It is worth noting a dangerous daytime lightning. This is Florida. Occurred recently.

Florida has the most lightning strike deaths.

August 14, 2020

By Kevin Byrne

This past Monday afternoon, (click here) the weather in the Lutz, Florida, area, located about 20 minutes north of Tampa, seemed to be that of a normal summer day in that neck of the Sunshine State.

Typical summertime thunderstorms had been making their way through the Tampa-Saint Petersburg area, but around 4 p.m., the closest storm in the vicinity to Lutz was about 3 miles away. All appeared to be tranquil as puffy white clouds floated across a splendid blue sky. But then something unexpected, and startling, happened....

 These rains have become worse over the past two years. There is every indication that it will continue. The government needs to decide how best to address these continuing issues.

India has a difficult situation with not only China and Russia but, also migration from Bangladesh due to flooding and sea-level rise. Believe it, Prime Minister Narendra D. Modi has his hands full on a daily basis, but, he has good outcomes for the people of India.

The climate crisis is a huge issue for India.

July 16, 2020

By Badri Chatterjee

Mumbai has also recorded its second-highest 24-hour rainfall since 2015.

Incessant moderate to heavy overnight showers (click here) that continued until 8:30 am on Thursday have taken Mumbai’s rain output in the first 16 days of July to 1,024 millimetres (mm), which is 122% of its monthly average.

The city has also recorded its second-highest 24-hour rainfall since 2015.

The Santacruz weather observatory, which represents Mumbai and its suburbs, recorded 191.2 mm of rain between 8:30 am on Wednesday and 8:30 pm on Thursday.

On July 3, 2019, Mumbai had recorded its highest 24-hour of July rain for the past decade at 375.2 mm....

August 14, 2020

By Courtney Spamer

A season of heavy monsoonal rain in Nepal is now wreaking deadly havocs. (click here)

At 6:30 a.m. Friday morning, local time, a landslide ravaged the Lidi area of the Jugal Rural Municipality in Sindhupalchok. The village is located approximately 47 km (29 miles) northeast of Nepal's capital of Kathmandu.

The New York Times reported that 11 people were killed with another 27 people still missing as of Friday evening. Five critically injured people were airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu....

...The hill above the Lidi settlement was washed away in the heavy rainfall back on July 10, which put many of the villagers on edge due to the increased risk for a landslide. Resident Aash Bahadur Dong said locals had submitted memorandums to authorities asking to be moved to a safer location.

Rounds of rain and heavy thunderstorms struck in parts of the area this week, which may have attributed to the cause of the landslide.

Even more rainfall is anticipated across the region through the weekend as recovery efforts persist....

Winds over India (click here for interactive)

The Pacific Ocean has a large high pressure system whereby winds are mostly absent. That "blocking" high pressure system is slowing down the air movement over India, hence, the prolonged rains. The people need to make plans to be safe.

August 15, 2020
By Bradley W. Parks

Bend fire investigators (click here) say hot engine exhaust from motor home ignited fire threatened homes in NE Bend.

Bend Fire and Rescue (click here) said on Twitter that it had stopped forward progress of a fire burning north of the city Saturday evening. The fire produced a large plume of black smoke as it consumed several cars in a nearby junkyard, the fire department said.

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office earlier in the evening issued Level 3 evacuation orders, meaning “go now,” for residents north of Cooley Road and east of Highway 97 in Bend. A map of the evacuation zones is available,

The size of the fire was unknown as of Saturday night, but hot temperatures and high winds had many on edge about the blaze’s potential to spread. The regional forecast calls for high temperatures through the middle of the week.

The sheriff’s office closed Highway 97 between Cooley Road and Deschutes Junction Saturday evening until further notice.

The Red Cross established an evacuation center at St. Francis of Assisi Church on Northeast 27th Street in Bend....

It's Sunday Night 

 

"Earth Song" by the Late Michael Jackson (click here for official website - thank you)

What about sunrise
What about rain
What about all the things that you said
We were to gain
What about killing fields
Is there a time
What about all the things
That you said were yours and mine

Did you ever stop to notice
All the blood we've shed before
Did you ever stop to notice
This crying Earth, these weeping shores

Aah, ooh

What have we done to the world
Look what we've done
What about all the peace
That you pledge your only son

What about flowering fields
Is there a time
What about all the dreams
That you said was yours and mine

Did you ever stop to notice
All the children dead from war
Did you ever stop to notice
This crying earth, these weeping shores

Aah, ooh
Aah, ooh

I used to dream
I used to glance beyond the stars
Now I don't know where we are
Although I know…

Enough of the negativity. It is the first time in four years Americans can see the light at the end of the oppressive Trump tunnel.

Before I begin this evening it is important to mention the Democratic convention begins tomorrow. I also here there is some speculative message that President Obama doesn't have confidence in his former Vice President. That is nonsense. I am not calling anyone a liar, but, simply frustration with this current president can manifest is peculiar ways.

In my lifetime I have never seen two national leaders in profound friendship in Obama and Biden. They were seen together a lot during President Obama's eight years of leadership of the USA.

One cannot forget, President Obama did not run for election alone. He had a man that was a leader himself in Joe Biden. Joe Biden is the Middle Class. He is the unions. He is about a strong Middle Class and plenty of strong unions. Then Senator Biden carried al large number of the electorate during the years President Obama was running for election and re-election.

There is no doubt, at times, Joe Biden can be colorful in ways others don't expect, but, never at any time was never the leader he was expected to be. I am not worried and when it comes right down to it, President Obama isn't worried either about the leadership abilities of Joe Biden.

Enough of that negativity. Joe Biden came back from the worse moment in his life with Kamala Harris voicing her opinions on a debate state to the place we are today with her the future Vice President. It is going to be a great convention and a better campaign.

Joe's got this!

The USA is not close to the standards Dr. Fauci has stated are necessary to open schools and businesses. It is called be unified by all people to the same path to recover the USA.

Kushner states that children are 6 times less likely to die of COVID-19 and that was a good reason to open schools.

WRONG!

There is no ACCEPTABLE DEATH RATE OF CHILDREN. The rate of death at this point of CHILDREN is not ACCURATELY KNOWN. The children of the USA have been protected from this virus since the beginning. The return to school will quickly escalate the death rate.

There is no reason why DeSantis should be threatening schools with funding during a global pandemic in which the death rate is 3.2 percent of all people that contract the virus in the USA. Desantis' very WRONGFUL path for Florida's VERY ABSENT RESPONSE to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is manslaughter.

Kushner also stated some disturbing attitudes about the SARS-CoV-2 health crisis. He stated the reason there were fewer people dying than May 2020 is because of better therapeutics. That is mostly true, HOWEVER, better therapeutics is NO REASON FOR RELIQUISHING THE PROTECTIONS OF AMERICANS to medical therapeutics. We know for a fact that COVID-19 causes damage to the human body REGARDLESS OF SURVIVAL. Avoiding that bodily damage, which can be disabling, is paramount to maintaining a healthy and viable NATION OF PEOPLE.

Any of Kushner's understanding of what is acceptable in regard to SARS-CoV-2 transmission is harmful to the people of the USA.

Kushner is not allowed to cherry-pick Dr. Fauci's words either.

To (click here) prevent future surges, Americans need to become more unified about following public health guidance and take sequential steps to return to schools and businesses.

There are conditions that need to be met before children return to school or businesses open PERMANENTLY. Dr. Fauci has not blanketly stated it is safe currently to return to NORMAL circumstances. What he is saying is that ALL the people of the USA need to come to terms with this virus and follow the guidelines used to prevent illness and ultimately within that illness death. The USA, under Trump and evidently Kushner is in no way CLOSE to the guidelines Dr. Fauci has stated are mandatory.

If it isn't obvious that Trump plans to shut down the US Post Office immediately after the election if not sooner, then an American is blind to his ruthlessness.

Trump cannot shut down the US Post Office. He cannot render it dysfunctional. The USA Constitution guarantees the American people a functioning and affordable US Post Office. In order to remove the US Post Office from the American landscape, there has to be an amendment to the USA Constitution.

Right now, today, the US Post Office has exclusive AUTHORITY to "postmark" the mail. There is no other authority nor should there be.

NOW, this should be an ALERT to anyone mailing their ballots. While private carriers can deliver the ballots, a postmark might be required for it to be counted.

One more time.

NOW, this should be an ALERT to anyone mailing their ballots. While private carriers can deliver the ballots, a postmark might be required for it to be counted.

CHECK WITH YOUR POLLING AUTHORITY (USUALLY THE SECRETARY OF STATE AND LOCAL COUNTY SECRETARIES) TO FIND OUT OF A POSTMARK IS NECESSARY FOR THE BALLOT TO BE CONSIDERED LEGAL AND BINDING. IT REALLY SHOULD BE PUBLISHED SOMEWHERE ON THE STATE WEBSITE. 

The other mail services aren't really mail services. Independent PACKAGE DELIVERY companies provide a service to Americans that they like, especially those in business. That is my impression. I have at times accessed THE PRIVATE PACKAGE DELIVERY network to ship packages that also needed assistance in packaging.

Private delivery services are great. They do a good job. But, they have no postmarks. They work within their own networks to produce paperwork and provide timely delivery. They do a good job of it. 

Again. 

Today, in the USA the US Post Office is the only authority to provide postmarks and issue stamps. The only instrument that can change that is an amendment to the USA Constitution. That means such an amendment would first have to be written, passed through by 2/3rds majority in the US House and US Senate. That won't happen. Then 2/3rds of the states have to put it on a ballot to have the voters decide about adding an amendment to the USA Constitution. The American people love their post office. The US Post Office is part of life. Local Post Offices are a cozy feeling to Americans and they want to have nothing to do with losing their local post offices.

We have been through this before, but, it was about closing post offices for one reason or another. It was very public. The public had it's input through their Congresspersons. It was democratic and the way a free society handles major changes in its paradigm.

Balloting is a LEGAL AND BINDING act. Every ballot carries legal weight in this society. That means the authority receiving them RESPECTS the ballot AND the INTEGRITY of a fully functioning and available US Post Office.

August 15, 2020

By George Pyle

Can there be anything more American than the Post Office? (click here)

It helps that the history of what is now officially known as the United States Postal Service basically begins as the handiwork of the most American of us all, Benjamine Franklin. 

Franklin worked for a long time to wangle himself the appointment, first as postmaster of Philadelphia, then as postmaster general of the colonies under the British crown and then, in 1775, as the first postmaster general of the United States....

I would be remiss not to mention the surveilling by the US Post Office.

This is an electronic photograph of mail delivered to me. It was taken by the US Post Office to be forwarded to my email account. I darkened the address.

This was presented to me AS A FREE SERVICE by the US Post Office as a method of alerting people to the content of their mail. This came to my attention as a service about six months ago. I had to sign up for it. From the beginning this service made me feel a bit uneasy, because, this was a digital image that is probably preserved somewhere within the USA Post Office for an unknown length of time.

Legally, this has to fall under the classification of surveillance. I was troubled by it when I engaged this service, but not so much as I am becoming more uncomfortable with all the new undermining activities of the US Postal Service under Trump and this Post Master General.

To the right above is another electronic message about a piece of mail at my address that cannot be digitalized. 

What is troubling most about this service is that if this is not being handled LEGALLY, and who knows what kind of disclaimer comes along with this to be twisted and converted into permission for the entire US Government to use the information as they please.

I think the mail is not only digitalized to the people that subscribed to this free service, I believe even if I didn't subscribe the digital image would still be recorded. So, considering the fact the US Government was going to have all these images of my mail, I may as well know what it looks like.

To the left is the bottom of the email that comes with the digital images of my mail. Kindly note it does not only tell me about the mail arriving today but, ARRIVING SOON.

Knowing this service is RECORDING all my mail to let me know what is in the pipeline but hasn't made it to my address yet, MEANS, the very first interaction between any mail entering the system is recorded REGARDLESS of the destination. In other words, there is a permanent record of every piece of mail that enters the US Post Office system. The computer capacity to carry this out is enormous and where the heck is it based? I think it is housed at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Virginia. 

I strongly believe this is THE PATRIOT ACT ON STEROIDS.

I believe this surveillance is highly illegal and is being conducted of all the mail and not simply the subscribers to the service.

Talk about Metadata.

Flint Residents have until Sept. 18 to sign up

Alert         Alert         Alert        Alert         Alert

August 13, 2020

Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley (click here) is offering residents a final chance to sign up for getting their water service line replaced for free before the the citywide project is completed later this year.

Residents have until Sept. 18 to sign up for the program before it ends for good in the fall. Crews are replacing all lead and galvanized water service lines at residences in the city of Flint after they contributed to the Flint water crisis.

Neeley said the project is about 90% complete as of Thursday. Crews resumed work for the season on May 28, which was delayed several months by the coronavirus pandemic.

To sign up, call 810-410-1133, email GetTheLeadOut@cityofflint.com or send a letter to: Flint City Hall, DPW service line replacement program, 1101 S. Saginaw St., Flint, MI 48502. Some age 18 or older must be present for crews to work on a home’s water service line....

Thank you, President Obama. Trump's administration is like nothing Americans have seen before.

August 14, 2020
By Kevin Breuninger

Former President Barack Obama (click here) slammed President Donald Trump on Friday, accusing his administration of undermining the U.S. Postal Service and attempting to suppress votes during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Everyone depends on the USPS. Seniors for their Social Security, veterans for their prescriptions, small businesses trying to keep their doors open,” Obama said on Twitter in a series of posts.

“They can’t be collateral damage for an administration more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing a virus.”

Trump’s Democratic predecessor urged eligible voters in states with early voting options to “do that now.”

“The more votes in early, the less likely you’re going to see a last minute crunch, both at polling places and in states where mail-in ballots are permitted. Then tell everyone you know,” Obama said....

There are no minor issues. The states are preparing for the elections within a global pandemic and it seems as though Trump goes out of his way to pull the rug out from under them.

August 14, 2020

By Elisa Viebeck

New Jersey (click here) will conduct its general election mostly by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic, sending ballots to active registered voters while also providing the option to vote in person, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced Friday.

The state piloted a hybrid voting model during its July 7 primary, Murphy said during an interview with CNN and at a later news conference. He touted the experiment as “not perfect, but overwhelmingly a success,” despite President Trump seizing on an alleged criminal voter fraud scheme in Paterson, New Jersey’s third-largest city, during a local election in May.

“All of us recognize the importance of this year’s election,” Murphy said in remarks on Friday afternoon. “Ensuring that every voter has the ability to securely cast their ballot, while protecting public health, is our paramount concern. The recent primary election gave us the opportunity to see what worked and where we could make improvements.”...

The Governors and Secretaries of State will have to provide a timeline to recording all ballots cast. There is no reason why states cannot extend the timeline to all ballots so long as they are dated with a US Post Office date mark no later than November 3, 2020.

Any ballots dated by November 3, 2020 should be counted so long as they arrive 10 business days after the polls close.

August 14, 2020

By Erin Cox, Elise Viebeck, Jacob Bogage and Christopher Ingraham

Anticipating an avalanche of absentee ballots, (click here) the U.S. Postal Service recently sent detailed letters to 46 states and D.C. warning that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted — adding another layer of uncertainty ahead of the high-stakes presidential contest.

The letters sketch a grim possibility for the tens of millions of Americans eligible for a mail-in ballot this fall: Even if people follow all of their state’s election rules, the pace of Postal Service delivery may disqualify their votes.

The Postal Service’s warnings of potential disenfranchisement came as the agency undergoes a sweeping organizational and policy overhaul amid dire financial conditions. Cost-cutting moves have already delayed mail delivery by as much as a week in some places, and a new decision to decommission 10 percent of the Postal Service’s sorting machines sparked widespread concern the slowdowns will only worsen. Rank-and-file postal workers say the move is ill-timed and could sharply diminish the speedy processing of flat mail, including letters and ballots....

The Supreme Court ruled against the GOP.

August 13, 2020

By Ian Millhiser

The Supreme Court (click here) just handed a defeat to the Republican Party, rejecting the GOP’s effort to make it harder for voters to cast absentee ballots in Rhode Island. Only three justices publicly dissented in Republican National Committee v. Common Cause Rhode Island - Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch.

Republican National Committee is the GOP’s most recent effort to make it harder for voters to cast absentee ballots amid a pandemic that’s likely to discourage many voters from gathering at the polls....

...The only reason this case was in front of the justices is that the Republican Party, which isn’t even a party to the lawsuit, asked the Court to block this consent judgment. (Federal rules of judicial procedure sometimes allow a non-party to “intervene” in a lawsuit, and even to appeal a judgment that the parties do not wish to appeal.)

But a majority of the Supreme Court rejected the GOP’s arguments. “The state election officials support the challenged decree, and no state official has expressed opposition,” the Court’s brief order in Republican National Committee explains. Under those circumstances, the GOP lacks “a cognizable interest” in forcing the state to enforce a requirement that its own top elections officials wish to suspend....

This is unlawful. It is also unconstitutional.

Facebook Post Kamalas nephew (click here)

It is up to the State Attorney Generals to end this bizarre assault on the USA Constitution. The communities have to begin "Election Parties" that either/or reserve space for people to meet and collect mail-in ballots for the folks that cannot get to the post office and enroll new voters as well.

PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING.

WEAR MASKS THAT WORK TO PROTECT EACH OTHER.

Organize, organize, organize.

Petition State Attorney Generals to end this unlawful behavior. The actual people removing the post office drop boxes have to be arrested along with the Post Master General.

The agreement between the UAE and Israel is more slight of hand by Trump, Netanyahu and Kushner.

We all know what happened here. Kushner, who is heading up the Trump campaign from the White House, looked at the polls and knew something drastic needed to be done and turned to his Arab friend to find SOMETHING, ANYTHING that could fill that void.

THE PALESTINIANS ARE NOT AT THE TABLE.

How does Netanyahu open up diplomatic relations without giving up annexation while committing to a peace between the Palestinians and Israel? It is all doublespeak.

The Palestinians have been completely marginalized by Israel with Trump's support and Israel is hoping diplomacy and attempts at mutual economic dependence that builds over time will push the Palestinians completely out of what is LEFT OF PALESTINE.

The Palestinians know what this is and it is an election year "Hail Mary."

"Normalization" means nothing to the Palestinians. Israel is moving every Palestinian grandmother they can find out their homes and taking land as these words are written. The Palestinians are NOWHERE in this agreement. Annexation has been substituted for the words "Two-state solution." I have absolutely no confidence in this agreement that will be on display in a few weeks. END THE ASSAULT ON THE WEST BANK AND GAZA and then I might believe this will end with enough land for the Palestinians to call a homeland. Anything short of ending Israeli aggression is not acceptable.

August 13, 2020
By Camila Domonoske

Israel and the United Arab Emirates (click here) have agreed to forge a path toward normal diplomatic relations, and Israel said as part of the agreement it will suspend its controversial plans to annex more territory in the West Bank.

The historic deal was brokered during a call between leaders of the two nations and President Trump.

The UAE's leader, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed, announced on Twitter that the deal calls for "setting a roadmap towards establishing a bilateral relationship."...

When the Palestinians are adding their signatures to the agreement THEN AND ONLY THEN will I believe this holds water.

The US Postal Service needs to IMMEDIATELY replace the mail sorting machines!

The State Attorney Generals need to end the destruction of the mail sorting machines. Get injunctions against the US Postal Service and it's current destruction of mail sorting machines and demand new machines replace those already destroyed and disposed of. This is ridiculous. There was no public notification in the Federal Register or otherwise to the people of this country. 

American children cannot be trusted to the demands of Trump for his political agenda. He is not to be trusted with ANY American children.

Contracting this virus is not okay.

Contracting this virus is not okay. 

Contracting this virus is not okay.

To date there has been no leadership for people to rely on.

I only learned this evening that Herman Cain died. He died of COVID-19. He died after the rally Trump held.

Trump doesn't care enough to learn about the deadly nature of this virus from a person that was a friend and ally, then he just doesn't care about other human beings.

I don't understand how Trump can live with himself. A friend and ally to him died directly because of his rally and the spread of COVID-19 within that building. There is no remorse. There is no pause in his personal agenda to realize something really serious and terrible happened.

He has no conscience. We can't have a man at the head of this country that has no conscience. 

Herman Cain was somebody. For as long as I live I will never understand how anyone directly responsible for another person's death by his own priorities and actions lives with himself. 

There is a development with the Russian's vaccine. Rodrigo Roa Duterte, President of the Philippines has permitted his country to be the trial of Russia's vaccine. Putin is sending his medical professionals to administer their vaccine. An entire country could be at risk for an untried vaccine.

Like Trump, Putin has no conscience. He doesn't care about standards that ensure the well being of people. The standards are important and cutting corners is not allowed for expects to be considered important or noble.

Make no mistake, Trump is as ruthless and cruel of Duterte and Putin. Any American leader allowing danger into people's lives for the sake of politics has no conscience and has no place in any concept of power. Dare I not say leadership because there is no leadership, but, there is abuse of power for their own purposes.

That is a lot of cases for it being rare.

August 13, 2020

By Lisa Schencker

At least 20 children in Illinois (click here) have come down with a rare but severe illness linked to COVID-19, placing Illinois among the top seven states in the country for the number of cases, according to a new federal report.

Illinois, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and California each had between 21 and 30 cases from March to July, according to an article recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts had more than 31 incidences each.

The illness — called multisystem inflammatory syndome in children, or MIS-C — can generally appear two to four weeks after the onset of COVID-19 in a child or adolescent. Symptoms can include a rash, fever, red eyes, swollen hands and feet, vomiting and abdominal pain. It’s an inflammatory illness, meaning the body’s immune system revs up and begins to attack healthy tissue.

Nationwide, 570 cases had been reported to the CDC as of July 29, by 40 state health departments, the District of Columbia and New York City. Among those cases, children stayed in the hospital for a median of six days; 364 children had to go to intensive care; and 10 children died.

Nearly all the 570 cases went to the PICU. 364 cases out of 570 have needed intensive care which means without it they could have died.

Illinois has reported 24 cases of the illness to the CDC, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. No children in Illinois have died of the sickness.

The illness has, so far, been affecting Black and Latino children more than white children — similar to how COVID-19 has disproportionately affected Black and Latino people. Of the 570 cases nationwide, 40.5% of the patients were Hispanic or Latino; 33.1% were Black; and 13.2% were white....

DO NOT SEND THE CHILDREN TO SCHOOL. 

Trump is barbaric. He has no conscience.

August 13, 2020
By Richard Hall

Michael Cohen, (click here) Donald Trump's former personal attorney, has released a foreword to his new book in which he calls the president "a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man," and again accuses him of cheating in the 2016 presidential election.

Mr. Cohen also makes reference to "golden showers in a sex club in Vegas," without specifically stating that the Mr Trump took part in such acts, and "catch and kill conspiracies to silence Trump's clandestine lovers."

"Apart from his wife and children, I knew Trump better than anyone else did," Mr Cohen writes in the foreword to the book 'Disloyal,' which was teased online on Thursday.

"In some ways, I knew him better than even his family did because I bore witness to the real man, in strip clubs, shady business meetings, and in the unguarded moments when he revealed who he really was: a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man," he adds....