No party can PLAN to make history in the number of votes for Speaker. There has to be a real reason for the misdirection of morality.

I heard the Republicans want to make Groundhog Day a national holiday.

February 2, 2023

By Ben Werschkul

...America's two biggest entitlement programs (click here) —which make up about a third of the federal budget—are all but certain to remain at the center of the debate at least when Democrats are in front of microphones. McCarthy recently promised that these entitlement programs are "off the table." But Democrats say the math simply doesn't add up if the Speaker wants to achieve a balanced budget and raising taxes are also off the table.

And the pattern repeated on Wednesday night following the Oval Office meeting.

"The real issue is, do the Republicans have a plan and what is that plan?" outgoing White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said in an MSNBC interview. "Some Republicans say they’re going to cut Social Security and Medicare. Some say they aren’t."....

The Republicans continue to celebrate the same old rhetoric over and over, year after year.

The budget cuts the Republicans state they want to make cannot be taken seriously. It is the same old rhetoric for the sake of driving politics. The Republicans don't govern. They seek to maintain majorities to hold onto their own corruption of government.

We have had at least two years of Wall Street greed. Housing has gotten to be ridiculous as well as the cost of eggs. Well, the bird flu and the death of millions of birds in the USA had something to do with that, but, the cost of goods has gone up and there are two points of view. The Republicans state it is the cost of the supply chain and; oh, yeah, the cost of labor. The Democrats point to ridiculous profits by companies that sell things like petroleum vs. the bread and butter issues of the American family such as school supplies and medical costs.

February 2, 2023
By Simon Jack and Nick Edser

Shell reports highest profits in 115 years

Oil and gas giant Shell (click here) has reported record annual profits after energy prices surged last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Profits hit $39.9bn (£32.2bn) in 2022, double last year's total and the highest in its 115-year history.

Energy firms have seen record earnings since oil and gas prices jumped following the invasion of Ukraine.

It has heaped pressure on firms to pay more tax as households struggle with rising bills.

Opposition parties said Shell's profits were "outrageous" and the government was letting energy firms "off the hook". They also called for the planned increase in the energy price cap due in April to be scrapped....

Quite frankly, the folks screaming "It is nothing but pure Wall Street greed," have it right. Basically, it is about time labor got it's appropriate piece of the Wall Street greed pie. Shell was not charging exorbitant prices for their products. Quite the opposite. They were allowing their rewards cards to give 5 cents a gallon off to anyone who asks. So, in all honesty, most if not all Wall Street IPOs have racked in significant profits. GM is feeling very confident about its future, too.

So, the whining from the Republicans every time the Democrats raise the issue of increasing taxes, especially windfall amounts of taxes, it is only reassurances to their cronies to keep monies flowing into the party. It has nothing to do with governance. The Republicans rather let the Middle Class pay more and more year after Trump tax year, then do something MORAL like a Wall Street Transaction Tax.

LONG BEFORE McCarthy even thinks about touching Social Security or Medicare and Medicaid he needs to take a lesson in "Governance 101." He might be interested in realizing there is a path forward to end the log jam of the debt ceiling IF his party actually governs and stops allowing the exploitation of the American Middle Class' monthly budgets for corporate profits.

It is all about politics for McCarthy, not about statemanship.

Comments by Congresswoman Omar pale in compare to those of the Republicans McCarthy has moved into place on committees such as Marjorie Taylor Greene.

McCarthy isn't interested in building a consensus to move legislation forward, he relishes the politics and damns the country to bitterness for two years he is Speaker.

Ilhan Omar  
February 11, 2019 (click here)

February 2, 2023

By Karoun Demirjian

Washington - A bitterly divided House (click here) on Thursday ousted Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota from the Foreign Affairs Committee over past comments about Israel that were widely condemned as antisemitic, as Republicans moved to cater to the demands of right-wing members and mete out punishment to a Democrat their party has demonized for years.

The 218 to 211 party-line vote, with one member voting “present,” settled a partisan score that has been festering since 2021, when the House, then controlled by Democrats, stripped Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona of their committee assignments for social media posts in which they endorsed violence against Democrats....

China is pushing it's limits to test an act of war.

This is such a joke. Trump eliminated any and all surveillance of China and Russia. Now, they want to surveil the USA. It is an act of war. It is a direct attack on our sovereignty.

February 2, 2023
By Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee

The U.S. military (click here) has been monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northern U.S. for the past few days, and military and defense leaders have discussed shooting it out of the sky, according to two U.S. officials and a senior defense official.

“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told NBC News. “We continue to track and monitor it closely.”

“Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder said....

While Trump told Russia and China there would be no more surveillance of their countries, they increased their production of satellites.

April 13, 2022

By Frank Wolfe

Between 2019 and 2021, (click here) China doubled its number of satellites in orbit from some 250 to 499, while Russia increased its number of orbiting satellites from about 150 in 2019 to 169 last year after a slight dip in 2020, according to a new, unclassified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report, Challenges to Security in Space: Space Reliance in an Era of Competition and Expansion.

The DIA study is a follow-on to an agency study in 2019 of the same topic.

“Between 2019 and 2021 the combined operational space fleets of China and Russia have grown by approximately 70%,” per the report. “This recent and continuing expansion follows a period of growth (2015– 2018) where China and Russia had increased their combined satellite fleets by more than 200%. The drive to modernize and increase capabilities for both countries is reflected in nearly all major space categories — satellite communications, remote sensing, navigation-related, and science and technology demonstration.”

A chart in the report, based on quarterly updates to the Union of Concerned Scientists’ satellite database, indicates that the greatest increase in the number of Chinese and Russian satellites between 2019 and 2021 came in Chinese remote sensing satellites which increased in number by some 150 or more since 2019. The Chinese satellites also include several dozen military satellites in the BeiDou — “Big Dipper” — navigation constellation.

Of the 4,852 satellites by the end of last year, the U.S. had 2,944, while China was in second place with 499, and Russia third with 169....

DeSantis is a racist.

February is Black History Month. We may as well get started. In any culture, be it African American or Romani Gypsies, if they say there is pain in their lives due to others of majority, then it is so. They don't have to qualify their experience anymore than that. They are the ones aggrieved by the actions of others. They define the issue, not those that oppressed them and suppressed an expression of their adversely effected lives.

De Santis is wrong through and through. It is no different than Snyder deciding selling assets of African American cities in Michigan would solve problems. These Caucasian men do not solve problems, they exacerbate them.

February 1, 2023
By Annaliese Garcia and Andrea Toreres

Pierre Rutledge was chairing a Miami-Dade Black Affairs Advisory Board meeting (click here) on Wednesday and he applauded The College Board’s decision to review a controversial course’s curriculum.

After The Florida Department of Education announced that it would ban a new African American studies Advanced Placement course, the College Board responded Wednesday with a new 234-page framework.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said he had a legislative plan to block the state’s programs on Critical Race Theory, or CRT, which explores issues of systemic racism, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, also known as DEI.

“We can get into the weeds and try to define critical race theory and who diversity, equity, and inclusion affect,” Rutledge said. “I would say it affects everybody, Black, brown, other, gay, straight — it doesn’t matter; it affects everybody.”...

Ron DeSantis and men like him are not allowed to end these studies or fade them to a white standard. They are not qualified to pass judgement on African American studies. They did not live discrimination or hatred or racism or segregation or bussing or any other quality of life issue that Black Americans have experienced. He and men like him were never "The Help."

The only power government has in regard to any university studies program is investigate it for corruption or ethics violations. But, nowhere in the power of a governor can they shutdown a curriculum in favor of hatred.

Ron DeSantis and men like him don't trust African Americans and other people of color. They rather control the text, the lecture and the outcome to these programs. They are racist through and through and it is time to end it.

February 10, 2023

By Noliwe M. Rooks

In the late 1960s, (click here) black studies became a part of American higher education. By 1971 more than 500 programs, departments, and institutes had been founded on four-year college campuses; add in black-studies initiatives in those same years at high schools and community colleges, and the number jumps to more than 1,000. Today roughly 450 colleges and universities offer graduate programs, undergraduate programs, or both. To be sure, those numbers represent an occasion to celebrate. But jubilance may be premature. It is becoming increasingly clear that before the field can move confidently into the future we need to clear up some continuing confusion about why and how what we now call African-American studies began. Clarifying that has significant implications for how we think about not just a scholarly field, but about race relations in higher education and society....

Why did African American studies ONLY manifest in the 1960s in the USA? Why indeed. It was because it took a long time for African Americans to have graduated from colleges and universities to achieve Masters and PhDs in order to have their work taken seriously. From the end of the Civil War in 1865 African Americans have suffered methods of control by Caucasians.

It took a long time for slaves to enter school and learn higher academic skills. It wasn't automatically given to them that they were allowed an equal education. It took Black Colleges to bring their youth to the point of competition in the work place and they still had to overcome prejudice.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (click here) was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not, in fact, equal at all....

Brown vs. occurred because there was a black Justice on the Supreme Court.

...Growing up in Baltimore, (click here) Marshall experienced the racial discrimination that shaped his passion for civil rights early on. The city had a death rate for African-Americans that was twice that of Caucasians, and due to school segregation, Marshall was forced to go to an all-black grade school. Once, he was unable to use the bathroom because all public restrooms were reserved for whites. Despite the times, Marshall’s parents tried to shelter him from the reality of racism. They earned enough money to live in a nice area, and he was able to attend a first-rate high school. He was often mischievous and sent out of class to read the Constitution for misbehavior. When Marshall graduated high school in 1925, he knew the Constitution backwards and forwards....

Thurgood Marshall lived the reality that would compel his nomination to the court and his ultimate opinion to bring equality to the American education system. No one is allowed to pass judgement on any person of color. They don't get it.

In this country, it wasn't until President Biden placed a Native American (click here) in the Interior Department did a headwind of recognition and rights take shape. Secretary Haaland knows the issues and lived them. She is an authority of the strife that has faced Native Americans. And this is 2023 and we are finally getting around to facing the truth about the way Native Americans and their tribal lands are treated. Columbus landed in 1492 and the "Mayflower" made it's voyage until 1620, yet the role of the Native American was not recognized for rights of the people until 2021.

The struggle of minority peoples in the USA is epic. They lived oppression while trying to remove stigmas and find power to change their circumstances. Unless a person has lived it, they ain't nobody.

November 2021

By Rashawn Ray and Alexandra Gibbons

Fox News has mentioned “critical race theory” 1,300 times in less than four months. (click here) Why? Because critical race theory (CRT) has become a new bogeyman for people unwilling to acknowledge our country’s racist history and how it impacts the present.

To understand why CRT has become such a flash point in the culture, it is important to understand what it is and what it is not. Opponents fear that CRT admonishes all white people for being oppressors while classifying all Black people as hopelessly oppressed victims. These fears have spurred school boards and state legislatures from Tennessee to Idaho to ban teachings about racism in classrooms. However, there is a fundamental problem: these narratives about CRT are gross exaggerations of the theoretical framework. The broad brush that is being applied to CRT is puzzling to academics, including some of the scholars who coined and advanced the framework....

The only people qualified to right the wrongs of our minority populations are the minorities themselves. African Americans have come far enough now that they have their own scholars that can qualify programs and studies to reflect the truth. Ron DeSantis and his administration has no authority to erase an entire college curriculum without sound reason, except the politics is good.

...When Stowe (click here) visited Great Britain in 1853, invited by anti-slavery groups, she was rushed by excited crowds. During her five-month stay, she traveled the country. She attended numerous anti-slavery rallies and was presented with the Stafford House Address, a 26-volume leather bound petition signed by more than 563,000 British women asking their American sisters to work to abolish slavery.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the first major U.S. novel with a Black main character, and the first to use regional accents. It has been translated to over 70 languages.

Public response to Uncle Tom’s Cabin was not all positive. Moderates praised the book for exposing slavery’s harsh realities, but abolitionists felt it was not forceful enough. Others called out some of Stowe’s characters as stereotypes. Pro-slavery advocates argued that Stowe had written an unrealistic, one-sided image of slavery. These pro-slavery responses prompted at least 29 “Anti-Tom” or proslavery books before the Civil War....

When Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin," it was for an audience of Caucasians, not slaves. Slaves had no money to purchase books, yet alone the education to read them. Stowe was able to build around an understanding that Caucasians had about their understanding of slavery, but, she could not actually impart the experience of a real slave.

It is an interesting trip into an alternate reality when one thinks about slavery today. It still exists in the world in various manifestations, but, in the USA it simply is not tolerated in any way. It wasn't all that long ago that it was.

So, the sad reality of DeSantis and men like him is that he is crude in his understanding of governance and ignorant to what comprises a minority, their right to exist on their own terms and the necessity to bring forth painful history in order to be elevated to a standing of equality.

DeSantis in a populist. I don't care if he says he is Republican, that is simply where the money lies to run for office. Populists are gossipers. They like to ridicule and name call to achieve their success. The tabloid newspapers are their favorite stomping ground. We saw this with Trump and his name calling and ridicule of those running for office in 2016. This oppression by DeSantis of the curriculum the College Board finds more than acceptable is a from of name calling, but, the entity is invisible and generalized as a threat to society. There is no one person DeSantis is ridiculing, it is an entire race of people. 

...The College Board reported consulting with over 300 college professors for the course that for now is part of a pilot program at 60 schools nationwide. Robert J. Patterson, a professor of African American Studies at Georgetown University, helped to develop the course....

When DeSantis finds 300 college professors of 60 schools nationwide that will state the curriculum is full of lies and dangerous to the integrity of the USA, he might have the right to criticize. As of today, all DeSantis has is a bunch of disgruntled and misinformed voters and financial backers that embrace a strange idea of CRT.

He has no authority to carry on as he has and he certainly is not qualified to speak of an African American curriculum highly regarded by most academics. 

Got that?

DESANTIS IS NOT QUALIFIED. He has power, but, it is corrupted by his desire for more power. DESANTIS IS NOT QUALIFIED to pass judgement. It is just too bad he finds the issue so uncomfortable he has to banish it from American college bookshelves.

Tracker badges must be required for all those that enter the mountains.

January 24, 2023
By Kevin Koczwara

It was still dark when Emily Sotelo set out. (cilck here)

At 4:30 a.m. on November 20, Sotelo’s mother dropped her at the head of the Falling Waters Trail — named for its fairy-tale cascades. She was heading toward the Franconia Ridge Trail and the summit of Mount Lafayette, a 5,249-foot peak in the White Mountains with an alpine zone where only dwarf vegetation can survive.

But Sotelo, a trained EMT and a relatively experienced hiker for age 19, was on a mission that Sunday. She had climbed 40 of the 48 peaks that are over 4,000 feet in the White Mountains. She planned to finish Lafayette that day, and finish all of them by Wednesday, when she’d celebrate her accomplishment and her 20th birthday over dinner with her mother at the Omni Mount Washington Resort....

The greatest danger to even experienced hikers and climbers is the rapidly changing weather. Hiking alone is dangerous by the simple nature of it. It is impossible to ask every person interested in hiking or climbing this region to do so in pairs at the very least, that won't happen.

But, the government has a role in this in the deaths and injuries that have occurred among some of the most young citizens of adult age. Climbs should be planned. In that if hikers and climbers were required to file a plan ahead of the activity it would include potential challenges by weather.

None of these folks are interested in challenging the weather conditions, they are interested in challenging the mountain. There is nothing wrong with preparedness, including filing a plan and allowing society to know there may be a need for help. In that, society has an interest in knowing the call for help will not come because their citizens and visitors are well prepared and equally cautious.

The infrastructure already exists. There is nothing wrong with demanding safety standards. There will be people that will ignore any demands by society to control the sorrowful outcomes, but, that is a matter of enforcing the standards set with violations fines if necessary. That means anyone found to be on the trails or climbing paths without a location tracker is going to be fined whether there is a tragedy or not.

Wall Street is not welcome here. No one needs sales people with insurance plans. 

December 22, 2022

Spreading the word about severe weather in the White Mountains (click here) has become an increasingly high priority for groups aiming to improve hiker decision-making.

Rescue missions continue at a consistent annual pace, according to New Hampshire Fish and Game, and recent fatalities of under-prepared hikers who ventured alone into the mountains elevate the importance of safe hiking practices and public awareness about higher-elevation weather conditions.

On the prevention side of search and rescue, work by several organizations is yielding measurable results in the region’s growing backcountry community.

In 2022, one group of volunteers spoke with over 27,000 hikers at popular trailheads leading to the mountain range’s unique alpine tundra, which produces extreme cold, wind, and precipitation....

These mountains have been celebrated for a long time. 

July 18, 2013

By Stephen Jermanok

Like most of the trails in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, (click here) the Gale River Trail begins with forgiving dirt and mud but quickly changes to unforgiving rock. For most of the 4.6-mile climb up the trail, my wife, Lisa, and I were serenaded by the sound of rapids rushing down the nearby river and the ominous rumble of thunderstorms in the distance.

We crossed over the waterway countless times on rock and log bridges, smelling the fragrant pine, before we reached the last leg — a steep ascent on awkward slabs of rock. Exhausted, we made it to our oasis for the night: the Galehead Hut, where a sign outside the door read, “Built 1932, Elevation 3800 feet.”

We plopped down on the long bench outside the lodge, too tired to move, and admired the panorama of peaks before us. Ridge after ridge, a carpet of green tumbled down the flanks to the valley below. It was like peering at a Japanese silkscreen in Technicolor....

Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves (click here)

The Western States need to solve the problem they are experiencing with the Colorado River.

No one needs Wall Street involved. It is completely wrong to turn water rights into an IPO. The lives of people and the quality of their economies are at stake. States Rights will prevail in the Robert's Court.

New York investors know nothing about the West. Water is a public utility. There is also a very old pact between the states that line the Colorado River. It would be completely wrong to undo all that infrastructure now.

January 31, 2023
By Ben Tracy, Andy Bast and Chris Spinder

With the federal government (click here) poised to force Western states to change how they manage the alarming shortfall in Colorado River water, there is one constituency with a growing interest in the river's fate that's little known to some: Wall Street investors.

Private investment firms are showing a growing interest in an increasingly scarce natural resource in the American West: water in the Colorado River, a joint investigation by CBS News and The Weather Channel has found. For some of the farmers and cities that depend on the river as a lifeline, that interest is concerning.

"Our only source of water is the Colorado," says Joe Bernal, who raises cattle and grows crops on land across Colorado's Grand Valley, relying on water from the drought-depleted Colorado River.

"That's all we've got is that river," he says.

Bernal's family came to the Grand Valley nearly 100 years ago, and he has lived there his whole life....

California is ranked the fifth largest economy in the world. The people need to agree on water use. The only interest Wall Street has in this is whether or not the commodities produced in California will continue to flourish and to that end they need to leave the water rights to the farmers otherwise death may follow.

California's Top 10 Agricultural Commodities

California’s agricultural abundance (click here) includes more than 400 commodities. Over a third of the country’s vegetables and three-quarters of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California. California’s top 10 valued commodities for the 2021 crop year are:...

...In 2021 California’s farms and ranches received $51.1 billion in cash receipts for their output. This represents a 3.6 percent increase in cash receipts compared to the previous year....

I don't trust Wall Street as far as I can spit and I don't spit.

January 31, 2023

Sacramento - California released a plan Tuesday (click here) detailing how Western states reliant on the Colorado River should save more water. It came a day after the six other states in the river basin made a competing proposal.

In a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, California described how states could conserve between 1 million and nearly 2 million acre feet of water through new cuts based on the elevation of Lake Mead, a key reservoir....

This is not a political issue, it is a States Rights issue and always has been. This is not a political issue, it is a survival issue and always has been. This is not a political issue, it is about water, an aqueduct and the most productive farmland on the West Coast. There is no room for politics here. 

The Federal Government has an interest in the Colorado River. It is after all an interstate river. There are also federal lands along the river as well as indigenous peoples.

Any investigation to the way forward begins with history. The USGS is the best place to start. The geologists in that agency will have vast amount of information so long as Trump hasn't burned it.

The mighty Colorado River (click here) begins its journey from a trickle of water high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Before reaching its final destination, the Sea of Cortez in northwestern Mexico, it travels a distance of more than 1,400 miles. During its course, the river cuts through nearly 2 billion years of earth’s geologic history, representing three distinct geologic provinces (the Rocky Mountain, Colorado Plateau, and Basin and Range Provinces).

To understand the physical Colorado River of today we need to take a step back in geologic time and explore the events that set the stage for the formation of today’s Colorado River, and two of its main tributaries (the Green and San Juan Rivers). First a word or two about geologic time....

...This landscape encompasses (click here) portions of two prehistoric cultural areas: the Great Basin and the American Southwest. This area has been continuously occupied since Paleoindian times, with the Clovis culture hunting game as far back as 10,000 B.C. Some of the most well-known structures of the Colorado Plateau are the cliff dwellings found in Mesa Verde, in southwestern Colorado. Around 1150 to 1200 B.C. Ancestral Puebloans began occupying these large alcoves, building stunning dwellings with hundreds of rooms. Around late A.D. 1200 through A.D. 1300 there was a massive migration from the Colorado Plateau south towards the Hopi, Zuni, and the Rio Grande Valleys. It is generally believed that an environmental catastrophe and subsequent collapse of societal organization caused this huge migration. Today, about one third of the Colorado Plateau is Native American reservation land designated to 31 tribes. The tribes that currently occupy the plateau include: Ute Mountain Ute, Southern Ute, various Pueblo groups, Yavapai, Paiute, Apache, Havasupai, and others....

Upper Colorodo Basin Snowpack (click here)

All the governments involved have an interest. The food production of Southern California has a priority to the entire country. The people that live within those states have the right to take care of themselves. No outside interests have any business in this matter. None. This is something that has existed for a long time through all sorts of bargaining and bartering, but, it is the people of these states that have the greatest rights both morally, economically and within their lifestyles.

Bottled water was good enough for Flint and the socioeconomic conditions in that city are very, very different from the socioeconomic conditions in these Colorado states.

The States have the moral high ground, I strongly suggest they use it wisely and to the full extent they are allowed under law. But, if the infighting goes on and they move to court to solve their problems, the decisions will belong to people without a clue as to the dynamics of this river and its people over centuries.

The mutual hate exhibited by Israel and Palestine has begun a new chapter with Secretary Blinken.

January 30 2023
By Raffi Berg

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (click here) has called for Israel and the Palestinians to take "urgent steps" to restore calm amid escalating violence.

Speaking in Jerusalem, Mr Blinken reiterated US support for a two-state solution as "the best way" to bring security to the two sides.

Israel's new government opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.

The visit comes after two gun attacks by Palestinians in East Jerusalem at the weekend killed seven Israelis.

At a news conference following talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Mr Blinken expressed his condolences for what he called the "horrific terrorist attack"....

Interactive Map (click here) shows all the check points and guard stations in the West Bank. If the descriptions are accurate the check points are mostly open access. There isn't a lot of military in the West Bank. Movement seems possible in most areas.

The attacks by the Palestinians are mostly based on hate. The attacks give Israel the right to defend itself. It used to be the attacks were with knives, now there are guns. If movement within the West Bank is basically unimpeded then what is the issue already?

I think the Palestinians need to put their vision of Palestine forward so they can begin a dialogue. Israel won't move an inch if there isn't a productive dialogue. That is the biggest issue. There is no productive dialogue and Israel simply attacks when there is violence. Israel continues to build settlements because they see no reason not to push into the Palestinian territories. Settlements do serve to end the violence after a time.

January 29, 2023

Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (click here) on Saturday announced a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians, including plans to beef up Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, in response to a pair of shooting attacks that killed seven Israelis and wounded five others.

The announcement cast a cloud over a visit next week by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and threatened to further raise tensions following one of the bloodiest months in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in several years.

Netanyahu's Security Cabinet, which is filled by hard-line politicians aligned with the West Bank settlement movement, approved the measures in the wake of a pair of shootings that included an attack outside an east Jerusalem synagogue on Friday night in which seven people were killed.

Netanyahu's office said the Security Cabinet agreed to seal off the attacker's home immediately ahead of its demolition. It also plans to cancel social security benefits for the families of attackers, make it easier for Israelis to get gun licenses and step up efforts to collect illegal weapons....

This is how it rolls. The settlers and Palestinians confront each other. Violence is involved at some time, but, inevitably when the dust settles the Israelis have another settlement and the Knesset (click here) confirms the settlement as legal with rights.

This has been going on for generation after generation. Nothing seems to stop the settlements. The Knesset is moving to remove the issue of "Right to return." The more the violence the less the future looks optimistic for any talks or peace. It isn't as though there is no sympathy and/or effort to promote Palestinian land protections, but, it always falls apart with the advancement of the settlers.

February 12, 2022

Burin, West Bank - The Israeli settlers (click here) streamed down the hill toward Palestinian farmland, some waving sticks, some throwing stones, all masked.

They began beating a group of Palestinian villagers and Israeli rights activists, who had been planting olive trees on the edge of a Palestinian village. One settler threw a flammable liquid across an activist’s car and set it ablaze. At least seven people were injured.

The mob attack outside the village of Burin last month, captured on video by human rights advocates, was part of an escalation of civilian violence across the occupied West Bank in the past year. In 2021, the number of injurious attacks by settlers on Palestinians, and by Palestinians on settlers, reached their highest levels in at least five years, according to the United Nations....

Israel has no use for the UN. The genocide of Ukrainians only validated Israel's deepest concerns for it's own people. Who expected it? It wasn't as if there was a great deal of hatred and tension between Ukraine and Russia when the attack occurred. 

27 January 2023

By Luke Tress

United Nations - Israel’s ambassador to the UN, (click here) Gilad Erdan, lashed the world body for its disproportionate focus on Israel and for antisemitism in its ranks in a speech to the General Assembly on Friday marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“The UN was founded upon the ashes of the Holocaust. It was established to ensure such darkness never befell humanity again,” Erdan said. “It is a living monument to the horrors suffered by the Jewish people.”

“As such, it is the UN’s responsibility to lead the world in combating hatred, yet when it comes to fighting antisemitism, sadly, the UN ignores its purpose,” he said to an audience that included UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Holocaust survivors and Erdan’s parents, the children of survivors....

It is the constant plotting by the enemy while they smile at all the dialogue, negotiations and diplomatic signing of documents. Russia up to the invasion of Ukraine was still engaging in dialogue and signing agreements. The best anyone can assess is that all that effort to bring about peace, regardless of the cost, was simply a smoke screen. Now, we are going to ask Israel, of all countries, to once again dialogue with the Palestinians. 

Neither the Palestinians nor Israelis are remotely on the same page. The terms of peace are too high for Israel because they believe it will be an empty gesture that will only result in more hate and more violence.

If any example of peace should have occurred and productive dialogue extended it was best to have happened after the Late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon settled the disputes in Gaza by giving the Palestinians land. But, as soon as the land was relinquished nothing but expressions of hate manifested by burning down synagogues and destroying any sign of Israelis existence. The peace was never real, it was a smoke screen and the hate has continued.

The hate is real. In order to bring about peace it will require the leaders of Palestine to control their citizens (click here). That is not possible. They try. But, Hamas has control of Gaza and there is never an end to the hate or the violence. 

Secretary Blinken is correct in that the escalating violence must stop and calm to be established. Hamas won't have anything to do with it. This latest incident just before the arrival of Secretary Blinken began as an attack by Palestinians. Israel retaliates and the conflict is reaching a boiling point yet again. It is a chronic problem that never ends. After wishing and hoping for peace for decades, the idea it is possible is becoming a futile belief.

South Africa has been within the sanctions until recently.

January 27, 2023
By Hans Nichols

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (click here) taunted Moscow that U.S.-led sanctions have impaired Russia's “ability to conduct war” and claimed their military is now scavenging to find crucial replacement parts for battlefield equipment.

Why it matters: Yellen made her comments in an interview with Axios in Johannesburg, South Africa, after warning government officials in Pretoria they shouldn’t violate U.S. sanctions....

Russia is actively recruiting countries to vote with them in the United Nations. It makes no sense for South Africa to isolate itself in a new alliance with Russia.

Interesting that the Russian Foreign Minister and Secretary Yellin are in the same geographical region at the same time. It looks like blocking and tackling to me.

27 January 2023

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (click here) has met Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki in Asmara during the Russian diplomat’s second tour of Africa to boost international support for Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.

The visit comes after Lavrov visited officials in South Africa, one of his country’s most important allies on the continent, where on Monday he pushed back at criticisms over joint naval drills between Russia, China and South Africa scheduled for next month....

Missile Technology Control Regime

They talked about missiles in outer space, but, did they approach any dialogue about the delivery of missiles to end Ukraine? The Russian Federation is a member. Is Russia upholding all agreements regarding missile exports? Is Russia importing weapons to injure Ukraine further? If the organization hasn't taken it's mission seriously, Russia may be in violation of organization standards to maintain membership.

By Jason Kelland 
December 21, 2022

From 17-21 October 2022, (click here) more than 210 experts from the Partner countries assembled in Montreux, Switzerland, for the Plenary Week of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). The Plenary marked Switzerland’s assumption of the Chair for the period 2022-2023.

On Monday and Tuesday, the Information Exchange Meeting (IEM) and the Licensing and Enforcement Experts Meeting (LEEM) discussed trends and recent developments in missile proliferation as well as best practices in effective export controls and counter proliferation. In parallel, the Technical Experts Meeting (TEM) started with its negotiations on amendments to the MTCR Technical Annex.

On Wednesday morning, the three experts groups of the MTCR convened in a Joint IEM-LEEM-TEM Meeting to discuss the topic of the MTCR and the emerging commercial space sector. Heads of Delegation also had an informal meeting to discuss issues related to the effectiveness and relevance of the MTCR....

January 27, 2023

Beijing - Zunyi, the seventh Type 055 destroyer (click here) in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army [PLA] fleet, has made its first public appearance since commissioning. This is reported by the Chinese publication Global Times.

According to journalists, the newest ship was shown in a television report on the occasion of the celebration of the Lunar New Year in the city of Zunyi, after which the destroyer is named.

Zunyi’s induction into China’s navy has not been officially announced, but a Beijing-based military expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Global Times that the ship’s appearance in the TV report most likely indicates that it has been ordered and has become the seventh destroyer Type-055 built for the Chinese Navy....

January 25, 2023

The Department of Homeland Security (click here) recorded a precipitous drop in encounters with migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally this month, the department said on Wednesday, putting January on track to see the lowest level of monthly border encounters since the beginning of the Biden administration. The drop comes after migrant arrivals reached record levels for Joe Biden’s presidency in December. In a statement, DHS officials credited its policy announced earlier this month that introduced a new parole program for Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans, offering potential migrants a new legal pathway to the United States while cracking down on illegal entries.

These immigrants are near border. Such programs will assist in the stability of the region.

Participation in the program (click here) begins with a supporter or sponsor in the United States in legal status registering to support a Haitian national abroad.

March 17, 2022
By Cecilia Esterline and Jeanne Batalova

...More than 44.9 million immigrants (click here) lived in the United States in 2019, the historical numeric high since census records have been kept. In 2019, immigrants comprised 13.7 percent of the total U.S. population, a figure that remains short of the record high of 14.8 percent in 1890.

The foreign-born population remained largely flat between 2018 and 2019, with an increase of 204,000 people, or growth of less than 0.5 percent. This is consistent with the 203,000 increase from 2017 to 2018 and much lower than the approximately 787,000 increase—or nearly 2 percent growth—between 2016 and 2017. The slowing growth of the immigrant population over the past few years is mirrored by the slowing growth of the overall U.S. population since 2015....

Then came the pandemic of Covid-19 and borders closed.

New Legislation

The Congress needs to pass a requirement of all media services to have one channel that can be a paid channel of which there are no advertisements. I would pay real money for that.

There is no sense in listening to the US House for two years.

It took something like 13 votes to seat McCarthy. I really didn't pay attention. There was just no reason to pay attention to the idiocy that now lines the USA House. It took that long for the extremist right to decide if their demands met in a way that appeases Trump. They own the committees and they bring hand grenades and lies. Why does it still feel like January 6th's ghost has returned?

There is just no reason to worry about the noise anymore, the clowns now are under the Big Top and the circus has never been more stupid. There is no class among these members. I don't mean learned, although there isn't much of that either, but, the kind of class that makes people proud to have a government that actually functions efficiently with adherence to decorum. There is none of it. That tells the story of how McCarthy accepted his station in mitigating the GOP from the Speaker's Office, otherwise known as hubris.

Dana Milbank is nothing short of brilliant and I sincerely appreciate his description of the opening acts of the Republican Clown Ride through our government.

"My God, How did this happen?"

January 27, 2023
By Dana Milbank

...Two years ago, (click here) when the Democratic House ousted two Republicans from committees for glorifying violence against their colleagues, McCarthy (Calif.) railed against the removals as evidence of a “broken Congress.” Now, voters have given McCarthy the majority — and he is doing exactly that which he decried: He has already removed two Democrats from committees without due process, and he plans to evict a third....

...It was an apt invocation of the Roman writer Juvenal’s lament 2,000 years ago that the people had abdicated their duties as citizens of the Republic in favor of “bread and circuses” provided by their imperial rulers.

Emperor McCarthy grinned when Spartz’s words were read to him this week. Asked how he would respond, he replied, “Not at all.”

In truth, the new majority doesn’t have much bread to dole out (aside from the free doughnuts and Chick-fil-A that Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) offered reporters this week in lieu of answers about his fabricated life story). But it has more clown acts than could fill the Circus Maximus...

..In an account of the tender friendship that has blossomed between McCarthy and Rep. Marjorie “Jewish Space Lasers” Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), the New York Times had this touching remark McCarthy made to a friend: “I will never leave that woman.” (Suggested Swift lyric: Darling, you’re the one I want.)

McCarthy has displayed his affection with gifts, seating Greene not just on Comer’s Oversight Committee but also on the select committee probing covid-19’s origins. Greene already has ideas on the subject: She has speculated that NFL player Damar Hamlin’s collapse and the death of Diamond and Silk’s Lynnette Hardaway were both vaccine-induced....

...Greene’s appointment is part of a wholesale takeover of key committees by the far right. The House Freedom Caucus, about 20 percent of the GOP caucus, now controls 38 percent of the Oversight Committee, 44 percent of the Judiciary and coronavirus panels, and 50 percent of the “weaponization of the federal government” select committee, the Post’s Aaron Blake calculates. The far right also has effective veto power over the House Rules Committee, which determines what goes to the House floor.

With so many committees overloaded with loons, it’s but a matter of time until things blow up. In an embrace of mayhem, the National Republican Congressional Committee adopted as its new slogan “bring the tiger,” Politico’s Olivia Beavers reports. That’s a reference to a mock lip-reading video of McCarthy’s famous fight on the House floor this month with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) in which McCarthy says “I brought the tiger.”...

The Emergency Manager law needs to be eliminated and real solutions begun.

January 24, 2023
By Ron Fonger

A Flint city councilman (cilck here) says other Black council members who have challenged him are “handkerchief-head Negros,” “Uncle Toms” and “Sambos.”

1st Ward Councilman Eric Mays unleashed the barrage of racial slurs before he was removed from a council meeting on Monday, Jan. 23, the most recent discord among council members who have struggled to do the city’s business partly because of internal bickering and name-calling....

January 26, 2023

By Ronnie Dahl

A Genesee County man (click here) says he's innocent of the charges brought against him in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, riots in Washington, D.C.

Isaac Thomas appeared in U.S. District Court in downtown Flint on Thursday. He anticipated being charged with a misdemeanor but was surprised when a judge read charges against him, which included several felony charges.

"I was being told I was being charged with one count of second-degree misdemeanor for trespassing. I get in there today, they hand me this paper that says you are a felon," Thomas said after Thursday's hearing.

- According to federal court documents, Thomas is facing 10 charges. They include:
- Entering or remaining in a restricted building.
- Disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building.
- Entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
- Disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.
- Act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings.
- Assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon. and other charges....

January 25, 2023

A woman who was a public official in a Michigan community (click here) admitted Wednesday that she broke a seal on a ballot box to ensure that votes could not be recounted in her 2020 race, prosecutors said.

Kathy Funk, 59, pleaded no contest to misconduct in office, a felony, under an agreement that includes no time in jail.

Funk, a Democrat, was the Flint Township clerk in 2020 with responsibility over elections. She was accused of sabotaging a ballot box after the August primary that year, an act that would make those ballots ineligible for a recount.

Funk had won the race by just 79 votes out of about 5,300. A recount was not conducted.

Election officials who “undermine the very foundation of our democracy and will be held accountable,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

Funk quit her township post in 2021 for a bigger job as elections supervisor for Genesee County. She was dismissed last year....

In addition to all this mess is the fact there is still a challenge to the idea a one man grand jury is highly unethical as well as immoral and corrupt.

...The charges were dismissed (click here) after the Michigan Supreme Court sided with defense lawyers and ruled the state's prosecution team erred in having a judge act as a "one-man grand jury" to indict the officials. Defense lawyers had argued that by using a one-man grand jury the officials were denied their right to a preliminary examination, the legal procedure in which a judge reviews whether there is enough evidence to send a case to a jury trial....

The Michigan AG will try to hold onto these charges regardless of the idiocy involved in the first place. This is the wrong venue for such efforts. The Michigan state prosecutors needs to admit this is corruption and ask the US DOJ to step in to preserve the process of prosecution in the face of deep seated corruption. 

...In an order issued Wednesday, March 23, (click here) the court granted a motion for immediate consideration from former state Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, who contends the use of the secret grand jury violated the Michigan Constitution by authorizing a single person to both investigate and charge an individual with a crime....

When one looks at the issues in Flint, Michigan it was the Executive Office corruption that allowed the tragedy to exist in the first place. That corruption lasted for over a year until the national media exposed the heinous outcomes of a state government out of control. The problems that Flint experienced were racist through and through. There is no reason to have a division in the community regarding the issue of "Justice for Flint." The problems experienced in Flint, Michigan are human rights violations. They were facilitated by hateful prejudice that allowed a Governor and his staff to believe the reason was that minorities are corrupt and can't govern.

The Executive offices of Snyder turned away from the problems within Flint and decided it best to sell off all the assets of the community to pay bills. The problems in Flint were not solved by such actions. The real problem is the lack of value within the city which caused low property tax collections. The issue is not failure by political leaders to solve Flint's problems, it was the fact the problems were due to segregation and impoverishment.

When Snyder looked at the balance sheets of these cities, it was more than Flint, he didn't see the problem, he saw the opportunity to sell assets for others to purchase and profit. The Governor's minions actions in Flint were draconian robbing of city assets further driving down tax income. All this was approved by Snyder. He knew the Emergency Managers were acting within his directions to balance the books in these minority cities.

The problem in Flint and all the other cities in Michigan that Snyder robbed, were their property values and tax income. These towns were primarily minority cities with little recourse to any debt they held. They didn't have high quality municipal bonds to sell. There weren't new public works projects. Flint, Michigan was deteriorating because of segregation. Sure, the economy was lousy in Michigan after GM closed plants and moved manufacturing to Mexico. But, Grand Blanc was facing the same circumstances. Grand Blanc never had the problems that Flint experienced.

...Notwithstanding their economic challenges, (click here) Detroit and other Michigan cities under emergency management continue to function; the nature and quality of the “emergencies” in those cities pale in comparison to those that justify the suspension of political rights under international law.

Additionally, the implementation of the emergency manager law runs afoul of international law’s prohibition of practices that have the “purpose or effect” of racial discrimination. The installation of emergency managers in cities like Pontiac, Flint, Benton Harbor, River Rouge, Highland Park, and of course Detroit disproportionately impact the political rights of people of color....

Cities segregated into impoverishment need to start talking to surrounding towns and cities to work out mergers to begin to roll back the segregation and raise these cities full of great people out of impoverishment. There is nothing wrong with these communities that an infusion of well financed city services could solve, including education. If Flint, Michigan had a school system that was turning out high percentages of high school graduates who'd destination is college, things would be different.

A $100,000 property in Grand Blanc would bring $4,624 in property taxes with a millage of 46,24. The population in Grand Blanc is mostly static with minor growth of 8,020 people and one school system.

A $100,000 property in Flint would bring $5334 in property taxes and a millage rate of 53.34. Flint's population is in decline with a total number of residents at 80,628 and five school systems within that tax district.

The millage in Flint continues to go up because there are less people paying property tax.

Grand Blanc will be okay for some time to come with little growth and consistent expenses. Flint on the other hand will continue to lose population growth while still attempting to support the same number of schools for their children.

Flint is in an impossible situation whereby their expenses are the same or greater while their population is dropping. Not much different than Detroit. 

There are currently houses with two or three bedrooms for sale in Flint for less than $100,000 (click here).

There are currently no homes in Grand Blanc for $100,000 (click here). However, there are empty, well groomed lots for sale for less than that amount.

The problem is obvious. The value of property is vastly different. With a decreasing population in Flint, no matter how much the city council and mayor wants to solve the problems of the city and its residents, it has increasing pressure to do more with less.

The common mayor and council in free and fair elections of a merged Flint and Grand Blanc can go to work to bring economic stability to the area and stabilize a tax structure. The demands for city services will be carried by a common treasury and will be consolidated while pushing Flint property values higher. There would be some bussing to provide an opportunity for all students. I know this is a bizarre idea, but, it would end segregation and the victimization of minority cities.

This concept needs to be explored. In the meantime, the cities victimized by Snyder should be suing the State of Michigan to deliver on the promise Snyder made in that the emergency manager would bring about better services with bills paid and more money to go around for funding of schools of opportunity. It is still the state's issue and it doesn't end with an election to change governors. The problems these minority cities experience must be a priority in any administration. The solutions are to bring the city to better property values and stable tax income.

Oh, by the way, corruption at all levels of the public and private sectors must stop and end the adverse effects that rob the citizens of the services their money should bring. It is time the Michigan Attorney General's office recognizes the corruption of Snyder's administration, including a one man grand jury, and seek a greater authority to bring about better outcomes for all the people of Michigan. Flint is just the beginning.

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick did not die of natural causes.

January 27, 2023

By Michael Kunzelman

A New Jersey man (click here) who joined a mob's attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Friday to more than six years in prison for using pepper spray to assault police officers, one of whom died a day after the siege.

Julian Khater, formerly of the Somerset section of Franklin Township, didn't mention the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick or address the officer's family in a written statement he read aloud before U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan sentenced him to six years and eight months of imprisonment.

A medical examiner concluded that Sicknick, 42, suffered two strokes and died of natural causes a day after he and other officers tried to hold off the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021....

Capitol Police Officer Brain Sicknick died of extreme stress and chemical poisoning following the insurrection of January 6, 2021.

It was not natural causes. I don't know who made that decision, but, it is nonsense. Everyone knows it is nonsense. The forensics expert that decided that needs to be fired, because, it is not accurate.

March 10, 2022
By Shaila Davis

The death of Officer Jeffrey Smith, (click here) who killed himself nine days after confronting a mob at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was the direct result of an injury he sustained during the riot, a retirement board has found.

The ruling marks the first time in the records of Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department — and one of very few times across the country — that a suicide has been classified as a line-of-duty death.

The moment may be a tipping point in a crusade to lift long-held taboos against open discussion of depression, addiction and suicide in policing, with several groups pushing for officers to have greater access to confidential counseling and other emotional supports.

Their case was bolstered by the events of Jan. 6, when the nation watched as officers endured assaults, racist slurs and taunts. The names of Officer Smith and Officer Howard Liebengood, a Capitol Police officer who also took his own life, were mentioned in the same breath as those of Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after clashing with rioters, and Officer Eugene Goodman, who lured the mob away from the Senate chamber....

Even if it takes legislation from Congress all these officers need to be recognized as having died in the line of duty. The officers and families should be given respect for the bravery they carried to their attempts to protect the Capitol and the legislators that day including Vice President Pence.

August 2, 2021
By Jan Wolfe

The District of Columbia's police department on Monday (click here) said two more police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol have died by suicide, bringing to four the number of known suicides by officers who guarded the building that day.

Metropolitan Police Officer Gunther Hashida was found dead in his home Thursday, department spokesman Hugh Carew said in a statement.

Hashida joined the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in May 2003....

Does New Jersey really want 144,000 families on the street? The utility companies are way out of line.

January 27, 2023
By Ashley Balcerzak

Nearly 144,000 New Jersey families (click here) are behind a combined $44.5 million on their water and sewer bills — risking shutoffs or tax lien foreclosure — and yet many households can't access millions of dollars in federal funding to help because a majority of water utilities in the Garden State aren't participating in a relief program.

Low- and middle-income families in New Jersey that need help with water and sewer bills are eligible for up to $5,000 to prevent their water service from being disconnected or to avoid a tax lien sale, under the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program, launched last March with federal stimulus funds.

But fewer than 2,000 families had received benefits through December, according to Department of Community Affairs data....

With a history dating back to 1886, (click here) American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly traded water and wastewater utility company. We employ more than 6,400 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and regulated-like drinking water and wastewater services to 14 million people in 24 states.

Contact "American Water" in New Jersey (click here)

"American Water" is in 13 states (click here)

New Jersey Department of Public Advocate

Division of Rate Control (click here)

The Rate Control authority is supposed to solve problems, not cause them.

January 27, 2023
Contact: Stephen McBay

New York - Today, EPA announced a major new initiative (click here) to accelerate progress toward the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of 100% lead service line removal and replacement. EPA introduced the “Lead Service Line Replacement Accelerators” initiative at a White House summit celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan and convened state and local leaders to discuss the program. New Jersey is among the first states to participate in the Accelerator initiative, an ambitious program aimed at providing targeted technical assistance services to underserved communities to replace lead pipes that endanger the health of children and families. This initiative is a partnership with the Department of Labor, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and will work with up to 40 communities across these states in 2023. The full list of communities that will benefit from this program will be announced in the coming weeks.

"New Jersey is a trailblazer in environmental stewardship by participating in this pilot program," said Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. "Far too many communities in the state and across the nation are still facing the challenge of replacing aging pipes, particularly in communities that have been historically underserved and overburdened. This program will provide crucial support and assistance to these communities and help to address this pressing issue."...