Do you recognize this? I do. It is called the politics of enforcing PRIVATE industry over government programs.

Mercedes Nimmer, who lives outside Madison, Wis., gets help paying for her Obamacare insurance premiums from HealthConnect, a program run by the local United Way organization. 

October 31, 2016
By Phil Galewitz

Madison, Wis. — Having health insurance (click here) is vital for 21-year-old Mercedes Nimmer, who takes several expensive prescription drugs to manage multiple sclerosis. So Nimmer was thrilled to get health insurance last year through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace and qualify for a federal subsidy to substantially lower her cost....

Is this not a moral country? The cruelest life is when one realizes there isn't anything that can be done to improve self sufficiency. Often that reality is when a hideous disease process sets in as the new reality an American has to live by.

...Yet, the government assistance still left her with a $33 monthly premium, a hefty amount for Nimmer, who makes $11,000 a year as a part-time supply clerk.

Nimmer, though, doesn’t have to worry about even that expense thanks to a United Way of Dane County program that has provided premium assistance to about 2,000 low-income people since 2014. The program, called Health Connect, is funded by a 2013 gift of $2 million from UW Health, a large academic hospital system connected to the University of Wisconsin that also runs its own marketplace health plan....

...HealthConnect is one of several community-based programs across the United States helping thousands of lower-income Americans with their Obamacare marketplace premiums. Similar efforts operate in Texas, Oregon, Washington, North Carolina and South Carolina....

What could be better? Obamacare and help from a private concern to help even more and have a worry free life when it comes to obtaining medications.

...But premium assistance programs have come under fire from insurers. They argue that it is not fair for hospitals, other health providers and disease advocacy groups financed by providers to try to steer people who could be covered by Medicare or Medicaid into marketplace plans with higher reimbursement rates....

There is a three page letter (click here) that lays out why private insurance is a real problem for the insurance companies. The companies are finding more and more people with serious illness, especially kidney disease, on their insurance rolls. These costs are increasing premium costs.

The health insurance companies call this trend "Inappropriate Steering of Individuals Eligible for or Receiving Medicare and Medicaid Benefits to Individual Market Plans."

Have you got that? People like Mercedes Nimmer are a burden to the health care insurance company and they don't want her on their roles. The health care insurance industry wants Mercedes and those like her on Medicare or Medicaid.

Ah, but, there is a problem. Wall Street isn't happy with people like Mercedes Nimmer. Do you believe this? People in need are being singled out by Wall Street as problems to their profit structure.

IN CASE YOU MISSED THE POINT: The health care industry WANTS only HEALTHY people and then only up to the point where they loose that healthy status. THEY WANT PROFITS AND NOT ANYTHING ELSE SHOULD BE A PROBLEM.

Look. If all the health care insurance companies want are healthy individuals on their roles; I say fine. The answer to all this is "Single Payer."

See, the Republicans want the entire USA to be privatized and government dissolved. Anarchy. The Republican presidential candidate is an anarchist. His business model is definitely based in anarchy. Without a doubt.

Mercedes Nimmer is not welcome in the world of private industry. Yet, the Republicans are going to repeal Obamacare and replace it. They want to replace it with vouchers for Medicare patients and private insurance carriers for everyone else. The only problem with the Republican plans for Obamacare is that it doesn't work and the health care insurance industry DOESN'T WANT IT!

Mercedes Nimmer and people like her who receive incredible benefits from Obamacare and the additional private plans that help the impoverished because of their inability to earn a living; are going to be cast from the health care rolls and told to find help elsewhere.

GOT THAT?

The private plans that help pay for Mercedes monthly payment ARE NOT WELCOME BY THE PRIVATE HEALTH CARE INSURANCE COMPANIES. The health care insurance companies in the USA do not want Mercedes on their benefit plans and god help you if you have kidney disease.

...Nonetheless, insurers are taking action. Aetna, which announced this summer that it was scaling back its marketplace offerings, said that third-party groups steering patients to the individual market had contributed to an unhealthy mix of customers in its marketplace plans.

Blue Shield of California in July filed suit in a state court against CenCal Health, which manages the Medicaid program in Santa Barbara and San Louis Obispo counties.

Blue Shield alleges that CenCal was avoiding millions of dollars in medical care claims by enrolling around 40 of its very ill members in Blue Shield’s individual health plans and paying the premiums on their behalf.

CenCal denied the allegations in lawsuit, saying it paid the patients’ monthly Blue Shield insurance premiums so they could afford private insurance. It has since discontinued the practice.

The geniuses at CenCal thought privatizing their Medicaid patients was a great idea. So they enrolled Medicaid patients into Blue Shield of California. CenCal dumped their most expensive patients at the door step of private industry and paid the premiums. Blue Shield of California DON'T WANT THEM. These Medicaid patients are driving the premiums higher in California.

Got that?

Somehow CenCal thought privatizing was a good thing and a politically correct measure. OR. Someone in leadership saw a chance to drive the costs of Obamacare higher in private exchanges and played politics with their patient's lives.

...United Healthcare filed a lawsuit in federal court in July against kidney dialysis provider American Renal Associates, accusing it of encouraging patients in Florida and Ohio who were eligible for Medicaid or Medicare to move to the insurer’s commercial plans to extract up to 20 times more than the $300 or so that the federal programs pay in reimbursements. American Renal Associates has said the suit is without merit.

The suit alleges that the patients’ premiums were paid by the American Kidney Fund, an advocacy group for patients.

AHIP officials note that the fund is supported by dialysis providers who stand to benefit financially from patients gaining marketplace coverage over payments from Medicaid or Medicare....

Sure dialysis providers will reap higher incomes from private insurers. That sounds right to me. BUT. The private health care insurance companies ARE NOT experiencing higher incomes because they have to pay those dialysis providers. 

Hello, America. Hello. The increased premiums of 2017 is due to manipulation of the market providers within the private payment insurance system.

I think we need a Single Payer system that would have been called "The Public Option" at the very least for those most in need of help and cannot help themselves.

This entire mess is due to politics and the drive for privatizing everything that is the role of government.

The Republicans have it "W"rong.

This is justice under the Trump administration. Live and die by the gun. Why hasn't she been provided security?

This is the Guardian, not a tabloid with Martians landing in Mar-a-lago. She should be interviewed at a studio behind a screen that will protect her identity.

Lisa Bloom states her client is fearful and won't come before the public at this time.

3 November 2016
By Rory Carroll

Lawyer Lisa Bloom, (click here) representing the woman accusing Donald Trump, speaks to media on 2 November.

A woman (click here) who is suing Donald Trump for allegedly raping her as a child abandoned a plan to speak publicly on Wednesday, citing death threats.

The woman, known by the pseudonym Jane Doe, hid from media who were invited to her lawyer’s Los Angeles office for a press conference in which she was expected to reveal her identity.

Instead, her attorney, Lisa Bloom, cancelled the event in a brief, apologetic statement to a phalanx of cameras.

“Jane Doe has received numerous threats today as have all the Trump accusers that I have represented. She has decided she is too afraid to show her face. She has been here all day, ready to do it, but unfortunately she is in terrible fear. We’re going to have to reschedule. I apologize to all of you who came. I have nothing further.”

Hours earlier Bloom, a prominent attorney, stoked such anticipation with the announced press conference that her firm’s website crashed. With just six days to the election and polls showing a tightening race the stakes could scarcely be higher.

The anticlimax was the latest twist to the explosive and so far unsubstantiated claim that the Republican presidential nominee raped Doe in 1994 when she was 13 years old.

Doe has alleged the casino owner assaulted her on four occasions at parties in New York hosted by the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, a friend of Trump whom she also accused of rape. A civil lawsuit is slated for an initial status conference in a New York district court on 16 December.

A generation of executives? A generation? What? This is deregulation and trusting Wall Street too far. Where were the regulators?

I don't believe Congress has been thorough nor concerned, with a few exceptions such as Senator Elizabeth Warren. These banks are not merely too big to fail and too big to manage, they are too big to regulate.

Kim Young is now retired. She has spent forty years at Wells Fargo discarding bad employees. Wow.

November 3, 2016
By Laura J. Keller, Dakin Campbell and Kartikay Mehrota
After Wells Fargo (click here) executive John Sotoodeh handed off more than a hundred branches in Southern California to a colleague in 2009, problems surfaced quickly.
His successor, Kim Young, addressing rumors that some employees were opening bogus accounts, called an introductory meeting with staff and warned she wouldn’t tolerate misconduct. Within a few days, managers recall, sales crumbled across her new turf.
Sotoodeh, who started as a teller in 1990, has since climbed even higher. He’s now one of three regional chiefs running the firm’s nationwide consumer-banking empire. Young spent the final years of her four-decade career at Wells Fargo weeding out bad employees, retiring in 2014.
In interviews, more than a dozen past and current Wells Fargo employees – many of them senior managers – chronicled how a generation of executives thrived in its ambitious sales culture, winning accolades and promotions, while being held aloft as examples to colleagues. All the while, people under them were opening legions of unwanted accounts for customers....

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/banking/article112249027.html#storylink=cpy

Who knew this was National Sandwich Day?

Wooden teeth can be a little rough on the gums.

John Montagu probably had no idea what he was doing back in 1762 when he asked for a slice of meat stuffed between some bread. But as Montagu – also known as the 4^th Earl of Sandwich – quickly discovered, there's something quite delicious about the food creation that now bears his name.

We celebrate the sandwich in all its forms today during National Sandwich Day. And for all you sandwich lovers, there are plenty of ways to pick up free or reduced-priced grub.

There is some controversy regarding the original creator of the Sandwich, probably do to the fact John Montague was a British citizen. In many places he is considered the 4th Earl of Sandwich. Who knew?

Role:  Former First Lord of the Admiralty
Died:  April 30, 1792, Chiswick, United Kingdom
Spouse:  Dorothy Montagu, Countess of Sandwich (m. 1741)
Children:  John Montagu, 5th Earl of Sandwich, Basil Montagu

Not funny. National Sandwich Day is a great marketing tool. Sandwiches are free in most areas of the USA today. What could be better after the World Series? Keep the party going.

How well do business owners know their customers?

This is invaluable information generated annually by the US Labor Department (click here), a cabinet level office. 

This is invaluable because local economies can conduct their own studies as well. This is a Pew Research Study (click here) so it may be a skewed study for local economies. This general country wide studies are normally viewed as beneficial for Big Box stores. 

But, the study is worth looking at and perhaps hire a local statistician to conduct similar studies for the local economy. The really great thing about local economies is that shop owners and operators may very well know their customers and don't need such a study. Just think about it and consider whether or not even a one time study would benefit the businesses on Main Street and the side streets of a local economy.

Senator Bernie Sanders has built a coalition of candidates he promotes to change the face of the USA.

The election to change the face of the USA to a benevolent country for it's

people is still very much alive. Don't forget what Bernie started. He deserves 

loyalty and support to continue his good work.

Over the course of this election (click here) we’ve seen right-wing billionaires like

Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers funnel millions of dollars into races up 

and down the ballot.

Wealthy donors like Adelson and the Kochs are trying their best to buy these 

races for two reasons. First – they want lawmakers who feel beholden to their 

money to be at their beck and call. But more importantly, they’re afraid.

They’re afraid that if we win, it will show once and for all that their money is 

no match for our movement.

Four of our candidates are being attacked by big money in the final days of 

this campaign, and we need to help them now.

This is very important: today is realistically the last day your contributions 

can be put to use by congressional campaigns. If you have been thinking 

about donating to support candidates from our political revolution, you 

must do so today.

Help us show the billionaire class that this election is not for sale to the 

highest bidder. Please add a contribution now to split for Morgan Carroll, 

Pramila Jayapal, Tom Nelson and Rick Nolan.

It is good to know the FBI is doing something productive.

November 3, 2016
By Camila Domonoske

Burned pews, musical instruments, Bibles and hymnals are part of the debris inside Hopewell M.B. Church in Greenville, Miss., shown Wednesday. The mayor is calling it a hate crime as arson investigators collect evidence at the black church, which was heavily damaged by fire and tagged with "Vote Trump" in silver spray paint.

The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation (click here) into the vandalizing and burning of a black church in Mississippi. "Vote Trump" had been spray-painted on a wall.

Local authorities are still searching for the person or people responsible for the fire, which they have identified as an arson.

"When firefighters arrived at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church Tuesday night, they found it in flames, and the 'Vote Trump' slogan written in silver spray paint on the outside wall of the church," Mark Rigsby of Mississippi Public Broadcasting reports.
"Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons calls this a hate crime — an attempt to frighten voters just days before the presidential election."....

This is not the USA. It is a segment of our society that does not value life. The USA has many faces of many nationalities and beliefs, this is pure unadulterated hatred. 

The FBI needs to find the arsonist and bring him to justice. Hatred on the streets of the USA is a very dangerous thing.

When Dylan Roof was found it was a woman of conscience that rose above her fears and gave information to the authorities. We can find the arsonist and end the acts of hate. The more arsonists are found and brought to justice the less likely a congregation has to feel the oppression of hate. It is a matter of quality of life. No one wants to hear their beloved church has been the OBJECT of hate. It can be demoralizing to a community. 

Rebuilding the church is part of the recovery of the community, but, acts of hate such as this lives on in the memory. It is far better to end such hate and promote a country centered on acceptance and appreciation of others different form ourselves.

Children worship, too.

The timeline to FSA elections should be taken seriously by all farmers, especially family and small organic farmers.

The election of responsible agricultural producers to FSA (Farm Service Agency) county committees is important to ALL farmers and ranchers with large or small operations. It is crucial that every eligible producer take part in this election because county committees are a direct link between the farm community and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Committee members are a critical component of the day-to-day operations of FSA. They help deliver FSA farm programs at the local level. Farmers who serve on committees help decide the kind of programs their counties will offer. They work to make FSA agricultural programs serve the needs of local producers....

Be involved and insure the USDA understands the issues and where the path forward exists.

November 7, 2016 ballots are mailed....

Hay Net can be drought insurance. It also can help with flooding problems and poor production any year when rainfall is sparse. 

"Hay Net" (click here)

Welcome to the USDA Farm Service Agency Hay Net Website - Now Offering Ads for Grazing Acres. 

Historically, FSA's Hay Net website has been the "go to" online resource for producers to list information concerning the need for hay or the availability of hay. Now, in response to requests from producers, we are expanding the site to include the option to list a need for grazing acres or to list acres available for grazing. FSA is not responsible for defining the terms of any grazing agreements or lease contracts. Please select the appropriate link below:...

From the Lancet, the leading cause of deaths in the USA for under 45 is trauma.

29 October 2016
Lancet Editorial

In the USA, (click here) the leading cause of death in those younger than 45 years is trauma, accounting for over half of deaths in that age group. Trauma costs the USA up to US$600 billion each year and yet despite these sobering figures this epidemic goes largely unrecognised. Last week, at their 2016 Clinical Congress, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) announced a commitment to achieving zero preventable deaths from trauma. If realised, this goal would save one in five civilians and a quarter of military personnel currently killed by trauma, an estimated 30 000 lives per year in the USA alone. “The trauma network is highly geographically variable, and where you are in the country determines how likely you are to survive and do well”, trauma surgeon Robert Winchell told the Congress. States prioritise and fund trauma to different levels—for example, there are no consistent national protocols for pre-hospital care....

This is not current data. It is for both genders and ages 0 - 44 years old from 2004 - 2010 regarding trauma. What does the Mississippi have to do with this?

One of the advantages of being Mayor of Chicago is taking to the field when they win the World Series in a home game.

MVP: Ben Zobrist (click here)
He has been a consistent hitter the entire season.

Zobrist had a fantastic series, batting .357 and leading the Cubs with 10 hits. He also played a noteworthy part in the Game 7 victory, driving in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning on this double:

President Bill Clinton is correct as always; "He (Donald Trump) is saying he hates the same people that you hate." That is exactly what he is saying. How does a presidential candidate build his right to my vote on the hate of people? There is no policy there. Yet.

Oh, cute.

The Republicans have traded the Bush Chinese Dynasty for the Trump Communist Dynasty. 

See, the Bush Dynasty is based in China from the days when H.W. was ambassador and the Cheney oil ties of the Middle East. The Bush/Cheney dynasties relied on Wall Street companies. The Donald Trump dynasty is reliant on communist companies that the USA do not have as allies. 

Iraq was an oil war for the USA because it served the interests of Halliburton and an angry son after Saddam Hussein. 

If I were Donald Trump and wanted to make money hand over fist without the USA finding it, I would play quietly under the radar. No one would expect to find a USA company of any kind trading with anti-democratic countries for several reasons; currency unpredictability, unstable class structure among the people and a lack of disposable income except for the ruling class.

ie: Ukraine and the ally of Russia, Victor Yanukovych. The rarity of a USA company willing to be a partner to a communist government can be attractive to the oligarchs trying to find their fortunes among democratic countries.

See, oligarchs such as those in Ukraine had their own militias that became evident during the recent revolution. Trading with democratic countries brings new money sources into their country and into their own militias. It takes money to arm a militia to insure their loyalty and provide funds that aren't normally found in communist countries. Business relationships such as that are frowned on for very real reasons, including, potential danger to the USA. 

The reason the Trump Organization would be interested in trading relationships with communist countries is that in a short period of time one can leverage power as the sole source of whatever they were engaged in. There is also the outrageous monetary exchange rates that vacillate everyday and provide invisible profits when the exchange rate favors a strong USA dollar. It would mean nothing to pay lots and lots of rubles if it means gaining an advantage of power.

Ukraine is an easy country to play in. At least half the country have wanted to engage in trade with The West/Europe. As a matter of fact that was one of the reasons there was a revolution in the first place.

The American people don't need another Bush-like war. Who knows where it would go? Interestingly, "W"'s ethics lawyer came out to state what was happening with the FBI and the election was way out of line. 

The man who spent two and half years (click here) as the ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush has filed a Hatch Act complaint against FBI Director James Comey.

Richard W. Painter wrote in a New York Times an op-ed:

The F.B.I.’s job is to investigate, not to influence the outcome of an election.

Such acts could also be prohibited under the Hatch Act, which bars the use of an official position to influence an election. That is why the F.B.I. presumably would keep those aspects of an investigation confidential until after the election. The usual penalty for a violation is termination of federal employment....

There is a real reason why Trump is far less trustworthy than any other candidate running for President. 

We don't need it. We are still rebuilding the USA and then there is the national debt which Trump would run up higher than "W".

Hillary Clinton has no conflict of interest or any reason to wage an illegal and immoral war.

The American people do not need the growing uncertainty of what the USA will look like under a Trump administration. Scary.

One other thing. If Comey spends his days chasing emails for political advantages, there is a real reason to worry about the security of the USA. Hillary Clinton is not a terrorist. We know that for a fact.

NASA has released a very instructive time loop of the demise of the Arctic Ocean.

October 31, 2016

...“This older, thicker ice (click here) is like the bulwark of sea ice: a warm summer will melt all the young, thin ice away but it can’t completely get rid of the older ice: a warm summer will melt all the young , thin ace away but it can’t completely get rid of the older ice. But this older ice is becoming weaker because there is a less of it and the remaining old ice is more broken up and thinner, so that bulwark is not as good as it used to be.”...

Besides all the interesting facts within the NASA video, the video also teaches how Earth's ice is the planet's thermostat. When the ice flows out of the ocean into the north Atlantic the change in temperature to the Arctic Circle is profound and obvious. That cold water matters in cooling Earth. The loss of ice in the Arctic Ocean removes it's purpose and allows the lower latitudes to gradually become hotter and hotter each year that passes without the thermostat.

Intellicast High Temperature Forecast 
November 2, 2016
0430 UTC

This is November 2nd. Below is the map of the departure of temperatures from normal.



The Kansas City area is 20 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal. That increase can be seen in some areas of Canada. Radiating from the Kansas City area as moving to the seashore the departure is five to twenty degrees Fahrenheit higher. Only when the offshore winds are at work do temperatures appear to be normal.

The higher temperatures of North American are directly related to the loss of ice in the Arctic Ocean. The less ice, especially the aged ice, the less coldness available to cool the oceans.

The methodology of the Iraqi military seems to work for them.

The Iraqi people should be proud of them. They have mostly conquered the most dangerous charismatic movement the world has experienced. This is a profound victory for the Iraqi military and the global community. The global community has an ally.

November 2, 2016

By Patrick Cockburn 

The Iraqi Army (click here) has entered Mosul for the first time in over two years at the start of a battle which is likely to end in a decisive defeat for Isis. The significance of the fight for Mosul will be all the greater for Isis because its self-declared caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is believed to be still inside the city, a senior Kurdish official has told The Independent. 

Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, said in an exclusive interview that his government had information from multiple sources that “Baghdadi is there and, if he is killed, it will mean the collapse of the whole [Isis] system.” Isis would have to choose a new caliph in the middle of a battle, but no successor would have the authority and prestige of Baghdadi, the leader who surprised the world by establishing the caliphate after capturing Mosul in June 2014....      

They don't need the endorsement of the FBI.

November 2, 2016
By Noor Al-Sibia

When white supremacists (click here) are coming out in support of a specific presidential candidate, you can be sure that all hell has broken loose. It appears that at least one of the seven seals has been broken, and the nation's most infamous racist brotherhood is throwing their weight in support of the candidate most loved by hateful people. The KKK's official paper just supported Donald Trump for president, citing shared values and the importance of the "White Christian Republic" that was, according to the Klan's newspaper, what initially "made America great." Trump's campaign immediately denounced the support...

There is only one candidate for President in this election that is not fanning the flames of hate.

Do you believe this? Game 7.

Go inside the numbers (click here) and matchups that will decide Wednesday night's showdown between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians in Game 7 of the World Series, and then vote on which team will win at the bottom of the page. The series is tied 3-3.

Comey needs to resign or better yet fire him. There is no discretion in the department anymore.

There are going to be tons of information regarding the Clintons, they have been in office all their lives. This is ridiculous. Comey has compromised the country's election process. This was no mistake. His leadership is a return to J. Edgar Hoover.

Everyone can read about Marc Rich, none of this is a surprise. This book (click here) was written in 2009. March Rich never came back to the USA.

Billionaire oil trader Marc Rich for the first time talks at length about his private life (including his expensive divorce from wife Denise); his invention of the spot oil market which made his fortune and changed the world economy; his lucrative and unpublicized dealings with Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran, Fidel Castro's Cuba, war-ravaged Angola, and apartheid South Africa; his quiet cooperation with the Israeli and U.S. governments (even after he was indicted for tax fraud by Rudy Guiliani) and near-comical attempts by U.S. officials to kidnap him illegally....

It is called treason. Comey is acting deliberately against the American people to insure a specific outcome in the country's elections. Lynch needs to remove him from office. Democrats in the House and Senate need to act to bring about what might be called a gag order. This is anarchy. That is exactly what this is.

As far as danger within the country of armed citizens, the President needs to be aware of declaring the country under Marshall law. Governors need to be prepared for any outbreak in violence in their states. It is what it is and there are many, many legislators that have warned the country about the potential for such acts by citizens over the years.

There are too many guns on the street. Those are not empty words. Comey is making the burgeoning violence worse. He is escalating the reason for such acts by citizens. He needs to be put on paid leave and investigated. Such actions could spur him to be more dangerous to the country than he already is, but, it is called jail. He can leak to the guards all he wants.

November 1, 2016
By Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger and Sari Horowitz

The surprise tweet from a little-used FBI account (click here) came about 1 p.m. Tuesday, announcing that the agency had published on its website 129 pages of internal documents related to a years-old investigation into former president Bill Clinton’s pardon of a fugitive Democratic donor.

The seemingly random reminder of one of the darkest chapters of the Clinton presidency a week before the election drew an immediate rebuke from Hillary Clinton’s campaign — with its spokesman tweeting that the FBI’s move was “odd” and asking whether the agency planned to publish unflattering records about Republican candidate Donald Trump.

“Will FBI be posting docs on Trump’s housing discrimination in ’70s?” asked Brian Fallon....

This has happened in NYCity, but, Iowa?

November 2, 2016
By Travis M. Andrews, Derek Hawkins, Ben Guarino and Mark Berman

Two police officers (click here) in central Iowa were shot and killed Wednesday in a pair of “ambush-style attacks,” the Des Moines Police Department said.

Police offered few initial details on the shootings, saying that the investigation was just getting underway, but they said both officers were sitting in their squad cars when they were shot and killed.

Authorities in the Des Moines area appeared shaken by the double shooting, which came during a year that has seen bloody attacks on officers in cities like Dallas and Baton Rouge, assaults that fueled a sense of anxiety among law enforcement nationwide.

“It doesn’t look like there was any interaction between these officers and whoever the coward is that shot them while they sat in their car,” Sgt. Paul Parizek, a Des Moines police spokesman, said during a briefing early Wednesday, before briefly choking back emotion as another officer reached a hand out to show him support....

The Brennan Center of Justice asks Americans to practice their proud right and vote.

....Stand up for democracy (click here) now by pledging to vote and to help others exercise their right with these four simple steps:

1. Make a Plan: Verify your voter registration status, find your polling location, and learn what’s on your ballot.
2. Sign up for Reminders: You’re more likely to vote if you get emails or text reminders. Sign up here.
3. Tell your friends and family that you plan to vote. Research has shown that this simple act can increase turnout.
4. Protect the Vote: Spread the word about the people who are here to help. Call 866-OUR-VOTE if you have problems on Election Day — they are nonpartisan volunteers who’ve got your back.

Sign now to pledge to vote and to help others exercise their right. After you sign, we'll send you a reminder of the steps you can take to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard.

The Nation 
The Brennan Center for Justice 
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law 
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Daily Kos 
18MillionRising.org
Rock the Vote 

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it must be a very slick duck.

October 31, 2016
By Franklin Foer

Registration of site (click here and enter any code, the registration is there) 

...In late July, (click here) one of these scientists—who asked to be referred to as Tea Leaves, a pseudonym that would protect his relationship with the networks and banks that employ him to sift their data—found what looked like malware emanating from Russia. The destination domain had Trump in its name, which of course attracted Tea Leaves’ attention. But his discovery of the data was pure happenstance—a surprising needle in a large haystack of DNS lookups on his screen. “I have an outlier here that connects to Russia in a strange way,” he wrote in his notes. He couldn’t quite figure it out at first. But what he saw was a bank in Moscow that kept irregularly pinging a server registered to the Trump Organization on Fifth Avenue....

...The researchers quickly dismissed their initial fear that the logs represented a malware attack. The communication wasn’t the work of bots. The irregular pattern of server lookups actually resembled the pattern of human conversation—conversations that began during office hours in New York and continued during office hours in Moscow. It dawned on the researchers that this wasn’t an attack, but a sustained relationship between a server registered to the Trump Organization and two servers registered to an entity called Alfa Bank....

...That wasn’t the only oddity. When the researchers pinged the server, they received error messages. They concluded that the server was set to accept only incoming communication from a very small handful of IP addresses. A small portion of the logs showed communication with a server belonging to Michigan-based Spectrum Health. (The company said in a statement: “Spectrum Health does not have a relationship with Alfa Bank or any of the Trump organizations. We have concluded a rigorous investigation with both our internal IT security specialists and expert cyber security firms. Our experts have conducted a detailed analysis of the alleged internet traffic and did not find any evidence that it included any actual communications (no emails, chat, text, etc.) between Spectrum Health and Alfa Bank or any of the Trump organizations. While we did find a small number of incoming spam marketing emails, they originated from a digital marketing company, Cendyn, advertising Trump Hotels.”)

Spectrum accounted for a relatively trivial portion of the traffic. Eighty-seven percent of the DNS lookups involved the two Alfa Bank servers. “It’s pretty clear that it’s not an open mail server,” Camp told me...

...“The parties were communicating in a secretive fashion. The operative word is secretive. This is more akin to what criminal syndicates do if they are putting together a project.”...

The color is to delineate the different sources of information.

05 March 2014
By Our Foreign Staff

...20th February 2014

More than 100 people (click here) reportedly die in 48 hours as protesters and police clash in Kiev, with government snipers opening fire...

OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) (click here)

The Ukraine/Russia-related sanctions program implemented by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) began on March 6, 2014, when the President, in Executive Order (E.O.) 13660, declared a national emergency to deal with the threat posed by the actions and policies of certain persons who had undermined democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine; threatened the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine; and contributed to the misappropriation of Ukraine’s assets. In further response to the actions and polices of the Government of the Russian Federation, including the purported annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine, the President issued three subsequent Executive orders that expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in E.O. 13660. Together, these orders authorize, among other things, the imposition of sanctions against persons responsible for or complicit in certain activities with respect to Ukraine; against officials of the Government of the Russian Federation; against persons operating in the arms or related materiel sector of the Russian Federation; and against individuals and entities operating in the Crimea region of Ukraine. E.O. 13662 also authorizes the imposition of sanctions on certain entities operating in specified sectors of the Russian Federation economy. Finally, E.O. 13685 also prohibits the importation or exportation of goods, services, or technology to or from the Crimea region of Ukraine, as well as new investment in the Crimea region of Ukraine by a United States person, wherever located...

...While the researchers went about their work, the conventional wisdom about Russian interference in the campaign began to shift. There were reports that the Trump campaign had ordered the Republican Party to rewrite its platform position on Ukraine, maneuvering the GOP toward a policy preferred by Russia, though the Trump campaign denied having a hand in the change. Then Trump announced in an interview with the New York Times his unwillingness to spring to the defense of NATO allies in the face of a Russian invasion. Trump even invited Russian hackers to go hunting for Clinton’s emails, then passed the comment off as a joke. (I wrote about Trump’s relationship with Russia in early July.)...

All Russian oligarchs of Alpha Bank needed was a front man.

Where is the FBI? 

Where is the NSA? 

Where is Edward Snowdon? Edward needs to be brought home with a degree of immunity. I think it is very foolish to leave him in Russia.

There is no such thing as a secure cyber space.