Iceland is suffering economic downturn due to volcanic activity.

It sincerely is a beautiful country. The volcanic activity really is isolated to the very tip of the southwestern region. There are towns and people effected, but, the country is taking care of their own and the dangerous areas are not occupied.

The Blue Lagoon is open. It is a worthwhile vacation spot. I do believe there is still some proximity to the volcanic activity that bothers tourists. All I can say to that is Iceland is very aware of the activity of it's geography.

January 12, 2024
By Alison Fox

The Blue Lagoon (click here) has once again re-opened to visitors in south Iceland following the volcano eruption that caused weeks of closures.

The iconic spa, restaurant, and hotel had a staggered opening over the last week, welcoming visitors back to soak in its milky blue waters and relax amongst its otherworldly landscape, the spa shared with Travel + Leisure. The pools, spa, cafe, retail shop, and Lava restaurant first reopened (though with slightly reduced hours) on Saturday, followed by the Silica Hotel and Retreat Hotel on Tuesday, and finally the property’s Michelin-starred Moss restaurant on Wednesday.

“After three wonderful days of welcoming back our staff and day guests at the Blue Lagoon, we’re also thrilled to be able to reopen our hotels,” Helga Árnadóttir, the chief operator of sales, operations, and services at the Blue Lagoon, said in a statement shared with T+L. “We’re very appreciative of our staff who worked tirelessly to reopen our establishments, and we look forward to continuing to create moments of joy for each person who walks through our doors.”...

If unpredictable volcanoes are a concern, there are alternatives.

September 5, 2023
By Lisa Abend

Early on a Sunday morning in July, (click here) two brothers from Boston sat on Reykjavik’s rocky coast, with their faces turned toward the chilly waters of the bay and their feet soaking in what felt like a warm bath. Ben and Lucas Zheng had landed around 4:30 a.m. at Iceland’s international airport, and didn’t have too many early-morning options for how to spend the start of their eight-hour layover before flying on to Venice. So, taking advantage of the season’s round-the-clock daylight, they walked 40 minutes from the city center toward the northwestern tip of the Seltjarnarnes peninsula. There on the stony beach, they rolled up their pants and sat for a couple of hours, their legs submerged in the naturally warm Kvika pool, which, at 12 inches deep, is more foot bath than hot tub.

The Zheng brothers had stumbled onto the most Icelandic of experiences. With more than 600 natural hot springs, the volcanic island gets the better part of its heat and energy from geothermal sources. But it has also incorporated that bounty of warm water into its culture, turning bathing in public pools into a sociable national pastime that is, according to some, the secret to its citizens’ happiness....

Go say hello to the Iceland cliffs and Puffins. The Puffins (click here), by the way, are having a terrible time surviving in the Pacific, especially the Russian coastal area. Iceland may be the only country with hearty populations of this really cute bird.

What could be better, clear skies, beautiful blue waters of the Atlantic, whales, and some of the cutest birds in the world.

There is a rift valley along the plate boundary. It is a fascinating tour if one is curious about Iceland's geography. Pumice lines the beaches that are accessible to tourism.

(click here for map)

The Middle East Peace Table

Asking Hamas to be a partner in peace is like asking a soldier to guarantee he speaks for a sovereign power. Hamas is a terrorist network acting in the interests of Iran and both should be held responsible for deaths of Israeli and Palestinian citizens. It is Hamas with Iran’s support that put Palestinian people deliberately in harm’s way.

It is Iran most responsible for the terrorist networks that are the soldiers on the front lines of Iranian hatred of global religions other than its own. It is Iran that must participate in peace talks and a pledge to end terrorist networks. Until Iran comes to the table its hatred will never be understood.

Iran must end it’s global march with terrorists doing it’s bidding.

Today, Iran has seized a ship in the Straits of Hormuz stating it can shut down the entire waterway. That is an act of war. Now, is every ship going to need a military escort in the Straits? 

There are two sides of these tensions already established: the allied powers and the axis powers. Iran sent drones to Russia for one reason only and that was to ensure Russia would carry out power against allied powers that itself cannot achieve. Along with Russia comes China. I think Iran has set up the world for WW III. I mean honestly are other countries going to go along with Iranian hatred? To what end? 

The communists love capitalism. Will the communists, including North Korea, actually take on the mantle of Iranian religious hatred as a reason to destroy their own countries and people? That is what war is, an invitation to harm one’s own land and people for the sake of what exactly? Hatred? Hatred is a reason for war? I thought aggression, like Hamas carried out, was a reason for war.

A war can end aggression, but, it will never end hate.

In a sincere understanding of national security, one power cannot control the world. Iran has wayward understandings of the power of a sovereign. 

I might add USA intelligence is spot on. President Biden was calling out Russia’s plans to invade Ukraine while all others denied it would ever happen.

Enjoy your weekend, Donald.

People in glass houses.

12 April 2024

People hold up portraits of victims of the 1994 bombing of the Argentinian Israeli Mutual Association, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 18 July 2018.

A new ruling by Argentina’s highest criminal court (click here) has blamed Iran for the fatal 1994 attack against a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, declaring it a “crime against humanity” in a decision that paves the way for victims to seek justice.

That huge blast at the Argentinian Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), was blamed on a suicide bomber driving a stolen van loaded with explosives. It killed 85 people, wounded 300 and devastated Latin America’s biggest Jewish community.

In their ruling late on Thursday, the judges ruled that the bombing was carried out by the Shia militant organization Hezbollah and responded to a “political and strategic design” by Iran. The court said the attack came in retaliation for Argentina reneging on a nuclear cooperation deal with Tehran....

The demonstrating American Palestinians may have had their deepest wishes come true by demanding Israel end it's defense of it's nation, but, even fewer will survive when Iran takes advantage of any perceived weakening of Israel’s resolve.

IRAN IS THE AGGRESSOR.

Iran has been the aggressor for a long time using proxies to carry out terror attacks.

Pakistan Designates Iran-Backed Shiite Militant Group Zainebiyoun (click here)
April 11, 2024

The Iranian regime has been an active actor in the Syrian conflict which started in 2013 and has so far claimed the lives of around 500,000 people, at least 60 percent of whom were civilians.

To help maintain Assad’s rule, Iran dispatched its other proxies to Syria as well, including Hezbollah, Iraq’s Nujaba Movement, and also the Fatemiyoun Division, which was composed of Afghan Shiite fighters.

Iranian officials and state media frequently credit former IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani as the man behind launching, training and funding all these militant groups. Soleimani, who served as the Iranian regime’s top military and intelligence operator in the Middle East, was killed in a US drone strike in January 2020 in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad.

Observers contend that Tehran’s attempts to mobilize Shiite militant groups, such as Zainebiyoun, and their active participation in the Syrian war fanned the flames of sectarian violence in the Middle East, provoking Sunni communities to employ a similar strategy in the region....

Israel had a good reason to have carried out this strike. Iran's generals were having a good time in Syria. Hezbollah has been carrying hate strikes against Israel.

8 April 2024

An Iranian general (click here) killed in a strike in Syria’s capital last week was a member of Hezbollah’s Shura Council, the powerful Lebanese terror group’s decision-making body, a source close to the movement said.

The April 1 airstrike leveled the Iranian embassy’s consular annex in Damascus, killing seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, including two generals.

One of them was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Quds Force, the Guards’ foreign operations arm....

This isn't the first time in recent years that an Iranian general found their deaths. Hezbollah for decades, if not longer, has been seeking to kill Israelis. 

January 3, 2020
By Nectar Gan

Qasem Soleimani, (click here) who was killed by a US airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump at Baghdad International Airport on Friday, was hailed as a hero in Iran – brave, charismatic and beloved by the troops.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, once called him a “living martyr of the revolution.” But the United States viewed Iran’s top general as a ruthless killer.

One of Iran’s most powerful men, Soleimani cut a highly controversial figure. He was head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, an elite unit that handles Iran’s overseas operations – and one deemed to be a foreign terrorist organization by the US.

Having started his front line military career in the Iran-Iraq war during the early 1980s, Soleimani rose to prominence to become an indispensable figure in Iran, playing an instrumental role in spreading its influence in the Middle East....

This is from Al Jazeera.

The Israeli military (click here) says sirens have sounded twice within the space of 30 minutes. Earlier, the military reported that they had struck several Hezbollah military compounds in southern Lebanon. The military also stated that it had detected “a number of launches from Lebanon” but had struck the sources of the fire.

These attacks happen with Israel all the time and Israel has a right to return fire and limit regrowth. Hezbollah is not denying the attacks on Israel.

This is from Alarabiya:

April 11, 2024

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group (click here) said it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at Israeli artillery positions Friday, a bombardment it said was in response to Israeli strikes in the south.

Hamas ally Hezbollah has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on October 7 triggering war in Gaza....

Why is any terrorist organization attacking Israel? Israel, before being attacked October 7, 2023.

Approx. 40 launches were identified crossing from Lebanese territory by the IDF, some of which were intercepted by Israel. The IDF Aerial Defense Array successfully intercepted 2 Hezbollah explosive UAVs that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory earlier this evening.

February 29, 2024

By Steven A. Cook

...The claim that Hezbollah does not want war (click here) hinges on a further claim that Iran fears a conflict between its proxy and Israel. The logic that underpins these two arguments is compelling: In recent years, Hezbollah has become an expeditionary force for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), playing important roles in supporting the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad in its bloody campaign against its own people, working with Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, and training the Houthis in Yemen.

Yet before it was an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah was—and remains—first and foremost a critical component of Iran’s deterrence. The group and its reported 100,000-plus rockets are Iran’s second-strike capability. If Israel or the United States were to attack Iran’s nuclear program, Hezbollah’s arsenal would deliver a devastating blow on Israeli population centers. As much as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other Iranian leaders are committed to Israel’s destruction, they are more devoted to regime survival and do not want to lose the deterrent capability that they have invested in Hezbollah....

Oddly, I believe this has nothing to do with the war in Gaza. These are entities in the Middle East have hated Israel for as long as Israel has existed. The Gaza War only provides an excuse to escalate attacks that are more routine against Israel than rare.

This is why the USA is always at the center of protecting Israel, because, it cannot do it by themselves.

April 12, 2024
By Gerald Michael Feierstein

“Hezbollah has a lot of capabilities. They have a lot of missiles, They have a lot of drones. They have a lot of weapons that they could use.” Israel fears attacks from Iran and Hezbollah as they could launch an attack that could "cover all of Israel”, says former US ambassador to Yemen Gerald Michael Feierstein.

April 12, 2024

ByShannon K. Crawford, Luis Martinez, Anne Flaherty, and Mary Bruce

President Joe Biden told reporters Friday afternoon (click here) he expects an Iranian strike on Israel to occur "sooner than later" amid urgent concerns that Iran was about to retaliate for the bombing of its consulate in Damascus, Syria, earlier this month.

Asked for his message to Iran in the tense moment, Biden was blunt, saying simply, "Don't."

"Would the U.S. respond?" ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked repeatedly as the president walked away after the end of an unrelated event. He paused, thought for a moment and then returned to the lectern.

"We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed," he said.....

The region is experiencing escalation by Iran's terrorist organizations. The presence of the USA isn't just about Gaza. The Houthis have been turned loose by Iran as well.

December 4, 2024
By Jon Gambrell

Ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels (click here) struck three commercial ships Sunday in the Red Sea, while a U.S. warship shot down three drones in self-defense during the hourslong assault, the U.S. military said. The Iranian-backed Houthis claimed two of the attacks.

The strikes marked an escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war, as multiple vessels found themselves in the crosshairs of a single Houthi assault for the first time in the conflict. The U.S. vowed to “consider all appropriate responses” in the wake of the attack, specifically calling out Iran, after tensions have been high for years now over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

“These attacks represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security,” the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement. “They have jeopardized the lives of international crews representing multiple countries around the world.”...

These aggressions are all conducted by Iran's terrorist networks, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. In complete honesty, it looks as though Iran has decided to declare war and October 7, 2023 was simply one of the attacks that have been ongoing. These conflicts, including all that Israel is mired in is about Iran's aggression and not simply Hamas.

"The 23rd serious attack by Houthi rebels since November."

If one is to understand Israel's vulnerability to Iranian terrorist attacks, it can be understood why Israel will not stop until every tunnel is destroyed in Gaza and every Hamas member is dead. Israel is about eliminating the danger and not simply retaliating for every attack. There are profound reasons that is Israel's survival at play with the decisions of its military leaders. This is no joke. And now, the USA is once again standing up for Israel and awaits attacks by Iran itself.

These three men should be at the peace table, not the proxy terrorists that Iran hides behind.

I really think the media has it wrong. President Biden has been strengthening alliances for very good reasons. He has also been strengthening the economy domestically.

This comes at a time when global tensions with communists are high.

It is always good to hear from our great allies.

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio delivers an address before a joint meeting of Congress. (click here)

Russian (click here) Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday during a visit to Beijing in a sign of mutual support and shared opposition to Western democracies amid the conflict in Ukraine.

I find it odd that the President of China was meeting with the Foreign Minister of Russia. Usually, a president meets with presidents and foreign ministers meet with foreign ministers. I guess since Putin is wanted by the World Court for human rights violations he doesn't travel much.

Orban should not have come to the summit. He does not support the democracy the people have ale

March 22, 2024

Friday is the last day of the summit

EU leaders (click here) have hit back after Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated Friday that Russia is in "a state of war."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia's comments show that it betrayed its own population after denying that it was at war for the past two years.

Meanwhile, European Council President Charles Michel said Russia's statement shows the need for the EU to strengthen its own defense industries.

"We must be lucid and we must tell to our citizens all across the EU that if we want peace, if we want security and stability, it is extremely important to improve our defense capabilities and to build a true European Union in defense," Michel said at the end of the summit in Brussels.

Obstruction needs to stop!

The interconnection queue (click here) is a collection of power generation and transmission projects requesting to connect to the power grid. Generation projects can be pre-construction, construction, built/non-operational and operating.

April 10, 2024

The backlog of new power generation and energy storage seeking transmission connections (click here) across the U.S. grew again in 2023, with nearly 2,600 gigawatts (GW) of generation and storage capacity now actively seeking grid interconnection, according to new research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Active capacity in U.S. interconnection queues increased nearly eight-fold over the last decade, and is now more than twice the total installed capacity of the existing U.S. power plant fleet. The queues indicate particularly strong interest in solar, battery storage, and wind energy, which together accounted for over 95% of all active capacity at the end of 2023.

But this growing backlog has become a major bottleneck for project development: proposed projects are mired in lengthy and uncertain interconnection study processes, and most interconnection requests are ultimately cancelled and withdrawn. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) adopted major interconnection reforms in 2023 that have not yet taken effect in most regions; project developers continue to cite grid interconnection as a leading cause of project delays and cancellations....

... The total capacity active in the queues (click here) is growing year-over-year, with over 1,570 GW of generation and an estimated 1,030 GW of storage capacity as of the end of 2023.

- In total, over 1,480 GW of zero-carbon generating capacity is currently seeking transmission access. Solar (1,086 GW) accounts for the largest share of generation capacity in the queues. Substantial wind (366 GW) capacity is also seeking interconnection, 1/3 of which is for offshore projects (120 GW).

- Solar and battery storage are – by far – the fastest growing resources in the queues. Combined, they account for over 80% of new capacity entering the queues in 2023.

- Proposed fossil fuel generation much lower, with 79 GW of natural gas and 1.5 GW of coal currently proposed. 

These fossil fuel projects need to move to the bottom of the list and quite possibly be eliminated. They are part of the problem, not the solution.

Hybrid projects (co-locating multiple generation and/or storage types) comprise a large – and increasing – share of proposed projects, particularly in CAISO and the non-ISO West. 571 GW of solar hybrids (primarily solar+battery) and 48 GW of wind hybrids are currently active in the queues. Over half of the battery storage capacity in the queues is paired with some form of generation (mostly solar).

However, much of this proposed capacity will not ultimately be built. Among a subset of queues for which data are available, only 19% of the projects (and 14% of capacity) seeking connection from 2000 to 2018 have been built as of the end of 2023.

- Interconnection wait times are also on the rise: The typical duration from connection request to commercial operation increased from <2 years for projects built in 2000-2007 to over 4 years for those built in 2018-2023 (with a median of 5 years for projects built in 2023)....

April 10, 2024
By Jason Plautz

As concerns grow (click here) about what a flood of new computers, data centers and artificial intelligence operations means for the electric grid, one industry remains a massive question mark: cryptocurrency.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that mining for bitcoin and other digital currencies accounts for 0.6 to 2.3 percent of the nation’s electricity use. But that figure is just an approximation based on worldwide data collected by Cambridge University and publicly available information about 52 crypto mining sites.

A bid to have the agency — a nonpartisan data arm of the Department of Energy — collect more detailed information on how crypto miners use electricity was stymied by a lawsuit and won’t be revived until after a public review. That means regulators, legislators and even power providers don’t have detailed data about how an industry that has exploded in just a decade could affect the grid in the future....

Carbon Removal Projects are far too late. The operative word is IF. Greenhouse gas capture has to be measurable, exact, and reliable in it's CAPTURE of the gases that bring about warming. 

An example of a real joke is the packaging industry that uses dry ice in  shipping. Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide. Back in the day, due to the dangers of exposure to dry ice, it was packaged in cans. The cans were full of solid carbon dioxide and  was an effective cooler for picnic baskets. The cans were always marked "do not open." Over time they rust, but, then they were discarded because no rust should come in contact with food.

Today, (click here) this is CO2 Dry Ice. It is open to air and when not it is in a container that is not sealed to prevent leakage. Sometimes this type of dry ice will be in the shipping container inside of a plastic bag that is not sealed so it leaks back to the troposphere.

This is not a sustainable practice. It should never be considered a greenhouse gas capture protocol for investment or tax advantages.

April 10, 2024
By Emily Pontecorvo

Money (click here) seems to be pouring into the field of carbon removal (click here) from every direction. Every other week there’s an announcement about a new project. Multimillion dollar carbon removal procurement deals are on the rise. The Department of Energy is rolling out grants as part of its $3.5 billion “direct air capture” hubs program and also funding research and development. Some carbon removal companies can even start claiming a $130 tax credit for every ton of CO2 they suck up and store underground.

The federal government alone spends just under $1 billion per year on carbon removal research, development, and deployment. According to a new report from the Rhodium Group, however, the U.S. is going to have to spend a lot more — roughly $100 billion per year by 2050 — if carbon dioxide removal, or CDR, is ever going to become a viable climate solution....

Money is more important than life is it?

April 9, 2024

By Bjorn Lomborg

...Unfortunately, (click here) as the huge subsidies show, the claim is wildly deceptive....

The media picks and chooses the facts they present to attract whomever they believe will be a customer or whichever advertiser brings it the most income per inch.

August 22, 2023

...Heat waves (click here) — defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as periods of two or more days where the weather is “abnormally and uncomfortably hot” and “outside the historical averages for a given area”— have become more frequent and longer in duration since the middle of the 20th century. In April 2023, 69.7 million Americans lived in counties experiencing higher temperatures than the 20th-century normal.

In 2023, Americans are increasingly grappling with prolonged heat waves — sometimes dubbed “heat domes” or “heat islands” by the Environmental Protection Agency — even in areas accustomed to particularly high heat. Phoenix, Arizona, for example, registered an average daily high temperature of 114.7 degrees Fahrenheit in July.

In 2004, 297 Americans died from excessive natural heat, the lowest figure recorded over the past two decades. In 2018, 1,008 Americans died as a direct result of heat exposure. But in 2021, heat-related deaths increased to 1,600, a 59% uptick from only four years earlier, and a 439% increase from 2004.

Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which actively tracks daily and weekly heat-related illnesses, shows that 1,714 US deaths in 2022 were due to “heat-related” causes....

It is time to bring about equity in the energy sector to allow the rapid construction of solar and wind projects. We are talking about a deadly trend of Earth's climate that has already killed Americans. There is no excuse for complaining. These changes in the energy sector in the USA should have taken place over 40 years ago! 

Our children should not be looking at a world so very different than the one most Americans inherited from their parents due to a very dangerous climate. Heat deaths are only one aspect of the climate crisis. The death count is actually much higher.

Consumers pay for procrastinating, both with their lives and their fortunes. If the solar fields and wind farms had been built in the 1960s when scientists made testimony to Congress we would not be facing high costs or high GHG emissions.

Maybe there is a "caste system" in the USA where some lives are more important than others. Deaths are deaths and they are occurring in larger and larger numbers every year. THAT MATTERS! Too bad if costs are going up. It is time to pay the piper. This cost was predicted over and over since the 1950s. 

July 29, 2019

...The United States (click here) provides a number of tax subsidies to the fossil fuel industry as a means of encouraging domestic energy production. These include both direct subsidies to corporations, as well as other tax benefits to the fossil fuel industry. Conservative estimates put U.S. direct subsidies to the fossil fuel industry at roughly $20 billion per year; with 20 percent currently allocated to coal and 80 percent to natural gas and crude oil. European Union subsidies are estimated to total 55 billion euros annually....

Another Putin Lie

(Click here)

ISIS did Putin a favor, it provided another propaganda event for more Putin lies. If Putin pins the label of “terrorist” on Ukraine it will serve to disgraced the country.

March 28, 2024

By Olivia Yanchik

The March 22 terror (click here) attack on a Moscow concert hall was the deadliest in Russia for almost two decades. While the official investigation into the attack is still underway, it is already becoming increasingly clear that the Kremlin intends to ignore overwhelming evidence of Islamic State responsibility in order to accuse the Ukrainian authorities and their Western partners of orchestrating the killings.

This opportunistic attempt to blame Ukraine is fueling widespread speculation that the attack will lead to an escalation in Russia’s ongoing invasion. Based on past experience throughout Vladimir Putin’s 24-year reign, many also anticipate that the Russian dictator will use the atrocity to launch a further domestic crackdown....

Peace...

 ...is the way forward.

Hot hydrogen.

April 8, 2024
By Megan Bartels

Sky watchers (click here) got a special treat during the April 8 total solar eclipse when the always stunning spectacle of totality was adorned with a couple of solar prominences, which appeared as reddish dots in locations around the moon’s outline....

Civil War is not sexy.

9 April 2024

By Ed Pilkington

Large numbers of Americans (click here) who have bought guns over the past four years or who regularly carry their loaded weapons in public are willing to engage in political violence, even to the extent of shooting a perceived opponent, a new mega-survey has found.

The study of almost 13,000 Americans, drawn from across the country and weighted for demographics, provides alarming evidence of the openness of certain types of gun owners to the idea – and possibly the practice – of violence as a political act....

Every American needs to ask themselves how we got here. We are in a violent paradigm within our democracy because the right political wing is the fringe. We are facing very bad leadership on the right and it was obtained by a group of extremists including those that publish tabloid journalism.

Quite unknowingly Americans that voted for Trump in 2016 were completely unaware of the influx of fringe Americans brought to vote for Trump by tabloid journalism. Don't get me wrong, every American should vote with every election, however, up to recent decades there were fairly standard mainstream voters. That changed with Trump to the point where the right wing has to dance on the head of a pin to please those voters, hence, extremists like Haley and Taylor-Greene.

There are large cultural differences between traditional American voters and the right wing fringe. That difference has existed in the shadows of the USA for a long time and fed by misinformation such as alien encounters, etc. I know there has been some truth telling that brought politicians to their knees as a result of tabloids, but, the majority of information found in those newsprints is false. I think it is called "infotainment." Media companies like FOX are very profitable due to all that mess, but, it has brought the USA to a difficult and delicate place socially.

Accompanying that fringe are draconian aspects of our society that look for wrongheaded profits like the gun lobby. But, this is a democracy and when voters can be found in the fringe that elect those that are mostly best left out of government there are dangerous cronies that fund elections that need to be fed after the vote count, i.e.: NRA with Russian money.

So, we have arrived in 2024 with huge numbers of guns floating throughout the country. It is a dangerous time for people that see guns as a sincere answer to their social anxiety and/or social prowess. Isn't that an oxymoron? Social clout means carrying guns. There is nothing social about guns. Nothing. Guns are a tool. They are tools to self-defense within our homes and tools to allow sports of a variety of kinds, including the Olympics (click here). I do not regard the relatively new gun laws such as the Castle Doctrine to be good law or even necessary in the USA.

In the USA if a person owns a gun they are often well practiced. If one owns a gun it needs to be used within the understanding of how best it operates for the purpose of self-defense and/or sport. So, I would expect Americans that own guns are well practiced and confident in their use. However, I do not see them using the guns for the purpose of developing social unrest resulting in an escalation of unsafe conditions which could become out of control in a war within the USA against unidentified entities. No uniforms, just mass murder.

I am not surprised we are at this juncture. And. Yes. I see it as a juncture.

On this blog there is considerable focus over the years of gun cultures and how when the NRA is involved those gun cultures became lucrative and out of control. Those gun cultures did not exist before the NRA either. They were nurtured in places like South America. On this blog there are well documented dynamics of other countries that allowed an indulgence of profiteers leading to domestic violence of unprecedented levels. This PATTERN is not unique, but, for as dangerous and predictable it is there seems to be no way to remove the violent component. Once the power and money of guns is realized in a society it stays there. In many of the countries where the NRA has been successful in selling guns and nurturing a violent culture law enforcement fails, i.e. as close as our neighbor to the south, Mexico.

So.

The juncture we face as a well educated and moral people is that we do have rational thought that can result in removing such dangers. Our democracy allows people to speak out however they wish to put facts before the electorate. Elections allow the education of the voter in a way that removes danger and returns a civil society.

This research as cited in "The Guardian" demands attention to those both being elected and those voting. This research is alarming. There is no doubt this is a wake up call to the American voter in understanding there are dynamics at play that either will damn our democracy to being subservient to violence or return rational thinking to maintain this country in a state of good law enforcement.

Being subservient to violence means our society is not safe and domestic peace is absent. It means people will practice political violence and our government will require bullet proof meeting rooms. It will bring about economic downturns as people rarely socialize and gangland will result as the over riding social event on a Saturday night.

And. Oh, by the way. Those lovely innocent children being raised all across the USA will now have to face whether they have to fight their way into adulthood and beyond because any social situation will incorporate gun violence as part of the behaviors that have to be adapted. If people think there are social divisions wait until the guns dominate the streets. There will be bullet proof schools and academies that guarantee your child will "arrive alive" to their adult dreams of an education and a quality of life. The only thing the bullet proof schools and universities won't be able to stop is the home invasions that could result in the loss of precious lives if Americans can't afford state of the art defense fences to protect them. If Americans think real estate is expensive now, they haven't even begun to incorporate all the munitions needed to survive day to day.

We are at a juncture. It is time to put the guns back where they belong and stop seeing them as a part of personal appeal and necessary.

END THE VIOLENCE. 

There really is no other rational choice.

Be grateful….

… the solar eclipse occurred when it did. If it occurred while Trump was in office everyone would be blind today.

When is he going to be held responsible for all the unnecessary deaths under his administration. He is a crackpot and the USA had a death toll under his administration unmatched anywhere in the Free World. 

“Pro-life all their life”

Chris Christie came out with the only reasonable answer for the GOP in a democracy confronting abortion as woman’s health (click here).

First Nikki Haley stole his thunder and now Trump is mimicking it. Trump and s a flip flopper. It is safe to say the GOP is too extreme for any political paradigm and the former governor is the only reasonable leader for the party. A political party has to have the ability to govern and not just entertain radical ideas for political sensationalism.

Democrats are most correct on abortion. It is a decision between a woman and her physician. It is a privacy issue. 

Purkinje Effect

While some people will find it interesting to SAFELY watch the solar eclipse there is an interesting effect happening on ground level, too.

(Click here) 

(Click here)

HAMAS IS REFUSING A CEASEFIRE!

The America-Palestinian community needs to move their demonstrations to any Iranian Embassy they can find! 

Honestly. Insisting the USA “make Israel to ceasefire” is nothing less than moronic!

(Click here)

Hamas refuses to negotiate. Why have a peace process if Hamas refuses to negotiate? A lot of people have died. Why would Hamas just expect everything go back to the ways things were. The only organization that can be recognized as an authority to Palestine is the PA. Hamas is not a legitimate organization to reclaim governance. Peace talks with Hamas should focus on relinquishing hostages, ending the import of Iranian munitions, and the treatment of POWs.

Hamas is a terrorist organization and not a sovereign authority. The PA is interested in peace with Israel and not a Palestinian homeland in Gaza that hosts terrorists as militias that endanger citizens.

American Palestinians appear to be very misguided because they are willing to allow Hamas to continue to exist. That idea is not possible. They need to support the PA to move mountains. The PA is not strong enough to ward off terrorists in Gaza.

An identity crisis in Illinois.

Currently, in Illinois, people are asking the State Attorney General to end the publication of voter information by right wing extremists (click here). The problem is that the states have far too much information on voters and it is permitted to be published as public information.

(Click here)

Of course, the reason the voter registration is being published by the extremists is to instill fear of voting. No voter should ever feel their lives are on the line in order to vote. 

If Democrats want to bring about voter participation they should, at the state level, have a voter referendum to end sensitive information from being published.

We live in a time when cyber information of citizens are abused on a regular basis. The abuse is due to inferior security systems hacked by terrorists that are sometimes empowered by sovereign countries. These abuses result in theft for the purpose of identity theft. 

It is important voting records contain information to empower registration and voting. There is absolutely no reason to have that information on a computer server and absolutely secure. NO POLITICAL organization should have a right to publish election records.

So, Democrats in every state should include in their campaigns the right to voter registration privacy. The incidence of identity theft in the USA does not need more victims because their voter registration has been published. SSI numbers must be kept secure. Personal safety and identity security must become a writ in the USA.

The DNC is screwng up.

(Click here)

The Democratic Convention is jeopardizing the presidential election.

August 19, 2024 is a very late convention. What is everyone thinking?

This maybe an Ohio issue and some kind of election reform. The 2020 convention was the exact same time of month. Is Ohio deliberately changing its rules to keep President Biden off the Ohio Ballot?

Snowing

In Perrysburg, Ohio?

Flat top, West Virginia was one thing. It made sense to some extent, even though it wasn’t predicted anywhere that it would be colder at higher elevations in West Virginia, and it could be snowing. But snow flurries in Perrysburg, Ohio? 

It sounds like we have a climate crisis to me.

Below is a picture of the skies of Rockbridge, Ohio at 8:07 am today.

This was a massive cloud attempting to form a supercell. The rotation is obvious and it had enough velocity to spin the clouds, too. To the best of my knowledge it never touched down.

It is my experience and observation the surface of Earth is too dry to support this cloud structure if it ever completed its formation. If the surface of Earth is too dry as soon as a cloud like this touches down the water droplets will evaporate. It is this reality that I am beginning to believe is the reason there is an increase in very high velocity straight line winds.

West Virginia had the salter truck out at those elevations before the second toll booth. After that unexplained trauma the service area after that toll booth was packed full of tractor-trailers. No accidents that I am aware of. Drivers needed down time. 

As a side note, West Virginia has the most expensive fuel along I-77. In all honesty I don’t know why there aren’t more electric tractor-trailers on the road. I didn’t see any charging stations for those rigs either in any major fuel stop over nearly 800 miles. I don’t expect to see any either. 

Why? 

The freight haulers can’t be making much money. Not with diesel running between $4 and $5 per gallon. All the rigs look in good condition, but, it is unfortunate that investment was made without regard for the climate. Freight haulers need a federal incentive to rework their fleets. All the current rigs will bring good money at the scrap yards.

Do you know, the maritime industry is way ahead of any terrestrial transportation when it comes to modifications to help Earth’s climate.

With Baltimore having trouble I did see rail cars full of containers, sometimes one on top of the other. Stacking like that adds to the weight the train engines are pulling resulting in lower fuel mileage for those diesel engines. Not only that but that added weight puts stress on the rails. There needs to be a full compliment of inspectors and rail repair cars out.

Have a better day. 

Oh, the snow flurries in Perrysburg? There has been dense clouds for nearly 500 miles. The first solid structure the snow flurries hit caused them to melt.

BUT.

Those flurries made it to the surface. The cloud cover and cooler air protected the snow as it fell.