How is the USA going to maintain it's dignity when Trump goes to Norway, IF he goes to Norway?

21 July 2016
By Pierre-Henry Deshayes

Five years after its worst attack since World War 2, (click here) Norway sees its liberal and open values as intact despite the horrific massacre of 77 people by rightwing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik.

As more and more countries ponder how to respond to such atrocities, Norway -- which on Friday marks the fifth anniversary of Breivik's hate-filled massacre on Utøya island -- has sought the path of "openness" and "love"....      

The USA will not only lose it's dignity under Trump, it will forever be known as a country without a moral compass.

THE REASON Donald Trump is 'acting out' and carrying on with his children at meetings while he is President - Elect, is that he expects Congress to be as corrupt as he is. ie: "The Emoluments Clause" would require impeachment. Donald Trump fully expects Congress to look the other way and impeachment will never get off the ground. He is expecting the American electorate to provide the impetus to Congress to look the other way.

It isn't that Donald Trump is moral and a quality businessman, it is the unleashed pure power of corruption that he is counting on.

The real question is not will Trump break the law, the real question is, does it matter he breaks the law?

We now know why he has focused on China as an enemy. He owes China money and plenty of it. I am sure if China feels the wrath of President Donald Trump it will shrink at the mere thought of him and the arrangements will be made to service his loan differently. The power of his Secretary of State is heralded and the new friendship between China and the USA will be inspired.

How does Donald Trump create international thirst for his administration? Why not fill the cabinet with those that will carry out corrupt practices, which the petroleum industry is famous for, to gain leverage over other sovereign countries, ie: Russia and Exxon.

Let me say that again, Donald Trump has exhibited power over Russia for the corruption Putin added to the elections of 2016. There is no doubt about it. Trump called out for corrupt practices by Putin and he delivered. Trump has power over Russia. Trump's cabinet is lusted after by Putin. The "Panama Papers" is nothing compared to the underlying corruption between Russia and Trump.

14 April 2016
By Roland Oliphant

Millions of dollars funnelled (click here) through offshore companies owned by one of Vladimir Putin’s closest friends were used to buy rare musical instruments, including a cello once owned by Frederick the Great, the Russian president has said.

In his most detailed comments on the Panama Papers scandal to date, Mr Putin said recent revelations about the business interests Sergei Roldugin, who is the godfather to his eldest daughter, are “accurate” but do not reveal any wrong doing....

Is there anyone in Russia going to tell Putin he is a criminal? Of course not.

Donald Trump is counting on everyone, without except, to cower in the corner waiting for permission to speak and receive the good graces of the President of the USA. He is not a president, he is intimidator and chief. Oh, I forget, he is 'dealer and chief.'

I would never want to be a part of the Trump administration. There are no rules and breaking the law is SOP. People will be going to jail after a year or two of this mess.

No other heads of state will ever tell Trump he is breaking the law. He will be felling his way through anything and Exxon's CEO will expect to be above reproach. When international agreements have to be drawn up, who is going to know the rules? Who cares about the rules.

ie: Rumsfeld and Pakistan. Rumsfeld paid for the airspace into Afghanistan, Pakistan turned around and bought weapons from China and then China used the money to build more nukes pointed at the USA. And to add insult to injury, Osama bin Laden was living a few blocks away from the military academy. I don't know how many times I stated, "Where is bin Laden, Mushy, in the palace basement?" I underestimated the pure idiocy of American Presidents and their cabinet; bin Laden wasn't in a basement!

There was no place else for bin Laden to be. There was only one place he could be living, in Pakistan. He was wanted in every other country in the world. If he raised his head anywhere else, especially the Middle East, he would be a dead man. Pure process of elimination would point to Pakistan. Was he welcomed in Pakistan? Hell, no. But, the tribal areas were a place where any terrorist could find a cozy corner. No, one is going to tell me the leadership in the ISI or the civilian leadership didn't know bin Laden was there. Of course, they knew he was there. They didn't ruffle feathers in fear of having their car blown up on a bridge.

When a so called leader pretends to know what they are doing, there is huge problems brewing. Look at the "Axis of Evil" speech. Trump is a babe in the woods and every nation's leaders will take him on a ride into hell for the USA.

Donald Trump is counting on intimidation and power to make his administration successful. Ready for another spy plane loss?

I do not see a USA President with a White Supremacist on his staff as being welcome to any country, but, the USA will be welcome for what a country can get out of it.  

Changes in the powers of the North Carolina Governor requires a vote by the electorate.

ARTICLE III (click here)

EXECUTIVE

Section 1.  Executive power.

The executive power of the State shall be vested in the Governor....   

December 15, 2016

By Rebecca Herscher

The Republican-controlled North Carolina Legislature (click here) has introduced measures to limit the powers of the incoming Democratic governor.

Roy Cooper, the state's current attorney general, beat current Republican Gov. Pat McCrory by a slim margin in the November election. McCrory initially refused to concede until a vote recount proved he had lost by about 10,000 votes.

On Wednesday, the state Legislature met for a special session called by Republican lawmakers ostensibly to pass a disaster relief bill for Hurricane Matthew.

But once the relief bill had been passed, the Legislature moved to introduce a slew of new laws which, if passed, would go to McCrory to sign....

I am sure Dylann Roof will receive a severe sentence. But, this needs to be a wake up call about hate in the USA.

Dylann Roof is 22 years old, but, I believe he was 21 when he committed the hate crime. What does this say about us as Americans? There are extremists all over this country that embrace violence. Besides trials such as this there isn't any focus on the end of such violence, it lives below the radar.

Roof got away besides. He carried out the murders and left to return to his life. He was not effected what so ever. It was a woman of conscience that noticed him and called the police. We do have a conscience about such issues, but, we do nothing to end this senseless violence.

Keeping people alive begins with efforts to end the hate. As a country we are facing this very task. There are escalating incidence of violence in the country and they are targeting people of ethnic and religious difference. It has never been more important to end the hate to end the violence.

The people in that church were among the most precious in this country. They believed in God and they believed in prayer. I am sure there are many words of wisdom from them. I think to honor them for the lives they lived, there should be a vigilance carried out regularly, perhaps monthly or weekly, as a national movement. We need to make a statement about their lives and it needs to be a continued vigilance to end the hate in this country.

Dylann Roof will be sentenced to the justice these dear people deserve, but, the hate lives even after his sentence. He will no doubt provide a defense of himself in that courtroom when he is sentenced and we all will be appalled at his words. That defense will no doubt be laced with hate and self-righteousness to inspire anyone that hears them. His defense needs to be censored by the judge. There should be no media coverage to his words. Let that be the beginning to end the hate.

June 19, 2016

By Seth Ferranti

...Roof never did time (click here) in prison despite having been previously arrested, and nothing so far has tied him to any white supremacist groups. But the quote being attributed to him in the final moments before the shooting—"You are raping our women and taking over the country"—is loud and clear. While it's appalling to think the type of hate it takes to murder nine people in cold blood exists today, it does. And that kind of resentment is probably strongest in America's prisons, where white supremacist inmates are celebrating the crime.

"Dylann will be my next tattoo," a skinhead doing time in the feds for a gun charge told VICE after watching the news of the church shootings....

...White supremacists generally want to isolate themselves from other races. (click here) They want their own schools. They want white women to marry white men and produce white babies.

When asked, Big tried to explain why he ended up like this.

"The way I grew up in a small town where the race was only white, I heard my grandparents talking about niggers and spics and wetbacks and how they were different from the white race," he said. "When I grew older, I saw opposite races with my own race, and it didn't look right to me."

By talking about ideals like loyalty, dedication, solidarity, and kinship, white supremacist gangs can easily sell themselves to prospective members, even if they also require a lot from them. "I can't associate with homos, chomps [child molesters], or snitches. You can only affiliate with opposite races if you're gaining something from them. You can't eat with the opposite race or fraternize with them or cell with them. You have to keep it right, so keep it white," Big said. "We are running the prison for whites. We are brothers, comrades-in-arms. We go to war together. We represent the white race. We are the soldiers at the front of the war."

Big's prison time is almost up, but he'll take his views into the outside with him....                            

Did I hear that right?

His children NEED an office in the White House because they are able to calm him down in his decision making?

Trump is a hot head and is unreasonable when he becomes angry.

That is 100 percent unacceptable. The President of the USA can't be 'handled.' 

The sovereign country of Ukraine retains their national treasures.

This is a ruling that upholds the assets of a sovereign country. The Crimea was one of the provinces of Ukraine before it was annexed by Russia. The annexation is not recognized by the international community and still has provisions in Minsk II.

A sovereign country has a right to enter into debt. That debt is covered by assets of a country. Assets in the USA are it's people and their work ethic. In this case, the assets of Ukraine are important for the functioning of it's government.

Ukraine should consider allowing Europe to keep these incredible national treasures until domestic peace returns.

The Scythians (click here) are known to be tribal in the 5th century. They roamed the region of Ukraine and believed to have migrated into and out of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and possibly Mongolia.

December 14, 2016
By Merrit Kennedy

A Scythian gold helmet from the fourth century B.C., which is part of the collection that was in limbo after Russia annexed Crimea.

When Russia annexed Crimea (click here) from Ukraine in 2014, many of the region's most precious artifacts were on loan to a museum in Amsterdam.

This kicked off a two year legal battle over where The Netherlands should return the priceless collection of gold and jewels: to Ukraine or to the four Crimean museums that lent the objects.

Now, "the Dutch court says only sovereign countries can claim objects as 'cultural heritage.' So since Crimea is not a country, the artifacts will go back to Ukraine," as reporter Teri Schultz tells our Newscast unit. "The judges say there a Ukrainian court can settle the question of who actually owns the precious items."

Schultz adds that "Crimea is expected to appeal, so the collection will remain in Amsterdam for the next three months and Ukraine will help pay to store it."...   

Larsen A Iceshelf, a 4000 year old ice structure, was destroyed by heating in 1995.

Larsen B Iceshelf, a 12,000 year old ice structure, collapsed during the first quarter of 2002.

In late August 2016, (click here) sunlight returned to the Antarctic Peninsula and unveiled a rift across the Larsen C Ice Shelf that had grown longer and deeper over the austral winter. Satellites spotted it in natural-color imagery. By November, the arrival of longer days and favorable weather made it possible for scientists to take a closer look.

These photographs show close and wide views of the rift from the vantage point of NASA’s DC-8 research aircraft. NASA scientist John Sonntag snapped the photos on November 10, 2016, during an Operation IceBridge flight. The mission, which makes airborne surveys of changes in polar ice, completed its eighth consecutive Antarctic deployment later that month.

The rift in Larsen C measures about 100 meters (300 feet) wide and cuts about half a kilometer (one-third of a mile) deep—completely through to the bottom of the ice shelf. While the rift is long and growing longer, it does not yet reach across the entire shelf. When that happens, Larsen C will shed an iceberg about the size of Delaware.

Cracks and calving of ice from the front of an ice shelf are normal. Shelves are fed by glaciers and ice streams coming from the interior of the continent. They advance into the ocean until a calving event takes place. The shelf front retreats and then advances again. The whole cycle can occur over the span of a few decades.

But calving that happens faster than a shelf can re-advance can mean trouble for an ice shelf. For example, large and frequent calving events at Larsen B preceded that shelf’s final period of rapid disintegration, which occurred in just six weeks in 2002. Whether Larsen C will respond in a similar way remains to be seen, but that’s one reason why scientists plan to make observations before and after the next calving event.

Ice shelves float, so they do not directly contribute to sea level rise. They are important, however, because they buttress land ice and keep it inland. If a shelf disintegrates, glaciers that feed it can flow more quickly out to sea—a process that directly increases sea level.

The continuing earthquakes of Oklahoma.

News OK (click here)

The earthquakes in Oklahoma are so frequent there is a special section of reporting them in the Oklahoma media.

The new regulations. I'll be darn, the state of Oklahoma has passed regulations of fracking water. That is amazing. I thought regulations are the enemy with oil barons. 

November 7, 2016
By Matthew Philips

Sunday night's 5.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Cushing, Okla., is the latest and, in some ways, the most troubling in a series of temblors that has rocked the Sooner State over the past few years. Not only did it strike within a mile of what is arguably one of the country's most important strategic assets—Cushing is the largest crude oil trading hubin North America, with almost 60 million barrels of stored crude—but its occurrence raises questions over the state's ability to do anything about the significant rise in earthquakes, which has been linked to oil and gas activity.

While regulations limiting the underground disposal of wastewater have succeeded in reducing the overall frequency of earthquakes, they haven't been able to stop the really big ones from happening. And when they hit close to Cushing, they suddenly become an issue of national security....

Cushing, Oklahoma has the largest commercial oil storage facility. I stress commercial because it is not the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. 

This is outrageous. Ivanka and what's his name was not elected. The White House is a matter of national security.

The White House is a museum for the public and a secure place for the First Family. The First Family does not include extended family. The law prohibits family members from participating in the activities of the President.

Who is residing in the Vice President's residence? Republican impoverishment takes on a new meaning with these idiots.

Is Donald Trump competent? Why is he and Ivanka joined at the hip? 

Finding loopholes is a Wall Street activity. Finding loopholes lacks dignity and purpose. By looking for loopholes the idea the Trump White House is honest and trustworthy goes right out the window. 

So, let's see. Melania and Barron get to stay in New York City for continuity to the boy's education, but, Ivanka can be in the White House to keep her father honest. I don't think so. The Obama children had absolutely no problem transitioning to the White House; it is called tutors.

Donald Trump needs regular assessment to the insult of the laws governing the White House and the Executive Branch. Ethic violations need to be reported to the people on a regular basis. If Mr. Trump finds the White House INCONVENIENT to his mixing of government and business, then he should move to old post office and resign his elected position. The White House is not a hotel.

By Rose Donohue

President-elect Donald Trump (click here) has revealed he is still trying to find a loophole to a rule preventing him from appointing family members into his administration.
Mr Trump previously announced plans to hand over his business empire to his elder children Ivanka, Donald Jr and Eric Trump, but told Fox News on Sunday that his transition team was trying to engineer daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, jobs in Washington.
A federal nepotism law preventing Mr Trump from hiring from within the family could prove a problem, however.

“We will have to see how the laws read,” Mr Trump told Fox News Sunday‘s Chris Wallace.

“If you look at Ivanka, you take a look and she’s so strong, as you know, on the women’s issue and childcare and so many things … nobody could do better than her – we’ll have to see whether or not we can do that.”...

People are concerned about Mr. Trump's lax attitude about the USA intelligence. Yes? Has anyone asked where he is getting his intelligence?

There is nothing saying Mr. Trump is not receiving some sort of intelligence. The question is where and by whom is his intelligence compiled?

December 12, 2016
By Gregory Korte

Washington — Donald Trump's (click here) reluctance to receive daily intelligence briefings — and his blunt rejection of the CIA's assessment of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election — suggest a rocky start to the president-elect's relationship with intelligence agencies.

Since the election, Trump has received the President's Daily Briefing only four times, amid meetings with potential Cabinet secretaries and other transition business. And on Sunday, the president-elect suggested that the rate of briefings won't change once he's sworn in next month.

"I get it when I need it," Trump told Fox News Sunday. "I'm a smart person. I don't have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years."...

Climate science is multidisciplinary and always has been.

The space program of the USA cannot function without understanding Earth's condition.

Earth’s ice is changing, (click here) from mountain glaciers to ice sheets to ice shelves. For the most part, land-based ice has been shrinking, and the very definition of a “glacial pace” has changed within our lifetimes. Now researchers have the tools to see those changes every few weeks and at scales as small as 5 meters (16 feet).

Using freely available data from the Landsat 8 satellite, scientists are working to provide a near-real-time view of every large glacier and ice sheet on Earth. A group of scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the University of Alaska–Fairbanks, the University of Bristol, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have started the Global Land Ice Velocity Extraction project (GoLIVE), a NASA-funded effort to better understand how ice flow is changing worldwide.

“We are now able to map how the skin of the ice is moving,” said Ted Scambos, senior research scientist at NSIDC and lead for the GoLIVE project. “From now on, we’re going to be able to track all of the different types of changes in glaciers. There’s so much science to extract from the data.” The effort was described at the 2016 fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union....

Here come the Neocon morons; war is associated with their morals. Killing innocent people in the process is just a side effect.

There was nothing to be done. Turkey was right there and did nothing until recently when Russia decided they could be allies regarding Syria. 

December 14, 2016
By Brian Flood

“Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough (click here) blasted President Barack Obama over the Syria uprising on Wednesday morning, saying he was “frozen and did nothing.”

Hundreds of thousands have been killed by the Syrian authoritarian forces as president Bashar al-Assad seeks to regain complete control, but million of people have been displaced from their homes in the process.

Obama once made a “red line” threat to intervene if chemical weapons were used, but they were used and he didn’t act. Scarborough called out the president by saying, “At the end of the day, we did nothing.”...


The idea the USA could have prevented deaths in Syria means the USA would be successful in defeating Russia and Assad. It wasn't going to happen. The USA had no right to fly over Syria. There was no plan that would have prevented deaths by USA bombs.

Syria has been in the grips of a civil war. The USA does not belong in civil wars. If the USA engages in civil war, it has to choose one side over the other. When that occurs it becomes a proxy war with Russia. Proxy wars never end. There is no reason for a proxy war to end. The assets are ample between the USA and Russia. I would think the USA learned it's lesson in Vietnam, when China was the ally of North Vietnam. It was proxy war with China. 

Russian Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft take off from the Hmeimim military base in Latakia province, Syria on March 16, 2016.


October 28, 2016
By Thomas Walkins

Aboard a US military aircraft (AFP) - (click here) A Russian fighter flew dangerously close to a US warplane over eastern Syria, US defence officials said Friday, highlighting the risks of a serious mishap in the increasingly crowded airspace.

The "near miss" occurred late on October 17, when a Russian jet that was escorting a larger spy plane manoeuvred near an American warplane, Air Force Lieutenant General Jeff Harrigian said.

The Russian jet came to "inside of half a mile" of the US jet, he added.

Another US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the American pilot was buffeted by the turbulence from the Russian jet's engines.

"It was close enough you could feel the jet wash of the plane passing by," the official said....

Neocons are amoral. They propagandize high minded ideas such as democracy and freedom, but, they advocate war to achieve it. That doesn't seem very free or democratic to me.

Civil wars have consequences. 

I do not believe Russia is invested in Assad. I do believe Russia is willing to work with the existing power structures that happen to be Assad. Russia believes in stable states. Assad is the only available power to bring about stability. What is so hard about this? It is not that complicated.

Oh, let me guess, the people of Aleppo should be inspired and planting USA flags. Who is delusional now?

There is no such thing as a secure internet. Stop using it as if it is your best friend. It isn't and never was.

December 14, 2016
By Elizabeth Weise

San Francisco — Yahoo late Wednesday (click here) disclosed a breach that took place in August 2013 that may have resulted in the theft of data associated with more than one billion user accounts.

This new, 1-billion-account breach is separate from a 500-million-account breach the company disclosed in September. At the time, the 500-million-account breach was believed to be the largest on record. Yahoo shares fell 2% after hours.

The new revelation comes at a time when cybercrime issues loom large as never before.

The CIA has accused Russia of specifically attempting to tamper with the U.S. election via hacked emails, ransomware hit the nation's seventh largest transit system, in San Francisco and a monster botnet of hijacked devices took down much of the East Coast's Internet traffic for a day in October....

This is radicalism. Russia will never attack China alone or with us.

This is pathetic. There is no political basis for a relationship between Russia and the USA, it is all about exploiting natural resources. Exploiting natural resources is the only economy the Republicans know besides pandering to Wall Street and billionaire families such as the Kochs and Waltons.

Rep. Rohrabacher justifies Russian alliance with USA in attempt to present himself for Secretary of State. Amazing.

Global news media doesn't know what to make of it all. It has nothing to do with peace, it is about money. The pressure still exists on countries that Russia currently covets but does not govern. People are dying today because of Russian priorities, including Ukraine. There is no rolling back any Russian aggression in the world. What is left for The West to do, with a weak and subservient USA president as an ally, is prepare for the worst.

Meet three of the men (click here) likely to be working at the top of US President-elect Donald Trump's administration- all of whom have affiliations with Russia.

Medicare is not a free program. There is no charge for Part A that covers hospitalization. Part B costs senior citizens $104.00 per month.

Part B alone is $1248.00 annually out of a Social Security check that is fixed to it's value. 

Add to that $104.00 per month the cost of either Part D or a supplemental that can cost significant amounts of money. 

Part D was effected by the ACA and reduced subscription fees to about 25 percent of the cost before the ACA. 

A Medicare supplemental can cost anywhere from $70 to $250. Add the costs of Part D and/or a supplemental and the cost per month for Medicare healthcare rises to $354.00 per month. That is an annual bill of $4248.00. PLUS deductibles that can be as high as $50.00 per office specialist visit and pharmacy deductibles of $300 per year and overall deductibles to $7000 per year. The higher the deductibles the lower the monthly subscription costs. That is not peanuts.

Among the people complaining about health care costs dearly few are senior citizens.

This is not a valid opinion. This is not an apples for apples issue.

There are people across the spectrum of citizens concerned about the outcome to the 2016 elections. The idea Donald Trump will arrive as president at 12 noon on January 20th and be inspired to finally read and/or listen to the intelligence community is nonsense.

I think Donald Trump is opposed to being Commander and Chief. He isn't interested in war and one of the reasons he invited and welcomed Russia interference is to allow other governments to decide about war.

Donald Trump is an overt liar. He doesn't care about loyalty to the people that elected him. There is nothing anyone can trust. He is gradually talking to lull the American people asleep. He doesn't feel any responsibility to the American people in disclosing his tax returns and now he is continuing the assault against the American conscience.

There is a movement within the Republican Party to remove the responsibilities of the Commander and Chief from the president. There are Republicans that want a cabinet level position that assigns all war decisions to someone without Oval Office power.

There is a reason American wars are now funded through OCO today. The wars the USA is now fighting is done so without any legislative approval. One of the most coveted capacity of the USA is it's military. Setting it aside from the constitution to be carried out without the legislature is resulting in unstoppable illegal and immoral wars that will last decades and generations. OCO funding removes the consent of the people and military men and women are being sent into battle to die (ie: recent American death in Syria) without the consent of the people through their legislature.

Donald Trump is not providing the responsibility to the country demanded by the USA Constitution. He is not an equal to Hillary Clinton. I believe him to be subversive and will carry out executive orders that will end the USA government as it is known today. I also expect votes to repeal not just the ACA, but, constitutional amendments. It is nearly impossible to carry out amendment repeals without the majority of federal legislators in lock step with that ideology, but, there is ever reason to believe there is a coup in the making and the American people will be asleep until it is too late.

Two to four years is a lot of sleep. The American people elected a radical. They need to pay attention to his priorities and actions.

One other thing, I really am disappointed in editorials that are this simple and insult my intelligence.

This is a hideous graph. It states OCO funds are separate from that of the USA miltiary.

There is no OCO military. OCO funds ADDS to the capacity of the USA military. OCO funds does not limit the military and it's missions, it gives the military to proceed without the knowledge of the American people.

It is interesting to realize government leaks are entertained by the media, but, policing OCO and military missions is in the back pages and/or not at all.

Coups are carried out by generals.

Moralizing by the media to enter war, as occurred in Libya, is not going change my mind. The Libya episode only shows the American people are sheep. Where is the next cliff?

December 13, 2016
USA Today, Editorial Staff

...Imagine further that Clinton (click here) blithely dismissed these intelligence conclusions while putting people with close ties to this hostile government in key national security posts.

Republicans would be apoplectic.

In fact, there is a clear record of GOP outrage over far less troubling behavior on Clinton’s part. Republicans saw foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation as a serious national security concern.

They also vilified her for not heeding warnings about the vulnerability of the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, that was attacked by terrorists in 2012.

Now the same public that was whipped into a frenzy over Clinton is expected to passively  accept Trump’s behavior?....                     

There is movement among the Electoral College.

It is a movement to draft a president. Michael Bloomberg may find himself in the Oval Office. The lawsuit is probably correct and it would not take place in any other year. The electors want to be free to decide the outcome of the Electoral College vote.

The idea behind some of the restrictions with the electors is the realization that the state runs elections. So, if the state is responsible for 'the vote' the laws that restrict electors is based in state's rights. It should be interesting to see if the restrictions hold up or are constitutional.

December 16, 2016
By Claudia Melendez Salinas

...And he filed a lawsuit (click here) that would allow him to do just that. The lawsuit, filed Friday against California state officials in the U.S. Northern California District Court, says that the requirement that Californian presidential electors vote for their party’s nominee violates the Constitution and the Founders intent to have the Electoral College be an independent, deliberative body.

If Koller or other electors “don’t toe the party line, if they don’t vote along with their party, they could either be replaced or imprisoned,” Koller’s attorney Melody Kramer said. “This is a unique election cycle, and there’s some speculation that some of the Republican and Democratic electors may choose some moderate Republican if they can all agree with it.”

And the names that are being circulated? Mitt Romney, John Kasich, or Michael Bloomberg, Koller said.

“I suspect others are being discussed, but those are the names I heard so far,” he said.

Koller is the third presidential elector to sue in an effort to cast his vote independent of the party. A similar lawsuit was filed earlier last week in Colorado by two Democratic electors, according to Politico.

He’s also co-signed a letter along with nine other electors asking U.S. intelligence officials for more information regarding Russia’s alleged interference with the elections.

The electors should act to protect citizen's rights.

Malcolm Nance is a highly decorated officer that has put his life on the line for the USA. That gives him status others do not have.

He spoke passionately tonight about the elections of 2016 and he wants the "Electoral College" to do the right thing and place someone other than Trump in the presidency.

Malcolm W. Nance was a career counterterrorism and intelligence officer for the U.S. government’s Special Operations, Homeland Security, and Intelligence agencies, with over 33 years of experience in combatting radical extremism. An honorably retired U.S. Navy Arabic-speaking intelligence collections operator, field interrogator, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape specialist and founder of the Advanced Terrorism, Abduction and Hostage Survival School, he spent more than two decades on clandestine antiterrorism and counterterrorism intelligence operations in the Middle East North Africa, the Balkans, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa in direct support of the Special Operations and Intelligence Community. On the morning of 9/11, he eyewitnessed the attack on the Pentagon and became a first responder at the crash site....

He didn't come out to talk about his book. The book is testament to his dedication to the country.

"The Plot to Hack America" (click here)

Malcolm Nance and Michael Moore were on television tonight to make a pleas for the country to the "Electoral College." They believe it is time to make a stand. I happen to agree.

The Electoral College needs to uphold the dignity of  our constitution and not allow it to be scoffed at rather than revered. I think the country needs heroes and the Electoral College has to accept the country is in danger with a man that has no use for USA intelligence.

Malcolm Nance should ask Vice President Joe Biden to allow him to speak to the electors along with the CIA. I can't believe he has had the insight to write this book before the end of the election.

The electors have to be explained the law and the consequences of a poorly qualified president. The CIA has a responsibility to the American people to supply opinion based in fact to the electors. They have to know the consequences in not acting for the best outcome of the country.

This is controversial, but, so is the President-Elect. Donald Trump thrives on controversy and the USA does not. End the travesty and elect a candidate that matters.

"Tromp" was the name Nostradamus used.

I don't want to make light of such an important topic, but, a friend called me while I was returning home and stated he had been moved to read some of Nostradamus and he could not believe what he read.

He said, the name "Tromp" was used by Nostradamus to describe the entity that would win the elections of 2016. He went on to say, "Tromp" would cause a great war.

I don't believe in superstition and I primarily see Nostradamus as superstition. But, it is very difficult to deny Nostradamus has been correct on more than one occasion and this is just plain creepy.

While many agree that Nostradamus (click here) predicted some of the most tumultuous and destructive events in history (including World War II and 9/11), there is a growing body of evidence that points to Nostradamus predicting the winner of this year's Presidential Election. Nostradamus consistently references an epic battle between a "Masculine Woman" who is also referred to as "the Queen", or "The Blonde One", and one who is a "great shameless, audacious bawler." He also refers to a "rigged election", a term that has become a hallmark of the 2016 election. Now by breaking Nostradamus' code and searching for clues we can reveal that not only does he predict the outcome of this year's battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Drumpf, but he also foretells a time of great trouble in the wake of this historic election.

The southern hemisphere is expected to experience their hottest summer yet.

The continent usually on fire is Australia. I think this is somewhat new for New Zealand. I have been reading about New Zealand for decades. I don't recall such danger in the lives of Kiwis before.

December 14, 2016

Residents near Matakana (click here) are being evacuated as a pine forest blaze rages out of control.

More than 70 firefighters, 17 appliances and two helicopters are responding to the fire which is believed to be a burnoff that is out of control in Wright Rd.

A house was evacuated earlier and now residents on Quiet Rise are also being evacuated.

The Fire Service said on Twitter that the blaze was "a major vegetation fire" which is "out of control in Matakana"....

There is also good news out of New Zealand. The good news is the resiliency of their young people.

December 14, 2016

Researchers (click here) who conducted a major study to examine the effects of the Canterbury earthquakes on school leavers have been left scratching their heads after they "unexpectedly" found no negative trends.

The absence of negative effects on teenagers leaving high school when the 2010 and 2011 quake sequence struck has been put down to a word that many politicians now infamously associate with Cantabrians: "resilient".

There has been widespread research on the negative effects of natural disasters on mental health, including the increased rates of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

However, four researchers from the department of psychological medicine at the University of Otago said little research has to date been done into how disasters affect school leavers - at a time of increasing independence, often away from family....

Hottest night in 150 years in . There was a reason why I never read this type of issue before. 150 years. I haven't lived that long. Yet. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

December 14, 2016
By Debra Killalea

Sydney sweltered through its hottest December night (click here) in almost 150 years as the mercury refused to budge to acceptable levels.

Fans and air conditioners copped a workout and hundreds hit the beach last night as the mercury dipped to between 22C -28C across much of Sydney.

At midnight the temperature was still a warm 27C at Observatory Hill while Penrith in Sydney's west reached a slightly cooler 27C.

The last time it was anywhere near this hot was in December 1972 when the mercury hit 26.3C overnight.

At 6am this morning the temperature at Sydney Harbour was already 29C....

Now, admittedly, 29 Celsius is 84.2 Fahrenheit. So, what is the big deal? The very big deal is that these are NIGHT TIME temperatures. It isn't cooling off when the sun goes down. As a matter of fact, as the sun rose the next day it was already warmer than any hour at night.

This is a troubling reality.

December 14, 2016
By Peter Hannam

Possums, bird calls and a midnight surge (click here) in the mercury in some coastal regions served as impromptu alarm clocks as overnight temperature records tumbled.

Sydney posted its highest minimum for December since 1868 at 27.1 degrees, and the second highest for any month....

...Coastal regions, such as Albion Park near Wollongong, reported remarkable temperature movements. That site recorded a 10-degree jump in an hour soon after midnight - including 5 degrees in just three minutes....

The temperature increase on the coast jumped 10 degrees Celcius in an hour.

AN HOUR.

There were three minutes when the temperature jumped 5 degrees Celcius. The media is giving lessons in survival of heat exhaustion.

The temperature image (click here) to the right is from the Australian satellite of the "Weather Zone" at 1434 edt. 

The map is Australia and lows and highs temperature.

Australia, Sydney in particular, is receiving air from the Equator off Indonesia. Everywhere in Australia where the temperatures are unkind there is air movement from the Equator.

13 December 2016
1630 utc
Infrared (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)

There is also three very low pressure systems south of Australia realized in the image below. They are 959 and 972 and 977 millibars. Those are very low pressures.

Below is a clear understanding of at least two of those low pressure areas. 

There is still yet another image two hours before that show some degree of understanding of the three low pressure systems, but, the systems are not as well defined as in the one at 2300 utc.

My computer screen is not the size at NOAA and NASA, but, I think these are the two low pressure systems to the left in this water vapor composite of Antarctica.

13 December 2016
2300 utc

There is one definitely (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you) off New Zealand and the other is further west. 

The last time I saw such low pressure systems was 2003, I believe. It was a hurricane that came from New Zealand's region traveling westward. It's final destination was WAIS. Right on the peninsula where a huge amount of ice melted. The melt reached to depth. NASA has the picture.

13 December 2016
2100 utc

Looking at this it is my sincerest hope the low pressure systems will resolve, even if that means loss of Antarctica ice. When that occurs the movement of hot air across Australia will move west off the continent's west coast where it usually has been.

The heat is so specific that it can be avoided if people move out from under it. The sticky point here is of course the fact Sydney is a very large city and needs to function. The idea people can move in mass out from under a heat flow seems silly, but, in the USA we do abandon cities when huge hurricanes are going to land over populations of people causing death and injury.

When realizing the temperatures moved quickly upward makes sense now looking at the air movement from the equator. It is very unexpected and shocking and it can be scary for people. This is NOT NORMAL. This is a heat transfer from the equator to the ice continent. I sincerely look forward to some resolve to this air pattern so the good people of Sydney can return to a more normal life.