Did DeVos bring a check with her to the speaker's podium? For the school, that is.

How did she ever come to speak after playing politics with African American lives. The students are correct and I strongly object to any coercion to stop them from protesting.

May 13, 2017

By Anya Kamenetz

...Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' (click here) first commencement address since taking office was interrupted by persistent boos when she addressed graduates at a private, Christian, historically black university in Florida. About half the graduates turned their backs on the secretary in protest. At one point the school's president, Edison O. Jackson, warned students he'd mail them their diplomas if the jeering continued. That led to only a brief pause.

DeVos has made missteps when it comes to historically black colleges, as we reported:

"Earlier this year, DeVos called HBCUs 'real pioneers when it comes to school choice,' a remark she was forced to walk back after protests; in fact, these colleges were founded as the only option for students when other colleges were still legally segregated. Just this week, DeVos found herself clarifying comments by President Trump that seemed to suggest that a key form of funding for HBCUs might be unconstitutional."...   

I didn't check this reference well, but, it seems to have the correct focus. It is called racism.

The First HBCUs (click here) 

Before the Civil War, higher education for African American students was virtually nonexistent. The few who did receive schooling, such as Fredrick Douglass, often studied in informal and sometimes hostile settings. Some were forced to teach themselves entirely. Some schools for elementary and secondary training existed, such as the Institute for Colored Youth, a school started in the early 1830s by a group of Philadelphia Quakers. A college education was also available to a limited number of students at schools like Oberlin College in Ohio and Berea College in Kentucky....

Additionally, Ms. DeVos must not have heard of Brown v. Board of Education (click here). See, the African American population was never sincerely embraced by many Whites, primarily in the South. Separate but equal. Thurgood Marshall.

The African American community has a proud heritage of valuing education and having scholars, but, it wasn't because of a choice to exclude Caucasians from their schools as the focus. These weren't charter schools to experiment with segregation.

Ms. DeVos needs to apologize to the African American community and grow a little humility in her obvious racism included in her politics.

Flint, Michigan motivated an entire country.

There has been some random violence lately, a 17 year old is dead because of a bullet through his head while riding his bicycle and there was a lock down of a school when shots were heard.

Guns and violence do not solve problems. I am sorry to hear such issues exist in a town still trying to recover from an abuse of government. This is not the way to do it. Burning a truck is not the way to do this.

For as hard as it is being in Flint and realizing the tragedy that occurred; Flint was a wake up call to the country. Since this tragedy there are people all over this country asking questions. Flint's tragedy is now saving lives. An example is Waco, Texas which ignored lead findings in water two years ago. (click here) Waco still has lead paint leaching into ground water. Do you know how long ago it was that lead in paint was banned?

The picture is "White Lead" paint. White paint with a lead base. Look closely, it says it right on the label, "Basic Carbonate White Lead." 1978. That was the year lead in paint was banned and it is still in the living environment of children in Waco, Texas. Flint is do this. Flint is making people pay attention to injustice. It is happening around the country because Flint's problem is so very heinous and unnecessary. Flint, Michigan has every reason to be proud of standing up for justice. The people of Flint have a great Mayor. The people need to unite in recognizing the difference they have made in lives across this entire country.

May 12, 2017
By Ron Fonger

Flint, MI -- Vandals burned a truck (click here) and smashed windows of vehicles set to replace water service lines on Friday, May 12, setting back work that's being done on Flint's north side.

Mayor Karen Weaver said a crew with WT Stevens Construction Inc. discovered the damage when they showed up at a staging area where equipment had been left in a parking lot behind the shuttered Bryant Elementary School.

"I don't know what a motive could be," Weaver said at the site on East Pierson Road in Flint's 1st Ward. "When they are caught, they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Police and Stevens employees were also on the scene Friday, assessing the damage and looking for clues....

What's new with Russia, Rex? Arctic drilling? So much for sanctions.

First get rid of Comey, then meet with Russian Foreign Minister followed by flight to Alaska to insure drilling territory; while Russia is building up it's military affront to the USA in the Arctic Ocean.

How do you spell ignoramus? ExxonMobile, that is how you spell it. Under the guise of oil cooperation the Russians are repopulating it's military capacity against the USA.

May 12, 2017

Fairbanks, Alaska (Reuters) - As foreign ministers (click here) from countries with territory in the far North celebrated an agreement on fighting climate change this week, one topic seethed below the surface: growing competition for Arctic resources and sea lanes as the ice melts.

Russia, one of eight members of the Arctic Council which includes the United States, Canada and the Nordic countries, has been pouring money and missiles into the Arctic as well as reopening and building bases there. This is bringing its Arctic military presence to the highest level since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Although the Arctic Council does not officially consider security issues, the topic was on the minds of policy makers....

No apologies, Crimea is under siege by Russia. Let's get this straight. The Russians don't need oil. It is ExxonMobile that needs money.

12 May 2017
A fighter jet (click here) was scrambled to intercept a US reconnaissance plane over neutral waters of the Black Sea on May 9, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed on Friday.

“After approaching a plane at a safe distance the Russian pilot visually identified the flying object as a US surveillance plane P-8A Poseidon,” the Russian military said.

The Russian pilot “greeted” the US pilots with a special maneuver, after which the US plane changed its course away from the Russian border....

Kodiak Island is within the continental United States. What were Russian jet fighters doing buzzing Gizzly Bears?

...Indeed, these incidents are not rare. In April, two Russian Tu-95 planes were intercepted by US F-22s, about 100 miles from Alaska’s Kodiak Island, and the Pentagon said the Russian bombers were escorted for the full 12 minutes by US jets as they were in international airspace, with spokesman Navy Commander Gary Ross noting their “safe and professional” conduct.

In February, two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers were monitored by Royal Air Force jets northeast of Britain.

Moscow has repeatedly expressed surprise at such zealous attention given by NATO members to routine operations.

Russian nuclear weapons can easily be delivered to the lower 48 without a problem from flying over Kodiak, Alaska. The USA military was asleep at the switch and/or distracted completely by North Korea.

Where was everybody!?!?!? I know where the residents of the island were.

Jeff Sessions is out of line and shows his racist leanings in a speech he made today. I am surprised everyone in the room didn't fall asleep for the length of time it took.

All Sessions had to do was give police a few atta-boys and leave the stage. But, no, not him. He had to give a speech that nearly rewrote the USA Constitution.

He is so old world in his ideas of justice, it is hard to understand why Columbus wasn't arrested when he arrived on North American shores.



May 12, 2017
By Colin Dwyer

...He elaborated (click here) on the memo in a brief speech to the Sergeants Benevolent Association of New York City, which honored him with an award Friday in Washington, D.C.

"Charging and sentencing recommendations are bedrock responsibilities of any prosecutor. And I trust our prosecutors in the field to make good judgments," Sessions said. "They deserve to be unhandcuffed and not micromanaged from Washington."

Holder had asked prosecutors to avoid slapping nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that carried mandatory minimum sentences, practices that, as NPR's Tamara Keith explains, "give judges and prosecutors little discretion over the length of a prison term if a suspect is convicted." Holder's recommendation had been aimed partly at helping reduce burgeoning prison populations in the U.S....

I am not surprised by this vote and no one else should be either. The petroleum industry has been completely remiss in protecting human life.

Pruitt's nomination for the EPA was narrowly approved. He should pay attention to that. The Republicans that voted with Democrats knew it was the right thing to do and have political capital. 

May 10, 2017
By Juliet Eilperin and Chelsea Harvey

The site (click here) of the massive natural gas leak, near Los Angeles.

The Senate on Wednesday (click here) narrowly blocked a resolution to repeal an Obama-era rule restricting methane emissions from drilling operations on public lands — with three Republicans joining every Democrat to preserve the rule.

The 51-to-49 vote on a procedural motion marked the first time since Trump’s election that Republicans have failed in their attempt to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn Obama-era rules. Thirteen other resolutions, based on the 1996 law that allows Congress to overturn rules within 60 legislative workdays of their adoption, have succeeded.

Thursday is the deadline for using the Congressional Review Act this way.

The methane emissions rule, issued by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management in November, addresses a potent greenhouse gas that is accelerating climate change.

The rule would force oil and gas companies to capture methane that had been previously burned off or “flared” at drilling sites. According to federal estimates, the rule would prevent roughly 180,000 tons a year of methane from escaping into the atmosphere and would boost federal revenue between $3 million and $13 million a year because firms only pay royalties on the oil and gas they capture and contain.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) unexpectedly voted no against a motion to proceed with consideration of the resolution, along with GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). Two Democrats who had considered backing the rule’s elimination — Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia — voted against the motion, and sent a letter asking Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to make it less burdensome....

The California leak was the largest in USA history.

...On Wednesday California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency and called for "all necessary and viable actions" to stop it.

More than 10,000 people have been moved from their homes and many people have reported nausea and headaches.

A further estimated 7,000 are now in the evacuation process, according to SoCal Gas....

The leak displaced an entire town and buildings had to be closed. If that isn't enough the area was highly explosive and the gas company lucked out nothing exploded. I can only imagine the emergency managers running around turning off every lit gas flame in every oven or water heater in the city. IT WAS CRAZY!

And what did Southern Cal say? "It says the gas being pumped into the atmosphere, which includes methane, is not a threat to public safety."

The corruption under Pruitt is thicker than pea soup.

February 22, 2017
By Alexander C. Kaufman, Ben Walsh, Chris D'Angelo

...The public release of the emails (click here) was ordered last week by a judge in Oklahoma and comes just five days after the Senate narrowly voted to confirm Pruitt as EPA administrator. Pruitt’s nomination faced fierce protests from environmentalists and some Democrats, who argued that his confirmation vote should be delayed until after the release of the emails.

The emails reveal a chummy relationship between Pruitt and the companies whose pollution he’s now tasked with reining in. The document dump sheds new light on Pruitt’s frequent strategizing with Devon Energy Corporation, the Oklahoma City-based oil and gas giant. Pruitt’s ties to the company, uncovered in a similar email dump published in 2014 by The New York Times, became a flashpoint during his confirmation process. In particular, critics railed against Pruitt’s 2011 decision to allow the company to write a three-page complaint to the EPA under his letterhead....

Who care if Trump has tapes. This is the country.

May 12, 2017
By Phillip Bump

We have more (click here) than enough evidence that he's vile and unfit for the presidency.

President Trump (click here) issued a not-terribly-veiled threat to former FBI director James B. Comey in a tweet Friday morning.

For a guy who has spent the past week being compared to Richard Nixon for firing a man who was investigating his campaign, it was an odd threat to level. Nixon, of course, was undone in part by the things that he recorded himself saying in the Oval Office. Which raises an interesting question: Do presidents still record those conversations? Does Trump?...

Comey can only improve his reputation and game from here. He violated the instructions from US Attorney General Loretta Lynch. There isn't anything he can do on any tape that is going to worse than his compete disregard of American protocol in regard to elections. 

If Comey knows something he needs to say something !

Is it known the attacks resulted from a program exclusively operated by the USA?

May 12, 2017

By Dan Bilefsky and Nicole Perlroth

London — Hackers using a tool stolen (click here) from the United States government conducted extensive cyberattacks on Friday that hit dozens of countries around the world, severely disrupting Britain’s public health system and wreaking havoc on computers elsewhere, including Russia.

Hospitals in Britain appeared to be the most severely affected by the attacks, which aimed to blackmail computer users by seizing their data. The attacks blocked doctors’ access to patient files and forced emergency rooms to divert people seeking urgent care.

Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity firm, said it had recorded at least 45,000 attacks in as many as 74 countries.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks, but the acts deeply alarmed cybersecurity experts and underscored the enormous vulnerabilities faced by disjointed networks of computer systems around the world....

It seems to me no matter the creator of the attacks, it was recognizing a widely used security software. Snowden would not know the program in question? This can't be that much of a mystery. There have to be common denominators somewhere.

I think it was Russia and it's secret weapons, Mr. Snowden. I have stated over and over it is foolish not to bring him home. The USA should be negotiating with his legal team to end this mess.

17 December 2015

Russian software security giant Kaspersky Lab (click here) has formed a strategic partnership with a Chinese state-own company as Beijing and Moscow work more closely in policing their cyberspace.

The deal was signed on Wednesday at one of the panel meetings of China’s second World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province.

Hours before the meeting, President Xi Jinping  gave a keynote speech stressing the need for a new set of global rules on the use of the internet and the importance of respecting cyber-sovereignty. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who also attended the event, supported Xi.

At the internet security panel meeting in the afternoon, Eugene Kaspersky – founder of the Russian software security giant that bears his name – signed a deal with the China Cyber Security Company. The two sides did not elaborate on the extent of their cooperation....

           

It is winter in New Zealand. This is like Superstorm Sandy, EXCEPT, Sandy was a category 1, it is estimated Donna is a category 3.

WARNINGS AND WATCHES (click here) IN FORCE FOR PARTS OF THE NORTH ISLAND 

Northland to Manawatu, including Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty and the central high country

Rain with some heavy falls, clearing this evening or overnight and becoming fine. Possible downpours and southeasterly gales for eastern Bay of Plenty today.

Gisborne and Hawkes Bay

Rain with heavy falls, easing to scattered showers tomorrow morning.

Horowhenua, Kapiti Coast, Wellington and Wairarapa

A few showers, clearing tomorrow evening.

Marlborough north of Seddon, also Nelson, Buller and Westland

Fine.

Marlborough south of Seddon, and Canterbury

Cloudy with a few showers, clearing tomorrow afternoon and becoming fine.

Otago, Southland and Fiordland

Cloudy periods and isolated showers, becoming confined to coastal Southland tonight.

Chatham Islands

Rain easing to occasional showers this evening.

This is Cyclone Donna on May 8th. (click here)

The government (click here) of Vanuatu reported damage to homes, buildings, food crops and a cell phone tower in the northern Torres Island group of Vanuatu, according to Radio New Zealand. 

Philip Klotzbach

TC #Donna has now strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane (cyclone) with max winds of 115 knots - the strongest May Southern Hemisphere TC on record.

5:09 PM - 7 May 2017
Walnut Creek, CA

Is it true? Is Michael Moore one of the riders of the apocalypse? Some at the Traverse City Film Festival believes it might be so.

Michael Moore will be doing the impossible; he'll be in two places at once. It will be quite a trick when he carries it off.

...So here's my contribution: I've written a one-man play, a piece of original theater that I will perform on Broadway this summer to people visiting from Iowa to Oregon to Virginia (and for those who call New York home). It's not "Cats" or "Mamma Mia!" but it is live, it's on a stage and I'll be saying and doing things each night that I've been wanting to say uncensored for some time. And I'll be doing it in the city that is the seat of corporate power, the headquarters of Wall Street, the epicenter of our media and that wonderful home of free expression we call the American theater. This show will be subversive and funny and it'll be unlike anything I've ever done. I think you're really going to like it!...

Mr. Moore put your latest email on the State Website under "Mike's Letter" so everyone knows where you are during the festival.

Please.

Congratulations, Michael! I think it is great. He has been moving in the direction of a one man show for awhile now. While there was a "Winter Festival" he put on a stage production that was at least an hour in length if I recall. So, this venue is a move where Michael Moore has wanted to take his talents. 

He is very talented. He is quite an artist. He paints in oils, I think. He composes documentaries, rights comical scripts, sings (especially Irish songs), writes books and is a magnificent master of ceremonies every year at a film festival that sponsors independent filmmakers from all over the world. It is also a platform for young artists. As a matter of fact anyone who has a 'short' (click here) they want to have viewed by the master can send it to the festival. The submissions have to be in by May 15th. Send it overnight and hurry.

November 16, 2017

By Sean Martin

There is a one in 500 chance (click here) there is a global catastrophe on the horizon which will spell the end of humanity, according to a leading statistician.

A new report claims that there is a 02. percent chance the an apocalyptic event will happen this year, leading to the end of the world.

–– ADVERTISEMENT ––

University of Barcelona mathematician Fergus Simpson says that as the population continues to increase, the chance of humanity being wiped out increases.

The report is based on the theory of the Doomsday Argument – a theory that essentially states that as humans are born in the random order, one person is born roughly in the middle....

Michael Moore does not know there is trouble with staffing for the festival. Everyone involved with TCFF is talking about going to the opening and then a day or two afterward. It is the end of the world for some witnessing the "Exodus (click here)."

I am thinking the festival needs a formal "Master of Ceremonies."

Tickets for the New York Show (click here)

Seriously, there needs to be a simulcast at the TCFF venue. Perhaps the "Open Space." LOL. But, seriously there needs to be an opening night simulcast at "The State" and "The Bijou." 

Good luck, Michael. I find your ambition most admiral and I wish you the best. I am sure the entire group involved with TCFF and the theaters feel the same way. I hope it is a hit to your satisfaction.

Word on weather danger from a real democracy that reflects its values and it's lead around by the nose by Wall Street.

New Zealanders are affectionately called Kiwis. They live on two tiny islands in the South Pacific very near Antarctica. It is a frequent stop over for scientists being ferried to and from their deep cold stations.

They are a fierce ally of the USA and Australia. They are a resilient people with sturdy infrastructure and stare down danger when these enormous storms envelope their country.

May 11, 2017

Bay of Plenty Civil Defence (click here) and Tairawhiti Civil Defence have issued heavy rain warnings for the region as the remnants of Cyclone Donna bring torrential rain to much of the North Island.
The ex-cyclone is expected to bring more than a month's worth of rain in two days for some areas.
Rainfall will be heaviest in the Bay of Plenty and Gisborne, with falls of up to 250mm in the ranges and 100-140mm elsewhere in the region.
The rain is expected to fall between 9pm tonight and 6am Friday.
A MetService heavy rain warning is also in place for Waitomo and Taupo across to Whanganui, as well as the Coromandel Peninsula. Those areas can expect another 70-90mm of rain overnight, with peak rainfall to reach 25-35mm in an hour.

Rising rivers and streams, slips and surface flooding are all possible....

I would expect the USA government to be keeping a close watch on New Zealand to see what needs are not being met and to offer help in whatever way New Zealand needs it, WITHOUT black mail or coercion.

May 8, 2017
By Doyle Rice

Tropical Cyclone Donna, (click here) packing 120-mph winds, is bearing down on the French territory of New Caledonia in the south Pacific.
On Sunday, as its winds soared to 130 mph, Donna became the most powerful tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere in the month of May, according to Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach.
As of midday Monday U.S. time, the storm was the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale and was moving to the southeast at 9 mph. Tropical cyclones are the same types of storms as hurricanes or typhoons....

President Trump has NO RIGHT to use his board room tactics against any country, especially allies!

Manafort wasn't just an unfortunate choice. He was the canary in the coal mine.

Trump put in a great performance. Every "Shucks, I got it wrong," wasn't a reflection of a flaw in judgement, so much as the next act.

August 21, 2016
By Kevin D. Williamson

...Trump has just fired his campaign manager, (click here) Paul Manafort, who, if recently unearthed documents are to be believed, is in the pocket of pro-Moscow oligarchs in Ukraine. Reports the New York Times: “Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from [former president Viktor] Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau.” Desks rose a few inches in the oubliettes of the Internal Revenue Service at that news, surely.

There is also a criminal investigation under way regarding an $18 million sale of Ukrainian cable-television operations to “a partnership put together by Mr. Manafort and a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin.”...

Those Americans that backed him from The Apprentice to the White House didn't count on Russia. If they did then they knew more than anyone else and we all need to be reading more tabloids.

See, Trump was hurt by what he considered a dear friend. Now, his vital campaign manager would turn out to be a traitor and what was poor, injured Trump going to do?

That is the persona the USA saw, but, it wasn't the truth and today it is an astounding set of values Americans are witnessing in the White House; the selling out of the USA and it's military prowess to protect allies and defeat foes.

Facilitated by greed, Khruschev has won. Russia is no different than al Qaeda; it is using the political infrastructures, rather than tall buildings, of The West to defeat democracy.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (click here)

Holding: Political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment, and the government may not keep corporations or unions from spending money to support or denounce individual candidates in elections. While corporations or unions may not give money directly to campaigns, they may seek to persuade the voting public through other means, including ads, especially where these ads were not broadcast.

Judgment: Reversed, 5-4, in an opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy on January 21, 2010. in a 5-4 decision with an opinion written by Justice Kennedy. Justice Stevens dissented, joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor.

Putin is promising openly he will escalate the number of nuclear weapons owned by Russia. He is destroying treaties. He is an impatient man.

Two rare simultaneous phenomena are occurring off Antarctica. The katabatic winds are causing dragon skin ice to form.

Philadelphia is wondering if the crack in the "Liberty Bell" is getting wider with each passing day of the Trump White House.

May 10, 2017

By Will Bunch

The Tuesday Night Massacre (click here) doesn't have quite the right ring, but then the sequel is almost never as satisfying as the original.

Nearly 44 years ago, Richard Nixon touched off what many of us had hoped would be the worst constitutional crisis of our lifetimes when he fired not only the special prosecutor investigating his Watergate scandal but also the attorney general and his No. 2, in the notorious Saturday Night Massacre. But that 1973 misadventure had what most Americans considered a happy ending. The investigative pressure on Nixon only increased, and he resigned 10 months later. The system worked, everybody said.

On May 9, 2017, President Trump shocked the nation by firing FBI director James Comey -- just weeks after Comey confirmed that his agents have been conducting a lengthy ongoing criminal investigation into whether Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia in hacking emails that damaged his election rival, Hillary Clinton.

There is absolutely no guarantee that the ending of this sequel will be as upbeat as things turned out in the days after October 20, 1973. Our politics are more narrow, partisan and divisive, our media is more muddled, and our voters already proved last November that not all Americans are terrified by the prospect of authoritarian-style government in Washington....

It looks like the weld is still holding. Such a worry the country has never had before. How does anyone relate to a loss of a democracy and the existence of a plutocracy? I can hear them rolling over in their graves. The founders of our country left a Plutocracy run by an imperial regnant for a country of rag-tag misfits that proved to be more powerful than any existing military could oppress.

We have lost our culture of humble people in pursuit of magic such as a free country, democratic government and free exploration by science. We have lost who we truly are. We have lost our strong sense of equity rather than greed. We have lost the truth about America and replaced it with political lies that are to break the USA Constitution and instill a theocracy. Money can buy anything, including, the land of a free country to be replaced by an ideological dream of power over people used to freedom.

Peaceful genocide is removing liberty, not celebrating liberty. There is no liberty in oppression.

Trump is the fear of our founders. He is king. The power of the people is being diluted and removed.

Being a "she" is not a disease.

May 10, 2017
By Laurel Wamsley

Australian Greens party Sen. Larissa Waters breast-feeds her baby, Alia Joy, during a session in the Senate Chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Tuesday.

Years from now, (click here) a girl named Alia Joy will have a claim to fame to tell at summer camp: She was the first baby to be breast-fed on the floor of Australia's Parliament.

Her mother is Greens party co-deputy leader Larissa Waters, who was returning to Parliament after giving birth to her second child a few weeks ago, according to The Sydney Morning Herald....

This is how a country begins to break up the big banks.

By Peter Wells

...This levy (click here) would apply to about A$2.6tn in liabilities including senior bonds, covered bonds, subordinated bonds and all retail deposits above A$250,000 per individual, and raise A$6.2bn for the government over four years, Mr Morrison said.

Shares in Australia’s four big banks — which reported combined profits of A$30bn in the 2015-16 financial year — fell on Wednesday, extending a decline that the previous day wiped A$14bn from their combined market cap.

Analysts said lenders would probably pass the tax on to their customers by increasing mortgage rates. But Treasury officials were gambling that it would be difficult for banks to do so, because if the big banks cut deposit rates or lifted interest rates, smaller banks not subject to the levy would fill the gap with more competitive offerings.

Morgan Stanley analysts estimated that the “proposed bank levy would reduce major bank earnings by about 4.5 per cent before any repricing offsets” and would strip about 1.6 percentage points off the Australian stock market’s earnings per share....

The levy, every year, will absorb the high end amounts of greed obtained by the banks. It will return the levy to reduce the national debt and enforce the sovereign authority of Australia.

It is not going to break the backs of any bank; it tempers their profit margin into a realism that prevents over reach, mergers and irresponsible investing; ie: The London Whale. If the money is not floating in the banking system it cannot be spent.

In recent years, we have witnessed merger after merger to bring asset strength into the financial markets in "debt to asset" ratio. It is ridiculous to think this form of financial leadership is good for any country OR ANY COMPANY. Countries cannot escalate their value to create an authority greater than the sovereign. A country must resolve it's debt and maintain control of it's borders and any greed that goes on within those borders that is adverse to the citizens.

This decision by Australia did not happen overnight. It occurred in the years since 2008 and provides for a stronger Australia and a better and more comfortable home for it's citizens.

In case no one notices, Trump has modeled himself after Putin. "Popular Strongman"

Comey is out and the first White House visitor today is Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He met with Trump and Tillerson. The White House is for sale.

There are no rules or regulations. That is a "For Sale" sign if I ever saw one.

This may seem like nothing, but, I think Ukraine is correct in banning images that will seek to influence favoritism to Russia.

NATO does not need to send troops to Afghanistan, it needs to send troops to Ukraine's eastern border to secure the country and protect Europe.

5 May 2017
by Alec Luhn

Ukraine (click here) has banned American action movie star Steven Seagal as a national security threat, making him the latest of several cultural figures to be blacklisted.

The Ukrainian security service said it had forbidden Seagal entry to the country for five years, in a letter published by the news site Apostrophe. The service’s press secretary later confirmed the ban to other media....

Everyone knows Putin embraces any strong man willing to be an icon in Russia. Steven Seagal needs to think through his continued endorsement of Russian leaders.

3 April 2017

Ukraine...

• ...Dialogue and cooperation (click here) started after the end of the Cold War, when newly independent Ukraine joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (1991) and the Partnership for Peace programme (1994).
• Relations were strengthened with the signing of the 1997 Charter on a Distinctive Partnership, which established the NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC) to take cooperation forward.
• Cooperation has deepened over time and is mutually beneficial with Ukraine being the only partner to have contributed actively to all NATO-led operations and missions.
• Priority is given to support for comprehensive reform in the security and defence sector, which is vital for Ukraine’s democratic development and for strengthening its ability to defend itself.
• In response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, NATO has reinforced its support for capability development and capacity building in Ukraine.

The USA had dialogue and cooperation with Russia, but, with the invasion into Ukraine and broken treaties that ended years ago. There was no place for Russia's foreign minister in the White House today or any other day. It is an outrage.

The international community is far from ignoring Ukraine's eastern border and the robbing of Crimea.

May 9, 2017

Few Russian citizens (click here) view the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine as unlawful.

Not many Russian servicemen realize that when they are fighting there, they fight as unnamed, faceless soldiers who lack the protection of international pacts, including the Geneva Conventions.

They not only risk death, injury, or abandonment by the state that sent them there, they also risk becoming war criminals.

The Kremlin has dragged Russia’s army into actions that, legally, can only be carried out by subversive special forces....

Ukraine at some point has to harden it's eastern borders and end the siege in Crimea.

Quite frankly, the USA in NATO's Afghanistan is not helpful. They facilitate citizen's deaths, first with the attack on a hospital and lately moving military hardware into the country's capital of Kabul.

Afghanistan needs stability and the people have a political solution to firm up their sovereignty and push any threat, be it Daesh or the Taliban, from their country. The real problem and why Daesh and the Taliban are currently tolerated is the Haqquani network.

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen:

In a strong and public condemnation of Pakistan, (click here) America's most senior military officer has said the Haqqani network is a veritable arm of the country's intelligence services.

Admiral Mike Mullen told US senators that the militant group planned and conducted the recent assault on the US Embassy in Kabul with the help of the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence service.

Islamabad has denied similar accusations in the past.

If I may?

The relationship Pakistan's leadership (If you want to call the ISI leadership.) has with the Haqquani network is no different than the relationship Assad has with Hezbollah. 

Haqquani acts as a stabilizing force for Pakistan's ISI in the region. Why? Because of the tribal areas. Haqquani, no different than Hezbollah, can carry out attacks for any reason with impunity. There is a great deal of work Haqquani carries out that the Pakistan ISI cannot do due to international law.

That is the long and short of it. Haqquani blesses the Taliban and Daesh with it's permission to kill and it is carried out. It is about land, who lives on it and who has control of the crops and minerals of that land. Afghanistan produces poppies and it is sanctioned by the ILLEGAL ENTITIES within the culture of violence that is Haqquani.