.6 billion is earmarked for brain diseases including Alzheimer’s. Also included are $500 million in new funding for the Food and Drug Administration and $1 billion in grants to help states deal with opioid abuse....

"21st Century Cures Act" (click here)

This is the same link: BILLS-114hr34enr.pdf

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SEC. 101. THE PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH FUND.

(a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (b) of section 4002 of 7 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 300u–11) (click here), as amended by section 5009 of the 21st Century Cures Act, is amended—

Below is how the Affordable Care Act works.

(a) Purpose

It is the purpose of this section to establish a Prevention and Public Health Fund (referred to in this section as the “Fund”), to be administered through the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Secretary, to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health programs to improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs.

(b) Funding

There are hereby authorized to be appropriated, and appropriated, to the Fund, out of any monies in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated—

(1) for fiscal year 2010, $500,000,000;

(2) for each of fiscal years 2012 through 2017, $1,000,000,000;

(3) for each of fiscal years 2018 and 2019, $1,250,000,000;

(4) for each of fiscal years 2020 and 2021, $1,500,000,000; and

(5) for fiscal year 2022, and each fiscal year thereafter, $2,000,000,000.

(c) Use of Fund

The Secretary shall transfer amounts in the Fund to accounts within the Department of Health and Human Services to increase funding, over the fiscal year 2008 level, for programs authorized by the Public Health Service Act [42 U.S.C. 201 et seq.], for prevention, wellness, and public health activities including prevention research, health screenings, and initiatives, such as the Community Transformation grant program, the Education and Outreach Campaign Regarding Preventive Benefits, and immunization programs.

(d) Transfer authority

The Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives may provide for the transfer of funds in the Fund to eligible activities under this section, subject to subsection (c).

March 7, 2017
By Mike DeBonis, Amy Goldstein and Kelsey Snell

...“Keep the ‘Cadillac’ tax in place? (click here) Keep Medicaid in place until 2020?” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus. “We didn’t have Medicaid expansion in the bill we sent to President Obama, but we have it in the one we send to President Trump? That makes no sense to me.”...

Mr. Jordan states Medicaid will be in place until 2020. No doubt the funding set up by the ACA will remain in place, but, those monies were also for the Medicaid expansion. So that needs to be cleared up. But, if the monies from Obamacare/ACA remain in place then Medicaid must pick up the slack from the Medicaid Expansion. If Medicaid is not picking up the slack from Medicaid Expansion, then why is the funding in place for it?

...“Obamacare 2.0,” tweeted Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), a libertarian who frequently breaks with GOP leadership....

There is a presidential election in 2020. Guess what will be on the front burner for that one?

WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING? The states should be demanding accountability to this change in the law. Evidently, it appears to consolidate Medicare and the Medicare Expansion. Slight of "Political" hand. Or is the money simply disappearing into the Republican budget?

End for today.

Michigan and Pennsylvania are at least two states with legislative agendas to legalize online gambling. 

Is everyone asleep out there?

What is ALEC up to?

Monies will move from education lotteries to licensed private online casinos. The state legislatures are seeing additional revenues. The monies collected by the states are not exclusive as if nothing else will change. The education lotteries are not immediate gratification nor do Americans have to leave the home to participate in online gambling. There are many reasons to oppose the online gambling. They will probably be an exclusive extension to the casinos. 

Not the truth police? The President has an untrustworthy Secretary of Defense and no one tells the President?

Amazing. Comey needs to be replaced. I know there is a conflict of interest with AG Sessions and stupid PR claims by Trump, but, what is this mess with Comey? He decides to be loyal to Trump regardless of the threat to the USA with Michael Flynn, but, when he believes there is political fodder with Clinton it is "Game on." I don't trust him.

March 6, 2017
By Steve Benen

The day before Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, (click here) then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-CIA Director John Brennan wanted to tell the incoming White House team that Michael Flynn had been lying about his contacts with Russia. FBI Director James Comey disagreed.

As the Washington Post reported last month, Comey pushed back against the idea “primarily on the grounds that notifying the new administration could complicate the agency’s investigation” into Russia’s intervention on Trump’s behalf. Quoting a source familiar with Comey’s thinking at the time, the FBI director didn’t think the bureau should be “the truth police.”

“In other words, if there’s not a violation of law here, it’s not our job to go and tell the vice president that he’s been lied to,” the source said....

Comey is playing with power. It is a real heady game and I am sure he has no problem living with his political volleys either. I think he is a danger to the country. No, I take that back. Comey is a known danger to the country.

The lies about President Obama are an attempt by Trump to raise his polls. He loves polls. He ran with them in 2016. It is a stunt to bring President Obama into a national food fight.

I think President Obama can take care of himself.

The American people don't know what they have with Comey. We don't know what sort of priorities he has within the department either. Comey is a problem.

Congress is oppressing the will of the USA people!

This is what the people want. What seems to be the problem? Cronies? The power of political money? Is that the problem?

The Republicans need to remove their lapel pins. They don't display the American flag, they display the Republican flag.

March 5, 2016
By Susan Page

...By 58%-35%, those surveyed support an independent inquiry, an idea backed by Democratic leaders and a handful of congressional Republicans who argue that a special prosecutor or bipartisan commission should be appointed. White House officials and leaders of the GOP-controlled House and Senate say an ongoing FBI investigation and oversight by congressional committees are sufficient....

Europeans like European cars. There is nothing wrong with that. I congratulate GM on the sale.

March 6, 2017
By Steven Overly

General Motors (click here) is selling its two major European brands to French automaker PSA Group and pulling back from the world’s third-largest auto market, where the company has struggled to turn a profit for nearly two decades.

GM’s Opel and Vauxhall brands, as well as the European arm of its financial division, were valued at about $2.3 billion in the transaction. If the deal clears regulators, it is expected to close by the end of the year, the companies said.

PSA Group will then become the second-largest automaker in Europe behind Volkswagen.

The sale includes 11 manufacturing facilities and one engineering center that collectively employ about 40,000 people, according to the companies. GM will incur a non-cash accounting charge of $4 billion to $4.5 billion as a result of the sale....

GM's CEO has a much healthier vision for the company. Building facilities and cars in Europe has not worked and will not work. Building cars in the USA for the USA market and exporting them will work. It is the way it is suppose to work.

August 5, 2017
By David Sheperson

Washington — U.S. auto imports (click here) hit a new all-time high in the first half of the year — as auto production is surging in lower wage countries such as Mexico and a strong dollar is hindering American exports.

The overall U.S. trade deficit rose 7.1 percent — adjusted for seasonal fluctuations — to $43.8 billion in June. Autos, which includes vehicles, parts and engines, accounted for more than one-third of the trade deficit as U.S. auto imports rose to $29.8 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

U.S. exports of autos are down $3 billion in the first half of 2015 to $74.8 billion. Auto exports were flat in June at $12.6 billion — up just $62 million.

By contrast, U.S. imports of autos rose by $10.8 billion to $171.5 billion in the first six months of the year....

...The U.S. sent Japan about $1 billion in total auto exports in the first half of the year, while Japan sent the United States $25 billion in cars, trucks and parts.

Both nations are fighting in the ongoing free trade talks over rules that would make each country more attractive for production.

The U.S. auto trade deficit is soaring. In May, the United States imported $29.4 billion in autos — nearly as much as July. In the first half of the year, the U.S. imported $171.5 billion in autos — up $10.8 billion.

Auto imports have been rising steadily. Americans bought $254 billion in imported automobiles in 2011, $298 billion in 2012, $309 billion in 2013 and $328 billion last year. The auto trade deficit is also rising — it was $156 billion in 2013 and $169 billion last year....

Japan as an ally needs the USA market, but, does it need this much of the USA market?

Interestingly, Japan's economy is not impoverished. It is not Third World. He has many programs to support it's people. It has a higher minimum wage than the USA, yet, it has products the American consumer still purchases over that of a USA product.

Imagine that, a First World country that actually values it's people and still sells products on the USA market with exceptional results. The Japanese people have a high quality of life.

March 6, 2017

New York - Japanese automakers logged record sales (click here) in the United States in 2015 as the overall market swelled to an unprecedented level, driven by the stronger economy and robust demand for sport utility vehicles and trucks, Autodata Corp. data showed Tuesday.

Manufacturers sold 17.47 million cars in 2015, up 5.7 percent from the year before. The figure broke the previous record of 17.40 million cars sold in 2000, according to the U.S. research company.

Low fuel prices intensified the shift toward SUVs and pickup trucks and away from hybrid and electric vehicles. Light trucks made up 52.1 percent of the market in 2015, compared to 50.1 percent in 2014 and 48.8 percent in 2013, according to Autodata....

...Among Japanese automakers, Toyota Motor Corp. reported all-time high sales of 344,601 for its Lexus luxury brand, up 10.7 percent. Toyota’s overall sales expanded 5.3 percent to 2,499,313 units — its third-best annual result after 2.62 million in 2007 and 2.54 million in 2006. Japan’s top automaker was the third-largest player in the United States.

“December closed out an all-time, best-ever year with sales we couldn’t have predicted,” Lexus group Vice President Jeff Bracken said in a press release, adding that the brand is “well positioned for 2016.”...

"The Trump Backlash" is oppressing the USA Constitution.

March 4, 2017
By Ellen McCarthy

Apparently, in Trump’s view, (click here) long-simmering feuds regarding his old reality show “The Apprentice” don’t qualify as trivial.

On Friday the show’s new host, Arnold Schwarzenegger, released a statement saying he would not return for a second season. “I loved every second of working with NBC and Mark Burnett. Everyone — from the celebrities to the crew to the marketing department — was a straight 10, and I would absolutely work with all of them again on a show that doesn’t have this baggage.”

Schwarzenegger later explained that the “baggage” to which he was referring is Trump. “With Trump being involved in the show, people have a bad taste and don’t want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show,” he told Empire magazine....

"Ah"nold was the one person that could not cause Trump agida. He is not born in the USA so he could never go from "The Apprentice" to POTUS.

The USA Constitution is oppressed because Republicans are afraid of taking on the issues that support impeachment, namely, Mr. Trump's continued practice in private business and hiring relatives to sensitive positions in the White House. There are certainly other issues supporting impeachment, but, what difference does it make if Congress won't uphold the law?

Paul Ryan plays footsies with Trump all the time. Will Ryan actually have the guts to protect the US Constitution? No. Why? Because he will fall out of grace with his constituency. The cronies are winning all kinds of favors because Congress has no back bone. We don't have a country anymore, we have anarchy.

The Christian Bible won in the case of a young man who is transgender.  So much for the separation of church and state IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The Robert's Court is lame. Whatever happened to separate and equal? What happened to Brown vs Board of Ed? The US Constitution is clear, there has to be room for everyone and all citizens are to be treated equally under the law. The USA Constitution demands a public school to accommodate all student issues, even transgender.

March 6, 2017
By Adam Liptik

Washington - The Supreme Court (click here) announced on Monday that it would not hear a major case on transgender rights after all, acting after the Trump administration changed the federal government’s position on whether public schools had to allow transgender youths to use bathrooms that matched their gender identities.

In a one-sentence order, the Supreme Court vacated an appeal’s court decision in favor of a transgender boy, Gavin Grimm, and sent the case back for further consideration in light of the new guidance from the Trump administration....

Kim Jong Un is celebrating Arbor Day early.

March 5, 2017
By Anna Fifield

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Mangyongdae Revolutionary School and planted trees with its students last week.

Tokyo — North Korea launched four missiles (click here) Monday morning, a provocative barrage that coincided both with joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises on the southern half of the peninsula and with the opening of the annual National People’s Congress in China.

The launches follow a remarkable month in which Kim Jong Un’s regime tested a solid-fuel rocket that it says is part of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States and in which the regime is accused of assassinating the leader’s half brother.

Both actions have angered allies and adversaries in the region, and Monday’s launches will only exacerbate that....

2 March 2017

People hold photos of their family members, who they say were killed due to their alleged involvement in illegal drugs, during a protest against extra-judicial killings (EJK) while marching in an open area of a Roman Catholic Church in Paranaque city, metro Manila, Philippines