My father once told me, “Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.” Perhaps that is why science is so appealing.

Benjamin Franklin on the last day...

 ...of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, when the constitution was adopted, stated to the American public, “What do we have a republic or a monarchy?” He then stated, “A republic, if you can keep it. OUR RESPONSIBILITY IS TO KEEP IT.”

Americans have forgotten their one vote is extremely powerful should they exercise it morally.

What terms do voters place on their vote? What level of moral character do voters look for in their candidates?

See, the high moral content of the USA is missing because voters have forgotten their power to bring about a good and decent government. They aren’t looking for good moral character which includes competency and qualifications. The American people have become reactionary rather than decided.

I don’t know if it is the social media sites influence or the deprivation of wealth or if it is the lack of commitment by the people to understand the depth of power they have in a vote, but, the past two decades seemed to have demoralized Americans in valuing integrity of government. I don’t mean the pomp and circumstance of government rituals, I mean real integrity that doesn’t disappoint Americans when they decide their vote and the votes are cast.

“Republicans Behaving Badly,” should be a real trigger to moving the vote away from those currently lying and changing their position in relation to a judicial nominee so close to an election.

It has been more than 4 months since the US Senate took up a meaningful COVID-19 Bill, but, it has been only days since a judicial nominee has been continuously talked about by Senate Republicans. The immorality in that dynamic is exactly the immorality Benjamin Franklin spoke of when the final US  Constitution was drafted.

It is up to the American people to vote for good and moral government. The fact the Republican judicial nominees voted to the court has stemmed out of one powerful lobby, The Federalist Society, should have every American worried. That fact should have every American scared to the future of the country. Currently 5 Supreme Court judges have come out of one lobby. That is not good for the country. What does it say about diversity of thought necessary to uphold the US Constitution? 

Disappointed is the word to use when bad behavior is allowed  by candidates in voting them back into office. Doesn’t responsibility for the integrity of the US Constitution begin with those elected to office to protect it? 

I believe the US Constitution is in peril and the electorate needs to reassess it’s responsibility to it before it is too late.

Autumn is officially here.

Autumn Equinox 2020 in Northern Hemisphere will be at 9:30 AM 

Lied

The American people were lied to by Republican leadership. That is just wrong, doesn’t convey trustworthiness and leads to government mistrust.

What is USA wrought with, mistrust of government. Ethics matter.

When politicians lie, it is a violation of the public trust.

Ethics Violations

Ethics violations have to be filed against Moscow Mitch, Flip-Flopper Lindsay Graham, former decent man Chuck Grassley and any others that have succumbed to influence that is not openly apparent.

McConnell alone has been playing footsie with a Russian Oligarch. When does that and his favorite Chinese shipping magnate receive a full shaming? 

This is ridiculous. They are hoping to raise the anger of white men before an election no different than they did Cavinaugh.

They all require independent ethics reviews including financial disclosure. Ethics at one time was the US Senate’s stock and trade. Now. Ethics is a joke to them on the way to the bank.

Bill Barr is an propagantist and anarchist.

There is no legislated definition of an "anarchist jurisdiction." It is all politics in its worst form as corruption at the highest levels of the DOJ. An AG of the USA has no authority to "make up" definitions not codified by law.

Barr cannot simply "think up" a criminal category of entire cities. Has the word buffoon ever entered a Congressional confirmation process?

September 21, 2020

By Matt Naham

The U.S. Department of Justice (click here) woke up bright and early on Monday and declared Portland, Seattle, and New York City “anarchist jurisdictions” two and a half weeks after President Donald Trump revealed a controversial memo aimed at withholding federal funding from several cities—all of them run by Democrats. The memo was widely criticized for the open-ended way in which Attorney General Bill Barr was permitted to define the term “anarchist jurisdictions”; many of those criticisms were repeated on Monday because the DOJ again said that “any other related factors the Attorney General deems appropriate” was a legitimate criterion for labeling a place an “anarchist jurisdiction.” But, in a twist, other attorneys said that cutting federal funds would mean defunding police....

The three cities involved are all Democratic-held cities.  Additionally, there have been many more troubled cities in the USA that are not considered to contain aspects of crime that might classify as anarchist paths.

A very good example of "anarchist trends" within a city came in May of 2019 when 40 citizens were murdered and the Dallas police were unable to stop it. What did occur to stop the trend was the Governor's order for the State Troopers to assist in ending the violence.

When a city is overwhelmed with murder and accompanying law-breaking that cannot be tamed, that can be considered an anarchist trend. In 2019 the increase in murders in Dallas, Texas was 21 percent higher than the year before. But, it is only right to note the State Troopers brought those statistics down once they were on the job (cilck here). After 1000 arrests Dallas no longer needed the State Troopers to curb violence and break up a trend in organized crime that was leading to anarchy.

August 15, 2019

By Troy Closon

...Less than six months later, (click here) Pintucci was shot and killed in that sedan in the parking garage of Dallas shopping complex near the city’s NorthPark Center. The teenager was waiting to sell marijuana. But when the buyers — three male suspects — showed up, police said, they placed guns to the heads of Pintucci and others in the car and took the vape cartridges. Before running away, one of the suspects shot and killed Pintucci.

The suspects laughed as they headed for the garage exit, witnesses said.

Pintucci is one of at least 135 homicide victims in Dallas this year as the city is expected to reach its highest homicide rate in more than a decade. Meanwhile, other large Texas cities such as Houston, San Antonio and Corpus Christi are on pace for declines.

After Dallas experienced 40 killings in May — its highest monthly total since the 1990s — Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed the state’s Department of Public Safety to send state troopers to reduce violent crime in a city that has struggled for years with a massive shortage of police officers. Since the troopers' arrival, they've seized more than 70 guns, according to the Dallas Police Department. Violent crime — though still up compared with last year — has also dropped by nearly 30% in the areas of Dallas where they're deployed....

There is no such thing as an "anarchist jurisdiction" lead by the FREELY ELECTED authority. The authority in those three Democratic cities, no different than Dallas, was freely elected and conducting the people's business. Conducting the people's business never stopped for a priority to bring in anarchists to overrun the city. 

Protests are allowed under the First Amendment in freedom of speech and a right to assemble. There are no anarchist trends in local governments recognizing the First Amendment rights of protesters.

Damage to any property caused within those demonstrations belongs to the thugs that carried it out. Looting falls into that category as well.

As noted in this article there has been an increase in states to criminalize protests.

August 27, 2020

By Akela Lacy

Prosecutors and lawmakers in several states (click here) have responded to mass protests against police brutality by charging demonstrators with committing felonies, including terrorism charges. The trend of criminalizing protest has been on the uptick since the 2016 protests against the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock, during and after which numerous states upped charges for protests “near critical infrastructure” as felonies....

To clearly illustrate the wrong-headed thinking of this government aggression against protesters, the courts would eventually rule in the favor of the protesters at Standing Rock.

March 25, 2020

Washington, D.C. - A federal court (click here) today granted a request by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to strike down federal permits for the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Court found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it affirmed federal permits for the pipeline originally issued in 2016. Specifically, the Court found significant unresolved concerns about the potential impacts of oil spills and the likelihood that one could take place....

The point is the First Amendment is absolute. There is no order by the government no matter what level, that ends the rights of citizens to protest. For Barr to come forward to call entirely freely elected city governments "anarchist jurisdiction" is a movement to end the First Amendment and replace it with an autocratic authority never sanctioned by any legislative process. Even if any legislative authority attempted to instill autocratic law, it would be struck down by the First Amendment and would not stand.

Bill Barr is also carrying out Trump's-Go-To strategy in enforcing his ideas by withholding money to states and cities already legislated to those official governments. That is illegal. Barr or Trump will never prevail in any of their machinations.

End of discussion.

There is nothing moral about McConnell anymore.

September 20, 2020

By Chris Truax

The year 2020 just keeps on giving. (click here) Not only have we lost one of the towering figures in American legal history in Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the empty Supreme Court seat she leaves is yet another wild card in the most dangerous and chaotic political season in American history. It’s not an exaggeration to say that how her seat gets filled could be as consequential for the continued political health of the republic as the election itself.

I’m not going to bother with all the justifications being offered as to why it’s perfectly OK to fill a Supreme Court vacancy a month-and-a-half before a presidential election while it is political obscenity to fill one nine months before a presidential election. They are fig leaves, not arguments, and all the explanations boil down to “because we can.” The issue here isn’t fairness or consistency. It’s consequences. Filling that seat would be the most disastrous thing Republicans could do, not just to the country but to themselves....

It is interesting how hypocritical McConnell is when it comes to the well being of the country. He really doesn't belong in the Senate with strong affiliations to China and Russia, while pulling the strings for a man in the White House that hates people, doesn't care about the country, has allowed a global pandemic to take hold of the USA, bows to dictators and is dreaming of a third term. 

Why did it happen? How is it that McConnell continues to wager in politics with very fateful and I might add hate-filled decisions and not be scarred by them? How did he know in early 2016 that Trump would be filling the Supreme Court seat in 2017? I find it odd. Not that he is hypocritical, but, that he is so willing to gamble with the well being of the USA on politics.

I am convinced he conducts the US Senate as an obstructionist to maintain the status quo. It is where his personal wealth and corrupt power live. I don't know why people in Kentucky continue to vote to maintain him in office. He is corrupt to the core and he is a liar. He is hypocritical and pats himself on the back for it.

You know, a politician is measured in two ways, but, his acts and by his words. If a voter can't trust the words of the person they are electing, then why elect them?

It would seem the USA is regularly laughed at when it comes to attempts to stop international gangs from conducting their illicit business. If the banks are doing their level best to report all this illegal and underworld activity, it isn't working because THERE IS NO ONE ENFORCING THE LAW. Oddly interesting.

Semion Mogilevich was in the Mueller Report. He is a Russian underworld boss. If the money is moving it should not be that difficult to find him. It is really creepy to think these Russian thugs are out there living their dream while banks are nothing more than their change agent. I don't know about Jamie Dimon, but, it can't be a good feeling to have all these thugs involved with a bank that is following the law. I doubt if the banks have much respect for law enforcement and the federal authorities that should be cleaning it up.

It must be a regular Wall Street joke to realize the number of criminals in Trump's circle of friends and loyalists and having them get pardons on top of the lack of interest in the bank's compliance and expectations to make a difference in the world.

And McConnell subscribes to it.

September 20, 2020

By David Pegg

"Why...may never be prosecuted." (click here)

..A separate report (click here) details over $1bn in wire transfers by JP Morgan Chase that the bank later came to suspect were linked to Semion Mogilevich, an alleged Russian organised crime boss who is named on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list.

A JP Morgan Chase spokesperson told the BBC: “We follow all laws and regulations in support of the government’s work to combat financial crimes. We devote thousands of people and hundreds of millions of dollars to this important work.”

According to BBC Panorama, the British bank HSBC allowed a group of criminals to transfer millions of dollars from a Ponzi scheme through its accounts, even after it had identified their fraud.

HSBC said in a statement: “Starting in 2012, HSBC embarked on a multi-year journey to overhaul its ability to combat financial crime across more than 60 jurisdictions.” It added: “HSBC is a much safer institution than it was in 2012.”...

Maybe if people like Trump and McConnell continue to throw Wall Street bailouts and money from the US Treasury, it is easier to accept the corruption conducted through USA banks. After all Wall Street needs banks, yes?

Whatever happened to Dodd-Frank?

Wow. Mom was right, someone is going to try to kill Trump. Wow.

You know how difficult it is to stress out a Canadian? I really didn't think anyone would try because Trump is nothing but a circus ringmaster, but, here it is. I feel bad for her. She loves the USA and really felt compelled to act. Wow.

20 September 2020
By Pete Williams, Tim Stelloh and Michael Kosnar

Washington - A woman suspected (click here) of sending a letter containing the deadly poison ricin to the White House was arrested trying to enter the United States from Canada, two federal law enforcement officials said Sunday.

An FBI spokesperson confirmed the arrest and said the agency is continuing to investigate the suspicious letter.

A federal law enforcement official said the woman was taken into custody while traveling across Peace Bridge, which connects Fort Erie, Ontario, and Buffalo, New York.

Another federal law enforcement official said the suspect was detained by Customs and Border Protection agents. Additional information about the arrest and the suspect was not immediately available....

I want to discuss the new findings about the lead in the Flint Water.

Friday night is when Justice Ginsberg died. As a result, I put this off until this evening. There is a finding by a graduate student of the Virginia Tech Professor Marc Edwards. There are many things to discuss and I do not consider this a conclusively better outcome than originally thought.

Just as an interesting fact, Synder was elected with the angry Republican wave of 2010. I am curious about what really caused the 2011 spike in lead. I think it needs to be realized whether it has anything to do with Snyder's administration, too.

September 17, 2020
By Siddhartha Roy and Marc Edwards

Sometime in 2021 (click here) a much-anticipated era of lead-free pipes will begin in Flint, Michigan. Contractors have replaced more than 90 percent of the city’s pure lead and galvanized-iron pipes connecting homes to the water mains, and they are hard at work inspecting and replacing the roughly 2,500 that remain. Flint will likely become only the third major American city — after Lansing, Michigan and Madison, Wisconsin — to have replaced all its lead pipes. They are also the first to replace all the galvanized iron connections, another source of lead, and to pay for all the work without charging customers. Blood testing and residential water testing suggest that the lead levels in Flint water are now at historic lows.

The improvements mark an end to Flint’s disastrous history with lead pipes, which resurfaced in April 2014 when the city switched the source of its public water from Lake Huron treated by the city of Detroit to the Flint River, while discontinuing the use of corrosion control chemicals. The switch triggered an alarming rise in lead levels in the city’s drinking water, a corresponding spike in children’s blood lead levels, and a national scandal that led the city to switch back to water from Detroit in October 2015 while more than tripling the corrosion control dose. Ultimately, after revelations of deaths from two outbreaks of Legionnaire’s disease caused by the initial switch, a federal emergency was declared by President Obama in January 2016....

The grad student found a spike in Flint's lead levels in 2011. That would still be the water from Detroit. That leads to all kinds of questions. What happened in Detroit? The bankruptcy didn't occur until 2013, so what is this? An investigation is necessary.

Now, the Flint children born in and around the time in 2011 would have been effected if their mothers were drinking the water, either through breastfeeding or pregnancy or reconstitution of formula. The children born after this incident should not have been effected by it until Snyder demanded the city of Flint no longer receive water from Detroit, but, from the Flint River.

The Flint Water Crisis would have added to the problem of the children born in 2011 or before. Any child in Flint at the 2011 spike would be effected, but, the 2014 poisoning would have contributed to more of a problem they already had.

Now, as to whether the poisoning is less than first thought is an entirely different issue. While this shows lead levels it does not reflect the entire amount of lead that effected the children of Flint in 2014. This shows the lead that was eliminated from the body, it does not show the lead in the child's body that stayed there. The records of the pediatrician that measured blood levels have the correct information as to what was being maintained in the child's body at the time.

This is a measure of lead in the effluent and at the sewage treatment plant. The lead in the children's body is still there. It was never eliminated. This is a partial measurement of the lead in the Flint water, not the entire picture.

Also, the effluent is in a different pipe system than potable water. The chemicals of defecation can cause effluent pipes to release their lead if they are lead pipes. The human stomach is acidic with a pH of between 1.5 and 3.5. That is what assists in the digestion of food. So, because the effluent pipes to the waste treatment plant show lead at a higher level than anticipated in potable water, it is because the digestive tract of a human being is acidic.

While this information by Professor Marc Edwards' graduate student is interesting it is not the entire picture. What also plays into lead levels in the effluent is the number of people living in Flint. As the city population increased or decreased the lead level would fluctuate as well. 

May I suggest this study needs to be followed up by the same graduate student if he or she is interested to determine the spike in the time of 2011. Did something happen in Flint at that time at the sewage treatment plant? Or. Was there something that occurred that actually made it into the diets of the people of Flint? If Virginia Tech is not pursuing the results published by a graduate student, then perhaps a U of M grad student could be provided a grant to continue to follow the results and definitively state what the problem was in 2011 that caused this result.

With all that said, as I stated before, this is an interesting study, validates the poisoning of 2014 and also raises concern about what the spike was in 2011. 

Other people may be interested in the records held by their city in relation to any amount of lead in the water and its source.

It was a good investigation of Flint. It definitely shows a declining amount of lead from the pipes as they are being removed and replaced.

With that, I will say good night for tonight. Thank you for your interest.

September 18, 2020

By Ron Fonger

Flint - The city says (click here) it will continue to accept consent forms that allow contractors to excavate their water service lines but says time is running out to request the free work to be done.

“I urge all residents: Please immediately consent to having your service lines checked and replaced,” Mayor Sheldon Neeley said in a statement issued by the city Friday, Sept. 18. “We still have crews in the field replacing pipes, so we can still accept consent forms -- but this needs to be done now. This is urgent.

Last month, the city said it was making a final push to dig up the service lines at up to 2,500 homes from which no one had given permission for the work to be done.

In a news release Friday, the city said it’s uncertain how many more days it will be able to continue accepting consent forms. Friday, Sept. 18, was the official deadline to file required paperwork, according to an agreement between the city and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

In that agreement, Flint officials committed to complete all service line work, including property restoration by Nov. 30.

To opt-in to the replacement program, residents can visit City Hall, call 810-410-1133, email GetTheLeadOut@cityofflint.com, make a request online at CityofFlint.com/GetTheLeadOut, or mail to Flint City Hall DPW Service line replacement program 1101 S. Saginaw St. Flint, MI 48502....

Ruth Badar Ginsberg Foundation

There needs to be a movement to start a foundation based in the judicial life of the Late Justice Ginsberg. The Board of Trustees should contain her family and/or her judicial clerks. Everyone on the Board of Trustees must meet the political ideals the Late Justice Ginsberg reflected in her life.

The mission statement has to contain the fact she moved the rights of women and civil rights forward along the aspiration of "equality for all."

Her work is vitally important and the idea of a 50 state organization with a headquarters in Washington, DC is important. Besides being a foundation that stands on liberties for women and demands for equality for all, there should be fund raising for scholarships that are awarded annually.

This is a huge effort to preserve Ruth's protects for Americans, but, it is doable and necessary. Her judicial life is about the soul of this country. It is for that reason her memorializing is extremely important.

These are Justice Ginsberg's favorite charities for those that feel they need to honor her name.

These non-profit organizations are known to be her favorites. I don't see where her family listed any preference. The world is a big place and it loved Ruth Ginsberg. 

Malala Fund (click here)

American Bar Foundation (click here)

American Cancer Society (click here)

Metropolitan Opera (click here)

National Museum of Women in the Arts (click here)

Smile Train (click here)

She absolutely loved young people. She believed in their vision of the future. From here going forward, women measure their liberties according to the "Ginsberg Standard." If she took the pledge to protect our Constitution, we can take a pledge to honor her life long work. (click here)

...Ginsburg recalled (click here) instances of women being treated unfairly due to their gender and the complaints that came to her. “One group were teachers who were put on what was euphemistically called ‘maternity leave’ as soon as they began to show,” she remembered. “After all, they didn’t want the children to think that the teacher had swallowed a watermelon. These women said, ‘We are ready, willing, and able to work and with no reason why we should be forced out of the classroom, on unpaid leave, with no guaranteed rights.’” There were the blue-collar women who worked in factories but were unable to receive health care coverage for their families. “They would tell them family coverage is available to men but not to women,” Ginsburg said before recounting her fight for women’s rights in the ’70s. “In basically a decade, almost every explicit gender-based classification was gone. It was not there anymore, and those laws are not going to come back.”

But with abortion restrictions coming into play in over a dozen states, including the temporarily blocked Human Life Protection Act that almost fully bans abortion in Alabama, those rights are under constant threat. “The truth is that with all these restrictive laws, the only people who are being restricted are poor women,” said Ginsburg, who explained that not only can’t they afford to pay for bus or plane fare to a state where abortion is legal, but that they also can’t afford to take days off work. “It was a little like divorce was in the old days. If you had a little bit of money, you go to Nevada and stay there for six weeks; you could get a divorce.”

Ginsburg has put her hope in future leaders like her granddaughter, Clara Spera, Malala Yousafzai, and Greta Thunberg. “The young people that I see are fired up, and they want our country to be what it should be,” she said. “One of the things that makes me an optimist are the young people.”...

The public needs to write to their Senators.

If anyone recalls the failed attempt to repeal Cavenaugh’s nomination, it started a poor, white man interest in the elections. I fully expect Trump to announce a controversial pick that will spark a rise in objections by women.

This is about placing the nominee at confirmation hearings after the election when a government is seated by the people. There will be a change in some elected seats, including the US Senate, therefore the only moral path forward is to wait until next year.

Leadership needs to set the tone and expectations for the nominee process. The focus should be on the timing of the actual nomination in regard to the election. 

Americans need to write to their Senators to end the process until after the election. The actual nominee is not the issue. The issue is the immoral and ruthless determination by McConnell and Trump to taint the court by political appointees rather than the will of the people. 

This decision by Trump and McConnell demonstrates the ruthlessness they carry out as an act against the will of the people.

Americans need to continue to remain calm and see this for what it is, a political power grab the people do not want. They can best address this ruthlessness at the ballot box.

We will miss her.

This is the late Associate Justice Ginsburg in 1973.

It is impossible to know how many women's lives have been touched by her career as a lawyer and a Justice.

...Even her exceptional academic record (click here) was not enough to shield her from the gender-based discrimination women faced in the workplace in the 1960s. She had difficulties finding a job until a favorite Columbia professor explicitly refused to recommend any other graduates before U.S. District Judge Edmund L. Palmieri hired Ginsburg as a clerk. Ginsburg clerked under Judge Palmieri for two years. After this, she was offered some jobs at law firms, but always at a much lower salary than her male counterparts. She instead took some time to pursue her other legal passion, civil procedure, choosing to join the Columbia Project on International Civil Procedure. This project fully immersed her in Swedish culture, where she lived abroad to do research for her book on Swedish Civil Procedure practices. Upon her return to the States, she accepted a job as a professor at Rutgers University Law School in 1963, a position she held until accepting an offer to teach at Columbia in 1972. There, she became the first female professor at Columbia to earn tenure. Ginsburg also directed the influential Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union during the 1970s. In this position, she led the fight against gender discrimination and successfully argued six landmark cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Ginsburg took a broad look at gender discrimination, fighting not just for the women left behind, but for the men who were discriminated against as well. Ginsburg experienced her share of gender discrimination, even going so far as to hide her pregnancy from her Rutgers colleagues. Ginsburg accepted Jimmy Carter’s appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1980. She served on the court for thirteen years until 1993, when Bill Clinton appointed her to the Supreme Court of the United States....

She was a great American. She loved this country beyond imagination and the country loved her. She was an incredible civil rights Justice.

September 18, 2020

By Nina Totenberg

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, (click here) the demure firebrand who in her 80s became a legal, cultural and feminist icon, died Friday. The Supreme Court announced her death, saying the cause was complications from metastatic cancer of the pancreas.

The court, in a statement, said Ginsburg died at her home in Washington surrounded by family. She was 87.

"Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature," Chief Justice John Roberts said. "We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her, a tired and resolute champion of justice."

Architect of the legal fight for women's rights in the 1970s, Ginsburg subsequently served 27 years on the nation's highest court, becoming its most prominent member. Her death will inevitably set in motion what promises to be a nasty and tumultuous political battle over who will succeed her, and it thrusts the Supreme Court vacancy into the spotlight of the presidential campaign....

Having a discussion about the Late Justice Gingberg's replacement is extremely distasteful. She is important. The Senate schedule does not allow for a Congressional vote.

 

The revised death toll is at least 50 times the previous estimate of 64 according to an independent investigation.

July 10, 2020
By Andy Uhler

Solar panels at a hospital in Vieques in 2017. Puerto Rico's electric power system has been plagued by the damage inflicted by Hurricane Maria.

A full year after 2017’s Hurricane Maria, (click here) some municipal buildings in Mayagüez, a town on the west coast of Puerto Rico, were still without power.

That’s where Lionel Orama lives with his family. He said the storm led him to install photovoltaic (PV) solar panels on his roof.

Now the sun provides a third of his electricity....

Trump is playing politics with lives. Two years later the number of dead Puerto Rican people is still not known. 

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico with 174 miles per hour winds on September 20, 2017. This is three years later and now with an election on the horizon, Trump decides Puerto Rico is important to him. There is nothing Trump can do now that the next administration can do better.

Just for the record, solar energy is the best-suited method for Puerto Rico to produce electricity. 

...FLORIDO: She said (click here) they went to represent the 4,645 people who died after the storm. That is not an exact count of the hurricane dead. It's one estimate that Harvard researchers published eight months after Maria, while the government's official count was stuck at 64....

18 September 2020

By Emily Goodon

President Donald Trump (click here) declared he's the best thing that has happened to Puerto Rico after his administration released $13 billion in aid as Democrats accused him of playing politics with the timing.

'I'm the best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico. Nobody even close,' Trump said at a White House press conference on Friday. 

Trump announced the federal funding on Friday to help the island recover from the devastation brought by 2017's Hurricane Maria but it also comes at a time he is courting Hispanic voters for his re-election bid, particularly in the critical state of Florida.... 

How many paper towels does $13 billion buy?

Barr is looking for a reason so Trump can employ the "Sedition Act of 1798."

The Sedition Act of 1798 (click here)

And he is invested in that outcome. That is what Donald John Trump is great at, compromising those that are "loyal" to him. We saw it with Michael Cohen. When Cohen went to work for Donald John Trump he never intended to break the law, quite the contrary, he wanted to protect his boss.

September 17, 2020

By Dan Berman and Paul LeBlanc

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan (click here) on Wednesday said a report that Attorney General William Barr suggested prosecutors consider filing charges against her is "chilling and the latest abuse of power from the Trump administration."

Barr, The New York Times reported, asked prosecutors in the Justice Department's civil rights division to investigate if they could charge Durkan as a result of protests this summer, when some protesters established a police-free zone in downtown Seattle.

"The Department of Justice cannot become a political weapon operated at the behest of the President to target those who have spoken out against this administration's actions," Durkan, a former US attorney, said in a statement. "That is an act of tyranny, not of democracy."...

If Barr can't find facts to back up his allegations, he will manufacture them. It is my understanding that the protesters were not accompanied by police. Barr had no leverage. He can only send in federal troops if asked. With the police not attending a demonstration, Barr could not insist on the local, county, and state police call for federal backup. 

If the police found no reason to attend a demonstration, it means there is on dangerous behaviors that indicate the public is in danger.

Mayor Durkin is correct in her concern for the words of Bill Barr. Barr is overreaching the authority of the federal government and thinks nothing of it. His tenure as Attorney General is at stake and if he is sitting in the AG office, nothing can happen to him, hence, Trump.

Can my free speech be restricted (click here) because of what I say—even if it is controversial?

No. The First Amendment prohibits restrictions based on the content of speech. However, this does not mean that the Constitution completely protects all types of free speech activity in every circumstance. Police and government officials are allowed to place certain nondiscriminatory and narrowly drawn "time, place and manner" restrictions on the exercise of First Amendment rights. Any such restrictions must apply to all speech regardless of its point of view.... 

There is an enormous difference between demonstration and sedition. Sedition intends to remove the sovereign state of the USA. Trump and Barr are more seditionists than any American demanding equality and civil rights.

Christopher Wray is absolutely correct in stating the Russians are evil doers again.

I can personally testify to it.

Two days ago I filed a complaint with the FBI. I received an email from Google that a new device was using my email account. I didn't have a new device. I opened the email and Google was asking me to verify their finding of the use of a "iPhone 11 Pro" as authorized to do so. I replied to Google that "I don't own an iPhone 11 Pro." I hit reply all to unsubscribe and emails that I didn't know popped up. The lead email account was ended in ....ru. That is Russia. The Russians are hacking into Gmail accounts. They are probably picking up CONTACTS and running with it.

I will post the emails here. They are still bouncing back as undeliverable because Russia is closed to incoming traffic. I believe it is GRU.

Message blocked

Your message to RonaldTerry22@yandex.ru has been blocked. See technical details below for more information.

These emails were in the "To:" I know none of these people or entities.

account@edmarig.club, account@wramati.icu, account@tiatund.xyz, account@gerdush.online, account@snontua.casa, account@paloong.site, account@idiolit.cyou, account@darcagi.club, account@noneump.icu, account@toeratv.xyz, account@befeasa.top, account@neccens.space, account@elopina.club, account@fluceny.online, account@jumpild.site, account@clahich.xyz, account@oblaisk.cyou, account@nolitri.club, account@sephoed.online, account@oricidu.club, kokoruchka@126.com, kokoruchka@yeah.net, kokoruchka@163.com, vancecomfort@aol.com, burnsallen797@aol.com, funaro65415145@yahoo.com, schneckadva@yahoo.com, gauvcaoxszay@hotmail.com, coreenfheivpod@hotmail.com, tanya.dixie.pro@gmail.com, gigi.smokes20@gmail.com, vera.sp2021@gmail.com, delkvfr54@gmail.com, TomasPhelps@yandex.com, RonaldTerry22@yandex.ru, 1614903540@qq.com

Most of the addresses are bizarre. "oblaisk.cyou" is only one of the emails addresses that fall outside my understanding of an email address. Like I said they are bouncing back to my email account.

I reported all of it to the FBI. It is very suspicious. Let them sort it out.

September 10, 2020

By Joel Schectman, Raphael Satter, Christopher Bing, Joseph Menn

Washington - Microsoft Corp MSFT.O (click here) recently alerted one of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's main election campaign advisory firms that it had been targeted by suspected Russian state-backed hackers, according to four people briefed on the matter.

The hacking attempts targeted staff at Washington-based SKDKnickerbocker, a campaign strategy and communications firm working with Biden and other prominent Democrats, over the past two months, the sources said.

Microsoft Corp MSFT.O identified the suspected hacking group as the same set of spies blamed by the U.S. government for breaking into the campaign of Democratic former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and leaking the emails of her staff, two of the sources said.

The group, which many cyber researchers refer to as “Fancy Bear,” is controlled by the Russia’s military intelligence agency, according to reports from the U.S. intelligence community released after the 2016 election....

This is fraud. Where are the arrests? Where is the scientists in the department walking out so there is no one to scapegoat.

The scientists are part of the fraud if they are not moving professionally as a group to end the fraud. They are part of the problem if they aren't taking the matter into their own lives. Where are their lawyers filing papers in court to fight for the public.

Why aren't the scientists stating, "I cannot professionally be a part of this." A paycheck? That is preventing them from saving the lives of Americans? That is what Trump and his administration is counting on.

Warning the public about the fraud in HHS and it's migration into the CDC isn't enough. Law enforcement needs to be harnessed to remove those committing fraud all the way up the chain of command. The scientists must ask the prosecutors to move against the Trump Administration because he is endangering the public and people will die.

September 17, 2020
By Apoorva Mandavilli

Alex Azar, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, speaks at a press conference about the Coronavirus on Feb. 26, 2020.

A heavily criticized (click here) recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month about who should be tested for the coronavirus was not written by C.D.C. scientists and was posted to the agency’s website despite their serious objections, according to several people familiar with the matter as well as internal documents obtained by The New York Times.

The guidance said it was not necessary to test people without symptoms of Covid-19 even if they had been exposed to the virus. It came at a time when public health experts were pushing for more testing rather than less, and administration officials told The Times that the document was a C.D.C. product and had been revised with input from the agency’s director, Dr. Robert Redfield.

But officials told The Times this week that the Department of Health and Human Services did the rewriting and then “dropped” it into the C.D.C.’s public website, flouting the agency’s strict scientific review process....

COVID-19 is taking a toll on families.

Speaker Pelosi is right the PEOPLE are hurting in ways not imagined or addressed. I just finished a conversation online with a man who’s sister died from COVID-19. His sister left behind three young children. He said he was an emotional basket case for the past three months. The family she left behind needed financial help and he took a loan out for $30,000 so they could all “be okay,” as he put it.

The man was not a stranger to me.

He said he has never hurt so bad in his life, especially for the children she left behind. 

We are losing a minimum of 1000 Americans a day. The human tragedy goes beyond the number of deaths. The American tragedy is only beginning when realizing the profound loss and financial burden being realized by over 1000 families a day. 

This has to stop for this country. NOW!

This is a national temporary injunction.

September 17, 2020
By Karen Freifeld

A federal judge on Thursday (click here) blocked controversial changes to the United States postal service, saying they were “a politically motivated attack” that had slowed the nation’s mail and likely would slow the delivery of ballots in the upcoming presidential election....

...“The states have demonstrated that the defendants are involved in a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the postal service,” the judge said after about 2 1/2 hours of arguments that Reuters heard by phone.

“They have also demonstrated that this attack on the postal service is likely to irreparably harm the states’ ability to administer the 2020 general election.”...

I was very interested in the words of the judge. IRREPARABLY stood out. This is an administration that is ruthless and lawless. If that is true of the US Post Office, what does every American think is going on out of the view of the public? 

Inspector Generals are vital to providing a view of the Trump administration and their lawlessness.

This is a clear demonstration of the LAWLESSNESS that Trump endorses. 

Irreparably harmed is what the Trump White House is handing the American people. They do not care about the country, it's people, or most importantly the US Constitution. 

Realizing how lawless this administration has conducted itself, WHO IS THE WATCHDOG TO BE SURE THE USPS IS COMPLYING WITH THIS RULING?

Trump, Bill Barr, and the US Post Master General IGNORE everything and continue to proceed with their lawlessness. The dumping reported in entries online clearly indicates there is nothing they would not do to maintain control of the Executive Branch of the USA government.

DeJoy must instruct the US Postal Service to immediately repair the damage he did. Does anyone have confidence that the lawlessness will stop? 

The state's victory is going to be treated as words on paper. Their work is not over. Where are the reassurances?