America's prosperity depends on the strength of it's people and local economies.

Any leader needs to realize the local, small business economies recovered from the 2008 economic collapse far faster after losing less from that same Great Recession. Presidents need to understand where the USA's strengths are and it is DOCUMENTED, the American people can recover their own economy. It is high time DC realize it and build on it rather than selling legislative power to Wall Street. No more stupidity. End of discussion.

It was an interesting convention. The speech by Donald Trump is no different than anything he has said before. It is a populous message and I questions his facts in many instances.

The issue is Congress. He is not automatically going to receive help with his agenda by Congress. Has he received support from the US House and Senate? 

I am fairly sure when he cuts spending and cuts taxes the USA will experience a recession. He might want to consult with someone about that. Brownback's Kansas did exactly that.

June 17, 2016
By Jim Tankersley and Max Ehrenfround
In 2012, (click here) voters in California approved a measure to raise taxes on millionaires, bringing their top state income tax rate to 13.3 percent, the highest in the nation. Conservative economists predicted calamity, or at least a big slowdown in growth. Also that year, the governor of Kansas signed a series of changes to the state's tax code, including reducing income and sales tax rates. Conservative economists predicted a boom.
Neither of those predictions came true. Not right away -- California grew just fine in the year the tax hikes took effect -- and especially not in the medium term, as new economic data showed this week.
Now, correlation does not, as they say, equal causation, and two examples are but a small sample. But the divergent experiences of California and Kansas run counter to a popular view, particularly among conservative economists, that tax cuts tend to supercharge growth and tax increases chill it.
California's economy grew by 4.1 percent in 2015, according to new numbersfrom the Bureau of Economic Analysis, tying it with Oregon for the fastest state growth of the year. That was up from 3.1 percent growth for the Golden State in 2014, which was near the top of the national pack.
The Kansas economy, on the other hand, grew 0.2 percent in 2015. That's down from 1.2 percent in 2014, and below neighboring states such as Nebraska (2.1 percent) and Missouri (1.2 percent). Kansas ended the year with two consecutive quarters of negative growth -- a shrinking economy. By a common definition of the term, the state entered 2016 in recession....

The verdict is in on "Trickle Down Economics." It doesn't work. 

Nice event and the family was great, but, the policies ?????? not so much.

Good night

We need to push alternative energy sources at a quicker pace.

The energy of the USA comes from many sources, but, the distribution of those sources are changing. We need to change at a faster rate.

When viewing this net generation chart of trends, the demand is consistent, but, from 2000 to 2016, carbon based fuels are reducing with the exception of natural gas while the alternative energy generation is increasing.

Ted Cruz does not want Donald Trump to win the presidency. It has nothing to do with any reason except because it could mean tying up the office for eight years. Eight years of Donald Trump will eliminate the Republican establishment and the Ted Cruz brand.

Debriefing.

To record carnage only leads to a single path, where the attack could have been better and what the country/city does to record the crime. Not only that, how many people are on the scene that can be attacked the day after.

Dae'sh has a couple of hallmarks including doing the unthinkable. How secure was the crime scene while professionals assessed the crime scene?

I thought Bouhlel was not connected to Dae'sh. If that is the case then what is going on in Nice?

July 21, 2016

Tunisian truck killer Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel (click here) was helped to prepare his Bastille Day attack by five suspects who are now in custody, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Francois Molins said the four men and a women were "involved in the preparation" of the attack in the French Riviera resort of Nice, which had been planned months in advance.
More than 400 investigators have been poring over evidence since the July 14 attack in which Bouhlel rammed a truck into crowds on the Nice promenade, leaving 84 dead and over 300 injured.
"Investigations have not only confirmed the premeditated nature of the attack, but allowed us to establish that (Bouhlel) had support and accomplices in the preparation and execution of his criminal act," he said.
In one chilling turn of events, Molins said that one of the suspects, a Tunisian named Mohamed Oualid G., had filmed the scene of the crime the day after the carnage, as it crawled with paramedics and journalists.

Amazing. This is the second time Harold Hamm is bieing guaranteed a cabinet position.

Mitt Romney used Harold Hamm as an advisor with a promise to bring him on as Energy Secretary.

It was after Hamm went into politics that his wife divorced him and took her part of the oil empire with her.

July 21, 2016
By Michelle Conlin 

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (click here) is considering nominating Oklahoma oil and gas mogul Harold Hamm as energy secretary if elected to the White House on Nov. 8, according to four sources close to Trump's campaign.

The chief executive of Continental Resources (CLR.N) would be the first U.S. energy secretary drawn directly from the oil and gas industry since the cabinet position was created in 1977, a move that would jolt environmental advocates but bolster Trump's pro-drilling energy platform.

Dan Eberhart, an oil investor and Republican financier, said he had been told by officials in Trump's campaign that Hamm, who has been an informal advisor to Trump on energy policy since at least May, was "the leading contender" for the position...

Pence said, "...the police are being tested..."

What does that mean?

What kind of test are the police going under according to Pence?

I haven't noticed any testing, right?

It is spiritual testing. It is sovereign testing. It is testing that can be engineered by any Republican focus. Are we headed for another Kent State? I thought that already passed.

I do not approve the "Good cop, bad cop" introduction, but, it is out there.

Twitter is taking on socially acceptable dialogue (click here).

July 20, 2016
By Yoree Koh

Twitter Inc. (click here) has taken the bold step of permanently banning conservative blogger Milo Yiannopoulos under its abusive-content policy, fueling a fierce debate about freedom of speech in the social-media age.

The company’s suspension of Mr. Yiannopoulos, tech editor of conservative site Breitbart, came after he sparred with actress Leslie Jones on Twitter this week while users deluged her account with racist comments and hateful memes related to her new movie, “Ghostbusters."

Among his tweets about Ms. Jones, Mr. Yiannopoulos, who on Monday wrote a negative review of “Ghostbusters,” tweeted that the actress was “barely literate.”...

Twitter has a social responsibility. If they are linked to attacks of any kind that physically causes injury or death; its executives can be arrested and prosecutioned at The Hague. 

In this video, the police are out of control. There was absolutely no danger to police officers. The two human beings surrendering to police were as unarmed as it comes. What were they thinking? Suicide bombers? That could have been cleared up easily with a call to the assisted living facility. Police sometimes solicit family in potential suicides and/or stand offs with people with guns or otherwise, there was no reason for the THREE gun shots. One of the three bullets landed in an unarmed and innocent caregiver, where did the other two go?

This is not a TEST! It is gross malpractice of police that engaged unarmed people. The police should have been assisting both men after a quick call to the assisted living facility.

If there was a spiritual test it belonged to the two men in the road under police oppression.

There is more than one reason the USA is on China and Russia's radar.

Here is the bottom line.

"The Friendship Agreement" between Russia and China was struck July 2001. It was before September 11, 2001 of which Russia was the first country in Afghanistan to support our troops with a medical unit.

July 16, 2001
By Patrick E. Tyler

Russia and China signed a treaty of ''friendship and cooperation'' today, (click here) binding the two giants closer in the next 20 years and also committing them to oppose jointly much of the framework for international security that the United States is seeking to erect after the cold war.

Composed of 25 articles, the treaty joins Russia and China formally in opposing the United States' missile plans and places Russia more firmly behind China's claim of sovereignty over the island of Taiwan. It also strengthens military cooperation between Beijing and Moscow while rejecting the intervention that NATO undertook in 1999 in the Balkans to stop the killing of civilians.

The accord, sought by China, was concluded in a Kremlin ceremony with effusive gestures of camaraderie. The treaty bears the markings of a strategic pact that sets forth the deep concerns shared by Moscow and Beijing about a new world order dominated by the United States and its European allies. The agreement will quite likely be the center of discussion this week when President Bush and the leaders of the large industrial countries sit down with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at a summit meeting in Italy.

One Russian commentator here described the treaty as ''an act of friendship against America.''...

A Bush had been elected with Cheney as Vice President and the USA overnight became a threat.

The Friendship Agreement probably existed before July of 2001 in some dark room in the Kremlin where documents are kept for emergency circumstances, but, it was signed after the USA elected the most aggressively stupid duo in it's history. It was an emergency for the powers in Asia.

Today, with war mongering heard in every corner of the Republican convention the tensions are being ramped up in Asia for a confrontation to end all confrontations. China and Russia are tired of the American landscape and are prepared to do the unthinkable. The lack of Chinese presence at The Hague is an obvious message no one can ignore.

Russia and China want peace, but, on their terms only. The word is expansionism. So, the major powers are backed into a powder keg and I believe this is the end of hatred between the five nuclear countries. That is UNLESS the next USA administration throws away eight years of a peace initiative that is finally seeing the entire global community unite against 'an idea'; the common enemy. No other force could bring about a world determined to end a regime that is globally genocidal.

President Obama has brought together the greatest coalition of countries to settle on peace to end hatred between ethnicities. Ending systemic problems with rebels will end war and bring about an understanding of cultural differences enforced by a global resolve for peace.

President Obama also harnessed willingness within this global alliance to end the climate crisis and protect citizen's lives. 

That said, China and Russia are locked into viewing their sovereignty through a common enemy's ability to wage war, the USA. With the USA and NATO strong allies, there enters the idea peace is war in a different form. Peace is war against the old paradigm of global security. Peace is a war that is worthy of it's purpose and should be successful at every front. Europe is more than an ally, it is the linchpin that can reassure peace and how that will result in borders with Russia. If Russia can step away from the war of expansionism, it can bring about peace for it's people and a return to a far better Russian economy. 

Russia is in isolationism to maintain it's sovereignty. Economics is the new war and it needs to end with better quality of life for all people. 

Who needs Russia when you've got Trump. He cannot be serious about pursuing a 'pay your own bill strategy."

The NATO alliance is vital to American national security. There is no way entertaining dissolving NATO can serve the USA.

I find the statements by Donald Trump curious, because, I don't believe there is any constituency that would vote for the idea of dissolving NATO. I don't get it.

If money is the focus for alliance with a country there was some of that nonsense within "infortainment' media. That was within the past political year. But, that was more or less experimenting with the potential of picking up voters that were not yet known to the Republican Party. There simply isn't any American that sees NATO without the USA a good idea.

I don't believe there is momentum from Brexit that will dissolve NATO. NATO is very different than the EU.

A USA 'pay as you go strategy' as foreign policy is counter to readiness. There is nothing wrong with a discussion with NATO about sharing costs, but, that is an ongoing discussion that is fluid depending on the impact of any recession in Europe. NATO helps stabilize the economy in Europe, of that I am very sure.

NATO is a peace initiative. I realize the Ukraine opened up confrontation with Russia, but, that threat was eliminated with Minske II.

Approaching its one-year anniversary date,9click here) the February 2015 Minsk II settlement agreement to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass is not faring well. All of its provisions were to have been implemented by Dec. 31, 2015. Few were. Still, Minsk II remains the only settlement arrangement on offer, and it continues to command at least rhetorical support in Kiev and Moscow. For the foreseeable future, however, it appears that Donbass is destined to occupy a place on the list of frozen (or not-so-frozen) conflicts that dot the post-Soviet space....

Russia has become isolated. President Putin has lead self-containment as a national security strategy and he is correct. Russia has been moving into a nationalism since 2012 or so. Building nationalism began when the Olympics became a priority in Russia. That nationalism movement is mostly responsible for the current difficulties by Russia with the Olympic Committee about Rio 2016.

July 21, 2016

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) (click here) and 68 Russian athletes attempted to overturn the suspension, implemented by the body that governs world athletics.
But the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) has ruled it can stand.
A handful of Russian athletes could still compete as neutrals at the Rio Games, which start on 5 August.
"It's sad but rules are rules," said Olympic 100m and 200m champion Usain Bolt, who is targeting more gold medals in Rio.
He said it was important to send a strong message to the dopers.
"Doping violations in track and field is getting really bad," said the Jamaican, 29. "If you cheat or go or against the rules, this will scare a lot of people."
However, Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva - one of the 68 to appeal to Cas - said the ruling was "a blatant political order"....

But, Russia is isolated because of the financial sanctions placed after there was a violation of the Ukraine agreement that removed nuclear weapons from the Post-Soviet country. President Putin was correct in assessing that Russia needs self-containment in order to survive. There is also the implementation of the Russia Economic Alliance.

Part of what is playing out in the Pacific is a debate between Russia and China, their friendship agreement and the potential of the West as a threat. One has to realize the 'powder keg' that exists with the USA, Russia and China. Really silly stuff is going on such as China relying on it's muscle rather than it's diplomacy and legal prowess at The Hague regarding it's borders. To think for one minute at this delegate time in history NATO has to 'pay as they go' is not even close to 'doable' policy for the USA. 

I agree that sincere peace does not require huge stationing of weapons or alliances, but, we aren't there yet. I think we can be getting close to a point whereby Russia and China realizes there is no war to be fought for sovereign borders, but, more a healing of 'old ghosts' of international tensions.

July 27. 2016
By Cassandra Vinograd

London — Donald Trump set off alarm bells in European (click here) capitals Thursday after suggesting he might not honor the core tenet of the NATO military alliance.

Trump said the U.S. would not necessarily defend new NATO members in the Baltics in the event of Russian attack if he were elected to the White House.

He told The New York Times in an interview published Thursday that doing so would depend on whether those countries had "fulfilled their obligations to us" in terms of their financial contributions to the alliance.

"You can't forget the bills," Trump told the paper. "They have an obligation to make payments. Many NATO nations are not making payments, are not making what they're supposed to make. That's a big thing. You can't say forget that."

The comments were perceived by some analysts as carte blanche for Russia to intimidate NATO allies and a potential harbinger of the alliance's collapse were Trump to be elected....

On Facebook (click here) 

Ted's ego is his problem. He can't bring himself to support anyone but himself.

Every Republican's hubris is about Martin Luther King, Jr. Pence never once honored him.

If one's life honors Martin Luther King, Jr., then it honors Lyndon B. Johnson who signed the Voting Rights Act of 1964. 

Pence never lived up to his heroes ideals and standards.

July 18, 2016
By Brayton

That might be the understatement of the century.(click here) MLK was a fierce advocate for labor unions; Pence is in favor of right-to-work (for less money). And Trump said early in the campaign that wages in America are too high.

MLK fought for voting rights. Pence wants to undermine them with shorter hours at polling places and photo ID laws that disenfranchise poor and minority voters.

MLK was in favor of government-provided full employment and a guaranteed annual income for every American. Pence wants to repeal even the minimum wage and has voted repeatedly in favor of cuts to food stamps, Medicaid and other social programs.

MLK was anti-war. Pence was all for the Iraq War.

MLK is spinning in his grave right now.

It doesn't get worse than Pence. This was his radio program.

Pence had to do penance before running in the same race with a man with three marriages.

For Mike Pence, be careful how you hold hands with.

July 18, 2016
By Josh Isreal

..."Before his career as an elected official, (click here) Gov. Mike Pence (R-IN) hosted both a radio and television show in the 1990s, with the name, “The Mike Pence Show.” While his commentaries from that time in defense of cigarettes and in opposition to the feminist message in Disney’s Mulan have made news, one less noticed piece suggested that adultery should be a crime in the United States. It appeared on the website for his television show on WNDY, retrieved through the Internet Archive WayBack Machine."...

Trump left the arena before Pence spoke. Is that a deal with Pence, to not taint the air while Pence is there?

e of cigarettes and in opposition to the feminist message in Disney’s Mulan have made news, one less noticed piece suggested that adultery should be a crime in the United States. It appeared on the website for his television show on WNDY, retrieved through the Internet Archive WayBack Machine."

Scott Walker takes the food out of the mouths of the working poor.

Scott Walker is not a moral man. He is ruthless and demoralizes the moral content of Wisconsin's laws. The minimum wage in Wisconsin is $7.26 per hour.

December 3, 2015

Last year, 100 low-wage workers in Wisconsin (click here) decided to sue their governor, Scott Walker (R), over their pay. The state had a century-old statute on the books saying that the minimum wage “shall be not less than a living wage,” enough “to permit an employee to maintain herself or himself in minimum comfort, decency, physical and moral well-being.” The workers said they weren’t making enough to meet that standard,demanding the governor take the required action to increase it.

But this week they were handed a final defeat: A judge dismissed their lawsuit. That’s not because Walker’s administration was found to be in compliance with the statute. It’s because rather than increase the state’s minimum wage, the administration simply erased the law.

“The lawsuit has just been dismissed because there’s now no law to rule on,” explained Lisa Lucas, communications director for Wisconsin Jobs Now, one of the groups that helped bring the original suit. “So it wasn’t surprising. But it was disappointing.”

An 11-hour addition to the state budget passed and signed in July eliminated the living wage statute, instead replacing all references to a living wage with the words “minimum wage.” “The budget itself was a really sneaky, underhanded way to do it,” Lucas said. “They stuck the repeal in an omnibus motion.” And it also flew under the radar thanks to bigger controversies over other such additions, such as the failed attempts to gut the state’s government transparency laws....

                        

With China rejecting the ruling by the Hague to benefit the Philippines, Vice President Biden has been visiting the southern hemisphere.

20 July 2016
By Ben Doherty

America will “ensure the sea lanes are secure, (click here) and the skies remain open” in the Pacific, the US vice-president, Joe Biden, has vowed in a pointed riposte to Chinese territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.

In a wide-ranging foreign policy speech in Sydney on Wednesday, Biden paid tribute to the US-Australian alliance, describing it as “a partnership that reminds us what is best in ourselves”.

But his most pointed remarks were clearly directed towards China, which has been building and weaponising artificial islands in the South China Sea in an effort to exclusively claim the surrounding maritime territory as its own.

China claims its control of the waters – inside the so-called nine-dash line – dates back to ancient times, marked in historic 600-year-old mariners’ books. But last week in The Hague the permanent court of arbitration ruled there was no legal basis for China’s historic claim, a decision China has furiously rejected....

The Pacific has border issues and tensions that go back in time to the dark ages.

7 July 2016
By Oliver Holmes and Tom Phillips

...The lead up 7(click here) to the ruling was fraught. China’s foreign minister called the US secretary of state, John Kerry, by telephone last week and warned against moves that infringe on China’s sovereignty. And Beijing conducted military drills,deploying at least two guided missile destroyers and a missile frigate.

Bonnie Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) thinktank in Washington, said a ruling that questioned or rejected China’s “nine-dash line” would not invalidate all of Beijing’s claims to land or maritime zones in the South China Sea. “[But] it would really limit the amount of water that the Chinese could have any legal sovereignty claim to....

This isn't about sovereignty. No one is threatening China's sovereignty. This is about ancient arguments that should have died with it's ancestors. This is as bad as watching a Republican 17 person debate for the presidency. This is picking a fight that should not exist in the first place.

China shot itself in the foot and now is complaining with BIG GUNS rather than lawyers. China's posture is brinkmanship. Then the West wonders why North Korea is such a disaster rather than a country moving toward an economy that supports its people.

A popularity campaign by China doesn't reach The Hague by osmosis. This is pure arrogance by China.

17 July 2016

By Julian Ku

China asserts sovereignty over maritime areas that are also claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Japan.

...But taking a step back (click here) after reviewing the award, perhaps I should not have been surprised. China’s legal arguments for maritime rights in the South China Sea were always weak since the Chinese mainland is much farther away than any of its neighbors. China exacerbated these weaknesses by refusing to participate in the tribunal in any way, and then launching a global public relations campaign that dramatically heightened the award’s significance in the eyes of the global media....

He was imprisoned by Belarus in 1997 for reporting on abuses of the government. He had been widely awarded for his work.

20 July 2016

A prominent journalist (click here) working for a Ukrainian online investigative newspaper has been killed by a car bomb in central Kiev.

Pavel Sheremet, who wrote for Ukrayinska Pravda, was driving to work in the car of the newspaper’s owner on Wednesday morning when it was blown up, an adviser to the interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, said.

Two witnesses said they had heard a loud blast and saw an explosion from underneath the car, which lay charred in the middle of the street....

US Embassy Statement  (click here)

We are shocked and saddened at the news of the death of prominent journalist Pavel Sheremet,who was killed in an unprecedented car explosion in Kyiv this morning. 

Pavel led a life of purpose and integrity in multiple countries. We respect him as a fearless practitioner and supporter of freedom of speech, the Revolution of Dignity, and a brighter future for Ukraine.

We welcome the  statements by the police and prosecutor general that the circumstances surrounding his murder will be fully investigated and any perpetrators brought to justice.  We extend our sympathies to his partner Olena Prytula, his family, his colleagues at Ukrainska Pravda, and his many friends and defenders of freedom of media and speech in Ukraine.

The article below explains the detention of Pavel Sheremet, but, the filming was to prove the ease in which smugglers crossed the border between Lithuania and Belarus. 

In the film Pavel Sheremet walked from one side of the border to the other without anyone stopping him. He was charged with illegal border crossing and conspiracy.

JOURNALISTS DETAINED BY BELARUSIAN BORDER GUARD (click here)

Belarusian border guards on 22 July detained a Belarusian camera team working for Russia's ORT television network. The journalists were detained on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, Interfax reported. The crew included ORT's Minsk bureau chief Pavel Sheremet, a cameraman, and a driver. They were detained while shooting footage on the activities of Belarus border guards. A spokesperson for the Belarusian State Border Committee said Sheremet had applied for permission to shoot footage on the border and was given approval for this fall. He had decided, however, to film now without permission. A report has been filed stating that the journalists violated laws on protecting the border area. The men have since been released and have returned to Minsk. Sheremet was recently stripped of his accreditation for Belarus. 

Every right wing assault will return. No matter the court's decisions, Pence knows nothing by radical (not extremist) positions.

Pence is the last breath of the old guard. 

19 July 2016
By Molly Redden

...Donald Trump had fashioned (click here) the most anti-abortion White House ticket in recent memory.

...most notorious instance had nothing to do with abortion. In 201 Pence signed an anti-LGBT bill opponents said would allow wide-scale discrimination, kicking off a furious and costly boycott of the state by much of corporate America.

 ...Pence has signed every abortion bill to cross his desk since he was elected in 2013, including an unprecedented measure to ban abortion in cases of genetic abnormality. And before he was one of the country’s most controversial governors, Pence was a solitary congressional crusader whose one-man assaults on Planned Parenthood provided a blueprint for the entire party’s line of attack.

“He’s been at the forefront of these attacks on Planned Parenthood and on access to basic reproductive healthcare for years and years,” said Erica Sackin, director of political communications for Planned Parenthood....

A conservative movement within the Republican party accepts climate change is not about "believing."

This is a recent downburst in Arizona that destroyed a home and knocked out power for tens of thousands.

20 July 2016

By Oliver Milman

Conservative and free-market groups (click here) have staged a rearguard effort to get the Republican party to accept the dangers of climate change, criticizing climate denialism within the GOP and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

Climate change, and other environmental concerns, are unlikely to receive much, if any, attention during the Republican convention in Cleveland this week. This is despite a slew of temperature records being broken – June was the 14th consecutive month of record heat around the world – and extreme examples of Arctic ice decline and drought and wildfires in the US west.

But the Republican gathering has been targeted by conservative voices calling for climate science to be accepted and for national parks to be preserved, rather than opened up for drilling and other development.

A group called the Partnership for Responsible Growth has launched a TV advertisement campaign aimed squarely at conservatives, reminding them of previous Republican acceptance of climate science. The ad, which will run on Fox News throughout the GOP convention in Cleveland this week, shows clips of presidents George W Bush and George HW Bush, as well as former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, outlining the dangers of climate change....

It is obvious this conservative approach to the climate crisis has no real influence with the Republican party.

...The official Republican platform explicitly rejects the idea of a “carbon tax” and commits the party to withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accord, which was signed by 195 nations in December. The platform also opposes the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions and rejects the idea that species including gray wolves and sage grouse should be protected under the Endangered Species Act....

...and a norovirus, too.

July 20, 2016

A terrifying word (click here) circulated today at the Republican National Convention: norovirus.

A dozen staffers in the California delegation who had arrived in Cleveland early have fallen ill with the extremely contagious virus, California GOP chairman Jim Brulte said.

The virus causes extreme vomiting and diarrhea and has been known to spread explosively through people in closed places, such as cruise ships, schools and nursing homes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Brulte said that, so far, no delegates or alternates have shown symptoms. He said his delegation will continuing to attend the convention at Quicken Loans Arena, where the Californians sit next to the Maryland delegation.

The delegates from California are staying at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio, nearly 95 km (59 miles) away from Cleveland. Brulte said the delegates and their guests were spending the day at the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky or at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio - or just relaxing at the Kalahari Resort....

Good-bye, Roger Ailes.

It is time for the women of FOX to write an all tell book. Seriously. They need to liberate them from the 'sexy standard.' 

July 19, 2016
By John Kobllin and Jim Rutenberg

...Mr. Ailes’s exit (click here) would be a humbling and startlingly sudden fall from power for a man who started Fox News from scratch 20 years ago and built it into a top-rated cable news network and a critical profit center for 21st Century Fox. Along the way, Mr. Ailes, a former Republican operative, established Fox News as the leading media platform for conservative politics. He also minted prime-time stars like Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren.

Mr. Ailes, 76, has also long been at the center of Republican politics, and the timing of the discussions between Mr. Ailes and 21st Century Fox was remarkable, occurring on the second day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

News of Mr. Ailes’s impending exit landed like a shock wave in Cleveland, where many of the nation’s leading television executives and personalities were gathered in tight quarters. Several Fox anchors who were approached on Tuesday afternoon declined to comment on Mr. Ailes’s fate, many having followed developments from the chaotic convention scene....          

It is stated there are significant numbers of civilians dead. I don't know if it could be done differently.

Syria is a complete loss. There is very little to salvage from the four year war. It will need international help when Dae'sh is finally gone.

July 19, 2016

Amude – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) (click here) have captured an ISIS headquarters in Western Manbij, that has been for long used by the radical group as a command centre and logistics hub, the US-led coalition said on Tuesday.

Human shields. The civilians' dead are more caused by Daesh. When it comes to ending war the last battles are the most difficult. The SDF need to answer the people as well as any international human rights group.

“The Da’esh headquarters, located in a hospital, was being used as a command center and logistics hub. The SAC [SDF] also seized a significant amount of the city during the operation, which provided civilians the opportunity to escape,” the coalition said.

According to the coalition, the SDF forces continue to fight ISIS on four fronts within the city of Manbij, “carefully clearing territory toward the city center while ensuring the safety of any civilians who still remain,” the coalition said....

So, is Daesh dead? Maybe. There is a report of a helicopter shot down in Libya with two French soldiers dead. As the land available to Dae'sh in Syria is very limited now. There are still battles on going in the country and in Iraq, but, the war is being won there. The worst of Dae'sh ran from Iraq and Syria into Libya. The refugees coming into the Greek islands are telling horrific stories at the hand of Dae'sh. 

July 19, 2016

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (click here) says Islamic State fighters in Libya are facing the "distinct possibility" of defeat in their last stronghold and are likely to scatter elsewhere in the North African country and the region.

The UN chief said in a new report to the UN Security Council that member states estimate there are between 2,000 and 7,000 IS fighters from Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Morocco and Mauritania.

Ban says one member state recently reported between 3,000 and 4,000 IS fighters in Sirte, the extremist group's last bastion along Libya's northern coast....