The highest job creation of modern history was the Carter administration, Joe Biden's record to February 2022 is following the same climb.

Chart in Wikipedia (click here)

...To be his Secretary of Labor, Carter selected Ray Marshall, (click here) a labor economist at the University of Texas. Marshall had worked and published extensively on unemployment problems, particularly for minority groups. He had also worked in such areas as industrial relations, rural development and international migrations of workers. Marshall saw his role as Secretary as setting overall policies, selecting subordinates who would best achieve these policies, and representing the Department in external relations. Like many of his predecessors, Marshall believed in refraining from unnecessary intervention in collective bargaining. He sought to improve the representation of qualified women, blacks and other minorities among the Department of Labor's political staff. He sought to develop adequate relations and liaison with groups ranging from the White House, Capitol Hill and state government to unions and business. To improve the performance of the Department, Marshall emphasized the need to simplify operations and strengthen the Department's policy analysis capabilities.

The Department played a major role in the President's economic stimulus program. It received about $8 billion for Public Service Employment and other programs under CETA. Public service jobs increased from 310,000 in 1976 to a peak of 725,000 in 1978. The Department also expanded the Job Corps and other youth training programs. It developed and tested new ways to meet employment related needs of rural workers and Native Americans. It improved on-the-job training for veterans and others through the Hope through Industry Retraining and Employment program. This program provided incentives for companies to hire and train needy persons. A Skill Training Improvement Program provided retraining for displaced workers to prepare them for jobs by giving them skills which were in short supply.

CETA was extended and revised by the 1978 reauthorization act. This legislation was driven by two concerns: the need to make employment and training more effective through greater involvement of the private sector; and, the concern that CETA resources were not targeted on those most in need. The major new feature was the Private Sector Initiatives Program. PSIP complemented the public employment program already in full swing. The main goal of PSIP was to redirect CETA toward placing the unemployed in jobs in the private sector. To do this, PSIP sought to increase the participation of private employers in CETA programs. Enacted as a two-year demonstration program, PSIP helped private firms provide job training for disadvantaged persons and the long-term unemployed. Business executives, labor leaders and others set up Private Industry Councils in the local areas to work with CETA prime sponsors....

The Carter Administration when it came to jobs was about reformation. Jimmy Carter was the Governor of Georgia before being elected to the Presidency of the USA. He knew something about the South and hurdles for those with rural understandings of life and oppression of minorities.

Those that only understand dollars spent that increase the national debt laugh at this administration because they believe he spent money into the national debt to have an economy. That was not the case. Former President Carter was a reformer and wanted those LEFT OUT of the American economy and the American Middle Class to have the opportunity to increase their quality of life.

I find it more than interesting that President Joe Biden is facing the same paradigm more than a half century later. There is a definite focus to increase opportunity for minority Americans in the USA within this administration and what is ever more interesting is that the trajectory is taking on the same curve. There is definitely problems within this country that persists through generations.

Russia’s official news agency (click here) photographed President Trump’s meeting with Sergey V. Lavrov in the Oval Office on Wednesday. The American press was denied access.

We are still fighting White Supremacy/Nationalism. Now, today, the USA is looking at a former president that was literally leader of the Christian Nationalists in the USA and the oppression of American minorities. We have come full circle. The Republicans at the time of Carter CHOSE to have a baseline electorate that include people that were misdirected in their morality to judge others by skin color or eye slant. The Republicans over decades of time elected a man to the White House that redirected the entire focus of the federal government and exposed the USA to danger. Donald John Trump is known to have benefitted and won the 2020 election with the assistance of Russia according to an examination of evidence by Former FBI Director Robert Mueller. That is a fact. 

Maria Butina, (click here) who was charged last month with being a covert Russian agent, passionately promoted gun rights and better relations with Russia, charming a string of older men along the way. Clockwise from top right: Ms. Butina in 2014 with James W. Porter II, then president of the N.R.A.; Wayne LaPierre, the group’s executive vice president; and Rick Santorum, the former senator.

So, most appropriately, the Biden Administration is fighting back against the oppression enforced in the Trump Administration and the job numbers and spending reflect it. The question in this economy is when will The Fed finally reach a level of interest to the banks that actually impact high housing prices? That is the main hurdle today in the American economy. Owning a home is everything, including a secure retirement. The Fed must increase interest rates to bring demand down because of the cost of a mortgage. The increase in job rates is inevitable with the focus of this White House. The USA in the Biden Election of 2020 completely rejected White Supremacy/Nationalism, decided women know how to make their own decisions, including a career path, and having a good paying job and a family to love was vital to being an American. Don't leave out a strong military. NATO has been tested as never before.

I think Joe's Jobs Numbers are great. Every person regardless of race or religion should be finding jobs and opportunity to be upwardly mobile to increase their quality of life, no matter how they define it, so long as it is legal.

September 2, 2022

Employers (click here) added 315,000 jobs last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said Friday. That was down from 526,000 in July, though it still represented a strong pace of growth.

The unemployment rate rose to 3.7 percent, from a half-century low of 3.5 percent in July. That rate only counts people who are actively looking for jobs, and the uptick came alongside a big increase in the size of the labor force — a sign that rising wages, abundant job opportunities and the receding pandemic are leading more people to look for jobs.

Economists have been saying for months that job growth was likely to slow as the economy comes down from last year’s vaccine-fueled boom and as higher borrowing costs make it harder for businesses to expand. Instead, the labor market remained red hot even as other parts of the economy, such as the housing market, turned sharply lower. The data released Friday indicated the long-delayed slowdown may finally have begun.

“It’s definitely a downshift from what we saw earlier in the year,” said Sarah House, an economist at Wells Fargo. “But step back and look at the bigger picture here. The fact that we’re still putting up gains of over 300,000 even as we’ve recovered all the jobs lost, that’s still a really impressive feat.”...

September 2, 2022
By Jim Tankersley

...The jobs report on Friday (click here) was the first of the summer to support the case Mr. Biden and his economic aides have been making for months: that the economy is beginning to step down from a high-growth, high-inflation expansion coming out of the pandemic recession but avoiding another recession.

The report showed the country added 315,000 jobs in August, down from 526,000 in July. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly, to 3.7 percent. That cooling is enough to support Mr. Biden’s contention, which he first laid out in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece in May, that the country is set to “see fewer record job-creation numbers, but this won’t be cause for concern.”

There were also signs in the report that inflation could be coming down, as the Federal Reserve aggressively raises interest rates in order to tame price growth that has reached a 40-year high. Average wages continued to rise, the Labor Department said, but not as quickly as in previous months. Administration officials have been hoping for the Fed’s rate increases to bring down inflation while not slamming the brakes on growth, triggering a recession and plunging millions of Americans out of work....

DeSantis has an Office of Election Crimes and Security and it is ALL a waste of money!

To begin, interestingly if there were 20 invalid votes in Florida, the Bush v. Gore outcome may never have gone to the Supreme Court. The initial reaction is that 20 votes would never effect the elections, but, there are occasions when it would, especially in hyper-funded media campaigns where the vote anymore comes down to a small margin to win.

Unfortunately, the 20 people charged fell through the cracks of their return to society after serving time in prison. Their crimes were serious and they needed to be in prison (1) to be removed from society for the real chance the crimes were habitual and could effect others and (2) hopefully, for rehab and a new direction in life that would permit them to continue to carry on lawful lives. These particular crimes receive a forever punishment of never being allowed to vote again. I think that is probably unconstitutional. Sex crimes of minors aren't a voting issue to begin and there are only people 18 years of age and older in voting places.

This policing of voting is a political arm of the DeSantis administration. Bush v. Gore was carried into conflict because of a ballot system that allowed close elections to have a skeptical outcome. So, to say these 20 people would have impacted Bush v. Gore is grossly incorrect. I made the point because I am sure everyone looking at this will make that exact example.

Bush v. Gore was scrutinized over and over, even after the Supreme Court decided the election. So, to say this would have mattered in that election is grossly incorrect. This political policing within an administration of any party is blatantly wrong. These issues belong AT THE LOCAL AND COUNTY level where the precincts have authority and understand the voting mechanisms involved. If these 20 Floridians would appeal the decisions leveled at them they may win in the State Courts. This entire political policing is probably unconstitutional as voting irregularities are local crimes and should be treated as such. 

Incorrect ballots for any reason should be understood and where there are crimes, even white collar crimes by those being elected, criminal investigations and charges should follow. But, it is my estimate the Secretary of State reports the votes within the precincts as a state total, it is not the authority that understands the balloting of a district or the balloting mechanism. 

Here again, as with Disney and so many other DeSantis antics, the governor is overreaching and causing harm to the people. The governor's office is not a dictatorial governance where an entire state can be effected erroneously by a members of government.

August 27, 2022
By Ashley Lopez

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during an Aug. 18 press conference in Fort Lauderdale, where he announced that the state's new Office of Election Crimes and Security was in the process of arresting 20 individuals for voter fraud.

Many of the individuals (click here) recently charged by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' new election crimes unit told investigators they had no idea that with their felony convictions, they were unable to vote when they cast ballots in the 2020 election.

Their experiences shed new light on Florida's controversial program for felons to restore their voting rights.

In a press conference last week, DeSantis announced to a crowd of supporters that the election crimes unit was charging 20 people across the state with voting illegally.

DeSantis described the arrests as the "opening salvo" from the new election and security unit. State lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year, known as Senate Bill 524, that created the policing force. The legislation followed pressure from DeSantis for the state to spend more resources on combating alleged voter fraud, which experts say remains very rare in American elections.

"People weren't getting prosecuted," he said last week. "Before we proposed this [unit] there were examples of this stuff seeming to fall through the cracks."

State law permits felons to try to gain back their voting rights, but not after convictions for certain crimes....

Michael Cohen says Trump has copies of same Maralago documents at his other homes.

That is why the documents were strewn about. Trump didn’t just read them, he copied, and distributed them.

Attorney General Garland is correct in protecting the integrity of the cases at DOJ.

Partially redacted documents (click here) with classified markings, including colored cover sheets indicating their status, that FBI agents reported finding in former president Donald Trump’s office at his Mar-a-Lago estate. 

That picture is just mesmerizing. Highly classified documents with human lives in the balance strewn with Time magazine. The White House staff couldn't get Trump to read PDBs and this is what happens to the USA's most secret of secrets. Something has to be done about it. This is more than negligence. This is an outrage. He couldn't give a damn about the country, the people or those he compromised that loved this country.

There was nothing sacred to Trump. His lawyers let him get away with it. There were no stops. All Trump cared about was the leverage he could create for himself in whatever perverted idea he had about the world. He had no respect for life. This fits in to the hideous man we witnessed during the pandemic news conferences with injectable bleach and penetrating UV light. How can any sane and loyal American give credence to this idiocy?

August 30, 2022
By Glen Thrush

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland (click here) on Tuesday imposed new restrictions on partisan activity by political appointees at the Justice Department, a policy change that comes ahead of the midterm elections.

The new rules prohibit employees who are appointed to serve for the duration of a presidential administration from attending rallies for candidates or fund-raising events, even as passive observers.

Under the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in political activities while on the job, the department had previously allowed appointees to attend such events as passive participants provided they had permission from a supervisor.

That is now banned. Under the new policy, the department also prohibits appointees from appearing at events on election night or to support relatives who are running for office. Both had been allowed in the past with prior approval....

The Hatch Act fights corruption. It was always there to enforce, it is just that the Attorney General is correct in enforcing it. Basically, rubbing elbows with those influential is not allowed. The simple appearance of impropriety is not to be on display. It is about time there was no looking the other way.

The Hatch Act, (click here) a federal law passed in 1939, limits certain political activities of federal employees, as well as some state, D.C., and local government employees who work in connection with federally funded programs. ​The law’s purposes are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation.​​​​

There is nothing like having a candidates Megadonor at a rally and low and behold who shows up but someone from inside the government to make the donations seem so worth it.

From CNN:

Trump weighs delaying 2024 decision as political and legal troubles grow (click here)

Ya think? But, it also gives the GOP/MAGA a chance at being elected this November.

Don't defund the cops, just the FBI. The words GOP HIPPOCRITES come to mind.

They don't care about the people. 

The don't care about the country.

What does the GOP care about?

They care about their own priorities and their own power to carry out civil rights violations against Americans.

I swear someone needs to us that REALITY of statements as a campaign slogan.

August 15, 2022
By Andrew Solender and Alayna Treene

Republicans (click here) used the "defund the police" slogan after George Floyd's murder to paint the Democratic Party as radical. But since the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago, a growing number of GOP candidates and lawmakers are rallying around their own calls to defund or abolish federal law enforcement agencies.

Why it matters: The new demands muddle a narrative embraced by Republicans long before the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020 — that they are the party of law enforcement. They also show how much former President Trump has reshaped his party.Strategists say it could jeopardize the GOP's chances in some contests in November.

The big question: Could this become the new Trump loyalty litmus test?

Driving the news: Dan Bolduc and Bruce Fenton, leading Republican Senate candidates in New Hampshire, said in a recent debate they believe the Department of Homeland Security and top agencies need to be significantly "reduced" and called for abolishing the FBI....

The incarnation of the Koch Brothers. Every citizen in this country should be able to make a difference in an election. These megadonors carry more weight than any other vote. The go into their ballot with the idea they can buy their dream ticket into whatever government office they believe will benefit their interests. If the rest of the country could do that they would, but, the average American might be able to pass on $10 a month to their candidate if they aren't paying for gas to and from work with an artificial cost that benefits Big Oil and its political ambitions.

So, in the long view, who is actually paying the price for the Dark Money and Mega-Hegemony contributors? The American people simply because they aren't able to donate EQUAL amounts to these guys.

THE MONEY BEHIND THE LYING PROPAGANDISTS!

August 26, 2022
By Russell Lissau

Elizabeth (click here) Uihlein (L) and Jacob Peters arrive for the State Dinner at The White House honoring Australian PM Morrison on September 20, 2019 in Washington, DC.

A suburban billionaire and his wife (click here) have contributed millions of dollars to conservative candidates and organizations across Illinois and the nation this election cycle, state and federal records show.

And though senatorial, congressional and gubernatorial hopefuls are among the beneficiaries of Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein's largesse, the Lake Forest couple hasn't limited their contributions to top-of-the-ticket candidates....

...An heir to the Schlitz brewing fortune, Richard Uihlein cofounded the Uline shipping supply company with his wife. He serves as Uline's CEO, and she is the Wisconsin-based company's president. Known to avoid interviews, they couldn't be reached for comment.

Together, the Uihleins have donated millions to well-known and low-profile candidates and groups. The first category includes former President Donald Trump, former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and -- after a split with Rauner -- 2018 gubernatorial challenger Jeanne Ives.

The politician who has received the most support from Richard Uihlein this cycle is gubernatorial hopeful Darren Bailey. Uihlein has given Bailey's campaign more than $9 million, Illinois State Board of Elections records indicate.

Uihlein also has donated more than $28 million to an independent committee called the People Who Play By the Rules PAC that targeted Bailey's chief GOP rival, Richard Irvin, in the June primary and now is attacking Pritzker.

This week, Lightfoot accused the group of darkening her skin tone in an anti-Pritzker ad. The group's leader, conservative radio host and longtime Uihlein ally Dan Proft, has denied the accusation....

Governor Pritzer has looked for a special session of the Illinois legislature (click here) to act to support women's decision making regarding their own bodies, but, no surprise here the Republican obstructionists will make that special session impossible. Americans need to elect Democrats this November at the federal and state level. It is just that important. If the Republicans get away with assaulting women's civil rights, they won't stop with a woman's health.

Oh, the Republican GOP/MAGA candidate for Illinois governor, Darren Bailey, has called Chicago every slanderous word he can think of, "hellhole" and the "OK Corral." I wonder fi Bailey is willing to act to end violence in major cities by ending interstate gun trafficking?

August 31, 2022 is 25 years after the death of Princess Diana. It is being noted in the UK.

This is an interview by the Chicago Tribune that reflects on a visit by Princess Diana to Northwestern University. Diana was a profound personality in this world. She showed the world how celebrity can be used for good.

August 31, 2022
By Kori Rumore

Princess Diana receives a flower from an admirer in Evanston on June 4, 1996, after leaving the home of Henry Bienen, the president of Northwestern University.

...It was this combination of academics, philanthropy and friendship that paved the way for Princess Diana’s first and only visit to Chicago on June 4-6, 1996 — one month before she and Prince Charles agreed on terms for a divorce, and just 15 months before her death....

...Q: Did you have any idea how big it would be, (click here) how widely broadcast her visit would be when you agreed to it?

A: No, not really. I hadn’t really paid, frankly, that much attention to her. Of course I knew who she was. I knew she was a worldwide celebrity. The first inkling I got was she came from the plane and she came to meet me on campus. We were walking around and the lines behind the rope lines were literally five and six (people) deep and I was floored.

That was the beginning of the visit. And then I really understood how huge the media attention would be and that this was a very bid deal. But no, initially, I was very surprised....

Princess Diana on a yacht in Portofino, Italy, one week before she passed in 1997

She is so missed. Any photo, any moment has become a treasure.

This shot of Princess Diana (click here) sitting on the diving board of the private yacht "Jonikal," owned by her boyfriend, Mohammed Al Fayed, is from the final holiday she ever took. In the summer of 1997, Diana was trying to reinvent herself, to remove herself from the public eye and become a person again.

In late July she traveled to Saint Tropez in the South of France where she spent time on Fayed's yacht and the Fayed family's 30-bedroom villa, Castle St. Therese, with her sons, William and Harry. It's clear from this photo that even when she was alone she was never really alone.

Photographers were constantly hounding her, even when she was in the middle of the ocean. There was nowhere she could go where she was safe.

Trump’s lawyers conspired.

There is a good chance Trump’s lawyers that lied to the FBI and hid documents will lose their law license.

More lives ruined by Trump’s continuing vortex into hell. Those don’t even count for the human beings from other countries sympathetic to USA intelligence in helping with our national security. How many of those lives are ruined, imprisoned or dead? And their families?

There are lots of ways that intelligence can be used against us. Russia likes to prey on Russians in the USA to intimidate them with personal threats and threats on their families to gain cooperation. These issues that are NOW created by Trump have legs for possibly decades into the future.

There is no doubt Donald John Trump and his willing conspirators have compromised the USA. They have no remorse, ie: Giuliani. They don’t care about the people of this country. They care about themselves, their personal priorities and personal power. 

He was a man of peace. He lead with dignity.

April 30, 2022

Moscow - Mikhail Gorbachev, (click here) who as the last leader of the Soviet Union waged a losing battle to salvage a crumbling empire but produced extraordinary reforms that led to the end of the Cold War, died Tuesday. He was 91.

The Central Clinical Hospital said in a statement that Gorbachev died after a long illness. No other details were given....

Unless one understands what it takes to secure a country, the reality of being unable to secure it no matter how hard one tries escapes many leaders. Unfortunately, the land mass of the Soviet Union was so enormous that it was impossible to maintain as one country. There were many reasons the Soviet Union was lost, but, the cost of even transportation across the entire continent added more to it's economy than it could sustain.

Putin and the communists probably saw Mikhail Gorbachev as an incompetent leader. He was not. He was provided an impossible situation and did the best he could. The world respected him. They saw him as a man of peace. Peace was the best route for the Soviet Union, no different than it was for the Post-Soviet states. No different than Ukraine and, yes, Russia.

The problem with Russia today under the leadership of Vladimir Putin is that he is still running the country as if it were the Soviet Union and Russia cannot support the war structure that was built by other Soviet leaders. Putin never stopped being angry about the loss of the Soviet Union and basically sees the Post-Soviet nations as misbehaving children. That is not at all the attitude a Russian president should take about any of the circumstances of Russia. Russia, whether Putin hates it or not, is a Post-Soviet nation.

There was no way to protect the Soviet Union and maintain an economic viability. Peace was always the way forward. Unfortunately, the leaders of the Soviet Union before Yeltsin and Gorbachev never stopped fighting the Russian Revolution. They never accepted the fact the fighting was over. WWII caused some of that general irritation with the world.

There will never be another Mikhail Gorbachev as there is no Soviet Union. While he resigned his position as leader of that enormous country; it breaking into nations as it did was the best outcome for the people. All the Post Soviet nations get along and are reasonably happy and prosperous, except, for Russia. Russia has never accepted itself as a country with the borders it has and that is due to the communists, their eternal pain with the world and a leader in Putin that indulges that anger and fosters it for his own purposes.

Mikhail Gorbachev will always be seen as a partner in peace by the American people. He will be loved for that alone.

With Russian families abandoning their country…

 …cam Russia still claim sovereignty? 

We saw young men leave for Canada during Vietnam, but, what percentage of US military was left to defend the country?

The problem with Putin’s war is that it is destroying two countries at once. His invasion into Ukraine was based in tank dominance. That didn’t happen and a large number of the men in those tanks died because it was a tinderbox once ignited by a armor penetrating middle. 

This strategy worked in Syria because the opposing forces were not armed to defeat Russian tanks. Syria was destroyed in many places, including hospitals. 

Russia’s conventional military is weak. When realizing the conventional military is weak, what is left is Putin and missiles. Not much else.

The nuclear power plants are estimated to be used as shields to prevent attack.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/satellite-images-show-damage-building-ukraine-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-russia-2022-8%3Famp

It sounds right. Nothing else makes sense. So, Putin sees two footholds in Ukraine at the nuclear power plants. Putin is treating the plants as forts. These facilities are not built to be forts. Putin has lost the war and the only thing allowing those soldiers at the plant to stay is the delicacy of the circumstances.

Soldiers at nuclear power plants are another human rights violation as it threatens the lives of so many including any accidental release into the atmosphere to be carried by wind anywhere.

Is there actually a Russia? It is disappearing everyday. The land is there. Some of the people remain including the ruling elite, but, other than an ocean naval fleet Russia has no military to defend its borders. 

There is Putin. There are missiles. Global Russian assets are being absorbed by foreign governments to assist Ukraine in it’s need for humanitarian aid as well as a national defense.

So, realistically is there a Russia. In my opinion, no. In name only. Putin counted on its propaganda and nothing of substance.

Putin’s anger with the world is destroying Russia from the inside and Ukraine from the outside. 

So, what to do? 

Wait it out until Putin realizes he is the leader of an emptied country except for the remnants of communism. Global leaders, including Xi of China, need to realistically assess any possibility of a victory and refuse assistance to prolong the end.

No power, including Ukraine, wants to invade Russia and kill Russians. Russia needs to stop and first turn over the nuclear power plants. Those reactors are neutral zones and no soldiers belong there. The soldiers there, are hiding from reality as is there president.

It appears Russians with young men to be conscripted are leaving.

Russia is claiming it has it's own iPhone now with premeir salesperson Maria. Butina, former spy. Putin claims the war that is not a war is going as planned to protect civilian lives. I guess having him represented at the NPT meeting at least got a message to him that he is killing a lot of innocent people.

August 29, 2022
By Yesica Fisch

Sloviansk, Ukraine - Russia and Ukraine traded claims (click here) of rocket and artillery strikes at or near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on Sunday, intensifying fears that the fighting could cause a massive radiation leak.

Ukraine’s atomic energy agency painted an ominous picture of the threat Sunday by issuing a map forecasting where radiation could spread from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which Russian forces have controlled since soon after the war began.

Attacks were reported over the weekend not only in Russian-controlled territory adjacent to the plant along the left bank of the Dnieper River, but along the Ukraine-controlled right bank, including the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets, each about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the facility.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Sunday that Ukrainian forces had attacked the plant twice over the past day, and that shells fell near buildings storing reactor fuel and radioactive waste....

Real world evidence, please. The global community seemed to have their own significant evidence at the NTP meeting. Shouting matches really don't matter. Where are the two nuclear lab persons taken to Belarus. No one has spoken to the kidnapping or worse by Russian soldiers.

Ukraine officially acceded to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state on December 5, 1994

The treaty became effective in March 1970 and was to remain so for a 25-year period. Additional countries later ratified the treaty; as of 2007 only three countries (India, Israel, and Pakistan) have refused to sign the treaty, and one country (North Korea) has signed and then withdrawn from the treaty.

Currently only five countries have not signed NPT which are, India, Pakistan, Israel, South Sudan and North Korea.

China: Accession to Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) On July 1, 1968, the Treaty was signed at Washington in the name of the Republic of China. An instrument of ratification of the Treaty on behalf of the Republic of China was deposited at Washington on January 27, 1970.

The NPT has no veto rights by the five nuclear powers. It is not controlled by the UN Security Council.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Remains Strong Despite Russian Obstructionism. After weeks of intensive but productive negotiations, the Russian Federation alone decided to block consensus on a final document at the conclusion of the Tenth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

I really think a high profile visit to the Ukraine nuclear reactors needs to include an energy minister from Russia, Ukraine and the IAEA. It should seek to settle this dispute and put forward the neutral country that will oversee the reactors and shut them down until this war is ended. Taking custody of the reactors by a neutral global power should allow Russia to return to the NPT without complaints. 

These reactors are in a war zone of which Russia admits it is a special military operation, hence, things going boom. So, the idea of a neutral party taking custody of the reactors to provide protections for human beings in the area and beyond is highly reasonable.

 

It has been a while since Artemus engines were fired up.

August 29, 2022

By David W. Brown and Kenneth Chang

On Monday (click here for video) we didn’t get to see the Space Launch System travel to space. But NASA’s moon rocket has fired its engines before, although it stayed firmly on the ground. Sometime between then and now, something went wrong with engine #3.

On March 18, 2021, NASA completed a “hot fire test,” when the four engines in the core stage of the Space Launch System ignited and continued firing for more than eight minutes, performing what they would do during a trip to space but firmly anchored to the ground.

"Don't believe them." is a great reply to the political lies of the anti-Constitutionalists.

"Don't believe them or it and this is the truth...and this is where it can be verified."

I think that is a real answer to most lies being peddled when someone states an obvious manipulation of an issue.

August 15, 2022

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision (click here) overturning Roe v. Wade, it’s essential that California voters amend the state Constitution to ensure reproductive choice.

California’s existing laws protect an individual’s right to make decisions about abortion and contraceptives. And the state constitutional right to privacy has been interpreted by California’s Supreme Court to safeguard those choices.

But as we’ve seen with the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent shocking decision and the rush by other states to ban abortion, reproductive rights that are not explicitly granted in a constitution are vulnerable to the whim of justices and lawmakers. And, as Justice Clarence Thomas foreshadowed in his concurring opinion, the federal right to contraception could be overturned next.

Thus, Californians can no longer count on federal protections. They need to explicitly embed rights to choose an abortion and to choose or refuse contraception in their state constitution. Proposition 1 on the Nov. 8 ballot would do just that. Vote yes.

The law would ensure that only future state voters, not politicians nor justices, could alter those rights. It is perhaps the most important measure on the upcoming ballot.

And it is certain to face an onslaught of campaign misinformation. Californians should expect to be bombarded this fall by political ads arguing that Prop. 1 would allow unrestricted late-term abortions that would cost taxpayers millions. Don’t believe them....

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

August 29, 2022
By Amy B. Wang

The judge presiding over the Georgia grand jury investigation (click here) into possible election interference by Donald Trump and his allies on Monday denied a motion from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to quash a subpoena requiring him to testify.

However, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney also delayed Kemp’s appearance before the grand jury until “some date soon after” Election Day in November. Kemp, who is running for reelection against Democrat Stacey Abrams, has alleged that the investigation is politically motivated.

McBurney had previously expressed skepticism over arguments from Republicans that the prosecution, led by a Democratic district attorney, was politically motivated.

“It is not my space” to focus on politics, McBurney said last week as lawyers for Kemp argued that the subpoena had already become a political issue this election season. “I don’t think it is the right forum” to debate the political ramifications of the case, said the judge....

Really?

Must every legal DELAYING maneuver be tried by the people that should be cooperating? Seriously? What kind of lawyers are these that don't even try something legally that will work? They are criminal in their purpose and content.

Lawyers when they receive a license takes an oath. 

Atlanta, April 22, 2002

The Honorable Supreme Court met pursuant to adjournment. (click here)

The following order was passed:

The order entered by this Court on April 8, 2002, amending the Rules Governing Admission to the Practice of Law is hereby vacated. It is further ordered that the Attorney’s Oath, found in the Rules Governing Admission to the Practice of Law, Part B, Section 16, be amended to read as follows:

I, ________________, swear that I will truly and honestly, justly and uprightly conduct myself as a member of this learned profession and in accordance with the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, as an attorney and counselor, and that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Georgia. So help me God.

I realize oaths and state and federal constitutions don't mean anything to people like Kemp and Graham, but, this is such nonsense. For those involved with Trump that have a law license, there needs to be complaints brought to the state law agencies to file at the very least ethics complaints.

...The legal maneuvering is the latest sign of tension between prosecutors and high-profile witnesses in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s expansive criminal probe of alleged election interference by Trump and his allies....

Even the Washington Post recognizes for what it is. Let me add a few words to that, evasion and fraud. Every person involved with Trump knows they are pulling stunts and not practicing law. The judge in his instance made it clear there is no politics in his court. So, with that, legal remedies need to be sought in every state these bozos are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of voters. They are practicing politics rather than submitting to the law. That in any other court would not be tolerated, as it isn't here, but, at what point are licenses pulled and fines levied for DELAYING the right of the people to try those breaking the law?

The Sixth Amendment to the USA Constitution guarantees all those charged with crimes a speedy trial. When does the right to a speedy trial also satisfy "the people."

It is no different than Big Tobacco and the State of California. It isn't just what is in question, it is what is gained.

August 29, 2022
By Scooty Nickerson

Win or lose, (click here) tobacco companies are reaping hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to a California proposition that they spent a fraction of that amount to get on this fall’s ballot.

The measure, known as Proposition 31, asks voters if a 2020 legislative ban on flavored tobacco products, including electronic and menthol cigarettes, should be upheld.

But here’s the thing: The No on Prop. 31 campaign secured a nearly two-year pause on the ban when it collected 623,000 signatures to force the Legislature’s handiwork to a vote in the next general election. That delay cost Big Tobacco about $20 million, half paid to a signature-gathering firm.

Qualifying a referendum on the ban cleared the way for manufacturers to continue selling flavored tobacco products to Californians, including everything from mango-flavored vape pens to menthol cigarettes, until voters weigh in this November....

Those involved in the Trump Republican Circus are trying to delay any proceedings in hopes Trump makes it back to the Oval Office to hand out pardons immediately and get on with the revolution of ending the US Constitution. That is unethical if not illegal. Can we get on with all this, please.

The State of California should sue for the entire amount of money Big Tobacco gained in it's "gaming the system."

Flavored tobacco is a gateway to hook young smokers for life and the addiction to the product remains the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the state, killing 40,000 Californians a year.

"Good night, moon."

New moon

1.6 day old moon

2.9 percent lit

Now that Artemis is announced and on its launch pad, the reach into space has to be sincere and earnest.

The USA should be looking to the moon as an interim weigh over to Mars. It should be looking to Mars as the initial move to interstellar space and beyond.

The James Webb Space Telescope (click here) is bringing in incredible information and NASA needs to start mapping our way to other solar systems and quite possibly other reaches to the universe. I think the American people need to have a realistic vision of tomorrow beyond the Milky Way.

I believe the USA is Atlas.

It is time to move the NPT forward. It has been long enough and the Non-Proliferation Treaty must be honored. It clearly means that every country in the world with any nuclear weapons needs to be moving to a nuclear free world. No excuses. No more China and Russia from using it strategically to wait and see if the Free World will back away enough so they are more nuclear than any other.

The move away from nuclear weapons has to be pursued with vigor and get it done. No more weapons of mass destruction globally.

Every American President facing the potential use of nuclear weapons since WWII has invoked the spirit and language of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Every Russian leader, except, Putin in recent weeks has backed the NPT.

All this nonsense by Putin is to keep his voting base in Russia of the communists. He needs to stop touting the Soviet Union will return because it won't. He needs to return to the leader of a country that needs to stop it's aggressions and develop and economy that will eventually be able to be trusted to return to a larger economy outside of Russia.

Vladimir Putin wants to build two nuclear reactors in a NATO country, Hungry. The handshake probably already took place. Putin doesn't know what he doing with nuclear weapons or energy. He has to stop pretending Russia rules the world and continually making plans to end the Free World. It isn't happening and he needs to stop denying it.

The world has a problem and it is one man named Vladimir Putin. He has lost the war in Ukraine. Someone needs to take custody of the out of control nuclear reactors in Ukraine and soon.

Secretary Antony J. Blinken’s Remarks to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference

Secretary of State Blinken spoke to the issues with North Korea and Iran.

The five permanent nuclear nations of the NPT all agree that "A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." One month after that affirmation to each and every country on Earth, Russia invaded Ukraine and has been nuclear saber rattling ever since.

Nuclear Non-Prolifertion was a focus of President Obama. He wanted the world to be free of these weapons of mass destruction.

March 28, 2016
By Steven Mufson

A group of nuclear nonproliferation experts (click here) gathered in the White House Situation Room last Halloween to talk about how President Obama could still make nuclear security an important part of his legacy.

The timing was coincidental, but the location reflected the sensitivity and gravity of the agenda: loose nuclear material, superpower nuclear arsenals, nuclear terrorism, tensions with Russia and the unpredictability of North Korea. The administration also was hunting for ideas about what might be still doable in the president’s waning days in office.

The muted, closed-door White House meeting was a far cry from the rousing speech Obama delivered on April 5, 2009, before a crowd in Prague’s Hradcany Square. There, a hopeful Obama set high goals for reducing the risk of nuclear weapons. He vowed to shrink the U.S. nuclear arsenal, secure poorly guarded nuclear materials such as uranium and plutonium, convene international nuclear summits, and confront and contain North Korea, which just that morning had tested a long-range missile....

Given the ridiculous position Russia took at the 5 year review of the NPT it is time the USA assign a special council with enough staff to build a global consensus to move this forward for every country on Earth. It is necessary. It is time the communists stop using the NPT as part of a strategy against the Free World and disarm from nuclear weapons.

April 4, 2019

By Steven Pilfer of Brookings

April 5 marks the 10th anniversary of the speech (click here) in which Barack Obama laid out his vision for a world without nuclear weapons. It did not gain traction. Instead, the United States and Russia are developing new nuclear capabilities, while the nuclear arms control regime is on course to expire in 2021. The result will be a world that is less stable, less secure, and less predictable.

A Worthwhile Vision

Just 10 weeks after his inauguration, President Obama’s first trip to Europe took him to Prague. Speaking in Hradcany Square, Obama voiced his deep interest in reducing nuclear arms, including a “commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” He added that reaching that goal would require time, and that, as long as nuclear arms existed, the United States would maintain a “safe, secure and effective” nuclear arsenal....

President George W. Bush was deeply committed to ending weapons of mass destruction.

March 30, 2004

By Joseph Cirincione

...The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) (click here) has served as the backbone of nuclear non-proliferation efforts for almost thirty-five years. Overall, the regime has been remarkably successful but recent developments have illustrated three serious gaps in the treaty:.

states can legally pursue civilian nuclear programs that can later be used to produce nuclear weapons;

a newly-discovered nuclear black market flaunts the treaty's export provisions; and,

a treaty designed to block state acquisition now must grapple with non-state terrorists intent on getting nuclear weapons.

President Bush's speech of 11 February was a positive step towards covering these gaps. The measures he announced would, overall, help forge a stronger, more effective and more international non-proliferation policy. Many of the initiatives, if implemented, will increase the ability of the United States and other nations to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. On 25 March, the administration also introduced at the United Nations Security Council a Draft Resolution on Non-Proliferation that, if adopted, would also strengthen international anti-proliferation laws and cooperation. The draft resolution would go a long way towards integrating some of the administration's policy innovations, such as the Proliferation Security Initiative, with established international legal norms and institutions. This, in turn, would greatly facilitate the participation of many other nations in these efforts.

Serious questions remain, however, as to the willingness of the President to back up these proposals with financial and political capital. For example, although the President called for expanding the Nunn-Lugar programs which have proven so effective in securing and eliminating nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in the former Soviet Union, the administration's budget for the coming fiscal year actually cuts funding for Nunn-Lugar programs by ten percent. Similarly, the President called for enhancing the International Atomic Energy Agency's capabilities to detect cheating and respond to treaty violations, but he did not provide any increase in the U.S. contribution to the IAEA....

Acting as the Atlas of the World, the USA pledged peace to all non-nuclear countries.

Among the sculptures (click here) present in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and belonging to the Farnese collection , one is of particular importance for the studies that have been conducted on it. This is the statue of the Farnese Atlas .

The United States (click here) believes than universal adherence to and compliance with international conventions and treaties seeking to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is a cornerstone of global security. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is a central element of this regime. March 5, 1995, was the 25th anniversary of its entry-into-force, an event commemorated by President Clinton in a speech in Washington on March 1, 1995. A conference to decide on extension of the treaty will begin in New York City on April 17, 1995. The United States considers the indefinite extension of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons without conditions as a matter of the highest national priority and will continue to pursue all appropriate efforts to achieve that outcome.

It is important that all Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons fulfill their obligations under the treaty. In that regard, consistent with generally recognized principles of international law, Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons must be in compliance with these undertakings in order to be eligible for any benefits of adherence to this treaty.

As a nuclear-weapon state the United States has consistently recognized its responsibilities under the treaty, and the importance of addressing the special needs of non-nuclear-weapon states parties to the treaty with regard to measures that would alleviate their legitimate security concerns. To that end, the president directed that the United States review its policies on security assurances for such non-nuclear-weapon states and that consultations be held with other nuclear-weapon states on this important topic.

Bearing the above considerations in mind, the president declares the following:

The United States reaffirms that it will now use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons except in the case of an invasion or any other attack on the United States, its territories, its armed forces or other troops, its allies, or on a state towards which it has a security commitment, carried out or sustained by such a non-nuclear-weapon state in association or alliance with a nuclear-weapon state.

Aggression with nuclear weapons, or the threat of such aggression, against a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons would create a qualitatively new situation in which the nuclear-weapon state permanent members of the United Nations Security Council would have to act immediately through the Security Council, in accordance with the Charter, to take the measures necessary to counter such aggression or to remove the threat of aggression. Any state which commits aggression accompanied by the use of nuclear weapons or which threatens such aggression must be aware that its actions are to be countered effectively by measures to be taken in accordance with the U.N. Charter to suppress the aggression or remove the threat of aggression.

Non-nuclear-weapon States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons have a legitimate desire for assurances that the U.N. Security Council, and above all its nuclear-weapon state permanent members, would act immediately in accordance with the charter, in the event such non-nuclear-weapon states are the victim of an act of, or object of a threat of, aggression in which nuclear weapons are used.

The United States affirms its intention to provide or support immediate assistance, in accordance with the Charter, to any non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that is a victim of an act of, or an object of a threat of, aggression in which nuclear weapons are used.

Among the means available to the Security Council for assisting such a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons would be an investigation into the situation and appropriate measures to settle the dispute and to restore international peace and security.

U.N. Member States should take appropriate measures in response to a request for technical, medical, scientific or humanitarian assistance from a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that is a victim of an act of aggression with nuclear weapons, and the Security Council should consider what measures are needed in this regard in the event of such an act of aggression.

The Security Council should recommend appropriate procedures, in response to any request from a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that is the victim of such an act of aggression, regarding compensation under international law from the aggressor for loss, damage or injury sustained as a result of the aggression.

The United States reaffirms the inherent right, recognized under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, of individual and collective self-defense if an armed attack, including a nuclear attack, occurs against a member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.