It must be in the name of god, though.

Ambition is one thing and it can be a good thing, but, in the case of Erik Prince, it is a ridiculously dangerous thing.

Net worth: 2.4 billion (click here)

The majority of that money has come from governments, especially that of the USA federal and locals. The local governments contract training for their SWAT teams.

So, the proposed take over of the world for Prince's financial well being is hardly an issue.

Erik Prince, no different than Duvos and all the other LOYALISTS in Trump World have their own agendas. Erik Prince is more than willing to take his skills while in service to the USA government to find SOMETHING to exploit by spying for political reasons. Somehow, the complaining about the Steele Dossier makes more sense than ever. I could never understand what the big fuss was because it was reviewed by the Former Director of the FBI Robert Mueller before including any information in his investigation. The complaints were because Prince was stressed out. See, he understands what spying can do if real information is found and he didn't want his benefactor, Donald "Kompromat" Trump to lose the presidency.

Very interesting.

Does anyone realize the level of trouble Erik Prince would cause if he is successful in replacing the USA military with his private companies? There is absolutely no reason to replace the USA military. None. As a matter of fact, the proposition of Mayor Pete Buttigieg when he was running for the presidency would make Erik Prince a happy man. Imagine Erik Prince heading up the privatized US Military. OMG.

March 7, 2020
By Mark Mazzetti and Adam Goldman

Five security guards (click here) from Blackwater Worldwide have been indicted on charges related to a 2007 shooting in which 17 Iraqis were killed in a Baghdad square, two sources said Friday.




Washington - Erik Prince, (click here) the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents.

One of the former spies, an ex-MI6 officer named Richard Seddon, helped run a 2017 operation to copy files and record conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers’ unions in the nation. Mr. Seddon directed an undercover operative to secretly tape the union’s local leaders and try to gather information that could be made public to damage the organization, documents show.

Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her....

In the petroleum industry regulations are to be ignored and pay offs for deaths is part of the profit margin.

In the case of this pipeline, it probably should not have been built, no different than the Keystone (click here). Not all land is the same and many times the land is protecting a very valuable water source, UNDERGROUND, where it is less likely to evaporate due to the climate crisis. But, to protect people and water, the land has to be protected first!

February 26, 2020
By Anya Litvak

The same steep (click here) and loamy hillside that tumbled in a landslide causing a natural gas pipeline to burst open and ignite in Beaver County on Sept. 10 has proven difficult to stabilize, even temporarily....

The U.S. Department of Justice (click here) has launched a criminal investigation into the 2018 natural gas pipeline explosion in Beaver County, adding to a growing list of state and federal probes into Energy Transfer’s pipeline projects in Pennsylvania.

The investigation has been going on since at least November, according to a disclosure in the Texas-based pipeline company’s financial filings. Energy Transfer said the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania “issued a federal grand jury subpoena for documents relevant to the incident,” which is also being examined by the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office.

“The scope of these investigations is not further known at this time,” Energy Transfer wrote in its annual report earlier this month.

Energy Transfer disclosed Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s investigation into the Revolution pipeline’s failure in a financial filing in August 2019....

I don't make the statement about a petroleum's bottom line out of hubris or fiction, the FACTS, both with the petroleum industry (continually subsidized by the US Congress) and the coal mining industry (continually regulated by the government) adding regulatory fines and lawsuits of ill health and deaths as an operating expense.

Let's get this right. These companies don't care about their customers. They dispatch for complaints, BUT, WHEN IT COMES TO THE IMPORTANT LIFE SAVING STUFF LIKE COMPLIANCE WITH REGULATIONS, THEY DON'T CARE.\

Both of these companies are in violation and liability.

February 26, 2020

The 2018 Columbia (click here) Gas disaster in the Merrimack Valley displaced thousands of people and damaged homes such as this one on Jefferson Street in Lawrence.

Boston - The United States Attorney's Office (click here) has announced federal charges against Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, following the deadly gas explosions in the Merrimack Valley in 2018. The company has "agreed to plead guilty to violating the Pipeline Safety Act."

The FBI's Boston Office said the charges come after a joint investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General. The U.S. Attorney's Office held a press conference at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston.

Officials said Columbia Gas is "criminally" and "financially accountable" for the 2018 explosions in the Merrimack Valley, which took the life of 18-year-old Leonel Rondon, and damaged dozens of homes and buildings.

"Under the terms of the plea agreement filed in court today, first Columbia Gas will pay a $53 million fine... by far the largest criminal fine ever imposed by the Pipeline Safety Act," said U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. "Until Columbia Gas is sold, an independent monitor... will monitor the company's activities... and report to the government on a monthly basis."

Columbia Gas is also to be sold by its parent company NiSource Inc., which will have to stop doing business in the state, and Columbia Gas will be on probation for three years....

I need to correct a bit of illogical thinking, though.

The world is not made of money, it is made of many things, including people.

If there are no people there is no economy.

I realize Wall Street and Donald "Kompromat" Trump are spazzing out over the impact of the worldwide cronoavirus, but, people aren't born to die for others' bank accounts.

March 8, 2020
By Jason Horowitz

Milan (click here)

Rome - Italy’s government (click here) early Sunday took the extraordinary step of locking down much of the country’s north, restricting movement for about a quarter of the Italian population in regions that serve as the country’s economic engine.

The move represents the most sweeping effort outside China to stop the spread of the coronavirus, and is tantamount to sacrificing the Italian economy in the short term to save it from the ravages of the virus in the long term.

By taking such tough measures, Italy, which is suffering the worst outbreak in Europe, sent a signal that restrictive clampdowns at odds with some of the core values of Western democracies may be necessary to contain and defeat the virus....

The people of Milan and other areas of the WORLD built their economy. It didn't happen to spring up. The people of Milan will again resume their economy when it is safe to do so.

Honestly. The wealthy are sincerely a product of greed.

It's Sunday Afternoon


Though - in spite of the possibility that : even if

The Wonder Stuff - Good Night Though (From the DVD 'Construction For The...) (click here for their Facebook page - thank you)

"Good Night, Though" by "The Wonder Stuff" (click here for their webpage - thank you)

Goodbye

So long

Well there's a lady that knows

All that glitters is not gold, she said

"Don't play that awful song

Don't play that awful song, cos then we'll know

close

volume_off

That the party has gone on too long."
I said, "This stairway ain't to heaven
This one's to oblivion"
She said "You get too drunk, you get too high
Oh tell me why
Sod this, I'm going home on my own."
Goodbye
So long

close

volume_off

That the party has gone on too long."

Yet another story of power, politics and profit in America. The story continues.

March 6, 2020
By Clive Irving

A majority (click here) Democratic US House found fault with Boeing and the FAA under the administration of Donald John Trump. The "self regulation" afforded Boeing and the Lion Air crash was enjoyed by Donald John Trump on 29 October 2018.

Nearly a year after a second crash of a Boeing 737 MAX (click here) that led to its grounding, the full extent of the company’s complicity and negligence, abetted by regulators, is revealed by a damning report from the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

And the issue of how soon this deeply flawed company culture and regulatory system will be fixed becomes even more urgent.

One thing is for sure: in the history of air crash investigations, since the beginning of the Jet Age 60 years ago, there has never been such a serious and sustained breakdown in the safeguards intended to keep flying safe.

I have covered the MAX catastrophe for The Daily Beast since the first crash, of Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia that killed 189 passengers and crew on October 29, 2018. Like many other reporters, I was stonewalled and misled by Boeing’s carefully orchestrated and sustained campaign to resist grounding the airplane.

For example, it was obvious to me and other experienced reporters that the Lion Air pilots had been swiftly overcome by a problem that that they had not been trained to prepare for because it was related to a new control system, Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), that they—along with all other MAX flight crews—did not know even existed....

These are the heroes of the Flint Water Crisis, that is still ongoing, by  the way. They came forward out of conscience. There were many others involved in the crisis, but, these were the two people most responsible for bring attention to the danger the Flint residents were EXPERIENCING.

It is unfortunate in the USA that a person of conscience, morals and ethics are ridiculed by powerful people. These two people are among the MOST TO ADMIRE and be seen as ROLE MODELS to Americans.

As a rule, the Republicans have turned the definition of Great American on it's head. These two people are great Americans and Dr. Hanna-Attisha continues to give back in innumerable ways to prevent such a tragedy to occur again.

There is this chronic hubris that brings Great Americans a great deal of trouble in their lives. They are ridiculed to be seen as trouble makers. You'll excuse me, but, such Great Americans are never trouble makers, however, the Governor of the day was definitely a trouble maker all for the sake of "efficiency."

When efficiency causes death, illness and incredible trauma to an entire city, it is time to take a look at the language used in politics that stimulates violence and ridicule against people that are definitively Great Americans while cleansing those most responsible for tragedy of any blame. I believe the Republican Party is nothing more than a party of hubris and ridicule. That is easily seen in it's propaganda arm at Fox News. I think Fox News makes it's money by turning the definition of words and phrases like "Great American" into an honor according to their agenda while removing such phrases from demanding justice and recognition of truly Great Americans.

It is easy to call Dr. Hanna-Attisha a hero because she literally saved the lives of thousands of people in Flint by reporting in public to the public that their water was toxic and it needed to be replaced until no longer toxic. Mark Edwards, ALSO BY PROFESSION, has taken up the role of ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARD. He works with water. Of all things simply analyzing water can change the health outcomes of a city's people. He, by choice and as a scientist with a conscience has placed himself directly in the path of corrupt government even though that is not his agenda so much as happenstance.

These two people are Great Americans. There is no doubt. They are Great Americans because an American Governor was corrupt and willing to expose an entire impoverished city into a place in hell when their source of water was turned into a nightmare without even a minute notice that such an act empowered and demanded by an American Governor was going to happen.

The corruption of power and money kept the secret from the American public for an entire year. Please think about that. Rick Snyder demanded other people to find a METHOD of which an impoverished city can turn their assets into money to pay off the city's debt. Snyder called them Emergency Managers, but, they never managed anything so much as caused emergencies empowered by Snyder's demands and permission. Snyder pulled the lever on Flint, yet "the establishment" would see him as a great man to head to Harvard Kennedy School (click here) for a fellowship (click here) that was defeated by those that sincerely see the truth and not the propagandized image.

There is no doubt Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha and Dr. Marc Edwards are Great Americans and it didn't take the Flint Water Crisis to define them. They were "at their core values" already heroes. The circumstances brought them to the public to validate that indeed THE CITIZENS of Flint are telling the truth, there is a profound problem in this city. See, Drs. Mona and Marc, in their minds and hearts, could do no different. Given the circumstances today, they would do the very same thing.

Turning to Rick Snyder, those VERY SAME CHARACTERISTICS do not apply. He is corrupt, values money over people and given the same circumstances all over again would continue to value money over people and do the same thing in Flint, Michigan. Why? Because he gets away with it. The power behind him INSURES him getting away with it. Rick Snyder and the power behind him are not Great Americans, they serve no good purpose to our society.

Republicans, at their core values, are not Great Americans. Their priorities do not rise to noble or even important. Their bank accounts are bulging at the seams, but, that was all ill gotten gains and there in lies the rub. The money provides them political power that corrupts and destroys the best of America. If Snyder had his druthers, Drs. Mona and Marc would have been interrupted and given generous grants to work silently and maintain the STATUS QUO. See, that is the way Republicans stroke their problems and make them go away. Conscience is not a priority for the GOP.

Before George Walker Bush took office the word million meant something and indicated a reward for talents and greatness. Then the USA illegally invaded Iraq and the word million no longer meant anything, it was replaced instead with the word billion. Before that billion was a giggle or laugh as to think such amounts of money even conceivable. But, the Republicans, after 911 used the trauma in the country to steer it into an unreality and sent $87 billion (click here) to Iraq. That's right, with a little more UN aid, the Republicans bought a country and called it greatness in removing Saddam. Only $87 billion turned the key.

The USA has a problem and it involves their Constitution. It is time for all Great Americans to realize what happened in Flint and how the entire country was rescued by two Great Americans with a conscience. Americans need to realize how close they came to never knowing the truth about Flint. AN ENTIRE YEAR of suffering DISAPPEARED. AN ENTIRE YEAR.

Today, Flint is finding it's way back with the help of Great Americans, but, if the Republicans, especially Rick Snyder, has their way; the greatness of these two people will never be rewarded ANYWHERE in the USA ever again.

A Whistleblower came forward to report how Donald John Trump was abusing his power and seeking to intimidate a president of another country for political benefit. TODAY, Donald John Trump is using the "idea" of corruption as a POLITICAL CAMPAIGN ISSUE by remaking the IMAGE of a former Democratic Vice President under a black President Obama to reflect someone of guilt who got away with it in Ukraine holding Hunter Biden as the poor slob that got caught. Caught doing what has yet to be created, but, the mystery exists according to Trump and all his legal lackeys.

A Whistleblower came forward AND THE US SENATE REPUBLICANS TURNED THEIR BACKS ON THE USA CONSTITUTION.

Americans woke up to the atrocities of Flint, Michigan, but, will they wake up to the atrocities of the Republican Party and their willingness to live with a story called America rather than the USA Constitution?

Marc Edwards and Mona Hanna-Attisha (click here)

March 7, 2020

A public health (click here) advocate — once named among the “100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time magazine — will visit SVSU next week to discuss her role in uncovering the Flint water crisis.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha will appear for her presentation at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 12, in SVSU’s Malcolm Field Theatre for Performing Arts. The event is free and open to the public.

Hanna-Attisha is a pediatrician, scientist, and public health advocate whose research and insistence helped reveal dangerous levels of lead in Flint's water supply following a change in the city's water source....

The news out of China is not good. This coronavirus is proving to be atypical. The Wuhan area is not contained according to authorities there.

I am going to speculate about this virus for the sake of investigative ideas.

This virus came out of the same wildlife food markets as SARS. SARS was a extremely virulent virus unlike other coronavirus before. This new mutation has learned how to survive. It protects the virility of the pneumonia until the very latest stage to create a weakness in the host. Basically, it is trickier than SARS. 

I strongly suggest the origins of the virus has to be investigated, but, it is dangerous. The original spawning grounds may hold clues scientists don’t have at this point. I would have liked to have an animal specimen that were among the first to transmit it. The Chinese scientist that has since died, found it. His work and notes are invaluable.

One answer might be to find a DNA match that is lethal to the virus and attempt to synthesize a vaccine that is safe or an antidote administered nasally or by injection (IV, IM or Sub Q).

The wildlife are not sick from the virus and can be carriers. What of their immune system allows their continued viability and can that teach us anything that can translate into a vaccine, treatment or cure for the human immune system?

Okay, so it is nearly 120 minutes. I am not going to apologize for having a life that requires my personal attention.

March 3, 2020
By Jonathan Turley

One of my favorite stories (click here) about Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes is from one of his train trips to Washington. Holmes forgot his ticket but the train conductor reassured him, “Do not worry about your ticket. We all know who you are. When you get to your destination, you can find it and just mail it to us.” Holmes responded, “My dear man, the problem is not my ticket. The problem is, where am I going?”

Chief Justice John Roberts may have the same uncertainty this week as he finds himself on track to two decisions that will define him and the court. Once heralded as a reliable conservative, Roberts became the swing vote with the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Now conservatives are unsure if Roberts will deliver or deflect a coup de grâce with decisions on ObamaCare and abortion. In both cases, he will grapple with his previous views that would push him to vote for decisions with sweeping impacts. For a chief justice who gets sticker shock at such moments, Roberts may find himself evading his prior self in shaping the future court....

I believe power has gone to the brain of Justice Roberts. I think he is rehearsing for the "Boss Chair" on Celebrity Apprentice. Appearing in the US Senate and having a say to the impeachment proceedings has sincerely loosened the lips of the Chief now seeking to be the Commander and Chief of the Supreme Court. His demeanor with the issue of a Democratic rally is completely wrong with no exceptions. I also believe Senator Schumer who is the minority leader of the US Senate was absolutely correct in his criticism.

So, besides Alito there is another ideologue in the Chief's chair. It took him awhile, but, he is finding his voice.

The issue here is the idea that the USA is a melting pot. It is not a melting pot although it allows the Republicans to characterize their moralizing as upholding the USA Constitution. Since the Warren Burger was Chief Justice (click here) there has been a chronic deterioration of both the Republican Party, but, also individual rights along with them.

...Although Burger was a lifelong Republican, many of the landmark decisions issued during his tenure represented clear liberal victories. For example, In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg Board of Education (1971), the Court issued a unanimous ruling supporting busing as a pragmatic approach to reduce de facto racial segregation in schools. However, Burger’s conservatism can be seen in opinions such as his concurring opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), which upheld a Georgia law criminalizing sodomy.

When Burger retired in September of 1986, he was the longest serving Chief Justice of the 20th century. He was also a fundamental proponent of Alternative Dispute Resolution, citing its ability to alleviate an overburdened judicial system....

Warren Burger was held in a reverent embrace by the people in the USA because he first embraced the them. The Burger Court's opinions stand the test of time. The Burger Court included Sandra Day O'Connor.

...Conclusions (click here)

Warren Burger served seventeen years at Chief Justice. “His” Court was a transitional court, pragmatic and flexible, consolidating Warren Court jurisprudence in some areas, turning away from it in others and creating some new law on its own. As Chief Justice, Burger was not the intellectual leader of his court, if, indeed, his court had such a leader. While nobody can gainsay the enormous energy and commitment Burger brought to his office, arguably he might have spread himself too thin to have been at his most effective in attempting to lead the Supreme Court. Part of Burger’s legacy can, of course, be seen in his opinions. This paper suggests that in areas such as First Amendment speech, press and religion, racial civil rights and separation of powers, those opinions and others have so far survived the test of time.  Burger also made an important contribution to federal and state judicial administration by helping to create important new institutions and spurring innovations that aided efficiency....

On a rare occasion I am asked by one who reads this blog, "How can you embrace the people of another country with ferocious alliance and yet stand to protect abortion in the USA. Isn't that fundamentally flawed and illogical." "No, it isn't." But, first one has to accept the fact the USA, according to the First Amendment, is not a melting pot at all, while accepting one's own morals as only one's own and not a burden to others.

I always believed the Burger Court was the beginning of the real implications of the US Constitution by upholding the fact each American has personal identity and power that does not cross to violations of the Rule of Law.

It is a fine balance that Warren Burger adhered in his a long stretch of authority as Chief Justice. He realize the laws of the USA have broad sweeping authority and while well intentioned also impact individuals adversely. I am not defending the sodomy issue, that is not moralizing so much as understanding as far as I am concerned. There was no "OUTING" during this period of time in the USA and any underground that was established by J. Edgar Hoover (click here) is a national shame today.

Fortas (click here) has been in the news recently because of inaccurate Republican claims about the history of the filibuster and the history of judicial appointments. In 1968 Fortas, who had served as an Associate Justice since 1965, was nominated by President Lyndon Johnson to replace Earl Warren as Chief Justice. Fortas was denied confirmation because of a Republican-led filibuster in the U.S. Senate. According to historians who have studied the episode, the filibuster was motivated in part by concerns about financial improprieties and in part by objections to Fortas’s close ties to Johnson (the two reasons commonly invoked by journalists), but also by false allegations made by Senator Strom Thurmond (and others) about Fortas’s roles in a set of rape and obscenity cases and by anti-Semitic objections to what would have been the nation’s first Jewish Chief Justice. Because of the timing of these developments, Republican Richard Nixon, elected in November 1968, gained the power to appoint Warren’s successor, and in 1969 the Democratic-led Senate confirmed Nixon’s nominee Warren Burger. Fortas resigned from the Court in 1969 and was replaced by Harry Blackmun, also nominated by Nixon....

Kalman writes (on page 375),

Other gossip was more startling. No one who knew of Fortas’s enthusiastic heterosexuality would ever have accused him of homosexuality, but [New York Times reporter Fred] Graham and [Life magazine reporter William] Lambert were told, presumably by sources within the government who offered to ‘bootleg’ the information ‘out of the FBI’, that the FBI had a morals file on Fortas that included allegations he had once been involved in a sexual relationship with a teenage boy. Regardless of their truth, such stories were damaging....

But, to return to the idea the USA as a melting pot is important. Most of the people in the USA are from decedents that came to the USA for a new life. The ONLY people in the USA that can state otherwise are Native Americans and with that enters a subject called genocidal. Power of the gun can corrupt absolutely. There is also a strong argument that African Americans are the victims of power as well.

The idea the USA is a melting pot came during the years of immigration through Ellis Island. The idea of a melting pot is not only incorrect, but, stigmatizing and in the 'wordiness' of the GOP as it describes the RIGHT to demand assimilation rather than individuality. We saw the idea of "assimilation" during the years of "W" as president. That entire concept needs to be buried under vast amounts of court documents never to return again.

The USA, according to the First Amendment, allows for many beliefs including that of agnostic and atheism. The human being is safe in the USA so long as they recognize and obey the Rule of Law., even then their safety is demanded the four writs (click here).

I believe Robert's is stepping outside of his judicial robes as an ideologue willing to be talked about in the fan club of FOX News. To with that reality comes the question to his fitness for the public trust.

There are a few things at play with the so called conservative judges. First the corruption handed them by the private sector is known to some Americans, but, not all. Why not become corrupt in the core beliefs of one's practice if it pays off in free golf outings and otherwise.

October 3, 2011
By Pam Martens

For the past three years (click here) the U.S. has been served up a heaping dose of free market creative destruction that is the sine qua non of legions of corporate funded front groups.  First Wall Street, then housing, now the nation’s highest court have been brought low by its force.  As it turns out, creative destruction is 90 percent corruption and 10 percent creative.

The Citizens United case, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 21, 2010, opened the spigots to unlimited corporate money in elections and put free speech for inanimate, unfeeling corporations on equal footing with free speech for humans with a brain and a heart.  But it didn’t pass the smell test from day one; four of the nine Justices on the court said so in a scathing dissent that raised the issue of unprincipled behavior on the part of the 5-judge majority which ruled on issues that were not legally before the court.

The unpleasant aroma of that decision enveloped Justice Clarence Thomas over his all-expenses-paid, four-day luxury trip to the January  2008 Koch brothers confab in the Palm Springs area of California. (According to his 2008 disclosure form and the Supreme Court’s public information office, his expenses for that trip were paid by the Federalist Society, a conservative nonprofit that the Koch foundations have given $1.9 million to, from 1991 through 2009.)...

The corruption of the conservative judges is real, obvious, overt and allowed, after all they are Americans, too. Other Americans can enjoy free travel gifts why can't the Supreme Court?

The obvious answer is that corruption of any kind should never be tolerated in the USA. Ever! And such corruption should result in impeachment of judges in the federal system and possibly state systems where federal authority joins with the states in decisions.

Corruption has been imposing itself on the USA governments from local to federal and it is that imposition that is not punished in respect of the Rule of Law. The STATUS QUO alienates the power structure of the USA from it's people. It is wrong and needs to end. Roberts is a good example of many things. Alito is just pathetic.

I remember Alito at his confirmation hearings, the question regarding the display of religious artifacts in public spaces was answered to the Republican Senator as "I believe the public square should be robust." That, of course, means put Jesus' manger in every corner of America. That answer brings me to the Second lesson of Justice Roberts' revelations of US Senator Schumer.

June 3, 2019
By Dylan Matthews and Byrd Pinkerton

Amanda Hollis-Brusky (click here) explains how a student group came to control GOP court nominations....

...As part of our research on the Olin Foundation for the Future Perfect podcast, we talked to Amanda Hollis-Brusky, a political scientist at Pomona College who wrote a book on the Federalist Society. She described the group’s origins, its current power, and the role that funding plays in its success. We couldn’t include the interview on the podcast itself, but it’s a valuable conversation. So we decided to share it here, lightly edited for length and clarity....

...You now have a five-justice majority on the Supreme Court, all of whom are [connected to] the Federalist Society: Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas — who has been called by Federalist Society members the closest thing to a pure Federalist Society judge — and, of course, Trump’s appointments, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh....

...The money enables them to expand. It enables them to hire someone like Leonard Leo, who is the vice president....

...National Lawyers Convention, which is like a ball for the who’s who in the conservative legal movement, and a national student convention...

...Where the funding has made the most difference is in the kinds of events that you see in the law schools. Students tell me and faculty tell me, no matter what side of the political spectrum they come from, they’ll always attend the Federal Society events because they have the best food and the best alcohol.

Their events have more of the trappings of power....

The Federalist Society is singularly toxic and money enables their demise of the USA Constitution.

July 9, 2018
By Jay Michaelson

...At the center of the network (click here) is Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, the association of legal professionals that has been the pipeline for nearly all of Trump’s judicial nominees. (Leo is on leave from the Federalist Society to personally assist Trump in picking a replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy.) His formal title is executive vice president, but that role belies Leo’s influence....

And the Federalist Society demand for PROMINENT RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE of singularly the far right. They pick on Pope Francis as a leisure time activity. So, Leo is not only demanding judges out of the Federalist Society to demise the USA Constitution, he also loves his power and believes the Pope is in error of understanding the scripture. Really?

...Leo is a member of the secretive, extremely conservative Knights of Malta, a Catholic order founded in the 12th century that functions as a quasi-independent sovereign nation with its own diplomatic corps (separate from the Vatican), United Nations status, and a tremendous amount of money and land.

The Knights, which recently have tussled with Pope Francis and resisted his calls for reform, take their own set of vows, as monks do. On the surface, the primary work of the order is humanitarian work around the globe, but it is also home to noted Catholic conservatives including Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, a frequent foe of the reformist pope.

“Leonard’s faith is paramount to him,” Carter said. “When he traveled, staff members had to find him a church near where he was staying so he could say [attend] Mass every day.”...

...In 2011, Leo played a leading role in successfully opposing an Islamic center near the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York that was maligned by the right as the “Ground Zero Mosque” (it wasn’t a mosque and was several blocks from Ground Zero). Leo was the director of Liberty Central, a Tea Party affiliated group he co-founded with Ginni Thomas, wife of Clarence Thomas, that organized a petition against the center....

So, the right wing is an extremist group. If they have their way, the USA Constitution will never again bring about equity in voting, education or religious beliefs and women need to learn their proper place in the larger scheme of things. Baby making is paramount to any woman's dream before her career of choice and her ability to support large families. That in turn, by the way, has lead to impoverished families losing their children to capitalism and "the system" because their financial allegiance is so very bad to support capitalism. After all, children are innocent and it is not their fault they were born into a poor family with no interest in high finance and Wall Street, yet alone the inability to pull themselves out of poverty.

As to abortion: 

It is not a minority or majority issue, it directly relates to the health of a woman.

Does poor reproductive health (click here) prevent poor women from escaping poverty? Despite the plethora of survey data showing that poor households tend to be larger and that poor women tend to have higher rates of fertility, experts have debated whether these conditions cause poverty or are symptoms of poverty. In research funded by the MacArthur Foundation and published by the World Bank, Thomas Merrick and I found that poor reproductive health outcomes—early childbearing, maternal mortality/morbidity, and unintended/ mistimed pregnancy—have negative effects on overall health, and, under certain circumstances, on education and household well-being....

First abortion is outlawed and then contraception is on the chopping block. The right wing of the USA is not the authority most women need in life. Take for instance the rumors about Judge Alito's wife having an affair and seeking an abortion to the fact the baby she was carrying was not the Justice's conception.

Those scenarios are true to women and when a country like the USA doesn't pay women an equal wage or opportunity, there are all sorts of decisions that have to be made for a variety of reasons.

Then with the idea an abortion doctor has to have admitting privileges to carry out a practice in abortion leaves many, many questions to the "Out of Hospital" procedures that have become so famously demanded by the Health Care Insurance Lobby. "Back on your feet and back to work everyone." It is good for their bottom line.

If abortion clinic physicians are demanded to have hospital admitting privileges what do we do with "The Hospitalist" movement? Many General Practitioners in the USA use HOSPITALIST (a growing specialist movement) to care for their hospitalized patients. What happens then to the General Practitioners and the demand they have admitting privileges. Do General Practitioners not call Paramedics that don't have admitting privileges to bring their patients to the ER where an Emergency Room Physician (normally having a surgical background) will assess, order and treat and possibly admit a patient to the hospital?

The entire ATTITUDE by Alito and Roberts have heavy consequences to the American landscape. Besides being misogynists, they are also uprooting decades of change for the American Health Care Paradigm and literally throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The implication of assigning abortions a special standing in the demands for admitting privileges is absolute gender discrimination and will not be contained to abortions only over time. Such judges have to be taken seriously in their hatred of autonomous thinking by women. Their own ideologies MUST be their downfall.

Corruption this deep in the USA democracy is a threat to all Americans and it's STATUS QUO standing is dangerous.

Throw the bums out and all the legislators that see the world as tainted as Alito and Roberts, too!

I will be back in about 90 minutes...

...but, Alito and Roberts are way out of line. Since when does Alito have an MD and patients in  the USA sign consents before procedures and will dentists need hospital admitting privileges after this?

Senator Schumer was at a rally. I have yet to hear Roberts rein in Trump from his hate speech that is known to cause his supporters to act on his words to attempt murder of journalists. Bombs, Justice Roberts, bombs!

Newsweek has a super map out of John Hopkins below.

Let me say this about the confused messages from the federal government. Donald John Trump is wrong regardless of his insistence this is not a bad virus so much as a virus that is getting a lot of attention. That is diminishing the real seriousness that this virus DESERVES. If one values money over life and is the president of the USA with plenty of security surrounding him, then the virus is not so bad.

The lives in China are not disposable people. The Chinese government didn't do well in taking this virus seriously and it spread like a wildfire and tens of thousands of Chinese are dead. That is a serious issue and no one should be saying this virus is not that bad as viruses go.

The people that died because of Covid-19 are just as important as any president in this country. They died and the current president should realize that death is a real thing most Americans would like to stave off as long as possible, that includes the elderly. So, for a president to diminish the impact of this virus because to him it doesn't seem so bad and is willing to take causalities lightly to save the precious stock market from tumbling any more is not only the worst president this country has had, but, is seriously ignorant to the value of life and the quality of that life.

To be honest, the only reason the President of the United States of America has any type of security is because HE WAS ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE, HENCE, IT IS THE PEOPLE THAT DEMAND THAT SECURITY. So, Trump needs to understand that he is disposable and hopefully in November he will find out exactly what that means.

The Federal government is the power of the people. It is not the power of A MAN completely irreverent to life and to the USA Constitution. If Trump were to leave tomorrow or contract Covid-19 from a courier from Moscow he lets into the Oval Office without question, there would be plenty other people to replace him. He is not so precious he is irreplaceable. Corporate America seems to have that delusion of their CEO's and in some instances that might be true if they know more than anyone else in the company about their products and how to make money with them. That, by the way, is something Trump was never able to do well with his company; MAKE MONEY. Often those that are not successful in business do seek other venues of power like government, but, it doesn't mean they belong there, it is just that they are good salesmen.

Every life Covid-19 has taken has provided information to the rest of the humans on this planet. Those that died taught all of us valuable lessons about this virus so we could survive the scourge. Every life ended is appreciated for it's contribution to life on Earth before they died and the definition of their death. I am sincerely sorry this virus has killed anyone. We should have had a vaccine ready more than a decade ago and have its manufacture and distribution planned for a time like this.

The Third World is always at risk for disease and to that end we need to place higher value on preparedness to intervene, including research for cures and treatments.

Donald John Trump needs to apologize to the world, especially the Chinese, for completely lacking the value of a single life in his comments.

March 4, 2020

By Soo Kim

The U.S has confirmed three more deaths (click here) in Washington, bringing the death toll to nine in the country, all of which were reported in the state. Eight of the deaths were in King County, while one of them was in the neighboring Snohomish County.

There are now 27 confirmed cases across the state, 21 of which are in King County, while the remaining six are in Snohomish County, according to the Washington State Department of Health.

The state has placed 231 others under "public health supervision," which includes those at risk of having been exposed to the virus "who are monitoring their health under the supervision of public health officials," as well as those who have returned from China in the past 14 days.

"This is a very fluid, fast-moving situation as we aggressively respond to this outbreak," said Dr. Jeff Duchin, a health officer for Seattle and King County....

March 4, 2020
By Claudia Grisales

Congressional leaders (click here) announced an agreement on a roughly $8 billion deal on emergency spending to respond to growing cases linked to the coronavirus illness domestically and abroad.

A bipartisan group of members and staff for the appropriations panels in both the House and Senate unveiled the legislation on Wednesday after several days of talks. They released details of the plan, which will boost funding for testing of the virus and lower costs for related medical treatments.

Although partisan disagreements on providing affordable access to treatment slowed down negotiations in recent days, members said putting politics aside finally provided the breakthrough they needed to reach a deal....

...The House is expected to vote on the emergency funding bill Wednesday afternoon. Senate leaders have said they hoped to pass the bill by week's end, and send it to Trump's desk....

Good work, everyone. Thank you for your hard work in crafting this bill.

There definitely needs to be research on the way cruise ships carried and spread the virus. These are close quarters for many passengers. There needs to be far better planning in isolating illnesses onboard and evacuating passengers immediately to medicare care. When I travel I carry insurance that will helicopter me out of an area if I need medical attention. There needs to be the same focus on these cruise lines. They are not doing a good job with the safety of their passengers.

The medical offices on these ships have to be staffed appropriately and have plans to move patients that fall ill for any reason to qualified hospitals and frequently that means returning them to their home country. It has to be done in a timely manner.

March 4, 2020
By Morgan Hines

The first California resident (click here) to succumb to coronavirus died Wednesday. The elderly adult with underlying health conditions was "likely exposed" to the virus while traveling internationally on a Princess Cruise ship, according to a news release from Placer County, which is is in the northern part of the state....

The USA has hospital ships in military service. I was surprised this was never discussed as a potential to evacuate at the very least Americans from those cruise ships.

Thank you to Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg, the wealthy guys in the race, for participating and caring about our country and Americans. It is difficult to convince a party that abhors Wealth Inequality to place a wealthy man in the White House.

I think they had great ads for their candidacy and came across as very sincere. I think they carried out a candidacy because they sincerely are worried about the country as we all are. They provided a qualified alternative to Democrats and that was brave of both of them. Running for office is not easy and their peril is unique. I hope they stay involved and the win in November belongs to the Democrats.