Scott Pruitt doesn't care about Americans, except, their diluted reality in gross misinformation.

I suppose if one is looking for advisers for Public Relations in the face of burgeoning cancer dangers, some of these folks might even be helpful, but, for the profound purpose of the federal US Environmental PROTECTION Agency, their talents are simply over paid baggage.

Almost all of the 46 political appointees (click here) working at EPA previously worked for climate change doubters or industry

 Climate change doubter or company in industry regulated by EPA

Full résumé for appointee available on click

Appointee

Position

Key former employers

Scott Pruitt

Administrator

Oklahoma Attorney General

Lincoln Ferguson

Senior Advisor for Operation and Implementation for the Administrator

Oklahoma Attorney General's Office

Ryan Jackson

Chief of Staff

U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee

Madeline Morris

Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff

Koch Companies Public Sector

Kevin Chmielewski

Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations

58th Presidential Inaugural Committee, K.P. Kauffman Co.

Henry Darwin

Assistant Deputy Administrator and Chief of Operations

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality

Millan Hupp

Director of Scheduling and Advance

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (Team Pruitt)

Forrest McMurray

Special Assistant for Scheduling and Advance

Tulsa Area United Way

Byron Brown

Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy

U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee

Charles Munoz

White House Liaison

58th Presidential Inaugural Committee (Donald Trump)

Nancy Beck

Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention

American Chemistry Council

Sarah Greenwalt

Senior Advisor

Oklahoma Attorney General's Office

Hayley Ford

Deputy White House Liaison

WealthEngine

Nicholas A. Falvo

Special Assistant to the Senior Advisor

58th Presidential Inaugural Committee (Donald Trump)

Amanda Gunasekara

Senior Policy Advisor for Air and Radiation

U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, National Association of Chemical Distributors

Albert "Kell" Kelly

Senior Advisor to the Administrator

SpiritBank

Kenneth Wagner

Senior Advisor for Regional/ State Affairs

Oklahoma Strong Leadership Political Action Committee

Elizabeth Bowman

Associate Administrator for the Office of Public Affairs

American Chemistry Council

Jahan Wilcox

Strategic Communications Advisor

Marco Rubio for President

Alexander Dominguez

Policy Analyst to the Senior Advisor for Air and Radiation

U.S. Rep. James Renacci (R-Ohio)

John Konkus

Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Public Affairs

Office of the President-Elect Donald J. Trump

James Hewitt

Special Advisor for the Office of Public Affairs

Republican National Committee

Michael Abboud

Special Advisor for the Office of Public Affairs

America Rising, LLC, Donald Trump Presidential Campaign

Troy Lyons

Associate Administrator for the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations

Hess Corp., BP America

Elizabeth Bennett

Deputy Associate Administrator

National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

Aaron Ringel

Deputy Associate Administrator

Then-U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas)

Layne Bangerter

Deputy Associate Administrator

Donald Trump Presidential Campaign

K. Preston Cory

Special Assistant

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

Kaitlyn Shimmin

Special Assistant

58th Presidential Inaugural Committee (Donald Trump)

Christian Rodrick

Special Assistant

Then-U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas), Competitive Enterprise Institute

Samantha Dravis

Asssociate Administrator for the Office of Policy

Republican Attorneys General Association

Michael Dourson*

Advisor to the Administrator

Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (clients included American Chemistry Council)

David Harlow**

Advisor

Hunton & Williams LLP

William Lovell

Policy Analyst

ExxonMobil Corp.

Brittany Bolen

Deputy Associate Administrator

U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works

Holly Greaves

Senior Advisor to the CFO

KPMG LLP

Patrick Traylor

Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance

Hogan Lovells US LLP (clients included BHP Billiton Ltd.)

Erik Baptist

Senior Deputy General Counsel

American Petroleum Institute

David Fotouhi

Deputy General Counsel

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP (clients included Tesoro Corp.)

Justin Schwab

Deputy General Counsel

Baker & Hostetler, LLP (clients included Southern Co.)

Richard Yamada

Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development

U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee

Patrick Davis

Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Land and Emergency Management

Donald Trump Presidential Campaign

Veronica Darwin

Senior Advisor

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality

Lee Forsgren

Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water

HBW Resources (clients included General Electric)

Daisy Letendre

‎Senior Advisor for Policy and Strategic Communications

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.)

Susan Bodine

Senior Advisor to the Administrator

ASARCO, Inc., U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee

                    

Glyphosate

The image to the left is the chemical structure of glyphosphate (click here). It is completely obvious it is an organic compound. Organic compounds can enter any living being including plants.

...One of the detrimental effects (click here) of glyphosphate on the human body is its impact on the gut.  Typically, the human digestive system contains harmless bacteria that are necessary for digestion, nutrient absorption, and play a huge part in our immune system.

Glyphosphate is killing these necessary microorganisms, contributing to potential problems like leaky gut, which compromises the protective gut lining and allows toxins and bacteria a pathway into the bloodstream.

There have also been numerous recent studies linked to increased instances of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (click here) in farmers who work in close contact with glyphosphate.  In fact, these studies suggest that exposure nearly doubles their risk of contracting this disease.

The excessive amount of Roundup that is being poured on crops by non-organic farmers is estimated to be in the millions of pounds.  This amount is so excessive that government scientists have recently detected glyphosphate in the air and rain....

Kindly realize glyphosphate is used in Monsanto's Round-Up Herbicide. These are the scientists Pruitt dismissed from the advisory board. Can anyone guess why? Monsanto, that's why.

Besides used as a herbicide on farms and in reducing and eliminateing non-native species, glyphosphate is used on lawns, in driveways, public parks, and basically anyplace where Americans live and breath. There are findings that a trend is developing in people regularly exposed to glyphosphate.

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act Scientific Advisory Panel (click here) (SAP) met December 13-16, 2016, to consider a set of scientific issues being evaluated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding EPA's evaluation of the carcinogenic potential of the herbicide glyphosate. The meeting minutes and final report from the meeting are now available.

The minutes and https://www.regulations.gov final report can be found on the FIFRA SAP web site (https://www.epa.gov/sap) and in the OPP Docket # EPA-HQ-OPP-2016-0385 (https://www.regulations.gov). EPA will review this document as well as other comments before making a final determination regarding the potential carcinogenicity of glyphosate. 

EPA is currently scheduled to publish the draft glyphosate human health and ecological risk assessments for public comment in 2017. Glyphosate is undergoing registration review, EPA's periodic review of pesticide registrations required under the law to ensure that each pesticide continues to satisfy the statutory safety standard for registration.

Contact Us to ask a question, provide feedback, or report a problem.

Glyphosphate has been considered a very effective and safe compound. The issue with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma is that it is a 30 year study. That is the outcome to some studies detecting cancer. Initially, there is no problem, but, after 20 + years trends begin to show up and they cannot be ignored. That is what is happening now with Glyphosphate. There are trends that need to be reviewed and decisions made to insure the safety of Americans. This is some of the problem with Pruitt, he does not appreciate the sane methods of scientists that carry out peer reviewed research.

Some sources looking at glyphosphate indicate while alone the compound is safe, but when added to other compounds that create the purpose of the glyphosphate it is dangerous. (click here)

Ultimately, it is the younger generations scientists investigating these chemicals are worried about. Sometimes a 20 to 30 year study seems strange to some people, but, when considering 20 to 30 years from an exposure at this age is profound. 

There are issues with some states. California has a large agricultural community. It is seeking to limit exposure by glyphosphate. So, it is time to take a look at this from a solid scientific basis with competent scientists. 

June 26, 2017
By Karl Plume

Monsanto (click here) vowed to continue its legal fight against the designation, required under a state law known as Proposition 65, and called the decision “unwarranted on the basis of science and the law.”...

Ultimately, landfills and their gases have to be examined for their value.

Scott Pruitt is corruption through and through. The global community has no leadership in Pruitt. The USA has procedures that will uphold the rules Pruitt is trying to break, eventually.

November 9, 2017

By Juliet Eilperin

The Environmental Protection Agency (click here) proposed a rule Thursday to repeal tighter emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks with older engines, an Obama-era regulation aimed at controlling soot and other pollutants along with greenhouse-gas emissions linked to climate change.

Major trucking groups and engine manufacturers supported the 2016 rule, which was set to take full effect in January. But it was fiercely opposed by a handful of companies that manufacture truck components called gliders and trailers. A glider, or body, is the front of a truck, including the cab, which fits over the engine. Trailers are the storage components that make up most of the length of a truck.

In a statement, Pruitt — who met privately in May with Fitzgerald Truck Sales, the manufacturer that stands to benefit most from the rule’s repeal — said the rule disproportionately affected an industry that produces roughly 10,000 gliders a year. Originally intended to allow truckers to continue using engines when their vehicles had been damaged in accidents, some now buy new components to house older engines as a way of saving thousands of dollars....

Pruitt would have the entire industry behind him if he would simply uphold the rules that protects the environment. No, that would be against Pruitt's rules, "Support the underdog who has been kicked around by progress."

It is amazing to think about. Pruitt's favored company is Fitzgerald Glider Kits. They remanufacture broken down pieces of junk unfit for the road. Let's just think about that a minute.

Fitzgerald Glider Kits (click here) specializes in installing the remanufactured main components (engine, transmission and/or rear ends) from a donor truck that was either wrecked or unsafe for the road, into a new cab and chassis built by the OEM. We offer Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner and Western Star Glider Kits with pre-emission Detroit, Cummins and Caterpillar engine options. This process creates a reliable, more fuel efficient truck that requires less maintenance, yields less downtime and has the safety features and amenities owners have come to expect in trucks on the road today.

Fitzgerald Glider Kits also offers one of the best nationwide warranties. I betcha it does. Fitzgerald has a record number of service ships in the world. Imagine that.

Fitzgerald Glider Kits also offers one of the best Nationwide Warranties for their kits and has over 1,000 approved service shops and over 150 Preferred Service Centers across the US.

The company is based in central Tennessee and produces more than 3,500 trucks per year. They offer various models of the Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, and Western Star brands.... 

This is nothing more than pure corruption that endangers the public for many reasons. Those seeking to comment on the "new rule" should do so.

Repeal of Emission Requirements for Glider Vehicles, Glider Engines, and Glider Kits (click here for new rule)

Regulations for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Commercial Trucks and Buses (click here)

Pruitt has no morals, he has a corrupted government spirit and it is hurting Americans.

It is Sunday Night.

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

“All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”

“Whatever ishurtful to you, do not do to any other person.”

...From 1 August to 8 November 2017, (click here) a total of 2,034 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of plague, including 165 deaths (case fatality rate 8%), have been reported from 55 of the 114 districts in the country. Of these, 1,565 (77%) were clinically classified as pulmonary plague, 297 (15%) were bubonic plague, one was septicemic, and 171 were not yet classified (further classification of cases is in process). Since the beginning of the outbreak, 82 healthcare workers (with no deaths) have been affected.

Of the 1,565 clinical cases of pneumonic plague, 371 (24%) have been confirmed, 581 (37%) are probable and 613 (39%) remain suspected (additional laboratory results are in process). Twenty-eight specimens cultured Yersinia pestis, which were sensitive to antibiotics recommended by the National Program for the Control of Plague....

2 October 2017

...A pneumonic plague (click here) is a form of plague that is transmissible from person-to-person, with a potential to trigger severe epidemics if inadequately controlled. Detection of this outbreak occurred more than two weeks after the first case died during which cases travelled to different parts of the country, including the capital Antananarivo. Therefore, the overall risk at the national level is high. The overall regional risk is moderate due to frequent flights to neighbouring Indian Ocean islands. The global risk is low.

WHO advice
Prevention and control measures

Preventive measures include informing people when zoonotic plague is present in their environment and advising them to take precautions against flea bites and not to handle animal carcasses. The most rapid and effective method for controlling fleas is to apply an appropriate insecticide formulated as a dust or low-volume spray. People, especially health workers, should also avoid direct contact with infected tissues such as buboes, or close exposure to patients with pneumonic plague.

Important prevention and control measures are primarily intended to reduce human transmission and avoid increase in epidemic. These include:

- Advising the public to take all necessary precautions against flea bites and to not pick up or touch dead animals

- Implementing measures to control rodents hosts of Yersinia pestis (plague bacillus), especially rats

- Avoiding direct contact with infected tissues such as buboes, or close exposure to patients with pneumonic plague

- Early presentation to health care - go to the closest health center in the event of suspicious symptoms

- Health workers and people who are in direct contact with pneumonic plague patients must wear personal protective equipment

- Health workers should receive a chemoprophylaxis with antibiotics as long as they are exposed

- Safe management and burial of deceased cases

Treatment

Rapid diagnosis and treatment is essential to reduce complications and fatality. Effective treatment methods enable plague patients to be cured, if diagnosed in time. These methods include the administration of antibiotics as Aminoglycosides, Fluoroquinolones, Sulfonamides and supportive therapy....

March 17, 2017
By Natalie Huet

Lyon, France — As President Donald Trump (click here) raises the axe on U.S. medical research funding, scientists across the Atlantic are trembling, too.

The World Health Organization’s cancer agency, the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), has long been a prime purveyor of bad news. Now, with big business blasting it as fake news and Republicans in total control, U.S. funding crucial for IARC’s work is under threat.

A perfect storm is brewing. On Thursday, Trump unveiled a FY2018 budget that would chop $6 billion, or nearly 20 percent, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). IARC’s work classifying things like bacon, plutonium and wood dust as carcinogens relies most heavily on NIH funding. The chemical lobby recently launched a campaign portraying IARC as a useless scaremonger that ignores actual human exposure to potential hazards, and U.S. lawmakers are already investigating whether taxpayers’ money should be funding its work....

2013
Dr. Christopher Wild re-elected as Director of IARC (click here)

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....