Pathetic little bushes aren't they? No, no, not the green ones, the red ones. Those are the huckleberry bushes. They grow in places where obviously the green ones don't. 

The red leaves in the autumn color. They probably, at some point, slit the rock in order to reach sunlight. 

Interesting, isn't it? The power of the sun never seems to be modified even as Earth-based fauna. Chlorophyll and photosynthesis. Try putting that in a bomb instead of poor little nuclear material. 

Indeed. Chlorophyll, photosynthesis and sunshine can split rock. So, very cool.

Yes, you can pick fruit in New York State parks, according to NYCRR, Part 190:

190.0 Introduction.

(a) Except as otherwise provided, (click here) the provisions of this Part shall apply to all persons entering upon or using State lands under the department's jurisdiction that are administered by the Division of Lands and Forests, the Division of Operations, or both, including but not limited to such lands as unique areas, State forests, reforestation areas, multiple use areas, forest preserve, conservation areas, natural resource management areas, preserves, campgrounds and environmentally sensitive lands, and to those rights owned and managed by the State as conservation easements as defined in section 190.12 of this Part....

No person shall deface, remove, destroy or otherwise injure in any manner whatsoever any tree, flower, shrub, fern, fungi or other plant organisms…found or growing on State land, except for personal consumption….”

Huckleberry bushes look so much like highbush blueberries, it’s hard to tell them apart.

This berry rake is on Etsy (click here). There are cheaper varieties sold for $19.99 plus S&H. It is my guess the cheaper plastic handheld rakes don't hold up as well. The berries, even though ripe, will give anyone a fight. The pickers protect the user from all the scratches that go along with fighting the twigs off to reach the berries.

You can actually buy something called a berry rake, that pulls down the berries, gently, from the shrub and deposits them in a bucket.  There are a couple models available from Amazon.com.  But, I don’t know. That seems like an unfair advantage over the bear, and if it’s not done right, you can damage the bush.

Speaking of bears, huckleberries (and blueberries) are a favorite food.  You might find yourself sharing the patch with a black bear.  But your bigger worry would be…

Snakes.  Huckleberries grow abundantly on dry, rocky soil, places beloved by snakes; in dry area, huckleberries may attract the field mice that snakes feed on.  Watch out for snakes in these parts (especially if you’re going to the famed berry patches of the ‘Gunks or Kingston County).

Yea, snakes. The trick to know with snakes is that they pick up vibration very accurately. I was doing a survey on some land in New Jersey; at one point I turned around and there about 15 feet from me was this "Milk Snake (click here)." I mean to tell you, it had me dead on. It was looking me right in the eye. It had to climb up the bush a bit to look me straight in the eye. Amazing. I just backed up and walked to a path that lead to the Jeep. I decided I had made enough noise and took lunch.

We don’t know why, but you can’t just dig up the wild plants and put them in your garden for your own berry harvest.  They won’t grow that way.

You can’t buy a gigundo bag of them at Costco for $10.00.  These babies are wild, man.

This is an incredible picture captured in California. The tree with a large diameter is burning from the inside out. The fire is noted to be inside the trunk, first seen at the base and further noted at the top of the trunk on the left side. The trunk is about to explode.

The photographer is not safe. The fire is raining down and noted to be surrounding him/her on the ground.

I realize it is important to catch exceptional pictures, but, please don't reward a photographer this decided to find something unique to sell in the photo. That photographer is lucky to be alive. A Go-Pro is a far better idea than a human being standing in a firestorm. The next danger might be another person, a young person, mimicking the daring event.

November 3, 2019
By Maria L. LaGanga

Healdsburg - The things that set California apart, (click here) for better or worse, were all there last Sunday afternoon: terrifying flames, wine country glamour and a rescue straight out of Hollywood. Captured via smartphone. Of course.

As John Viszlay and Dominic Foppoli watched, horrified, the Kincade fire crested the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains and headed straight for their adjoining vineyards. Winds gusted. Smoke swirled. At any moment, they realized, everything they’d worked for would be lost.

“We came within a couple hundred yards of the fire hitting and destroying our winery,” said Foppoli, who is also the mayor of nearby Windsor. It would have been a disaster, “if it wasn’t for a perfectly timed Hollywood scene, where the skies parted and a 747 supertanker … shows up out of the sky and blasts the fire.”...

It is time to move on to the shrubs of the Northern Pine Oak Forest

Bearberry
Huckleberry
Inkberry
Broom Crowberry
Lowbush
Blueberry 
Sheep Laurel (Lambkill)
Wild raisin

It's Sunday Night

Caption to the picture. "Sanders is hot."

Who knew? What do I know about some passions?

Toby Keith - Huckleberry (video with lyrics - click here for official website of artist - thank you))

John McDonnell talks NHS privatisation and Heathrow expansion under Labo...

The Brits love their public financed health service. They see privatization as corruption and a danger to the people. I agree. I also believe the UK is an excellent example of how a public health care service actually works within a government economy based in capitalism. This is not socialism. It is a country ensuring its people are well, happy and productive.

As a matter of fact, the business climate in the UK far exceeds that of the USA and it isn't because of taxes. We know the taxes there are lower than the USA, the Republicans scream about it all the time.

The health care contract of the people is with the government and requires no portability. There are no costs to employers in providing health care to their people. The people have a consistent ability to insure their health even if they lose their jobs or become ill.

Basically, government issues health care provides a higher standard of living.

The argument by Republicans about government-issued health care is that Americans will lose their doctors. Why? They going to evaporate? Seriously. I want Americans to tell me they can actually choose their own doctor. Go ahead, tell anyone you have the very same doctor that you had ten or twenty years ago. I dare you.

I want to point out that "In-network" or "Out of network" is the insurance company choosing the doctor for the American subscriber. Go ahead argue that one.

Does any Middle Class American actually pay more for health care insurance to be sure they have the same doctor? No. They choose health care insurance to minimize the cost of health care, therefore, the idea a government-issued health care system is going to remove any American's doctor from their care is nonsense. As a matter of fact, there is a greater chance an American can have the same doctor from cradle to grave is greater under a government-issued health care plan. An employer cannot change health care insurers either. The degree of CONSISTENCY and CONTINUITY of care is far greater with a government issued health care than any private company can guarantee. The entire "fear based" Republican "talking points" is straight out of Halloween and has nothing to do with reality.

28 September 2018
By Alex Therrien

Life expectancy (click here) in the UK has stopped improving for the first time since 1982, when figures began.

Women's life expectancy from birth remains 82.9 years and for men it is 79.2, the figures from the Office for National Statistics, for 2015-17, show....

What is health care about? Why bother with it? Happy living, quality of that life and longevity. That is what health care is all about.

February 18, 2019
By Grace Donnelly

Life expectancy in the U.S. dropped for the second year in a row, (click here) according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

The new average life expectancy for Americans is 78.7 years, which puts the U.S. behind other developed nations and 1.5 years lower than the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average life expectancy of 80.3. The OECD is a group of developed countries that includes Canada, Germany, Mexico, France, Japan, and the U.K....

The longevity in the UK has dropped in some regions of the country, including Scotland. BUT, the longevity of the people of the USA continues to fall. There is an entire segment of Americans, White Men in their 50s, dying far before they should. The USA has a problem providing reassurance about longevity. There simply isn't a predictable quality of life for everyone in the USA.

The health care system is broken and needs to be rebuilt on the understanding every American life is equally as precious.

The money to pay for the NHS comes directly from taxation. The 2008/9 budget roughly equates to a contribution of £1,980 per person in the UK. When the NHS was launched in 1948 it had a budget of £437 million (roughly £9 billion at today's prices). In 2016–17 it was £122.5 billion ($158.48 US)

White the Kushners showed loyalty to Russian oligarchs, former Breitbart Steve Bannow was nothing short of ruthless, amoral and power hungry.

This just put the icing on the cake. The Obamas and Clintons were ridiculed for spending time at Martha's Vineyard on the Kennedy Compound. At least they were in the USA and with peers.

3 November 2019
By Keith Giffith

Kushner and Ivanka Trump spent the Croatia vacation (above) aboard the megayacht of billionaire Democrat donor David Geffen (click here)

A tranche of newly released documents (click here) from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation have revealed that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump took a vacation in Croatia with a mystery 'Russian billionaire' during the 2016 campaign.

Also on the trip was and Rupert Murdoch's former wife Wendi Deng.

According to the notes, former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon raised questions about the vacation and found it so dubious that he planned to 'leverage' the meetup with the Russian against Donald's Trump's son-in-law, Jared.

The documents, including 274 pages of Mueller team interview notes, emails and other documents related to the investigation, were released on Saturday in response to a lawsuit from CNN and Buzzfeed.

'Bannon knew Kushner was on vacation off the coast of Croatia with a Russian Billionaire when Bannon took over the campaign,' a summary of an investigative interview with Bannon read.

The summary said that Kushner was with Deng, the Russian billionaire, and the Russian's girlfriend, but it does not name the Russian....

Ivanka (left) went sightseeing in Dubrovnik with Wendi Deng (Murdoch).

Of course, the Russians loved the Trumps to assist with money laundering. That is known. There is no doubt Trump was buying real estate and selling it for hyper-inflated prices to Russians. Trump's status of a billionaire isn't really legitimate. It was accumulated by cheating contractors in bankruptcy proceedings and dealing with underworld characters like the Russian oligarchs.

I doubt Speaker Pelosi will allow much of a delay regarding the impeachment proceedings.

November 1, 2019
By Alexander Nazaryan and Michael Isikoff

Washington — Even as House Democrats on Thursday (click here) ratified an impeachment resolution against President Trump, a federal judge has potentially slowed the brisk pace of the inquiry by declining to rule on whether a key witness needed to testify before the House of Representatives.

Instead, he gave all relevant parties several more weeks to prepare their arguments. That raised the prospect that public hearings on the president’s conduct could drag on into the Christmas holiday season, a scenario many in the Democratic leadership had once hoped to avoid.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sought to make impeachment a quick, tightly controlled affair. On Friday, she told Bloomberg News that she expects public hearings to begin this month, though she added that there is still no fixed timetable and that the case against the president “has to be ironclad.”

The decision in question came in the chambers of Richard Leon, a judge in D.C. federal district court, in a case known as Kupperman v. House of Representatives....

Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Adam Schiff are ready to release transcripts beginning as early as next week. Both Pelosi and Schiff are aware of this case before Judge Richard Leon.

Speaker Pelosi said a very interesting thing.During her speech from the US House floor when speaking to the legislative body she stated, "There will be no more court proceedings." It raises questions about the efficacy of this case before Judge Leon. Will the US House withdraw from the case realizing they are moving forward with or without Kupperman or will the proceedings continue in anticipation of a decision of the case in the next few weeks while other evidence is introduced.

The US House Judiciary Committee may be interested in presenting their case even if the impeachment has already run its course. This is a matter of precedent with the Executive Branch stating it has grounds to stop Kupperman from giving testimony to the US House regarding impeachment. It appears to me while Mr. Kupperman is a human being and not recorded tapes, the verbal testimony falls under the same precedent as with Nixon. I am not a lawyer or a judge.

I was pleased to hear this from the reporting below from FOX News. I thank Judge Andrew Napolitano for addressing the essence of the problems Senate and House Republicans face regarding overwhelming evidence and personal conflicts with loyalty to the party. This is an adjustment they need to face to realize their oath is to the US Constitution and not the president.

In many, many ways this is a trial of the clarity of the oath of office and whether or not those words carry the brevity that they were meant to carry to protect the US Constitution and hence the USA as a country. No one is taking this lightly, even the US House took some time to struggle with these facts. 

November 1, 2019
By Alexandra Hutzler

Fox News' Judge Andrew Napolitano (click here) said that the proof of President Donald Trump's potentially impeachable offenses is largely undisputed and that congressional Republicans have no credible line of defense to protect him.

Napolitano reflected on the ongoing impeachment probe in an editorial published by Fox News on Thursday. The judicial analyst warned Republicans to be "careful what they ask for" going forward because of the overwhelming evidence against the president.

"Their defense of the president has addressed process, not proof," Napolitano wrote. "The proof is largely undisputed, except by the president himself. It consists of admissions, testimony and documents, which show that Trump sought to induce the government of Ukraine to become involved in the 2020 presidential election."

He added that it's a "mouthful of facts to swallow in one bite, but the legal implications are straightforward and profound."...

Trump should not have survived the Special Counsel investigation. He was guilty of abuse of power for self serving priorities then.

What did Ukraine's Anti-corruption Bureau say when it received the "black ledger" back from the presidential offices? It would seem that while Joe Biden was fighting the good fight to remove corruption from Ukraine, the Trump White House inflicted it's own brand of corruption, self-serving priorities of Trump.

Cybersecurity is Guiliani's cover, but, in reality he was working with Trump to undermine the Special Counsel investigation. Guiliani assisted Trump to try to liberate Paul Manafort from his criminal wrongdoings.

This is the first time Trump blackmailed the President of Ukraine, the most recent whistleblower account is the second with a different president. President Poroshenko had to hide the "black ledger" in an office of the president rather than the Anti-Corruption Bureau where they belonged in order to receive his first shipment of Javelin missiles (click here). What is even more peculiar, at least to me, is the missiles are that of Raytheon Corp. and today Espers is Secretary of Defense. Why did he agree to serve? Protecting company patents from Russia?

I think this is modus operandi for Trump. He estranges every leader; except Putin who is all too willing to be Trump's No. 1; to bring pressure to THEIR CHOICES when needing the USA's alliance. And Guiliani is the go-between, sorry, facilitator. This is the second known act for Guiliani in taking on an unelected or appointed role of the "Covert State Department/"Hand Grenade." How many more don't we know about? Guiliani literally blew up any and all appropriate measures by the people serving in this administration and replaced it with blackmail.

October 31, 2019
By David Ignatius

After being (click here) named an “informal” Cybersecurity Advisor to President Trump in January 2017, Giuliani entered into a “cybersecurity” contract with the Ukrainian government — personally enriching himself while appearing to use his position of influence to help advance Ukraine’s foreign policy goals

...Trump survived (click here) his first effort to solicit foreign political help in his appeals to Russia for damaging information about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign. But soon after Trump was cleared of “collusion” by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, he seemingly went at it again — this time demanding political dirt from Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, as a condition of delivering military assistance to Kyiv....

...What led to Trump’s first meeting on June 20, 2017, with Ukraine’s then-President Petro Poroshenko? Ukraine had hired the lobbying firm BGR Group in January 2017 to foster contact with Trump, but nothing had happened . . . and then the door opened. Why?

On June 7, less than two weeks before Poroshenko’s White House meeting, Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, had visited Kyiv to give a speech for the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, headed by a prominent Ukrainian oligarch. While Giuliani was there, he also met with Poroshenko and his prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, according a news release issued by the foundation.

Just after Giuliani’s visit, Ukraine’s investigation of the so-called black ledger that listed alleged illicit payments to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was transferred from an anti-corruption bureau, known as NABU , to Poroshenko’s prosecutor general, according to a June 15, 2017, report in the Kyiv Post. The paper quoted Viktor Trepak, former deputy head of the country’s security service, saying: “It is clear for me that somebody gave an order to bury the black ledger.”...

Battling back from the lead poisoning, parents and children are coming together for better nutrition.

October 21, 2019
By John Yang

After a public health crisis in Flint, Michigan, (click here) triggered by high levels of lead in the drinking water, a number of programs are working to encourage good nutrition for children in order to prevent recurring effects of the neurotoxin on growing bodies. John Yang reports....

...John Yang:

A professional chef leads a cooking class for kids in a kitchen at the farmers market in Flint, Michigan.

They're not just learning how to make pot pies, tacos and baked cheese sticks. They're learning healthy eating with foods that doctors say help limit the amount of lead their growing bodies absorb, milk, dried fruits and green leafy vegetables

It's called Flint Kids Cook, and it's one of a number of programs that started or expanded after the city's public health crisis, which was triggered by high levels of lead in the drinking water.
...
Pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha, who was among the first to sound the alarm about lead in the water, explains that the metal is stored in bones and can reenter the circulatory system.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha:

In periods of, for example, poor nutrition in the future or stress or pregnancy, it can come back out of your bones into your bloodstream and cause that neurotoxicity all over again.

John Yang:

But research, she says, shows that certain nutrients decrease lead absorption: iron, found in lean meat, spinach and beans, vitamin C in tomatoes, citrus fruit and peppers, and calcium in milk, cheese and yogurt.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha:

That's why nutrition is like a forever medicine. Children need to always have great nutrition to limit the ongoing kind of potential exposure from lead release....

...John Yang:

Nikki Bormann works at Steady Eddy's Veggies in the market and has seen the effects.

Nikki Bormann:

There's a lot of kids that come up. Their parents will bring them in and, like, actually let them pick out fruits and veggies for themselves.

So that's pretty cool, instead of parents coming in like, well, maybe my kid will eat this, or maybe my kid will eat that, we will try this today....

Please pay attention to VOLUNTARY drug recalls. They are not necessarily exercised by the pharmacies.

A drug recall (click here) is the most effective way to protect the public from a defective or potentially harmful product. A recall is a voluntary action taken by a company at any time to remove a defective drug product from the market.

The list below includes voluntary recalls in which public notification has been issued.

Go to the link above and look for the search line and type in the GENERIC name of the drug, dosage isn't necessary. Any VOLUNTARY  recalls will be listed along with the manufacturer. Check the manufacturer at the pharmacy dispensing/filling the prescription. If the manufacturer is listed in the VOLUNTARY recall, go to a different pharmacy for the medication.

All pharmacies in the USA should be executing drug recalls for the VOLUNTARY recall list. They aren't necessarily. There is an information window at every pharmacy that I am aware of and the pharmacist is required by law to answer consumer questions.

I guarantee you Parnas and Guiliani were joined at the hip because Parnas was paying all the bills, to avoid an income to report in his divorce.

Rudy Giuliani (center) (click here) speaks with New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone prior to a game between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox in London in June 2019. Lev Parnas, a now-indicted associate of Giuliani's, can be seen standing on Giuliani's right.

The question I have is where did Parnas get all that money. It is not cheap to travel abroad requiring housing, food and miscellaneous. In this case, Guiliani was given access to Aaron Boone and the team. Like, what?

Nothing like being at the ringside seat to pay for Guiliani's expenses. Guiliani believes there is nothing like living on other people's money.

This is all from CNN. (click here)

Trump has to be the largest purveyor of frivolous lawsuits in the country, if not the world. "You can run, but, you can't hide."

September 18, 2019
By Laura Davison and Andrew M. Harris

...“It is improper (click here) for this court sitting in D.C. to exercise authority over elected officials sued only in their official capacity,” said Andrew Amer, a lawyer for New York Attorney General Letitia James and the commissioner of the state’s revenue department.

The hearing marks the second time the president has tried to put the dispute before a judge in Washington whom he named to the bench. After the Trump appointee who initially got the case punted, it landed through random lottery with a second Trump appointee, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols.

New York and Trump are sparring over the TRUST Act, a state law passed in July that would allow the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee to ask for Trump’s New York tax returns. Lawyers for the state argued that the president can’t sue in Washington over a law and officials that are both out of state....

November 1, 2019
By Dartunorro Clark

...Trump, a lifelong New Yorker, filed a “declaration of domicile” with the Palm Beach County Circuit Court in September renouncing his residence and listing the family's Mar-a-Lago resort as his main residence, according to The New York Times. The Times, which first reported Trump's change in residence, said the move was motivated by taxes: Florida notably has no state income or inheritance tax....

...Dan Pfeiffer, a former Obama aide, quipped in a tweet on Thursday: ”President flees to Florida to avoid paying taxes.”

Trump tweeted late Thursday that he cherishes his hometown and "hated having to make this decision," but "despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year, I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state."...

Well, the President of Ukraine was also treated very badly.

Walmart is no longer the largest employer of Americans. This is vital for the USA and we need to get it right.

Non-profit is the only way forward. I might add the cost for the country will fall after the aging of the baby boomers. Get it right now and the costs will go down.

January 9, 2018
By Derek Thompson

This moment was inevitable. It just wasn’t supposed to happen so soon. (click here)

Due to the inexorable aging of the country—and equally unstoppable growth in medical spending—it was long obvious that health-care jobs would slowly take up more and more of the economy. But in the last quarter, for the first time in history, health care has surpassed manufacturing and retail, the most significant job engines of the 20th century, to become the largest source of jobs in the U.S...

This is the CPI (Consumer Price Index) to date for 2019. Kindly note Medical care services increased by 4.4 percent. This is a direct assault on the people with fixed income, which includes the elderly and disabled.

The current health care system needs to be replaced with one that delivers care without the middle man claiming his stock revenues. Enough of this mess. The people of the USA need good quality health care that doesn't sap them dry, allows for more disposable income for families and ultimately forcing Americans to decide to declare bankruptcy.

Whatever increase in salary Americans are receiving in 2019 is being eaten up by the costs of living. In other words, quality of life is diminishing as costs of living increases.

Trump knew it was wrong.

The Whistleblower complaint (click here) became public knowledge on September 26, 2019 (click here). It was a matter of 6 days later, after the USA public outcry, the State Department released the shipment. This was the second shipment of Javelins. The first is pictured below.

Just because one shipment was sent previous to the new president taking office, doesn't mean the second shipment was not needed. Ukraine was recovering financially and it was arming a military after Russia broke a treaty stating Ukraine would never face war again.

Russia has been building up a war front at its Eastern border with Ukraine. A commercial jet was shot down because of the Russian build-up. It is amazing to realize the people of Ukraine have the will to stand up to a sovereign country with a vast military capacity. The very least the USA can do is honor Ukraine's military requests. They are a very brave country. The USA should be proud they call us an ally.

October 3, 2019
By Amanda Marcias

Ukrainian servisemen ride atop of an APC’s with Javelin anti-tank missiles during a military parade in Kiev on August 24, 2018 to celebrate the Independence Day, 27 years since Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union. - Around 4,500 servicemen, including dozens representatives of foreign allies like the United States and Great Britain, saluted Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko during a military parade. Some 250 pieces of military hardware, including advanced Ukrainian weapons the Bohdana 155-mm self-propelled howitzer and the Vilkha multiple-launch rocket system, were shown to the thousands of spectators who waved Ukrainian blue and yellow flags.

Washington -The State Department (click here) on Thursday approved a possible foreign military sale to Ukraine for 150 antitank missiles and related support equipment worth approximately $39.2 million.

Ukraine requested the Javelin missile system early this past summer, and the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, brought up the missiles in the July 25 phone call with President Donald Trump that led Democrats to kick off an impeachment inquiry last week.

The Defense Department notified Congress of the possible sale Thursday.

“This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of Ukraine. The Javelin system will help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in order to meet its national defense requirements,” the State Department said in a release.

“It’s a defensive contribution, the Javelin,” U.S. Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, the nation’s top general in Europe, told reporters at the Pentagon. “It affords a soldier the opportunity to put a resource in his or her hands that affords the opportunity to protect their sovereign turf. It’s a sophisticated capability, it’s a modern capability, it has great precision, it has great speed.”...

October 30, 2019
By Marcy Oster

A person standing in front of Stars of David that are displayed in front of the Tree of Life synagogue with the names of those killed in the mass shooting in Pittsburgh, October 29, 2018.

Every democracy guarantees expression of opinion. The address and phone number is public record. He was first appointed, but, then elected twice. Time for a change.

James, Joseph M. (Senior Judge)

707 City-County Building

412.350.5598 (click here)

A Pennsylvania judge (click here) struck down ordinances placing restrictions on assault weapons passed by the Pittsburgh City Council in the wake of the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue building that left 11 worshippers dead.

Allegheny County Judge Joseph James ruled on Tuesday that the gun ordinances violate a Pennsylvania state law that prohibits individual municipalities from regulating the ownership or possession of guns or ammunition.

Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto said that the city would appeal the ruling. The city is being represented pro-bono by attorneys from Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization that advocates against gun violence, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported....

Cult of Personality

Cult of personality is a pejorative term implying the concentration of all power in a single charismatic leader within a totalitarian state and the near deification of that leader in state propaganda. Totalitarian regimes use the state-controlled mass media to cultivate a larger-than-life public image of the leader through unquestioning flattery and praise. Leaders are lauded for their extraordinary courage, knowledge, wisdom, or any other superhuman quality necessary for legitimating the totalitarian regime. The cult of personality serves to sustain such a regime in power, discourage open criticism, and justify whatever political twists and turns it may decide to take.

"10 World Leaders Who Created a Cult of Personality" (click here)

I was surprised Vladimir Putin is not listed.

If this took place after the proceedings were completed...

...it would not have remotely looked like corruption. But, here it is, corruption. It is bribery of the Senators. Whether it is criminal or not is for others to say. The Senators that received the bribery are guilty of nothing short of corruption and should return the funds. If they don't, they should not be re-elected because this is definitely corruption.

October 31, 2019
By Isabel Togoh

...Donald Trump—who is facing a formal impeachment inquiry in the House—has leveraged his fundraising network to boost the campaigns of struggling Republican senators who have signed a resolution condemning impeachment proceedings,...

Do nothing Moscow Mitch has stalled any progress of the House bills.

The US House passed legislation calling on the president to sanction Turkey and recognized the Armenian Genocide in the wake of the abandonment of the Kurds by the USA.

October 30, 2019

The U.S. House of Representatives voted (click here) overwhelmingly on Tuesday to recognize the mass killings of Armenians a century ago as a genocide, a symbolic but historic vote instantly denounced by Turkey.

The Democratic-controlled House voted 405-11 in favor of a resolution asserting that it is U.S. policy to commemorate as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. The Ottoman Empire was centered in present-day Turkey.

The vote marked the first time in 35 years that such legislation was considered in the full House, underscoring widespread frustration in Congress with the Turkish government, from both Democrats and President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans....

...calling on Trump to impose sanctions on Turkey over its offensive in northern Syria, another action likely to inflame relations with NATO ally Turkey.

The fate of both measures in the Senate is unclear, with no vote scheduled on similar legislation....