Richard Burr is not a proponent to end the sexual assault against women.

A brave women came forward in the US Senate to take a position to protect military personnel against sexual assault. That brave Senator was Kristen Gillibrand. She worked hard to hold hearings and take testimony from personnel in the military. There is a problem with sexual assault that has permanent scares on the lives of those assaulted. 

Over the last three years, (click here) there has been a stream of national headlines and new investigative reports exposing the military’s failure to combat sexual assault in the ranks and/or provide a military justice system that holds assailants accountable in order to maintain good order and discipline. Despite incremental reforms passed in the last two National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAA), and a sharp focus on the issue of military sexual assault in Congress, the most recent Pentagon survey found that 62 percent of women who reported being sexually assaulted experienced retaliation. The amount of retaliation remains unchanged from 2012, while the estimated number of unwanted sexual contacts remains at 2010 levels – an average of 52 new cases every day....

The name of the legislation was "The Military Justice Improvement Act." Richard Burr voted against protecting military personnel from sexual assault.

The cold-hearted Richard Burrrrr.... is no friend to our military personnel. To distract from this reality he sponsored a bill that would label sexual predators in the military, once convicted under the Military Code of Justice, to be listed with NSOR (National Sex Offender Registry). A sexual predator is not the same as rampant sexual assault in our military. 

IntroductionMilitary justice attorneys (click here) regularly face the question of whether an accused charged with a sexual crime under the UCMJ will have to register as a sex offender under federal or state law if convicted at court-martial. These questions are complicated by the various sexual offense distinctions under the new UCMJ Article 120, the lack of detail in the DOD reporting instructions, and the various state laws and interpretations by agencies implementing their respective state statutes. Neither the federal criminal justice system, nor the military justice system, govern the registration of sex offenders. The individual states decide and monitor sex offender registration requirements. Separate sections in this guide introduce the reader to the Federal, Military, and State laws applicable to sexual offender registration. An overview of the Federal and DOD authority precedes a summary of each individual state’s statutory requirements, including citations to the statutes, covered offenses, registration rules, and duration of the registration requirements. This guide is designed as a resource for military law practitioners researching these questions in order to advise their respective clients, colleagues, victims, and convening authorities. It is not offered as legal advice or a final answer to registration questions and it should not be relied upon for those purposes. The statutes themselves, interpreted by a qualified attorney, should be the only resource for individual cases....

This is from 2010. It needed updating. The question is "How effective is the new provision in the military courts?"

It has nothing to do with sexual assault of our military personnel. They aren't all women.

US oil and gas production is down, why are we exporting?

October 17, 2016

...Permian output from West Texas (click here) and eastern New Mexico was set to rise by 30,000 bpd to a record high over 2 million bpd, its third monthly increase in a row, according to EIA data going back to 2007.

Total natural gas production, meanwhile, was forecast to decline for a seventh consecutive month in November to 46.0 billion cubic feet per day (fyi definiton bcfd), the lowest level since July 2015, the EIA said.

That would be down almost 0.2 bcfd from October, making it the smallest monthly decline since July, it noted.

The biggest regional decline was expected to be in the Eagle Ford, down almost 0.2 bcfd from October to 5.6 bcfd in November, the lowest level of output in the basin since November 2013, the EIA said.

Output in the Marcellus formation, the biggest U.S. shale gas field, meanwhile, was expected to rise by almost 0.1 bcfd from October to 18.2 bcfd in November. That would be its first increase since July....

The bankruptcies have some effect on this reduction. I don't mind at all there is a drop in production. The energy market is moving away from fossil fuels as it should. Where the US energy market is not moving away from fossil fuels, it needs to. Alternative energy is the future and we need to invest now.

March 9, 2016

The pace of oil patch bankruptcies is picking up. (click here) According to a new count from Houston law firm Haynes & Boone, April saw 11 bankruptcy filings, the most of any month in the past two years. The headline failures that month were Ultra Petroleum UPL +%, which buckled under $3.9 billion in debt, and Energy XXI, which carried debt of $2.9 billion.

All told, 69 oil and gas producers with $34.3 billion in cumulative secured and unsecured debt have gone under. Since share prices peaked in 2014, the oil bust has wiped out about $1 trillion in equity, with the Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas Index off 40%.

There’s more to come. “Despite the modest recovery in energy prices, all indications suggest many more producer bankruptcy filings will occur during 2016,” writes Haynes & Boone. According to Deloitte , about a third of global oil and gas companies, or about 175 of them, are at risk of insolvency. Bernstein Research estimates that by 2019 we’ll see more than $70 billion in defaults amid more than $400 billion in high-yield energy debt — that would indicate that we’re only halfway through the bankruptcies....

Regulators need to take a good look at this activity in the bond market.

It is not at all surprising bonds would be doing better in a financial market scared of it's own shadow when anticipating a recession, but, this is surprising. I hope all this is correct and not manipulated, but, there is reason to at least run an analysis on it.

October 18, 2016
By Dakin Campbell

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., (click here) the Wall Street firm most reliant on trading, reported a 47 percent increase in third-quarter profit as its performance in bond trading beat analysts’ estimates.

Net income rose to $2.09 billion, or $4.88 a share, from $1.43 billion, or $2.90, a year earlier, the New York-based company said in a statement Tuesday. That surpassed the $3.88 average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein has cut jobs, given responsibility to more junior employees and lowered compensation to prepare the firm for when activity rebounded. This quarter shows the benefit of the strategy, which attracted some skepticism among analysts as competitors such as Morgan Stanley decided to retreat instead.

“We saw solid performance across the franchise that helped counter typical seasonal weakness,” Blankfein, 62, said in the statement.

Goldman Sachs’s stock rose 1.6 percent to $171.75 in early trading at 8:15 a.m. in New York. The stock had dropped 6.2 percent this year through Monday, trailing the 3.8 percent advance for the Dow Jones Industrial Average....

Gossip within th State Department and nothing more.

October 8, 2016
By Tal Kopan

...The FBI is denying (click here) that any "quid pro quo" was offered in the fight between the bureau and State Department over the classification level of the email, though one interview described it as such.

"Not only is there no proof. It's absolutely not true, a completely false allegation. It just didn't happen that way," John Kirby, State Department spokesman told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day" Tuesday. "There was no bargain sought by the FBI. There was no bargain rendered. This was simply an inner agency conversation about the classification over one particular email. So there was no wrongdoing here."

At issue are somewhat contradictory interview notes contained in the crop of newly released FBI documents. In one, an FBI official recounted hearing second-hand that the State Department had offered a "quid pro quo" in exchange for declassifying an email. In another, a different FBI official said he told State Department he'd look into the email, if State Department looked into his request for personnel in Iraq....

Who was that person working for the Solicitor General of the State Department? At one point it was known there was politics infused into the State Department by an employee of the Solicitor General of the State Department? That is who is gossiping with a purpose.

RIGGED !

October 27, 1964
By Ronald Reagan:

...You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There's only an up or down...

Indeed.

...Reagan was applauded for continuing to eliminate the Nixon-era price controls. These were blamed for constraining the free-market equilibrium that would have prevented inflation. Reagan further removed controls on oil and gas, cable television and long-distance phone service, as well as interstate bus service and ocean shipping.

Bank regulations were eased. In 1982, the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act was passed, which removed restrictions on loan-to-value ratios for Savings and Loan banks. Reagan's budget cut also reduced regulatory staff at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. As a result, banks invested in risky real estate ventures (sound familiar?). Reagan's deregulation and budget cutting contributed to the Savings and Loan Crisis of 1989.

Import barriers were actually increased, as Reagan doubled the number of items that were subject to trade restraint from 12% in 1980 to 23% in 1988. Little was done in other regulations affecting health, safety, and the environment. In fact, although Reagan reduced regulations, it was at a slower pace than under Carter. (Source: William A. Niskanen, Reaganomics, The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics)....

1982 Ronald Reagan deregulated the Savings and Loan Industry.

...The Reckoning (click here)

     As a result of these regulatory and legislative changes, the S&L industry experienced rapid growth. From 1982 to 1985, thrift industry assets grew 56 percent, more than twice the 24 percent rate observed at banks. This growth was fueled by an influx of deposits as zombie thrifts began paying higher and higher rates to attract funds. These zombies were engaging in a “go for broke” strategy of investing in riskier and riskier projects, hoping they would pay off in higher returns. If these returns didn’t materialize, then it was taxpayers who would ultimately foot the bill, since the zombies were already insolvent and the FSLIC’s resources were insufficient to cover losses.

     Texas was the epicenter of the thrift industry meltdown. In 1988, the peak year for FSLIC-insured institutions’ failures, more than 40 percent of thrift failures (including assisted transactions) nationwide had occurred in Texas, although they soon spread to other parts of the nation. Emblematic of the excesses that took place, in 1987 the FSLIC decided it was cheaper to actually burn some unfinished condos that a bankrupt Texas S&L had financed rather than try to sell them (see Image 2)....

You want me to get into details? Corruption? OBVIOUS plans for sequestering wealth from the people of the USA? I'd be happy to if no one else wants to set the record straight about "Reaganomics."

Rigged?

Donald Trump has issues that are no one else's but his own. The Democrats bent over backward to be sure the nomination of Hillary Clinton was achieved without the super delegates. Senator Bernie Sanders has campaigned for her. I doubt Donald Trump can say the same.

I don't want to hear the 'Little Goody - Two Shoes," flag waving, holier than thou, virginal USA election process. The corruption in the election is built in by Republican majorities. It is a lot of work to defeat the corruption of the Republican election machine.

Donald Trump makes his own problems and hiding behind the idea an interviewer was responsible for his disgusting remarks about sexual assault of women by privilege alone shows he is not willing to accept RESPONSIBILITY for his own behavior or actions.

I will say this, this is THE Tea Party. When Hillary Clinton made a speech to the white man coalition outside the Democratic Party Platform and campaigns, she didn't realize they admire Donald Trump for 'getting away with it."

I said before, this election is steeped in sexism. Donald Trump can get away with everything and Hillary Clinton has to be pure and perfect. America needs to wake up and reject the values that compromise women and girls.

For God Sake, white men in their fifties are dying before their time. HELLO? The political values of the Republican party and electorate are disgusting. Smoking, drinking, eating red meats that carry toxins. The FDA provided incentives to stop the behavior that destroys the lives of Americans a long time ago, including American White Men. Making these very adverse facts into a political party to win and change the very decency of this country is completely wrong. Donald Trump knows it is wrong and does nothing to increase the self-respect of these men that follow him without question.

Honestly.

Try this on for size. The bad health habits of the white man in the USA is directly subsidy to Wall Street. White men in their determination to create a political power machine while sacrificing their lives is very far away from the decency of the USA.

I am traveling with my son on this Sunday night.

I've left incredible pictures of American birds. The American people value their lives and they add strong cultural values to our country and a heritage to pass to our children.

An additional note is the east coast flooding after Hurricane Matthew. The river are still rising because of the flow of flood waters down stream. Dead people are still being found as the water recedes.

Bermuda was hit by Hurricane Nicole on it's way northern Atlantic Ocean. (click here) Nicole's water vapor system is the length of the entire east coast of North America.

Thank you for your interest.

Until later.

A very particular bird, (click here) white-faced ibises change their nesting place from year to year based on local water levels. Throughout the west, white-faced ibises wander up the western states, taking advantage of temporary foraging grounds like flooded pastures and fresh marshes. Feeding on insects and worms, they pick through water and wet soil with their long, curved beaks. Their glossy coloration -- feathers of purple, crimson, teal and gold -- help them blend into dark waters. Despite their regal appearance, their rough calls are strange, grunting croaks. Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in Wyoming is a good place to observe them in the summer.

The horned owl is a haunting bird. Their feather colors perfectly blend with it's habitat. It has vision that affords it an intense visual picture.

...An owl's eyes (click here) are large in order to improve their efficiency, especially under low light conditions. In fact, the eyes are so well developed, that they are not eye balls as such, but elongated tubes. They are held in place by bony structures in the skull called Sclerotic rings. For this reason, an owl cannot "roll" or move its eyes - that is, it can only look straight ahead!
The owl more than makes up for this by being able to turn its head up to 270 degrees left or right from the forward facing position, and almost upside down....

Widespread across North America, you never know when an owl might be watching you. Difficult to spot during the day, great horned owls blend into their environment, given away only by their bright yellow eyes and deep hooting calls. Like most owls, great horned owls hunt at night, using good eyesight and excellent hearing. Once their prey has been located, they will silently swoop down, using their sharp talons to quickly grasp and kill it. Their diet consists of mammals such as mice, voles, weasels, rabbits, squirrels and rats, but they will often take larger prey including skunks and other owls.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan salutes the crowd of supporters in his hometown of Rize, on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016. Erdogan said Saturday that Turkey is moving into Dabiq, Syria, and will declare a "terror-free safe zone" in the region. ((Yasmin Bulul, Presidential Press Service, Pool photo via AP)

October 15, 2016
By Bassen Moure

Beirut (AP) — Syrian opposition fighters (click here) backed by Turkish airstrikes launched an offensive Saturday to try to capture Dabiq from the Islamic State group, which assigns special status to the northern Syrian town in its ideology and propaganda.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack was preceded by intense shelling. It said that Turkey-backed opposition fighters captured three nearby villages, encircling Dabiq and cutting off all supply routes.
Turkey sent troops and tanks into northern Syria in August to help opposition forces recapture IS strongholds and curb the advance of a U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, which Ankara views as an extension of Turkey's outlawed Kurdish separatists.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in Rize on the Black Sea coast, said "we entered Jarablus, and then al-Rai, and now we are moving where? To Dabiq. We will declare a terror-free safe zone of 5,000 (square) kilometers." He was referring to areas in Syria already captured by Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition forces....

Imperfect? Sexism. Women always have to be perfect. Where do eating disorders come from?

October 15, 2016
By Amy Choziick

In the past week, (click here) as a swirl of sexual assault accusations against Donald J. Trump has prompted a loud national discussion about male power and women’s rights, the first woman to be a major party’s presidential nominee was barely heard from.

Though Hillary Clinton has stood at the center of feminist debates for more than two decades, she has at times been an imperfect messenger for the cause. That has never been more apparent than now, as her old missteps and her husband’s history have effectively paralyzed her during a moment of widespread outrage.

The most impassioned speeches on the topic have come not from her, but from the first lady, Michelle Obama, who said Mr. Trump’s words had “shaken me to my core,” and from President Obama and others. When Mrs. Clinton herself spoke, she quickly changed the subject to other groups of people Mr. Trump had insulted, and she tried to lighten the mood with a joke about watching cat videos....

She is imperfect alright.
           

The Flint River Water Project

To sincerely appreciate any aspect of nature one has to savor the culture that named it with pride and promise.

Rivers are full of promise. Lewis and Clark traveled through the USA in discovery, not by mule train, but, by river. 

When Thomas Jefferson (click here) dispatched Lewis and Clark to find a water route across North America and explore the uncharted West, he expected they'd encounter woolly mammoths, erupting volcanoes, and a mountain of pure salt. What they found was no less surprising. See it all on our journey: journal entries, historical photos, drawings, and more....

Rivers are magnificent and powerful. The power we think of today is linked to the climate crisis the the sad scenarios it brings. But, rivers forged this country. The water ways were vital to westward expansion. Climbing mountains didn't speed along what was the great expanse of the USA from 13 original colonies. It was the waterways that proved far safer transport of civilization.

We do not love our rivers enough in the 21st century. 

The Flint River is among some very interesting names that originate from Native American language. Among these magnificent names are simple names as well as Flint and Cass. Interesting, isn't it.

Research is on going.

Thank you. 

The USA Navy did the correct thing before this escalated to a far larger conflict.

Washington — An American warship (click here) stationed off the coast of Yemen fired cruise missiles on Thursday at radar installations that the Pentagon said had been used by Yemeni insurgents to target another American warship in two missile attacks in the last four days.

The strikes against the Houthi rebels marked the first time the United States has become involved militarily in the civil war between the Houthis, an indigenous Shiite group with loose connections to Iran, and the Yememi government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni nations. The strikes were approved by President Obama, said Peter Cook, the Pentagon spokesman, who warned of more to come if American ships were fired upon again.

“These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic.”...

For the USA this is not about Sunnis vs Shia. This is a necessary action to end the assault of USA ships in the region. American naval soldiers are important people.

Iran needs to stop supplying munitions to rebel groups throughout the region. 

Speculation has a legitimate standing with so many women being effected.

Miss America is a scholarship pageant that is held annually and is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 24.

Miss Teen USA is a beauty pageant run by the Miss Universe Organization for girls aged 14–19.

Miss USA contestants must be at least 18 years of age and under 28 years of age by February 1st in the year they hope to compete in the Miss Universe or Miss USA competition.

There is a legitimate concern. I think this all has to be understood. Was it simply a financial transaction? The more that is known about the personal involvement in dressing rooms the more disturbing it becomes. This isn't a joke or females gone wild.

The Clinton campaign needs to prepare for the next debate and the law needs to examine the issues presented by women involved with Mr. Trump and his ownership of beauty pageants. It appears much has been swept under the rug. I don't like the young component to the accusations. I think it needs to be looked at.

September 14, 2016
By Ellen Killoran

Donald Trump has reportedly sold the Miss Universe organization (click here) to WME/IMG. According to Variety, the financial details were not disclosed. WME/IMG had a previous relationship with the organization as producer of the Miss USA, Miss Universe and Miss Teen USA pageants.

“Having worked closely with The Miss Universe Organization in the past, we understand the incredible potential of the events and the star-quality of the participants,” Mark Shapiro, Chief Content Officer for WME | IMG, said in a statement. “The global reach of The Miss Universe Organization and the content opportunities presented by the pageants make this a strong, strategic addition to our portfolio.”

The deal comes just days after Trump announced on Twitter TWTR +0.28% that he had bought out NBC’s 51 percent share of the beauty pageant organization, which the network had co-owned with Trump since 2002. In July, Trump had promised to sue the Comcast CMCSA +0.39%-owned broadcaster after NBCUniversal cut all ties with the controversial GOP presidential hopeful and refused to air the Miss USA pageant, following offensive remarks Trump made about Mexican immigrants during a campaign speech....

This won't go away. There are all probabilities there are more women. The Trump Organization is an international company.

If elected it will follow him into office and it will become a distraction and he will be ineffective. He will ultimately be removed from office. He called his words on the tape as "locker room" talk. 

He is lying. 

He walked through a room where women were changing into bathing suits, so he was guaranteed a good look because it would be different for gowns. His SELF-RIGHTEOUS behavior with women screams out loud.

Now there are women taking the look in their mirror and deciding they have to speak out regardless of the outcome to themselves. There are other women that we won't hear from because the women in such scandals always suffer economically far more than the man involved.

Donald Trump will continue to deny his predatory behavior of women. Why shouldn't he? 

October 12, 2016
By Megan Twohey and Michael Barbaro

Donald J. Trump (click here) was emphatic in the second presidential debate: Yes, he had boasted about kissing women without permission and grabbing their genitals. But he had never actually done those things, he said.

“No,” he declared under questioning on Sunday evening, “I have not.”

At that moment, sitting at home in Manhattan, Jessica Leeds, 74, felt he was lying to her face. “I wanted to punch the screen,” she said in an interview in her apartment.

More than three decades ago, when she was a traveling businesswoman at a paper company, Ms. Leeds said, she sat beside Mr. Trump in the first-class cabin of a flight to New York. They had never met before.

About 45 minutes after takeoff, she recalled, Mr. Trump lifted the armrest and began to touch her....

It certainly takes long enough.

There was a Pakistani man in New Jersey who had a heart attack after being arrested. That was in the first 48 hours after 911. There were probably others, but, I remember hearing that report on the radio. It was just wrong. As an American the violations were palpable. 

October 11, 2016

Washington — The Supreme Court (click here) agreed on Tuesday to decide whether high-ranking George W. Bush administration officials — including John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, and Robert S. Mueller III, the former F.B.I. director — may be held liable for policies adopted after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The case began as a class action in 2002 filed by immigrants, most of them Muslim, over policies and practices that swept hundreds of people into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on immigration violations in the weeks after the attacks. The plaintiffs said they had been subjected to beatings, humiliating searches and other abuses.

The roundups drew criticism from the inspector general of the Justice Department, who in 2003 issued reports saying that the government had made little or no effort to distinguish between genuine suspects and Muslim immigrants with minor visa violations.

A divided three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, let the case proceed last year.

“The suffering endured by those who were imprisoned merely because they were caught up in the hysteria of the days immediately following 9/11 is not without a remedy,” Judges Rosemary S. Pooler and Richard C. Wesley wrote in a joint opinion....

Donald Trump treats women as chattel. I don't care how well he treats his daughters or his spouse, he thinks of women as chattel. That sets the woman's movement back to the age of suffrage.

Naked women were a perk. Amazing. I suppose being sure the women are the real thing is important. No implants, plastic surgeon scars.

October 12, 2016
By Fred Barbash

On an April, 11, 2005, Howard Stern show, (click here) Donald Trump bragged about some of the special perks he enjoyed while owner of the Miss USA pageant. They came not in a locker room but a dressing room.

“I’ll go backstage before a show and everyone’s getting dressed and ready and everything else,” he said. “And you know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore I’m inspecting it.”

Said Stern: “You’re like a doctor.”

Responded Trump: “Is everyone OK? You know they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.”

CBS 2 Los Angeles did a little fact checking and, guess what, this time, no Pinocchios. Tasha Dixon, Miss Arizona of 2001, told the station that Trump just came “waltzing in” while contestants were nude or half-nude as they changed into bikinis....      

August 27, 2016

In late August 2016, (click here) a deep rift widened and an iceberg heaved away from the Porcupine Glacier in northern British Columbia. Glaciologist Mauri Pelto, who has been analyzing satellite imagery of glaciers since the 1980s, called it “the biggest calving event in North America” that he has ever seen....

August 25, 2015

It may not be obvious to everyone, but, the glacier has a pattern of ice movement. This new calving drastically alters the terminus of the glacier.

To most this simply looks like a big piece of ice no longer exists on the glacier, but, it is more than that. It is a change in the "mass balance" of the entire glacier. The ice flows from the higher altitudes will start to descend more quickly and the glacier will become unstable. These changes are not simply lost ice, it is a change in the entire glacier. 

April 15, 2013

Porcupine Glacier (click here) is a 20 km long outlet glacier of an icefield in the Hoodoo Mountains of Northern British Columbia. Bolch et al (2010) noted a reduction of 0.3% per year in glacier area in the Northern Coast Mountains of British Columbia from 1985 to 2005.Scheifer et al (2007) noted an annual thinning rate of 0.8 meters/year from 1985-1999. Here we examine the retreat of Porcupine Glacier and the expansion of the lake it ends in from 1988-2011 using four Landsat images from 1988, 1999, 2010 and 2011. Below is a Google Earth view of the glacier with arrows indicating the flow paths of the Porcupine Glacier. The second images is a map of the region from 1980 indicates a small marginal lake at the terminus....

The glaciers are water resources. It really is a very big deal.

...Glaciers (click here)

The hydrology of much of the southwestern Yukon is tied to glaciers, which influence both streamflow and water quality. Changes to glaciers due to general climate change could have a profound influence on the hydrology of Yukon’s glacier-dominated basins. In 50 years, between 1958 and 2008, the total ice area in Yukon shrank by 22%. Precisely what this kind of change means for Yukon’s freshwater resources remains unclear. As glaciers recede, streamflow will decrease, but the decrease might not happen right away. At first, increased glacial meltwaters will likely contribute greater flows downstream. If some basins lose their glaciers altogether, the result is likely to be a dramatic shift in streamflow patterns. Glacial melt can also lead to short-term, catastrophic effects, such as the formation of unstable glacial lakes and outburst floods....

Given the latest revelation about Donald Trump's sexual prowess, then what is this?

Seriously. Republicans never demand resignations from those with sexually exploitative behavior. With Democrats a candidate or government official is lucky to survive the day, especially in New York. 

So, what this then?

This is not questionable character or integrity? Just locker room talk, huh? The Republicans must spend a lot of time in locker rooms.

Okay, the Clinton campaign managed to bring tears to my eyes. Al Gore has been in the fight longer than anyone, especially in the political realm.

By every estimation Vice President Al Gore should have left the stage long ago.

But, he knows. 

He knows there is no leaving the stage. Leaving the stage means doom. People like Al Gore simply don't believe doom should be realized by the people of the world.

He was first a US House Representative when the issue received his attention and he traveled to Antarctica to speak to the scientists. The scientists that were on the front lines of DISCOVERY of the worst scenario of planet Earth.

His loss of Florida in 2000 was engineered. He lost by less than 400 votes and the voter rolls in Dade County was purged of over 8000 Democratic voters. Florida was his, but, it was stolen. Literally.

He has done the impossible for many years, he has kept a subject of disdain by very big political money on the map. He not only kept it on the map, he has moved it forward. He has enlisted young talent from every corner of the USA to take on the challenge of educating the public. He has succeeded without the spotlight.

I have no doubt he will continue his march to victory against heinous greed to take back Earth from a scenario that is not of god.

I appreciate Secretary Clinton's willingness to bring him to the stage. He is a great man. He deserves more than the stage. A leader is an understatement of this man who saw the future and believed the truth.

More than 25 years (click here) before the star-studded Los Angeles premiere of An Inconvenient Truth, glaciologist Lonnie Thompson was about as far away from the red carpet as possible. It was 1978, and high in the rugged Andes, Thompson and fellow scientists were witnessing the first glimpses of a pending worldwide disaster. Rising temperatures were melting ancient titans of ice and snow. Mammoth glaciers were disappearing at unprecedented rates and withering to the smallest sizes in millennia. The delicate balance of Earth’s climate was upset.

As research mounted, scientists around the world from fields as diverse as chemistry and astronomy were coming to grips with a newfound truth: Carbon dioxide spewed by fossil fuel burning and other greenhouse gases were warming the world at an alarming rate, potentially threatening the health and livelihoods of millions of people. Despite the gravity and urgency of their findings, the scientists’ warnings fell mostly on deaf ears for years.

Until 2006. Six years after his unsuccessful presidential campaign, Al Gore reentered the national spotlight to release An Inconvenient Truth, which heavily featured Thompson’s mountaintop research. Thompson missed the premiere of the documentary because he was gearing up to return to South America’s vanishing ice. But the film did what he and other researchers had been unable to do: “It got climate change on the radar,” Thompson says. Last December, Gore was on hand in Paris as 195 nations committed to the most ambitious pledge yet to fight back against climate change and curb carbon emissions....      

Do what?

Are the profits at Lockheed Martin that bad? I know the F35 contracts were a real blow to the ego, but, we aren't going to war with Saudi Arabia. Did a 911 family member insist on writing this? 

October 11, 2016
By the Editorial Board
 
Airstrikes (click here) by a Saudi-led coalition that devastated a funeral in Yemen on Saturday make it clear that the United States must end its complicity in a civil war that has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in one of the world’s poorest countries and fueled extremism. It is within President Obama’s power to do so. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf state allies depend on Washington for aircraft, munitions, training and in-flight refueling. The United States also helps Saudi Arabia guard its borders.

The administration insists its support for the coalition isn’t a “blank check.” But so far it has offered only stern words in response to an ever widening list of coalition attacks on civilians and civilian facilities that under international law are not legitimate military targets. If the Saudis refuse to halt the carnage and resume negotiations on a political settlement, Mr. Obama should end military support. Otherwise, America could be implicated in war crimes and be dragged even deeper into the conflict. On Monday, Houthi rebels who have been fighting with the Yemeni government reportedly launched a ballistic missile deep into Saudi Arabia, and on Sunday they may have fired on a United States Navy destroyer, but missed....

Saudi Arabia did not ask for this conflict with Yemen. The Yemen Houthis initiated the first border incursion.

August 27, 2016

Najran (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) - A rocket fired from Yemen (click here) killed a three-year-old boy Saturday in the Saudi border region of Najran, a civil defence official said, in the latest cross-border attack by Iran-backed Yemeni rebels.

Major Ali al-Shahrani, civil defence spokesman in southwest Saudi Arabia, told reporters a nine-year-old brother of the boy was also wounded when a Katyusha rocket hit their family's home.

The attack came a day after rockets fired from Yemen struck a power station in Najran, marking a rare hit on Saudi Arabia's infrastructure after months of periodic bombardment of the area....

The editorial makes the single bombing by  Saudi Arabia sound sterile as if there is only one bad guy. It seems as though the Yemeni Houthis have a good enough aim to land missiles near a USA Navy Ship.

October 10, 2016
By Reuters

Yemen's Houthi movement launched a ballistic missile (click here) deep into Saudi Arabia and may also have fired on a U.S. warship, two days after an apparent Saudi-led air strike killed 140 mourners at a funeral attended by powerful tribal leaders.
Saturday's air strike ripped through a wake attended by some of the country's top political and security officials, outraging Yemeni society and potentially galvanizing powerful tribes to join the Houthis in opposing a Saudi-backed exiled government.
On Monday, a Saudi-led coalition waging war in Yemen said it had intercepted a missile fired by the Houthis at a military base in Taif in central Saudi Arabia, striking deeper then ever before in the latest in a series of more than a dozen missile attacks. A missile was also fired at Marib in central Yemen, a base for pro-government militiamen and troops who have struggled to advance on the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa....

Morality is a very big word. It is not an advertisement for taking sides. Morality usually is a balance and carries with it recognition of unequal justice. Morality is principled and requires commitment to values long before the injustice is committed. 

Morality is at it's best when it ends injustice before it starts. The injustices on both sides of the Saudi-Yemen conflict are too fresh for either side to identify morality and it's absence.

...All of this comes at a moment when America’s ties with Saudi Arabia are fraught over Syria and Riyadh’s opposition to the Iran nuclear deal. Mr. Obama has supported the Saudi war effort in Yemen and sold the Saudis a total of $110 billion in arms, including a recent $1.15 billion order for tanks and other weapons, to appease Riyadh’s anger over the Iran deal. The tank sale went forward even though some administration officials have been worried that it could implicate the United States in war crimes. Last month, a Senate effort to block the tank sale failed....

The USA has provided Saudi Arabia with weapons for a long time.

June 3, 2003
Tewksbury, Mass.,Raytheon Company (click here) has been awarded a direct sales contract at an undisclosed amount from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide technical, training and logistics support for the Kingdom's Patriot and Hawk Air Defense Systems.
"Raytheon has built a strong relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the past 36 years and is committed to providing services and equipment of the highest standards to the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces," said Russ Ouellette, vice president of Saudi Arabian Programs for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.
Patriot is a combat-proven air and missile defense system capable of simultaneously engaging and destroying aircraft, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and tactical ballistic missiles. The Hawk system provides robust low-to-medium altitude air defense against air breathing threats and, when integrated with Patriot, low-tier defense against tactical ballistic missiles.
Based in Tewksbury, Mass., Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems provides integrated air and missile defense and naval and maritime war fighting systems, including modeling and simulation capabilities, for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, and strong global integrated capabilities for Army, Navy, Marine Corps and technology customers.
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), with 2002 sales of $16.8 billion, is an industry leader in defense, government and commercial electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Lexington, Massachusetts, Raytheon employs more than 76,000 people worldwide.

When has Yemen not been near collapse?

...Yemen is near collapse, with 80 percent of the country in need of humanitarian aid. Al Qaeda’s affiliate there is becoming stronger and the population more radicalized. The longer the war goes on, the harder it will be to end.

The conflicts are more than simply Yemen and Syria, so to cast a cloud over Iran is not valid. Iran is in violation of the small arms treaty. Start there, but, don't think there is a reason for the USA to enter yet another zone of the world void of authority. Too many people die when the USA is involved. Yes, even though we don't use barrel bombs.

In Iraq, there are at least 165,000 civilian deaths. Add to that the fact the total death count, including combatants, is 251,000 according to "Iraq Body Count" (click here) and realize how a power vacuum is defined. The USA does not belong in the wars in the middle east. 251,000 is one percent of the entire population of Iraq. One percent in the USA would be slightly less than 3,200,000. 

That is a modest estimate of the Iraqi dead. There are some counts estimated over one half a million dead CIVILIANS (women, children and the elderly). There is one count that estimates 800,000 or more. The average USA soldier kills 200 people versus one USA dead soldier.

The USA doesn't belong in wars or conflicts in the Middle East,

It never did.