The Steele Dossier is validated. I don't know where Coryn gets his information.

That brings the Steele dossier (click here)— yes, this is the document alleging the existence of a “pee tape” that the Russians may have used to blackmail Trump — to a strange point. Its origins of liberal hopes of exposing a massive conspiracy that would bring Trump down have led to its current status as the center of a conservative conspiracy theory that’s supposed to bring Robert Mueller down.

The Steele Dossier is validated by a conversation Michael Cohen had with a Russian.

Republicans can't read.

The PEE TAPE was first brought to the public in the Steele Dossier and then again in the Special Council's report. The references are completely different. The Special Council did not quote the Steele Dossier in the footnote. The Special Council quoted a text message exchange between Michael Cohen and a Russian.

The fact there are Russians in the report doesn't invalidate the concrete evidence. Of course, there are going to be Russians in any report whereby intelligence is engaged in findings of such activity. A counterintelligence investigation about Russia is going to have references to Russians.

Republicans can't only read, they are flat out stupid.

There ya go. I came to a conclusion about Republicans by the evidence and it's use of Russians.

It is ridiculous to believe Russia does not compile any and all information it can to compromise the leaders of any Western Country. 

The Russians have a file on Trump. That file and the promise of wealth results in compromised behavior by the president and compromise of the USA's national security. What is the question? Is there a file to seek to compromise Hillary Clinton? You betcha there is. However, that has never effected her abilities to carry out any of her responsibilities in any office or capacity she has held.

(Click here)

The Special Council's report is about the investigation into the activities about Russia, it's intelligence agencies and any other Russian capacity leveraged to put Donald Trump into office. There is nothing that leveraged Hillary Clinton in her campaign of 2016. She wasn't pursuing lucrative deals with banks that use "pass through" monies from Russia nor was she seeking influence in the Russian real estate market. Of course, there aren't references to Hillary Clinton being compromised by Russia BECAUSE SHE WASN'T!

Barr lied to Congress. There is nothing else to know. Republicans can't conflate that to anything in the Special Council report.

The Mueller report documents at least 77 specific instances where President Donald Trump's campaign staff, administration officials and family members (committed lies and falsehoods).

Now there is another one and he can join the rest of them in prison. It seems the Guardian has the hearing today live.

And the killing continues thanks to Republicans abuse of the Second Amendment as a campaign issue.

To save his own job, the Campus Police Chief was bragging about the system they use to secure the campus with the push of one button that locks everything down and saved lives. He claims it saved lives and allowed the police to concentrate on the location of the violence. He also said the gunman was not in the library. 

UNC-Charlotte Students run from library amid active shooter on campus (click here)

It seems as though there is a threat against job security if such incidents happen in schools. I am glad the button worked for the campus police, but, honestly, there is no real reason to expect to be fired from a job because a hate filled person brought a gun to the campus and used it. Being able to read the mind of an attacker on a sizeable campus is not in the job description. Good police work is in the job description and everyone expects that took place and the human beings that are campus police did their level best.

April 30, 2019
By Richard Gonzales

Updated at 11:58 p.m. ET

Two people died and another four were wounded, three critically, in a shooting at the University of North Carolina's Charlotte campus on Tuesday.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department announced in a tweet that a suspect, Trystan Andrew Terrell, 22, was in custody with charges pending.

Earlier, the department had signaled the end of the crisis with the announcement: "Scene secure. One in custody. No reason to believe anyone else involved. CMPD and UNCC going room by room on campus to identify any students, faculty or others who may be sheltering in place."

Campus Police Chief Jeff Baker said police were on the scene quickly enough to find and disarm the suspect in the same room where the shootings happened.

He said two people were found dead at the scene, and three others were hospitalized in critical condition, while the fourth person suffered less serious injuries....

This is an enemy country that effected elections. The country and it's rule of law doesn't matter? If not today, it will.

"Trying to have it both ways?"

"Trying to have it both ways?"

Robert Mueller?

Barr committed fraud in his four page letter. Fraud about a Special Council report demands a letter from Robert Mueller.

Republican spin is unbelievable they conflate the fraud and the redacted report as if it is the same thing and finds a way to dismiss an attack by Barr against the country.

What does the media do? Oh, that is great spin, "Thanks, Congressman." Amazing.

Bill Barr committed fraud with his 4 page letter and he lied to Congress. How many people affiliated with Trump, his campaign and administration have been prosecuted for lying to Congress. Barr is not above the law!

The Special Council clearly spelled out issues with the president and others in his report. The Special Council will have to testify before Congress and set the record straight. Obviously, the media is only interested in ratings and exploitation of Republican rhetoric.

The big lie losers like Trump believes as fact is that Russia has a lot of laundered money and once businesspersons like Trump bring prosperity to Russia, they will see the benefits of democracy and freedom. Trump believes businessmen in North Korea are going to turn the key for the USA and allies. Businessmen and women will never be the deciding factor in choosing between communism and democracy and China is an example of that.

Believe it or not when Nixon open diplomatic relations with China it wasn't to have cheap labor and a Chinese consumer base that is the USA, it was to allow China to begin to grow it's own consumer base and bring freedom to the Chinese people which would increase quality of life. That was over 40 years ago and Wall Street turned it's back on democracy and instead enslaved the Chinese people AND the American people. Same thing with Mexico. All these initiatives that the USA tried, in good faith, have been nothing but a disaster to the American people and let's not forget 2008.

I think Robert Mueller needs to appear in an interview on FOX News and set the right wing on it's buttocks for the lousy talk that comes out of it.

Maduro sold his country to Russia.

Can't claim victory over a coup if there was no coup. Maduro reminds me of the reincarnation of Castro. He has no power and yet he remains in power.

There is about 15 people at the table where Maduro is sitting. That is about the only people still loyal to him in the entire country. Maduro needs to leave Venezuela. When a leader sells his soul to Russia there is no going back. The demons from Russia will reside there forever.

Today, May 1st, is Workers Day in communist Russia. They better work hard.

D

Barr will show up, continue to lie and obstruct. It wins more time for a man who realizes his best chances will be in an impeachment hearing rather than arrest for ultimately ignoring a subpoena. The Trump administration is not about governing, it is about obstruction while they use the power of the USA for their own purposes. Those purposes are not benign to the sovereignty of the USA. The Former Special Council Robert Mueller knows that, too. That is why he wrote Barr immediately after the fraudulent 4 page letter. I can't believe that letter had to be leaked a month later in order to save the US Constitution from potential demise.

Maduro was prevented from leaving Venezuela by Russia? That figures. Russia has it's own agenda for Venezuela. Additionally, the new president would expect to return all the Russian jets and munitions with a full refund of a trillion dollars from Russia.

Maduro needs to authorize another country's jet to land and transport him anywhere he wants to go. The alternative is to allow Maduro to travel by land to another South American country. He needs to pack now.

I am confident there is another South American country that can provide Maduro with a safe haven until a permanent place can be arranged.

Idi Amin ultimately was exiled to Saudi Arabia where he was provided comfortable accommodations and a subsidy to allow him a comfortable life with his family. The condition was that he would not return to politics.

$2,000,000,000,000 for infrastructure?

That is $36,363,636,363.60 per state and territory. 

Maybe words will make more sense. 

Thirty-six billion, three hundred and sixty-three million, six hundred and
thirty-six thousand, three hundred and sixty-three dollars and sixty cents.

For roads and bridges?

The USA has 614,387 bridges in the country. About 40 percent are older 
than 50 years old. In 2016 less than 10 percent were found to be structurally
unsound.

Check the infrastructure for each state here: (click here)

All that funding won't mean a thing if the infrastructure is not assessed for the climate crisis. It will be a waste of money otherwise. I see only USA companies receiving the contracts.

Puerto Rico has to be at the top of the list.

That kind of money also needs to be completely accounted for as it leaves the US Treasury.

Infrastructure Supermap. (click here)

These two sites were organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

That amount of money beats the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. What happened to the private-public infrastructure bank?

The $2 trillion has to be paid for by elite taxes. The Middle Class is not to be burdened with additional deficit spending.

This is how ridiculously two faced Russia is.

In the USA, their hackers and KGB activists will seek to raise the sphere of hate between African American men and the police by stating unarmed African Amerian men are being shot in the USA. Fair enough. There are plenty of Americans making those statements so there is no need for Russians to do that.

But, Russia will back a regime in Venezuela armed with all kinds of Russian manufactured weapons to use them on unarmed people. 

There is no consistency to the Russian message to the world, except, brinkmanship all the time.

Russians on the internet as agents for the Russian government seek only control of people and governments, not human rights.

Venezuelan opposition leader Guaidó calls for coup against Maduro (click here for additional facts - thank you)

Maduro is not a good president. He had no insight to understand the oil market and it's crash and what that meant to a mono-economy relying on only one commodity to buoy the economy. The socialism practiced by him failed with the collapse of oil. Even Saudi Arabia saw this coming.

The people of Venezuela have always lived with the idea their leader was in control of government power. As long as the life in Venezuela was still orderly, sufficient and allowed their belief system, they were okay. Not necessarily living the exact life they wanted, but, they were okay. Then the unthinkable happened their mono-economy collapsed. There was no insight to such collapes, everything had gone along as it always had and then one day it was all different and the leadership was in chaos.

Maduro didn't go to the United Nations to plead his case, he didn't look for other regional countries to find example of what was working for them. He reached out foolishly to Russia as has Cuba and this is the result. From that time to today, the circumstances of the Venezuelan people have only gotten worse. What did Russia expect? Oh, yeah, I forgot they always expect times to get worse and then real Russian leadership demands using military might against unarmed people. ie: Ukraine.

Is there any wonder the Venezuelan people are turning away from Maduro more and more. The demonstrations today only continue to say the people of this beautiful country completely reject Maduro and his strong man tactics. There is no reason for the Maduro government to use military humvees and bullets against the people. The people are not violent. They are upset their lives are not respected. They have no munitions and only seek to be heard. They want a change of leadership and it is completely reasonable they do.

The Venezuelan people need food, clothing, clean water and medical care. They want their electricity to be reliable so they alone can move their economy forward by building it from the ground up. They can do this. They are great people. They know their own minds. They know their own hearts. Maduro needs to stop trying to control people that he doesn't even feed or provide a reliable electrical grid for their ambitions.

The world is watching and I profoundly hope the world realizes the wayward leadership that results from Russian profit-taking by providing war machines rather than humanitarian aid and economic guidance. Venezuela needs allies. It needs allies that will come as tourists and not soldiers.

''

Venezuela: National Guard armored vehicles drive into protestors (click here for live updates - thank you)

I take it this isn't rush hour and the economy is booming. This is not a coup. The people have a very important demand for democracy and freedom and they are upset their lives mean so little to the man in power.

The US House of Representatives have power over the Executive Branch that the Special Council did not. Bill Barr and Donald Trump are obstructing the US House process to prevent fact finding that could bring about impeachment.

It a bunch of nonsense to have the Executive Branch state it believes the US Congress has no right to the records already submitted to the Special Council. The US Congress must receive an unredacted copy of the Special Council report AND it's supporting documents.

To depart from the obstruction by the Trump White House. At the Trump rally where he is describing some perverted idea of infanticide, the audience reaction is extremely telling. They gasped at his words. Those folks have no other information that would prompt them to be quietly skeptical of his statements. They have lost their grounding in the faith of USA law and the crime of infanticide. If such acts were taking place, Trump should not be talking about it so much as doing something about to bring indictments and trials to any participants.

There is a segment of the USA population that is not receiving factual information from any major media outlet. The audience gasps to Trump's words is more convincing of that fact. I don't know if there is a legal avenue to end the Trump Media and/or FOX News media that would end that monopoly on lies. It is dangerous and the people ignorant of average knowledge is something everyone should be concerned about. They are removed from mainstream America.

It is not just Charlottesville, it is a global increase of hate.

"...I am not even a Trump supporter..."

That says it all, doesn't it? Europeans are civilized people that don't call each other names. They take their lives seriously and seek the moral high ground. A man that doesn't support Donald Trump will come to his defense out of the desire for civility to prevent insults to the people of the USA. He should not feel bad, the need for truth and moral comment has never been more important.

I can really hear the innocence that Bannon finds so very inviting to exploit.

I heard about the terrible tragedy in Seattle. My sympathies to all the family and friends of those lost.

Before this gets ugly, my understanding of the precipitating factor was high wind gusts. I know the mayor will carry out a thorough investigation and there will be facts presented to the public. There is criticism already regarding the fact with crane disassembly the streets should be closed around the building. That is difficult to do in a city with 59 cranes working.

One thing is sure, the climate crisis has many faces and impacts the USA in profound ways with deaths and tragedy occurring all the time. There needs to be a comprehensive federal policy that searches for problems before they happen. This may OR may not be caused by unusually high winds and there maybe other contributing factors; but; the USA has denied these issues far, far too long.

I have no doubt there will be fault assigned in the city's investigation, but, because there is no COMPULSORY demand to overlay a climate crisis potential to this tragedy it will go undetected. The federal government agencies are not tapped to be included in these investigations when it comes to climate. That is a huge mistake and the USA continues to make the same mistakes over and over.

Seattle has a high number of cranes (click here)

Seattle is one of the nation’s leaders in the number of cranes that operate in the city.

Rider Levett Bucknall, an international firm that tracks the number of cranes in major cities, said that Seattle has 59 cranes as of January 2019. That is more than any other United States city, but trails Toronto, which has 104 cranes.

According to the Associated Press, Seattle also topped the charts for number of cranes in the United States in 2018 with 65.

Seattle had 58 cranes at one point in 2016, according to the Seattle Times.

While it may have a high number of cranes, deaths stemming from crane-related incidents seem rare. According to Occupational Safety and Health Administration data from 2009-2017, no deaths from crane incidents were reported in Seattle....

The people demanding climate action aren't the extremists. They have been far too patient to the point of nearly reaching the brink if not addressed soon.

The extremists are those that hold the power of money over morality.

As far as pensions go, that is already a given with existing legislation. Banking on $5 Trillion as a form of leadership is nothing more than pandering to the very power of money that has placed Earth at the brink.

Buying one's way to the top is immoral and there are no guarantees with any such ideology.

Promises of technology to 'get the petroleum industry out of this mess' is straight out of the "W" playbook. That playbook includes fracking, methane pollution and seismic activity in what was called an energy policy in 2005.

I've been down this road too many times. All that is an ideological policy written by the petroleum industry and it will disappear into dust the minute an election is won.

Oops. Didn't have the votes.

2050 is too late and is the same petroleum industry stalling heard for decades.

April 27, 2019

CO2 Level - 414.24 ppm

North Korea's Kim Jong-un receives joyous welcome after returning from R... (click here for BBC article - thank you)

From Freedom of Religion to Trump's best friend returning from all places, Russia.

The supreme leader was met by cheering crowds as he returned from his first Russia visit. Footage of Kim's arrival back in the country was broadcast on state-run television channel KRT. Waiting at the platform among the crowds were high-ranking officials and guards. During his first Russia visit, Kim told Vladimir Putin that peace and security on the Korean peninsula depended on the US, saying a state of hostility could easily return, KRT said.

Rabbi recounts San Diego synagogue shooting: 'She took the bullet for al... (click here for news article - thank you)

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein is so sincere. So genuine. He must continue his message. What good is freedom of religion if people can't practice it?

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

Today's Headline:

Arya!

"Good Night, Moon"

The waning crescent

24.1 day old moon

30.1 percent lit

Besides the fact the lit side of the moon is already well known, China is looking for water. Nothing else makes sense. They will be happy to find anything else the USA hasn't recorded yet, but, parking robots on the dark side of the moon and at the poles of the moon can only mean one thing, the Chinese are looking for water. I wish them a lot of luck with that. Perhaps they might note there is no atmosphere and no clouds either. They should be careful of frozen anything on the moon. There are no guarantees it is H2O.

April 27, 2019
By Georgina Torbet

China’s Chang’e 4 lander (click here) touched down on the far side of the moon at the start of the year, and has been exploring this rarely investigated part of the lunar landscape. It has already made findings that the lunar nights are colder than expected, and is now investigating the geology and mineralogy of the top layer of moon rock....