Take Me to Church by Hozier (click here for official webpage - thank you)

My lover's got humour
She's the giggle at a funeral
Knows everybody's disapproval
I should've worshipped her sooner
If the heavens ever did speak
She's the last true mouthpiece
Every Sunday's getting more bleak
A fresh poison each week
"We were born sick"
You heard them say it
My church offers no absolutes
She tells me "worship in the bedroom"
The only heaven I'll be sent to
Is when I'm alone with you
I was born sick, but I love it
Command me to be well

Amen, Amen, Amen

Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life

Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life

If I'm a pagan of the good times
My lover's the sunlight
To keep the goddess on my side
She demands a sacrifice
Drain the whole sea
Get something shiny
Something meaty for the main course
That's a fine looking high horse
What you got in the stable?
We've a lot of starving faithful
That looks tasty
That looks plenty
This is hungry work

Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life

Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life

No masters or kings when the ritual begins
There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin
In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene
Only then I am human
Only then I am clean

Amen, Amen, Amen

Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life

Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life

Winner (click here) of Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017 Biplab Hazra/Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017

November 7, 2017

An image (click here) of a baby elephant fleeing a mob that has just set it on fire has won top entry in a pan-Asian wildlife photography competition, the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017.

Biplab Hazra's picture shows a calf on fire as it and an adult elephant run for their lives in eastern India.

Announcing the award, Sanctuary magazine said "this sort of humiliation... is routine".

The photo was taken in West Bengal, where human-elephant conflict is rife.

It's unclear what eventually happened to the two elephants in the award-winning picture, which was taken in Bankura district. (Pictured in the maps to the right.)

The district has often been in the news for human deaths caused by encounters with elephants.

The magazine's note accompanying the photograph explains that this was also a case of human-elephant conflict.

The note says a "crowd of jeering men" were flinging "flaming tar balls and crackers" at the two elephants when Biplab Hazra took the photograph.

He recalls the calf screaming in "confusion" as it fled.

"For these smart, gentle, social animals who have roamed the subcontinent for centuries, hell is now and here," he added.

The photograph has attracted a lot of attention on social media

Mainak Mazumder, who lives in Bankura, commented that villagers were responsible for "heavy habitat destruction" and that "elephants have been subjected to terrible abuses and tortures".

But, he said, elephants also have "wreaked havoc" by destroying crops, damaging farmland, and have "killed innocent people".

There was also a picture that preceded the one with the elephant calf. In award-winning picture, the female elephant still has her right foot on fire.

The Mayurjharna Elephant Reserve (click here) is the only elephant reserve in India. These are Indian elephants and not African elephants. In my opinion, the destruction of habitat is the same as pouching. If animals have no land to live on they will all be dead.

I am certain the photo was chosen because of the alarming reality of this conflict between men and elephants.

Everyone knows the passive nature of elephants until they are alarmed and then they protect themselves and their young. The problem in India with these elephants is the lack of devoted land enforced by the government to end the conflict.

Unfortunately, poaching and habitat loss is real in nearly every corner of the world. Valuing wildlife is important. Such values add to the quality of life and definition of compassion on a wider scale. But, these elephants have to live somewhere and they need land to do that.

The government of India obviously needs help in managing it's wildlife reserves and should turn to international organizations that can provide insight, methods of management and assist in ending this conflict. It is horrible. The elephants are not valued by the people. There needs to be education and understanding to the plight of the elephants. I am certain India does not want to create a situation where elephants are extinct in their country.

People need to be educated about the elephants, the preserve which is government sanctions and the very real danger in confronting this primarily docile animals. It is amazing, at times, to realize how much people do not understand their own problems. In the case of these elephants, it is obvious there is a great fear of them without understanding the animals at all. If all the villagers know is the confrontation, there can be no understanding except to end their existence.

This is the departure from normal temperature map.

Temperature Departure
10 November 2017
Intellicast Map (click here)

The trees in northwest Michigan haven't gotten the work there is a climate crisis. They still have their summer leaves, when 23 F degrees hit last night.

To the right is a photo of green leaves swept from the trees below when snow squalls came through.

Pedophiles come in both genders. Victims have to speak out. It is not their fault.

November 9, 2017
By Mark Gokavi and Jeremy P. Kelley

A Kettering Fairmont High School substitute teacher (click here) faces informal charges of sexual battery after school officials became aware Wednesday morning of allegations of a possible inappropriate relationship with a male student.

The arrest of Madeline J. Marx, 23, comes days after a North Dayton School of Discovery charter school employee was placed on leave while Dayton police investigate claims of sexual misconduct.

Kettering City Schools Superintendent Scott Inskeep said a student made administration aware of a possible inappropriate relationship between Marx and a male student.

“Immediately, the administration began to investigate and also called Kettering police, who very quickly brought in a detective,” Inskeep said. “We have a full-time resource officer at the high school also, and they began their investigation.”

Marx was physically removed from the school Wednesday....

Just what we need in the USA Senate, a pedophile. I thought this was over with Mark Foley.

November 9, 2017
By Stephanie McCrummen, Beth Reinhard and Alice Crites

...Alone with Corfman, (click here) Moore chatted with her and asked for her phone number, she says. Days later, she says, he picked her up around the corner from her house in Gadsden, drove her about 30 minutes to his home in the woods, told her how pretty she was and kissed her. On a second visit, she says, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes. He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.

“I wanted it over with — I wanted out,” she remembers thinking. “Please just get this over with. Whatever this is, just get it over.” Corfman says she asked Moore to take her home, and he did.

Two of Corfman’s childhood friends say she told them at the time that she was seeing an older man, and one says Corfman identified the man as Moore. Wells says her daughter told her about the encounter more than a decade later, as Moore was becoming more prominent as a local judge.

Aside from Corfman, three other women interviewed by The Washington Post in recent weeks say Moore pursued them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s, episodes they say they found flattering at the time, but troubling as they got older. None of the three women say that Moore forced them into any sort of relationship or sexual contact.

Wendy Miller says she was 14 and working as a Santa’s helper at the Gadsden Mall when Moore first approached her, and 16 when he asked her on dates, which her mother forbade. Debbie Wesson Gibson says she was 17 when Moore spoke to her high school civics class and asked her out on the first of several dates that did not progress beyond kissing. Gloria Thacker Deason says she was an 18-year-old cheerleader when Moore began taking her on dates that included bottles of Mateus Rosé wine. The legal drinking age in Alabama was 19....

Where's Waldo?

Former Congressman Mark Foley (red shirt middle of frame) sits in the audience as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump looks back at the crowd during his campaign event at the BB&T Center on August 10, 2016 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Trump continued to campaign for his run for president of the United States.

The child pornography business in "The West" has been flourishing. It is flourishing because the countries of the Pacific and Asia have not curbed their habits yet.

May 8, 2017

...The tip that led authorities to Deakin came, (click here) as they often do, when an online international money transfer service notified an American internet provider about a suspicious account. Western Union, PayPal and others have reported concerns in the past. (Business names in this case are being withheld because of the ongoing investigation.) Records in Deakin’s townhouse included debit cards for money transfer services, including Smart Money and Payoneer.

The raid began just before dawn, as seven vanloads of police, investigators, lawyers and social workers rolled out of Manila, past rice paddies and water buffalo, and into a town that was once a large US military base, now a major red light district. The vans passed Fields Avenue, a notorious street lined with bars, strip clubs and massage parlors; shops advertise Viagra and lingerie-clad women beckon customers.

When they reached Deakin’s apartment, a small cadre went to his door. Even as they burst in, he was streaming illicit content through the Tor network, which disguised his identity. Agents said he had a webpage open to wipe his phone clean. They tied him up with the first thing they could grab, an iPhone charging cord, before he could hit the button....

Moore cannot be allowed into the US Senate. He would cause a great deal of damage to the national security agencies that seek to end the exploitation of men, women and children caught up in human sex trafficking. 

Removing Moore, who hides behind religion and stone tablets, is not an option. His political career has to be over.

November 10, 2017
By Noland D, McCaskill 

Calling Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore “unfit for office,” (click here) Mitt Romney on Friday advised the fellow Republican to “step aside” following allegations that he had a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl when he was 32 years old.

“Innocent until proven guilty is for criminal convictions, not elections,” Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP presidential nominee, tweeted. “I believe Leigh Corfman. Her account is too serious to ignore. Moore is unfit for office and should step aside.”...

Enough with the bizarre of candidates and appointees that want government power for their own purposes.

Democracy values truth, not loyalty. This is the scary part and why pardoning Arpaio requires concern.

November 10, 2017
By Denis Slattery

The campaign aide (click here) who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI distorted the truth out of loyalty to President Trump, according to a report on Friday.

George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, misled investigators about his contacts with a professor who he believed had deep ties to Russia because he didn’t want to contradict Trump’s public denials of collusion with the Kremlin, a source told ABC News.

Papadopoulos was arrested in July and accepted a plea deal, admitting that he lied about interactions he had with a professor in England who offered “dirt” on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton....

This is not a game. It is the country. There is no room for loyalty when it is not centered on the truth. This is why the "W" administration was scrutinized and Nixon resigned. False loyalties cause the USA harm and kill American troops. Considering the depth Flynn was going in pursuit of personal wealth, the idea loyalty comes before the country should be of utmost concern to all Americans.

I hope the slap on the wrist Papadopoulos received was worth it.

November 10, 2017

To the left is Baghdadi while at a USA military prison Camp Bucca, Iraq. You know a POW.

Take a good look, if he is hiding in plain sight as bin Laden was, he might be caught. Then again, maybe he has taken to the Pakistani tribal area. Or, he could be in Europe after he fled from Greece via Turkey to the islands of Kos, Chios, Lesvos and Samo.

He can be no value to Hezbollah. They should secure him and hand him to the Hague.

Beirut (Reuters) - A Hezbollah-run media unit (click here) said on Friday Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was reported to have been in the Syrian town of Albu Kamal during the Syrian army and its allies’ operation to clear it.

The military unit did not say what had happened to Baghdadi, give further details or identify its sources.

The U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State said on Friday it had no “releasable information” on Baghdadi’s whereabouts.

Syria’s army declared victory over Islamic State on Thursday, saying its capture of the jihadists’ last town in the country marked the collapse of their three-year rule in the region.

But the army and its allies are still fighting Islamic State in desert areas close to Albu Kamal near the border with Iraq, the Syrian army said on Thursday.

On Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamic State has taken back control of half of Albu Kamal.

The capture of the border town had sealed “the fall of the terrorist Daesh organization’s project in the region”, an army statement said on Thursday, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

This is the character of the Trump Administration? This is a very bad story to come out of a party occupying the White House.

This is more than disillusionment, it is scary to realize there were foreign agents in Michael Flynn with access to the National Security Systems. I am afraid for the country.

The USA is supposed to be a country of laws. The laws are not optional. Where does anyone ever find the will to undermine the very fabric of this country to satisfy foreign governments demands?

I am worried this sort of scenario is a POSSIBILITY in the USA. The POSSIBILITY was at one time not possible. What is going on that should never take place?

I think I am grateful for the dissonance between Tillerson and Trump. Congress needs to act to certify the Iran agreement. This is not difficult and should have been done already. The certification and additional sanctions are very separate issues.

September 28, 2017

...Turkey (click here) has been seeking the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan whose supporters are blamed for trying to overthrow Erdogan’s government in July 2016.

Gulen has denied any role in the coup attempt, in which 250 people were killed. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said the Turkish government has yet to provide enough evidence for the U.S. Justice Department to act.

Thousands of people have been detained in a crackdown since the failed coup, including American Christian missionary Andrew Brunson, who ran a small church in Izmir on Turkey’s western coast.

Brunson has been held since October. Turkish media has said the charges against him include membership of Gulen’s network, considered a terrorist organization by the Turkish government. The United States has said that Brunson has been wrongfully imprisoned and has called for him to be released....

Gulen is wanted in Turkey because he was the founder of a movement. If Turkey can publicly prosecute him, the movement will then be publicly prosecuted as well. It isn't as though there are facts stated that Gulen was orchestrating the attempted military coupe. "Handing over" Gulen to Turkey is Erogan's method to end any future uprising. That is not the way the USA conducts itself. The facts have to be clear and extradition would have to be presented. Simply, 'handing over' a human being with an identity pleasing to a political outcome is not what the USA does.

IF EVER such methods were to exist in the USA to allow injustice to become invisible, it would happen to more than Gulen. I am worried such outcomes were even within the scope of the Oval Office and it's cabinet, yet even entertained for a payoff. This is unthinkable, yet it was a possibility. The extremism in the USA is within the reins of power. Every American should be realizing the depth of the corruption our country is facing. I am afraid for my country and the corruption within it's seats of power.

Vladimir, check the Russian hackers from the KGB, you assume too much.

November 9, 2017
By David Filipov

Moscow — Russian President Vladi­mir Putin (click here) on Thursday accused the United States of trying to interfere with Russia’s presidential campaign in retaliation for what the Kremlin dismisses as unfounded U.S. allegations that Moscow interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential vote.

One the eve of a possible meeting with President Trump at an economic forum in Vietnam, Putin suggested that the United States is pressing for the disqualification of Russian athletes at the 2018 Winter Olympics as a way of creating discontent with his tenure as president.

The International Olympic Committee this month disqualified two Russian cross-country skiers. With fewer than 100 days before the beginning of the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, the IOC has still not made a decision about whether to let the country that hosted the 2014 Games participate....

Try interrogating Markus Hess. I think he is a double agent.

February 16, 1990

Celle, West Germany — Three West Germans (click here) were convicted Thursday of selling the Soviet Union information they got by sneaking into Western military databases using a home computer and a telephone.

In West Germany's first computer hacker trial, ex-croupier Peter Carl, 35, and two computer wizards were given suspended jail terms of up to two years.

Markus Hess, 28, and Dirk Brzezinski, 30, were said to have broken--or hacked--into military and industrial computer networks in the United States, Europe and the Far East to obtain information they sold to the Soviet KGB secret police for $54,000.

Carl, the main contact man, made numerous trips to East Berlin and handed over floppy disks full of data to a KGB agent code-named Sergei, who operated from the Soviet trade mission.

The three defendants, who faced a maximum sentence of five years, smiled at each other as presiding Judge Leopold Spiller read the verdict at the district court in Celle near Hanover.

Explaining the decision to give sentences much lighter than the prosecution had demanded, Spiller said: "No serious damage to West Germany has arisen."

Then again, there is "The Cuckoo's Egg (click here). All the good ole boys, Vladimir. Only, they really aren't that old, right?

Cliff Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab when a 75-cent accounting error alerted him to the presence of an unauthorized user on his system. The hacker's code name was "Hunter" -- a mysterious invader who managed to break into U.S. computer systems and steal sensitive military and security information. Stoll began a one-man hunt of his own: spying on the spy. It was a dangerous game of deception, broken codes, satellites, and missile bases -- a one-man sting operation that finally gained the attention of the CIA...and ultimately trapped an international spy ring fueled by cash, cocaine, and the KGB.

The dead enders of the Republican Party are getting their chance at power and it is so very "W"rong.

The White Supremacists, the religious bigots and at last, the BELIEF that the LGBT community are all pedophiles. Amazing.

November 9, 2017
By Andrew Kaczynski and Chris Massie

Roy Moore, (click here) the Republican nominee for Senate in Alabama, ruled in a 1990s divorce case that a woman who had a lesbian affair couldn't visit her children unsupervised or with her partner, writing that the "minor children will be detrimentally affected by the present lifestyle" of the mother.

Moore, then a circuit judge, was ultimately removed from the case by an Alabama appeals court after the woman and her attorneys argued that he couldn't be impartial because of his views on homosexuality, according to public court documents reviewed by CNN's KFile.

The case took place years before Moore garnered national attention for his public battle over a Ten Commandments statue and his more recent refusal to enforce the Supreme Court's ruling allowing same-sex marriage nationwide, both of which resulted in Moore's removal from the Alabama Supreme Court. It offers an early glimpse of how Moore's interpretation of the Bible and morality would inform his decisions as a public official....

The USA Congress has promised to act on these issues and have not:

One might ask WHAT diverted the USA Congress from resolving these issues. MONEY in the way of taxes has diverted the Congressional attention to these issues.

Iran Nuclear Deal:

Trump just doesn't get it. Governing is on a continuum, not a 'takeover.' President Trump is out of the picture when it comes to the USA Congress to CERTIFY the Iran Nuclear Deal.

November 7, 2017
By Arshad Mohammad

Washington (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers signaled (click here) they plan to ensure the United States complies with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s misgivings about the pact, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said on Tuesday....

The USA Congressional leaders, Senator McConnell and Speaker Ryan, need to get this done. This is a simple bill to certify the findings of the IAEA as Secretary Tillerson stated after reviewing the document. Again, this is a simple bill that does not carry with it additional negotiations or rules. There is nothing to clarify.

Donald Trump has placed himself outside the authority of the certification when he refused to certify the findings of the IAEA after Secretary Tillerson stated Iran was in compliance. What is astounding about Trump, is that he refused to certify the agreement while demanding a new deal. Why would any ally or Iran enter into still yet more negotiations? Trump can't stand by the hard work of previous Secretaries of State and their allied members, why would there be any expectation that a new deal would be certified by Trump or Congress. 

The USA is not a toy. It does not have shareholders. The USA is a country with a history back to 1776. Before that it was a British colony. The progress the USA makes as a country is played by completely different rules than Wall Street or the Trump gambling tables. When the USA enters into a treaty it is with the understanding the treaty is long standing and achieves it's intentions and goals. Governance in the Oval Office of the country is not accomplished by promising the new dice are not loaded.

November 7, 2017
By Gardiner Harris

Washington — The European Union’s top diplomat (click here) issued yet another stern warning on Tuesday that the Iran nuclear agreement that was reached in 2015 could not be reopened for negotiation or changed, as President Trump has vowed to do.

“Renegotiating part of the agreement or the entire agreement is not an option,” said the diplomat, Federica Mogherini, who serves as the bloc’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.

Last month, Mr. Trump promised to walk away from the accord unless it was amended to permanently block Tehran from building nuclear weapons or intercontinental missiles. But Mr. Trump did not scrap the deal entirely, as he has the authority to do, instead kicking to Congress the immediate decision about how to address what he and many Republicans view as flaws in the agreement.

Preserving the nuclear accord is a top priority for the European Union, and Ms. Mogherini said that key legislators on Capitol Hill and White House officials had assured her that the United States would not violate the deal....

November 7, 2017

Paris (Reuters) - Europe must make clear (click here) how it will react if the United States pulls out of the multinational nuclear deal with Iran and do more to encourage international banks to return to the country, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday.

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump broke ranks with European allies, Russia and China by refusing to re-certify Iran’s compliance with its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, reached during Barack Obama’s tenure....

Deadly Gun Bump Stocks:

The USA Congress while promising to standardize the safety of guns in ending the sale of the "bump stock," will no doubt fail to do so and simply call it a States Rights Issue. Congress needs to act on a federal level to ensure there are NO BUMP STOCKS for sale anywhere in the USA.

November 4, 2017
By Chris Benderev

Republican Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito of Massachusetts (click here) signed a bill Friday, approved one day earlier by the state's Democrat-led Legislature, outlawing so-called bump stocks, accessories that allow semi-automatic firearms to mimic the rapid firing action of machine guns.

Massachusetts is the first state to enact a ban on bump stocks in the wake of last month's shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest in modern American history.

Authorities say the gunman responsible for the massacre, which left 58 people dead and hundreds wounded, used bump stocks to allow his semi-automatic weapons to rain down considerably more bullets on the unsuspecting crowd during the attack.

Bump stocks attach to semi-automatic weapons and enable sustained firing by using the force of the weapon's kickback to bounce the firearm against the shooter's trigger finger over and over.

The newly approved ban provides a 90-day grace period for bump stock owners to discard their devices....

The Massachusetts law is absolutely the best outcome to citizens. It ends the sale of the Bump Stock in Massachusetts, but, also removes it from influence within the state. Yes, influence. What occurs when these atrocities take place is the gun community running to buy up all the dangerous pieces and guns. Such mass killings should not have a profit motive or a money raising opportunity for the gun manufacturers or the gun lobby.

By removing the Bump Stocks from within the Massachusetts borders the danger AND REASON of ownership disappears. The warped ideology of the gun community is that once the public is aware of the capacity to kill, the danger is there forever, hence the rush to purchase the next greater danger, in this case the "Bump Stock." I am confident there is no allowance for importation from other states or any sales from the internet into Massachusetts. The danger is removed and not ever to be propagated again. The Massachusetts State Bureau of Investigation can now scan the gun sales on the internet and end the practice of illegal sales in the state.

Realizing the danger is INTERSTATE and not intrastate, the USA Congress has the greatest responsibility of ending this danger to citizens.

The manufacturer of the Bump Stock and the stores that sell them should take those monies and commit to a Victims of the Las Vegas Murders Trust Fund.
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Every mass murderers friend, "Slide Fire" (click here) will be selling to killers again.

November 7, 2017
By Brian Mann

One of America's (click here) leading and most controversial gun-accessory makers says it will resume sales Tuesday of a device known as a "bump stock."

Bump stocks dramatically accelerate the rate-of-fire of semi-automatic rifles, allowing them to shoot almost as fast as fully-automatic machine guns, which are far more tightly regulated and expensive in the U.S.

Slide Fire, a company based in Moran, Texas, suspended sales of its bump stock line of products in early October. The decision came after it was revealed that Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock used similar devices when he sprayed a crowd of concert-goers with bullets, leaving 58 people dead. "We have temporarily suspended accepting new orders while we work to replenish inventory," the company said on its website at the time.

Bump stocks work by causing the firearm to bounce rapidly against the shooter's trigger finger. In a notice to customers emailed Monday, Slide Fire said that it will once again begin accepting orders for "limited sales of several products." The company lists a variety of bump stocks that are currently available, many of them designed for use with AR-15 assault rifles....

Where are the teamsters? This level of exploitation of human labor is called human trafficking.

June 16, 2017
By Brett Murphy

Los Angeles — Samuel Talavera Jr. did everything his bosses asked. (click here)

Most days, the trucker would drive more than 16 hours straight hauling LG dishwashers and Kumho tires to warehouses around Los Angeles, on their way to retail stores nationwide.

He rarely went home to his family. At night, he crawled into the back of his cab and slept in the company parking lot.

For all of that, he took home as little as 67 cents a week....

I can't imagine another profession in the USA that needs a strong union more. They will happily pay the union fees to realize they are experiencing human rights violations. This form of trucking is some of the most dangerous as well. I have to wonder how many deaths have taken place on those docks realizing the extent the drivers work through exhaustion.

...A yearlong investigation by the USA TODAY Network found that port trucking companies in southern California have spent the past decade forcing drivers to finance their own trucks by taking on debt they could not afford. Companies then used that debt as leverage to extract forced labor and trap drivers in jobs that left them destitute.

If a driver quit, the company seized his truck and kept everything he had paid towards owning it.

If drivers missed payments, or if they got sick or became too exhausted to go on, their companies fired them and kept everything. Then they turned around and leased the trucks to someone else.

Drivers who manage to hang on to their jobs sometimes end up owing money to their employers – essentially working for free. Reporters identified seven different companies that have told their employees they owe money at week’s end....

Personally, I see these drivers as an extension of the "Longshoremen." They need to work on the same priorities including any strike. They should be family to each other.

Shipping docks are dangerous by the nature of the business. Human beings should never be alone in that job.

The American Red Cross is the scapegoat to government failure.

November 7, 2017
By Sean Rossman, Eleanor Dearman and John C. Mortiz

For the American Red Cross, (click here) Hurricane Harvey presented a perfect chance at redemption.

A fast and efficient response would have shown critics the organization has learned from its past mistakes and is a capable partner when disaster strikes. But instead, say many Texas officials and residents, the Red Cross floundered and failed to provide needed help....

The problem has been since 2005 and is today, the destructive capacity of the Category Five Hurricane. There isn't anything a 'rescue organization' can do when the infrastructure is gone. The only agency anywhere that can effectively BEGIN to recover from such a devastating storm is the USA Army Corp. I am amused by the current criticism, yes amused, to listen to the fact there were ONLY SIX ARMY CORP UNITS in Puerto Rico. ONLY SIX.

The Mainland has needs, too.

The FACT is completely obvious, the Climate Crisis is real and human beings have little effect on it's effects AFTER THE FACT.

The enemy is not the American Red Cross, which was taking heat from the media as they administered to the people of Texas. Harvey is a wake up call as were the storms that destroyed the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. This is the Climate Crisis and the American politicians will HIDE from their responsibility in denying the burgeoning global emergency.

Harvey took dry land from the USA. The former dry land is now permanently underwater. I suppose the American Red Cross is supposed to part the sea, too.

...Flood waters around Houston (click here) had substantially receded by Aug. 31 (middle image), while flooding had increased across Louisiana, eastern Arkansas, and western Tennessee as then Tropical Storm Harvey passed over the area. The far right image shows the change in flooded area between Aug. 27 and Aug. 31, with regions showing the most flooding recession depicted in yellow and orange shades and those where flooding had increased depicted in blue shades....

Louisiana should think, "Crab Pods." Oh, wait. The oil. Oh, well.

The USA needs to return to mechanical voting machines or paper ballots. Enough of this computer mess. Political grassroots are real people and not a computer email list.

Donna Brazile, "Don't underestimate what the Russian did...they corrupted our files...they wiped us out."

The Clinton Campaign's fault in bailing out the DNC, was their judgment in that there was incompetence because of the empty treasury. There were highly qualified people within the DNC still very willing to run a strong campaign.

The Clinton Campaign measured success in dollars and not people.

Donna Brazile as right in every way in writing her book, "Hacks: The Inside Story." Everyone sincerely interested in the sovereignty of the USA needs to read it.

The political process needs to be protected in the USA and the Supreme Court does not see that for the vision of big dollar donors. The idea money is a citizen is pure idiocy. The dollar is the currency of the USA and it has status, but, the Supreme Court incompetently gave it rights.

"What happens when the super rich write the rules? They fail." (click here)

Just to examine the USA Supreme Court's "money citizen." Has any American political process been handed over to a single power? The country defines itself as a democracy with a free election process that requires the voice of the people is heard. Why would the USA Supreme Court hand over the entire election process to one citizen, money?

The 2008 global economic collapse should have jailed many capitalists on Wall Street. That didn't happen because the citizen responsible for all the corruption and collapse was an American citizen called money.

The banks responsible for the economic collapse lived in the USA and they paid money to the government rather than serving time.

The Paradise Papers, the internal documents of a Bermuda law firm, reveal a problem far more pernicious than the unethical conduct by tens of thousands of wealthy individuals around the world.

Humans will always have to cope with personal dishonesty. What the Paradise Papers show is how dishonesty is being promoted on a mass scale and how corruption is being institutionalized. The 13.4m files show that what are supposed to be windows of disclosure into the finances of high officials are easily covered with blinds made by piecing together business laws from multiple jurisdictions.

As the super-rich increasingly hold the reins of governments in the US and other countries, the rules to make sure they act with integrity and in the public interest fail. That’s because the rules were written to guard against petty corruption among people of little to no wealth....

This is the beautiful part. Ross, no different than Trump, states he is not the majority shareholder in "Navigator Holdings" or the "Trump Organization." Ross ONLY OWNS $10 million in shares in the company. But, get this, Ross DOES HAVE a controlling interest in his PRIVATE equity firm that in turn holds a one third interest in the shipping company. So, Ross can control "Navigator Holdings" through the one-third ownership of his PRIVATE equity firm.

It is all slight of hand and when finally investigated, as Commerce Secretary, Ross is a very powerful one man STEERING COMMITTEE to benefit his known investments through his PRIVATE equity firm.

...Wilbur Ross, Trump’s commerce secretary, is revealed in the Paradise Papers to do business with the family of Vladimir Putin.

This is astonishing given the insistence by Trump and his administration that only “fake news” connects his administration, his campaign and him personally to the Kremlin, which clearly sought to influence the 2016 presidential election on Trump’s behalf.

Ross defends his investment in the shipping company Navigator Holdings by noting he is not the majority shareholder. True, but misleading. Ross was in control before becoming commerce secretary, his private equity firm still owns nearly a third of the company and his personal financial disclosure shows he owns a stake worth up to $10m....

...Ross is involved with 50 Cayman Islands companies and partnerships administered by Appleby,...

...the Appleby files, like those from Mossack Fonseca, make clear that plenty of dubious and probably illegal conduct was taking place...

Appleby is located in Bermuda. Bermuda is a territory of the UK. When 2008 landed in it's collapse, Libor (click here) was completely corrupted and out of control. It took some time to indict those most corrupt at Barclays. This is no joke. The USA's right wing does not practice law as thinkers, so much as processers. When British corruption meets up with the USA right wing, there is a sincere danger for the people and their democracies on both continents. Can we please dismiss money as an entity with rights, so much as in service to the people? Democracy needs to be recalled to bring economic stability. Democracy needs to be the winner over money. The only thing money brings to the democratic process is greed. Allies need to demand sanity return to the USA and legislate money is on a citizen. USA LEGISLATION is needed to put money in it's place.