Someone's husband, father, brother or son was allowed to bleed to death. That is called manslaughter.

It didn't make the national news, but, it should have. This riot is about the fifth riot in the prison, but, it is the deadliest in 25 years in all of the USA. I do believe South Carolina has four other maximum security prisons in addition to this one.

Lee Correctional facility does not have angels for guards either. Recently, there were 14 arrests made for taking bribes and smuggling contraband.

April 25, 2018

Hoping to stanch "a crisis in contraband," (click here) federal prosecutors have indicted 14 former state corrections employees accused of taking bribes for smuggling cellphones and drugs into South Carolina's prisons....

There is nothing like guards that don't know how to guard or even know and respect the law. How convenient is it for guards to allow people to die if they can become a prisoner whistleblower?

September 14, 2012
By Jeffery Collins

Columbia — Another hostage situation (click here) in just over three months at the same state maximum security prison have South Carolina senators wondering if they need to have Corrections Department officials answer questions about the facility.

Inmates held an officer for about five hours Thursday at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville. He was released with minor injuries. In the past four years, four large fights and three hostage situations have broken out at the prison.

"If it was a system-wide problem, you would be hearing about these situations at other places, right?" said Sen. Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, and a member of the Senate Corrections and Penology Committee....

Seven men were allowed to die, rather than guards ending the violence. The violence spread to three cell blocks before it stopped. Afterward, the warden stated there was not one of his men hurt. 

Well. The warden was wrong. All these men were under his supervision and care. Seven died and many wounded. The dead were piled on top of each other.

No tear gas, no nothing. The authorities in the prison simply stood by and let it happen. The riot started at 7:30 pm, the prison authorities didn't enter the prison until cell blocks until 11:30 pm where control is stated to easily return. Additional response occurred at 12:30 pm in another section and control was easily returned. The final two cell blocks came under control at 1:00 AM and prison counting began.

There was no excuse for this. If tear gas was sent into those cell blocks when the violence first started, it wouldn't have spread to other areas of the prison and seven men would still be alive.

This was one of South Carolina's maximum security prisons, that does mean everyone was on death row. Premature deaths in prisoners need investigation and prosecution.

From top row from left, Corey Scott, Eddie Casey Gaskins, Raymond Angelo Scott and Damonte Rivera; bottom row from left, Michael Milledge, Cornelius McClary and Joshua Jenkins. The seven inmates were killed, and at least 17 prisoners wounded, in a riot.

A timeline:

April 25, 2018

November 2017 (click here)

About 300 inmates are transferred to Lee Correctional Institution from McCormick Correctional Institution. Both facilities are maximum-security prisons. The transfer from McCormick occurs because that facility is understaffed. A dorm at Lee is cleared out for 250 of the inmates from McCormick. Another 50 to 60 inmates from McCormick are put in "restrictive housing" at Lee, meaning that they live in lockdown for most of each day....

...4:40 a.m.

According to Lee County Emergency Medical Services Director Tim Dubose, 12 ambulances and a bus are used to transport injured inmates to a total of five hospitals in Florence, Hartsville, Sumter and Richland County. The last of 22 inmates are transported from the prison infirmary to hospitals at 4:40 a.m....

Montana and the country needs Jon Tester.

Long before Donald Trump became a candidate, Senator Jon Tester was sponsoring and saw enacted a law that would assign reform to the USA Border, including a long needed increase in Border Patrol salaries. The immigration and USA border is not a new topic for Jon.

Jon Tester is not an obstructionist, he voted with Trump and the Republicans at least 37 times. That might not seem a lot, but, for a man with dearly little in common with skyscrapers and wheeling and dealing, that is a significant percentage.

113th CONGRESS

2d Session

S. 1691 (click here)

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE

September 19, 2014

Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committee on Homeland Security, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

AN ACT

To amend title 5, United States Code, to improve the security of the United States border and to provide for reforms and rates of pay for border patrol agents....

This isn't the only bill he wrote, sponsored and passed into law.

Tester was the primary sponsor of 12 bills that were enacted (click here). The most recent include:

S. 544: A bill to amend the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to modify the termination date for the Veterans Choice Program, and for other purposes.

S. 719 (114th): A bill to rename the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Great Falls, Montana, the Captain John E. Moran and Captain William Wylie Galt Armed Forces Reserve Center.

S. 1580 (114th): Competitive Service Act of 2015

S. 1125 (114th): Blackfeet Water Rights Settlement Act of 2015

S. 1691 (113th): Border Patrol Agent Pay Reform Act of 2014

S. 2259 (112th): Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2012S. 997 (112th): East Bench Irrigation District Water Contract Extension Act

He is a prolific writer of legislation.

Additionally, he would never act against a nominee for the VA Administration unless he was provided significant information to excuse a nominee.  I believe both Senator Tester and Dr. Ronny Jackson was set up for the sole purpose of defeating Tester's return to the US Senate.

But, with 23 different military personnel, both active and retired, it sounds as though there is legitimacy to the position of Senator Tester. He is not going to engage any form of "Trump Loyalty" in his responsibility to the American people, especially veterans.

But, for Donald Trump to use this particular issue as a campaign slogan is disturbing and is what causes me to speculate about Trump's intention in the first place. 

Senator Tester doesn't provide classification to the Russians from the Oval Office and doesn't engage in any immoral, unethical or illegal activity. He is a Senator from Montana that recognizes the need for a strong presence in Washington, DC for his constituency. 

Trump is unethical and disgusting to seek out a campaign slogan against Senator Tester, when it was his own lack of judgment and preparation of a US Cabinet Secretary that put Dr. Jackson in a very awkward position.

Mostly what bothered me about Trump was his idea of a "High Quality Family." Really? Are there few high quality families in the USA that this one was so special? 

An award winning whistleblower.

The Goldman Environmental Prize (click here)

The entire episode with Synder's emergency manager law was insane. People had no idea at all what was occurring and why they were ill. That is maniacal. That is absolutely maniacal. No statements to the public, no mailings of the change of water, no town forums. It is absolutely maniacal.

April 27, 2018
By Sydney Stevens

After local authorities began relying on the Flint River as a water source, LeeAnne Walters and her family experienced health problems. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to uncover the real source of the problem.

LeeAnne Walters (click here) was a stay-at-home mother of four living in Flint, Michigan, when she and her children began noticing troubling health problems in the spring of 2014. Her 3-year-old twins kept breaking out in strange, burning rashes after their bath, and she and her daughters started losing clumps of hair in the shower. Her 14-year-old son was hospitalized several times for severe abdominal pains. At one point, Walters’ eyelashes fell out.

So let me get this right. The USA House Chaplain made a speech regarding the poor and Ryan forced his resignation.

A USA Democrat needs to invite him back to give a complete speech to the entire USA House on the pervasive nature of the poor and the loss of the American Dream and the racist reality due to socioeconomic stagnation. Additionally, some real shaming needs to be stated about White Supremacy in the USA. Someone has to do it.

My protest, worry and alarm to this new reality regarding religious bigotry still stands.

The Panmunjeom Declaration of Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula

2018/4/27
20:01

Panmunjom, April 27 (Yonhap) -- The following (click here) is an unofficial translation of the full text of a joint declaration signed and issued by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the end of their bilateral summit held Friday at the Joint Security Area of Panmunjom inside the heavily-fortified Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.

Panmunjeom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula

During this momentous period of historical transformation on the Korean Peninsula, reflecting the enduring aspiration of the Korean people for peace, prosperity and unification, President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea held an Inter-Korean Summit Meeting at the ‘Peace House’ at Panmunjeom on April 27, 2018.

The two leaders solemnly declared before the 80 million Korean people and the whole world that there will be no more war on the Korean Peninsula and thus a new era of peace has begun.

The two leaders, sharing the firm commitment to bring a swift end to the Cold War relic of longstanding division and confrontation, to boldly approach a new era of national reconciliation, peace and prosperity, and to improve and cultivate inter-Korean relations in a more active manner, declared at this historic site of Panmunjeom as follows :

1. South and North Korea will reconnect the blood relations of the people and bring forward the future of co-prosperity and unification led by Koreans by facilitating comprehensive and groundbreaking advancement in inter-Korean relations. Improving and cultivating inter-Korean relations is the prevalent desire of the whole nation and the urgent calling of the times that cannot be held back any further....

Moving right along.

It is somewhat nostalgic to that of the Comey firing and arrival of Russians at the White House in less than a day.

Fire a Catholic Priest and release a favorable election document. Who knows what will be released after the elections.

No collusion? The Russians wouldn't step into the Oval Office without the firing of James Comey. Why is that invisible to the GOP? The Russians coming to the Oval Office, not even just the White House, but, the Oval Office and that didn't happen I suppose.

Trump violated his oath of office in revealing classified information to the Russians.

PS: Scott Pruitt might want to have the White House searched for Russian listening devises before he enters.

April 27, 201
By Jeremy Herb

President Trump revealed highly classified information (click here) to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.

The House Intelligence Committee (click here) on Friday released a redacted version of the Republican report on the committee's year-long Russia investigation, in which, GOP members say, they found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and disputed the intelligence community's findings that Vladimir Putin tried to help elect Donald Trump President.

Redacted? Why? The Russians already know what it says. They probably helped write it. Trump calls Putin often enough.

The committee released the report with redactions from the intelligence community, along with a redacted Democratic dissent disputing the Republican conclusions.

Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican who led the committee's Russia probe, said in a statement that the intelligence community made "overzealous redactions" to the report, and the committee plans to challenge them to get more of the report declassified....

For the most part, American liberals are scorned by Wall Street.

To me, that was always foolish. Liberals and progressives have some of the most cutting edge ideas that grow economies, provide hope and engage the imagination of the future.

The USA Constitution was always fascinating to me. It set free God to live among us without being controlled by the state. That is unique. The freedoms guaranteed to all Americans within the US Constitution and the Constitutional Amendments are magnificent.

I have this book in my personal library. I also have many other books, both professional, personal and political.

Within the guise of the Iraq War was the idea that terrorists live among us and we never know who or how our deaths would be guaranteed. As a result the USA military turned loose the stockpiles of military equipment and machines in excess of wasted taxpayers dollars. It was distributed to local authorities. Today, that nearly looks the same as Yanukovych's militias with a disarmed national military.

Liberals know by instinct when the government doesn't smell right. And today the USA government completely stinks.

In his 1961 farewell address, (click here) President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the growing influence of the “military-industrial complex” on American politics and policy. Interestingly, Eisenhower’s original formulation of the menace was the even more accurate “military-industrial-congressional complex.” (Emphasis added). Seeing how that network of special interests has worked its tentacles into so many aspects of American political and economic life in the intervening decades indicates just how prescient was Eisenhower’s warning.

But there has been an even more subtle and pervasive militarization of American culture. It has been evident since World War II, but it has been accelerating markedly in recent years. Perhaps the most corrosive domestic effect of the global interventionist foreign policy that Washington adopted after World War II has been on national attitudes. Americans have come to accept intrusions in the name of “national security” that they would have strongly resisted in previous decades. The various provisions of the Patriot Act and the surveillance regime and its abuses epitomized by the NSA are a case in point....

During the time of President Obama, the people were heard when they stated their government got carried away with the idea of a terrorist attack and the police were overindulged with military hardware. 

December 1, 2014
By Rebecca Caplan

In the wake of the police response (click here) to protests in Ferguson, Missouri last August, President Obama is using an executive order to standardize the way the federal government distributes military-style equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies, the White House announced Monday.

The administration is also proposing a $75 million investment to purchase 50,000 body cameras for police officers. That would be part of a three-year, $263 million package to expand training for law enforcement agencies, add more resources to reform police departments, and increase the number of cities where the Justice Department (DOJ) works to improve relations between the community and law enforcement agencies.

Mr. Obama's executive order aims to address deficiencies found in a review of those programs which he ordered in August in the wake of Michael Brown's death in Ferguson. Police wore combat gear and used armored vehicles and military-style equipment to respond to the protesters....

Most people don't follow the trends of danger to persons in a local economy. Americans have grown up in a country that has a great deal of internal peace. There is crime and everyone knows the number of guns on the street is out of control, but, for most Americans walking out to the mailbox or driving to the local grocery is still safe and uneventful.

August 27, 2018
By Tom Jackman

President Donald Trump (click here) plans to resume the transfer of surplus weapons, vehicles and other equipment from the nation’s military to its state and local law enforcement agencies, reviving a program that was sharply curtailed by President Barack Obama two years ago. The program launched in 1990 but was greatly limited after public...

Trump did more than PLAN to resume the transfer of military hardware to law enforcement, he did it. BUT, there was an article I read recently statings law enforcement, for the most part, is not reengaging the idea of a militarized country from sea to shining sea.

Now comes the perfect storm and the fact the USA's people heeded the warning about Wall Street and 2008 and invested in local economies, politics and law enforcement. I feel as though the American people do own their own cities and to that end we are successful in ending the attack by the extreme right wing to remove the US Constitution and replace it with Plutocrats and it's Wall Street rules.

Yesterday, Paul Ryan removed a Catholic Priest from spiritual leadership of the USA. That is a deep violation of the US Constitution on many counts, the least being Freedom of Religion. Freedom of Speech comes into play AS THE EXCUSE when a Catholic Priest brought up the vigilance a country should have of it's poor. I do believe there is plenty of poor and working poor in the USA and know one needs to ask God if there is a growing trend to that reality; it is written in the new tax laws.

The act of removing a Catholic Priest from spiritual leadership would have been unthinkable a decade ago and political suicide, but, yesterday it nearly went unnoticed.

The Burger Court demanded recognition of "the individual." It was before it's time considering the intense awareness globally of "the individual" and the power of the individual due to social networks. But, one thing came out of that focus and that was the separation of church and state.

The separation of church and state was always believed to protect the individual worship of a higher power. It was always believed the state could control the spiritual nature of people through nationalism. Well, it would seem that day has arrived. The deterioration started when President Clinton signed what was believed to be a very benign law that allowed federal employees to practice their faith at work with the presence of a bible on their desk. 

True to form the Republicans just couldn't leave it alone because every inch of religion that displaced law was a victory for their constituents. So, under "W," his Attorney General held bible study before work and that imposition on the federal government continues today with Pence's daily rituals. If federal government officials want to study the bible before work, do what cops do and meet at Dunkin Donuts.

Yesterday was the first shot in the war against the overthrow of the US Constitution. It won't be the last, but, what my concern is above all else is STILL the safety of the American people. 

End the fear of "the other." 

Live in peace within your communities. 

Find harmony within your local economy.

And for god sake, don't give up freedom of religion regardless one's faith, and rein in the militarization of law enforcement. 

The time is now, before the devastation and continued demonization of "the other." 

End it.

Now!

I fully expect the Mueller investigation to go forward as well as the uninterrupted pursuits by the Southern District of New York.

October 11, 2017

Washington —House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) (click here) issued the following statement following the U.S. District Court’s decision in Baker v. Conroy rejecting a challenge to Congress' ability to open with a prayer and ruling in favor of the House chaplain, Father Pat Conroy:

“Since the first session of the Continental Congress, our nation's legislature has opened with a prayer to God. Today, that tradition was upheld and the freedom to exercise religion was vindicated. The court rightfully dismissed the claims of an atheist that he had the right to deliver a secular invocation in place of the opening prayer. Recently, especially following the return of Majority Whip Steve Scalise, this institution has been reminded about the power of prayer. I commend the District Court for its decision, and I am grateful that the People's House can continue to begin its work each day as we have for centuries: taking a moment to pray to God.”

A Catholic Priest served Ryan's purpose until yesterday.

It started with an election and a young leader that wanted the same thing.

I think Kim Jong Un wants this. He is a younger man and he has a family. I know that seems simplistic, but, peace can be exactly that simple. Ending the threat of war into the future is a lasting satisfaction.

The Korean Peninsula has seen generations pass with a constant fear of tomorrow. President Moon Jae-in understands the people of South Korea and their hopes to end such pain of tomorrow. I sincerely believe when he was elected the future came into focus and both leaders knew this was a moment that could not be squandered.

The world sits in skepticism, but, with every angry word spoken outside the process now underway, Kim Jong Un never allows it to fail. He is engaged in a process he sees as benevolent to his people and I sincerely believe he wants their lives to improve. This is a historic moment and these two men have a common goal.

April 22, 2018
By Kanga Kong and 

Andy Sharp

...Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (click here) embraced after signing the deal during a historic meeting on their shared border, the first time a North Korean leader has set foot on the southern side. They announced plans to formally declare a resolution to the war and replace the 1953 armistice that ended open hostilities into a peace treaty by year’s end.

“We have agreed to share a firm determination to open a new era in which all Korean people enjoy prosperity and happiness on a peaceful land without wars,” Kim said, in his first remarks in front of the global press since taking power in 2011....

John Dowd was correct. I would love to be a fly on the wall in Dowd's living room while he says, "I told him so."

Rudy was wrong to turn "The Don" loose. 

Paul Ryan is a religious bigot. It is just that simple.

The Evangelicals, namely The Kochs, do not believe Catholicism is a religion. 

Minority Leader Pelosi believes it is economic since the Pope opposes the continued destruction of Earth's troposphere by the petroleum industry. The petroleum industry also destroys the land as well as causing cancers in Third World countries such as Ecuador.

You have to realize The Catholics, at the Vatican, have an entire segment of their religious order as scientists. It is not as though the Catholic Church assigned them to become scientists, they were scientists when they became priests. So, according to the right wing of the Republican Party, Catholicism is not a religion.

Religious bigotry.

With Ryan leaving he is now willing to do the bidding for the Kochs and their billions they spend every year to buy the USA Congress. If Ryan was running he would need the Catholic vote to be re-elected or at the very least he would have to be the least offensive a bigot to his electorate. If he was running he would have to tolerate the Catholic priest when he really rather make the Kochs happy.

Oh, but, the Kochs are not Evangelicals. Really? But, the aspect of the electorate that carries their agenda to victory are.

October 23, 2014

Washington — Despite their stated support (click here) for both personal and economic libertarianism, billionaires Charles and David Koch are sending funds through their dark money political network to support a “get out the vote” drive by evangelical Christians who oppose abortion rights and are furious at recent court rulings that allow gay marriage.

Over the past month, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the central hub of the Kochs’ dark money enterprise, contributed $885,000 to CitizenLink, a social welfare nonprofit focused on election engagement. The group was launched by Focus on the Family — an evangelical Christian group that opposes abortion and gay marriage — and was previously known as Focus on the Family Action....

The United States of America now only has one religion and anyone who says differently is confused about reality. The good priest and the Pope should file a lawsuit against the USA Congress for exercising religious bigotry.

There is Freedom of Religion in the USA so long as it is the only religion with billions to buy elections.

Boston will never be the same.

April 26, 2018
By Jim Newell

On April 16, (click here) House Speaker Paul Ryan announced a personnel change among the House of Representatives staff: Father Patrick Conroy, the House chaplain since 2011, who opens each daily session with a prayer and advises members on faith matters, would be stepping down in May.

“As chaplain, Father Conroy has been a great source of strength and support to our community,” Ryan’s office said in a statement. “He is deeply admired by members and staff. Father Conroy’s ministry here has made a difference, and we are all very grateful to him.”

Left out of the appreciative send-off was the fact that Ryan’s office had forced him out, as first reported by The Hill today.

The speaker’s chief of staff had approached Conroy and asked him for his resignation, or he would be fired. Conroy agreed to resign. In his first resignation letter—“Dear Paul, the Peace of Christ!” it opened—Conroy wrote that the “time of my departure is to be determined in conversation with your Chief of Staff anon.” Anon, indeed. In a second letter dated the same day, April 15, Conroy wrote that “after mutual consideration, it is determined my final day will be 24 May 2018.”

There hadn’t been much knowledge of Ryan’s decision until this morning, when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi brought it up in a Thursday whip meeting. Shocked Democrats were in a “furor” over the issue. Pelosi, according to an aide, was given advance notice of the move, but made it clear to the speaker that “she disagreed with this decision.” AshLee Strong, a spokesperson for Ryan, told Slate that Pelosi was consulted on the decision, though the final decision was the speaker’s....

Just to be clear:

February 11, 2016

...And yet, we (that is, Protestants) (click here) have consistently groaned in annoyance each time a fellow evangelical pronounces a recently departed or politically engaged or virtuous Roman Catholic a Christian. When evangelicals cite Mother Teresa as an example of Christian virtue, we inwardly – or outwardly, if we’re brave enough – groan in agony. It hurts our conscience to sit there quietly as more and more evangelicals speak of Romans Catholics as though they are, indeed, fellow Christians....

This doesn't come as a surprise, does it? Hello? Muslim travel ban? White Supremacists? The evidence is in, the GOP went belly up for "Kochs Grand Scheme."

Is the USA military eliminating the 4-F classification on a case by case basis.

The origins of the classification of "4 F." (click here)

Transgender is not qualified to be in the military, but, bipolar has no problem becoming a soldier.

The USA military can create mental health issues, ie: PTSD, but maintaining them in a ready force is questionably advisable.

Simple "odds" guarantee there will be soldiers with mental health issues. The USA military tries to sort them out when enlisting, but, there are some that make it through to training and combat. Eventually, these folks will provide obvious mental health symptom and it is the holy men that bring them to the attention of the leadership. Normally, when verified as a mental health issue, they are provided a discharge from a VA hospital.

Believe me, if one meets a 300 pound marine with schizophrenia at a VA mental health facility there is a certain gratitude for the physicians and nurses that work with these folks. There is a clear understanding the soldiers need to take their medication and demonstrate a willingness to do so before they are discharged.

That said, allowing recruits waivers to their mental health diagnosis is worrisome. The people mentioned as finding themselves on a battlefield that manifests their mental health problems are not diagnosed. The US military is providing a place in the ranks for those with known mental health diagnosis. Unless these folks are maintained in offices or other benign positions with the military there is no place for them in combat.

I want to also state, the Transgender soldiers in the USA military do not have mental health diagnosis. The discrimination of the Transgender under Trump is thick as pea soup and needs to be contended with.

April 26, 2018
By Tom Vanden Brooks

Washington — The Army issued waivers (click here) over 13 months to more than 1,000 recruits who had been diagnosed and treated for mood disorders and 95 more for self-mutilation, according to data obtained by USA TODAY.

The acceptance of new soldiers with a history of serious behavioral health issues, some of which can be lifelong challenges, came as the Army struggled to meet its recruiting goals. The time period ran from Oct. 1, 2016, through Oct. 31, 2017....

...Mood disorders include conditions such as bipolar disorder and severe depression. Self-mutilation can indicate deep psychological problems.

“Bipolar in most cases is a lifelong challenge,” said Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a psychiatrist who retired from the Army as a colonel in 2010 and is an expert on waivers for military service. “It is more of a challenge when you’re younger and is not something you can simply be clear of. You’re often on medication for life.

A history of severe depression raises the risk of suicide, a problem the military sought to minimize in part by eliminating waivers for many behavioral health issues in 2009, Ritchie said.

Last fall, USA TODAY reported on Army documents that showed the service tried to ease the waiver process for recruits with a history of self-mutilation, bipolar disorder and depression. The Army encountered challenging recruiting goals, including adding more than 76,000 soldiers this year. In 2017, it accepted more recruits who had fared poorly on aptitude tests, and it increased the number of waivers for marijuana use.

Sen. John McCain criticized the service for accepting recruits who mutilated themselves....

USA generals are allowed to have a clear understanding of any threats.

If generals feel confident the Iran Agreement is worthy of the time spent to achieve it; then leave it alone. Israel appreciates the fact Iran cannot escalate any nuclear program.

Iran has other problems, in that it acts as an influence in Syria, Lebanon with Hezbollah and Yemen. If further sanctions belong anywhere it is to stem the expansionist ambitions of Iran.

Nuclear weapons are not conducive to expansionism as it scars the land and makes it useless.

April 26, 2018

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph F. Dunford Jr. (L) and US Secretary of Defense James Mattis talk before a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill April 26, 2018

...Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (click here) on Thursday emphasized the value of certain aspects of the Iran nuclear agreement, even as President Donald Trump considers pulling out of the 2015 deal, which he has attacked repeatedly and this week called “insane.”

Without explicitly giving his opinion about whether the United States should stick with the agreement, Mattis said that after reading the full text of the deal three times, he was struck by provisions that allow for international verification of Iran’scompliance. He said that since becoming defense secretary in January 2017, he also has read what he called a classified protocol in the agreement.

“I will say it is written almost with an assumption that Iran would try to cheat,” he said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “So the verification, what is in there, is actually pretty robust as far as our intrusive ability to get in” with representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency to check on compliance.

“Whether that is sufficient I think is a valid question,” he said after Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said the nuclear deal was not supported by the Congress. The committee’s senior Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, told Mattis the Iran deal is “working as intended” and that withdrawing would ease Iran’s path to nuclear weapons.

Mattis said Iran’s history of hiding a nuclear weapons program makes it “suspect,” and he noted his concern about other Iranian activities, including its role in supporting Syria’s president, Bashar Assad, and supplying its proxy forces in Yemen....

Guilty of three counts of sexual assault. Did Mesereau fall asleep? Was it to give Cosby a retrial in appeal?

April 26, 2018
By Natalie Hope McDonald

It was a long day (click here) of jury deliberations during the Bill Cosby sexual-assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse near Philly yesterday. Last night, as jurors heard Judge Steven O’Neill read back about an hour-and-a-half’s worth of graphic testimony — Cosby’s lead defense attorney, Thomas Mesereau, surprised everyone by catching a few winks.

According to several reports, as the judge reviewed Cosby’s stunning statements about using Quaaludes with women, as well as disturbing details about his sexual contact with Andrea Constand, the woman who claims that the comedian drugged and raped her in his suburban Philly home in 2004, Mesereau sat back in his chair for a quick snooze with his mouth hanging open. This nap time in Norristown went on for an estimated 30 minutes during which no one — not even the judge — commented in any official capacity....

It is difficult to focus on the EPA budget when Secretary Pruitt is reckless.

Scott Pruitt, today, is proving he does not regard the US Congress as important.

Today, Scott Pruitt is proving he is not prepared to answer ethical questions, except, to delegate responsibility for any oversight of his life and department to others.

Scott Pruitt as Secretary of the US EPA should be PREPARED to answer any and all questions put to him. He is under oath and seeks to dodge the truth. At the very least, rather than handing off his responsibilities to others, including his personal accountant, he should be prepared to  FIND THE ANSWERS to the Congress' questions.

There have been thousands of these meetings in the history of the USA. When cabinet Secretaries are asked a question they cannot answer immediately, always offer to find the answer and report back.

Pruitt is treating this legitimate meeting of the US Congress as a trial hearing. That is worrisome. The people have the right to have their questions answered. Those questions are submitted to their Congresspersons to be presented at these meetings. There is a reason these meetings exist and it isn't about legal harassment of a Secretary. Pruitt is not respecting the public trust at all.

Scientists publish their methods and data in professional journals. There is COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY. Pruitt and Flores are deceiving the public and violating the public trust as they provide election rhetoric as fact.

I am completely convinced, Pruitt has done nothing but evade direct questions regarding his violation of the Clean Air Act.

Pursuant to Clean Air Act § 307(b)(1), 42 U.S.C. § 7607(b)(1), (click here) Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, and D.C. Circuit Rule 15, California Communities Against Toxics, Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Integrity Project, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Natural Resources Defense Council, Ohio Citizen Action, and Sierra Club (collectively, “Petitioners”) hereby petition this Court for review of the final action taken by Respondents U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Administrator Scott Pruitt in the attached memorandum from William L. Wehrum, dated January 25, 2018 (Attachment 1), and the Federal Register notice published at 83 Fed. Reg. 5543 (Feb. 8, 2018) and titled “Issuance of Guidance Memorandum, ‘Reclassification of Major Sources as Area Sources Under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act’” (Attachment 2).

Pruitt is a liar and those that hand him rhetoric instead of pertinent testimony don't care about the people. Polluters have had decades to modify their effect on the environment and climate. It is more than obvious there is no intention of any industry to modify their operations to reduce pollutants and GHG.

23 April 2018
By Dana Nuccitelli

In doing cost-benefit analyses, (click here) the EPA accounts for all direct benefits and indirect co-benefits of its regulations. Certain industry groups and conservative pundits don’t like that approach, because they care more about polluter profits than they do about clean air and healthy Americans. However, during the George W. Bush administration in 2003, the Office of Management and Budget issued a guidance saying that it’s important to consider co-benefits:

Your analysis should look beyond the direct benefits and direct costs of your rulemaking and consider any important ancillary benefits and countervailing risks. An ancillary benefit is a favorable impact of the rule that is typically unrelated or secondary to the statutory purpose of the rulemaking (e.g., reduced refinery emissions due to more stringent fuel economy standards for light trucks)…

Pruitt wants to disregard this Bush-era guidance and instead consider only the costs and benefits of regulating the “targeted pollutant” (mercury, in our example). They want to ignore the lives saved by also incidentally reducing particulate matter pollution. To be blunt, this makes no sense, unless your goal is to protect polluters at the expense of public and environmental health....

I don't believe the country has been battling against pollutants to the air since the 1955 Air Pollution Control Act and still have old stalwarts to the petroleum industry alive today.

There is nothing productive happening today at the EPA hearing at the cost of the American Middle Class Taxpayer.

New Agricultural Practices (click here) have increased the phosphorus run off into Lake Erie.

- More fall fertilizer applications are occurring rather than the spring. 

When there aren't crops to absorb the fertilizer it can be a runoff due to rain and/or snowmelt.

- The use of broadcast application not incorporated into the soil

The same principle applies. If the chemicals applied to the soil are not incorporated into it; the chemicals will runoff due to weather. I don't think the USA government wants to stop the rain or snowfall, does it, because then the wind has to be contended with. These practices need to be regulated.

- No till farming increased in use leaving the chemicals applied on top of the soil/crop stubble. 

The argument exists that the indifference of the USA Government to the climate crisis and the incidents of drought and flooding has an agenda to the outcome impacts on people and resources available to them. It isn't as though the USA was never told of the outcomes. I take that observation seriously. Little to no mitigation exists while people die regularly from tornadoes and hurricanes. This is ridiculous. One of the reasons strong storms were even monitored was because people died in the thousands with the occurrences. The science regarding storms, climate and it's outcomes is a well established practice within the USA government. The purpose has always been to save lives.

The precautions that saved lives were carried out by observation of the storms and warnings provided. The people were then expected to act to save their own lives. In the case of climate, the job of the government is far less passive, but, requiring legislative actions to change the course of GHG emissions of which the USA is among the leaders of the emissions and it leads First World countries in emissions.

The climate concerns presented by USA scientists extends back nearly a century and the USA government has not done enough to end the heating trend that increases due to GHG. Instead of acting to save lives, the government has largely purposely ignored its responsibility in favor of political cronies. I do believe that is Quid Pro Quo.

Scott Pruitt has no character. He has power and the will to be corrupt. Scott Pruitt removes EPA personnel because he practices 'the idea' (not written law) of loyalty. Whistleblowing (legislated law) is not loyalty.