I am grateful…

 …for my country and the men and women that defend it.

I hope this holiday was a time of reflection as what is important in life, including a safe and plentiful Earth.

Good night.

The Republicans have weaponized politics. Literally.

I find the Republicans are making it harder and harder to live without violence in the USA. On this blog, I don't recall the year but it has to be at least ten years ago I did a "It's Something Night" and featured what has occurred across the globe when the gun lobbies have been successful in instilling fear and arming in large numbers the citizens. In those entries what was occurring in other countries is now occurring in the USA. The entries that night were to serve as a warning to the potential of what could happen in the USA. We have arrived now.

The United States, no different from Europe and other Free World allies, is not immune from the impact of the personal power within a firearm. In the beginning there are people that will arm to protect from regional or neighborhood violence. But, then the handling of the gun(s) becomes familiar. The gun then is no longer a threat so much as a trusted friend and the owner or user then believes they can handle anything in their lives. That translates into settling their own arguments. Why wait for a judge and the cost of lawyers, when it is so much more easy to pick up a weapon and emotionally release the hate and frustration. Don't say that doesn't happen. It happens everyday in the USA. Perfectly sane people are killing other people because they feel self-righteous to pulling the trigger.

The laws like the Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground not only carry very liberal gun laws, but, allow enforcement of personal boundary issues. The signs saying "No Trespassing" can now be enforced by a gun. It isn't enough to make a complaint to the police about trespassers, the landowner can use their own weapons to settle the issue.

Up to recent years with the pandemic I think most Americans associated guns with war. There are hunters, of course, but, the number of hunting licenses in the USA has been fairly steady at an average of 35 million annually since 2004 (click here). So, in realizing hunters' purchases of guns and ammo is consistent it is easy to make the estimation that the rest of the guns sold in growing numbers are for personal protection or home invasion.

The point is Americans have emotions and when they become familiar with an object it becomes part of them. The most dramatic example is the computer. Right? First it was a desktop, then a laptop and then a mobile phone all the way up to a cell phone being the primary telephone for everyone in the USA. Not only the primary phone, but, also a platform for the interests of the owner, including, politics. One has to wonder if the issue of cell phones and their use only exacerbates the issue of violence. OMG, I just heard Wall Street quake. Other people give gun owners the right to feel exonerated for the violence a gun inherently carries with it. In other words, it is okay to kill.

I think that is where we are. We have a society saturated with violence and personal weapons. The result is daily mass shootings of four or more people gunned down by a single gunman with a grudge and/or moral issues. The moral issues for gun violence is, of course, to teach everyone a lesson for some odd personal ideology and/or vendetta against society. In actuality, the only lesson gun violence brings to the American public is the chronic political struggle between owning guns and controlling guns.

I will say this one more time, when people feel threatened by the "unknown" there is a special feeling that life is not secure. Life itself becomes a political fight to win the day to continue to either own or control guns, fight the virus or not and succumb to disease or worry about becoming pregnant so abortion is not an issue. 

The uncivilized society of which the USA is entering if not already arrived, is a problem. The uncivilized society is not livable. 

Let's say women are looking at the Supreme Court as grossly irresponsible because they are now afraid of becoming pregnant. It isn't just getting pregnant at inconvenient times that is the worry, but, just getting pregnant in general. I don't believe we are at that juncture, but, inevitably it will occur. As women worry now within the boundaries of the USA whether or not they can receive an abortion, the pregnancy takes on an identity of death. Why become pregnant if there is even a remote chance I could die because I can't have an abortion? What happens to the population of the USA when young people decide to become sterile? What a political folly that is.

If I were an enemy of the USA, I would have created the perfect diatribe that will bring the end to democracy and the USA Constitution without firing a shot. I have provided dialogue that has instilled fear, armed that fear and now watch as a political theocracy is taking over to remove freedom from Americans. Ask yourself, is there greater freedom with safety or not? Is there greater freedom with guns or not? Is there greater freedom with contraception and abortion or not? Is there greater freedom of religion when an American can choose to be a member of a faith or not? If a theocracy results in the USA because of Justices without a clue to what they are doing to the people and just lament their decisions in ideology, is there greater freedom in that? Take any aspect of American life and ask, Is there greater freedom with ... or not?

The analogy below should be obvious. But, in case it isn't, it is my opinion the USA is as polluted with power and death as China was at the time of Tienanmen Square. The government is not rolling tanks out to stop peaceful protests, but, the political dogma of the Republicans is achieving the exact same content. Who is going to step out in front of an Open-Carry Gunman to say he or she is an insult to the USA democracy? 

November 26, 2022

By Mike McIntire

Historian and journalist T.D. Allman, who witnessed the uprising from the balcony of a Beijing hotel room, has described him as the “true exemplar” of the Chinese protesters’ heroism.

Across the country, (click here) openly carrying a gun in public is no longer just an exercise in self-defense — increasingly it is a soapbox for elevating one’s voice and, just as often, quieting someone else’s.

This month, armed protesters appeared outside an elections center in Phoenix, hurling baseless accusations that the election for governor had been stolen from the Republican, Kari Lake. In October, Proud Boys with guns joined a rally in Nashville where conservative lawmakers spoke against transgender medical treatments for minors.

In June, armed demonstrations around the United States amounted to nearly one a day. A group led by a former Republican state legislator protested a gay pride event in a public park in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Men with guns interrupted a Juneteenth festival in Franklin, Tenn., handing out fliers claiming that white people were being replaced. Among the others were rallies in support of gun rights in Delaware and abortion rights in Georgia.

Whether at the local library, in a park or on Main Street, most of these incidents happen where Republicans have fought to expand the ability to bear arms in public, a movement bolstered by a recent Supreme Court ruling on the right to carry firearms outside the home. The loosening of limits has occurred as violent political rhetoric rises and the police in some places fear bloodshed among an armed populace on a hair trigger....

November 8, 2022

By Ron Fonger

Flint - Former Gov. Rick Snyder (click here) and other government officials involved in the Flint water crisis cannot be held in contempt of court for invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled.


In an opinion published Tuesday, Nov. 8, the appeals court ruled that Snyder and four other officials -- Richard Baird, former senior advisor to Snyder; former Flint emergency managers Gerald Ambrose and Darnell Earley; and former Flint Department of Public Works Director Howard Croft -- did not waive their privilege against self-incrimination at a civil trial by testifying at an earlier deposition in the same case....

The corporate environment is too difficult at the level of the personnel.

November 15, 2022
By Clark Schultz

...Heading into the earnings report, (click here) Walmart (WMT) is being widely viewed by analysts and investors as a trade-down beneficiary that should outperform on a relative basis in a recessionary environment. However, the trick is that shares of WMT have already outperformed in 2022 on a relative basis and valuation is somewhat stretched after investors took refuge in the defensive name.

For Q3, analyst expect Walmart (WMT) to report revenue of $146.8B and EPS of $1.32. The Bentonville-based company is also expected to post comparable sales growth of 4.8% for the quarter. Guidance from the retail giant on the status of its inventory level and transportation costs headwinds are seen as crucial in setting the post-earnings tone.

On Wall Street, Deutsche Bank recently named Walmart a top pick just ahead of the report....

I have no interest in what the note of the killer said. I can guess.

There is far too much pressure/stress on employees working for Wall Street corporations. Unions make a difference in these high stress environments because grievances are taken seriously. The union representative takes the grievance seriously, hence, the company does.

Americans expect justice. They go to work and do their level best and if that isn't good enough and requires superhuman effort a grievance can be filed for issues of fairness and expectations. Unions are more or less part of the justice department on a private scale. Unions maintain a safe and sane work environment. It is what unions do. They are in touch with employees of a corporation and when things are going off the rails it can be corrected before extremes are the outcomes.

These days, if Americans are dying of viruses, they have guns that can kill them or dying because they can't get an abortion. That is a high stress environment in and out of work. They feel they are under attack more frequently than not. 

Since the pandemic the USA work force has been in flux. I do not see it as a bad thing. Not at all. I think Americans needed a break to restructure their lives to be more productive with a higher quality of life as a return for their efforts.

Wall Street corporations have a lot of fluidity as a rule. That means when the work force is tight they can survive by paying the highest prices to the available talent. Small businesses don't necessarily have that option and the workers are going to the highest bidder.

HOWEVER. 

There is a price to be paid by the workforce when they are receiving far higher pay rates than they ever had before. The price they pay is higher demands on the product at the end of the corporate equation. I am not familiar with all the pressures Walmart employees have to endure. I do know in the past Walmart employees had to endure the embarrassment as "The Working Poor" with corporate offices giving advice to where and how to apply for Medicaid and Food Stamps. Basically, Walmart has been supplementing their stockholders with government monies and programs, not really profits.

All those stock returns are not necessarily well earned, so much as found money in sending employees to welfare programs on poor wages. 

Now, the wages are better so they don't really qualify for those government subsidized benefits anymore. 

To say corporations are driven to closing the gap between higher wages and prices for profit is an understatement. An example is McDonalds. The average customer doesn't know that while they are ordering their latest "App Offer" their car is being tracked by magnets of some kind under the paved drive through, sorry "Drive thru". Yes, indeed, consumers of McDonalds can enjoy being bombarded by McDonald's radar. Now, one might ask, "That can't be, there is no purpose to it."

But, Ahhhhhhh, there is.

Inside the McDonalds hard at work are very busy people that have no chairs to sit in even if they wanted to slow down. Each car enters the drive through, sorry "Drive Thru" and is tracked from the beginning of the entrance to the point where they leave with their purchase. The tracking appears on a computer screen at one or all cash registers to know how long each car is on the drive through, sorry "Drive Thru" property. Why is that important? Profits. See, there is a time threshold set for each and every car that enters the drive through, sorry "Drive Thru". The personnel preparing the food are to achieve compliance with the maximum time allowed for a car traversing the drive through, sorry "Drive Thru."

Got it? 

No?

So, the personnel inside preparing the INDIVIDUAL order have to take the order, the money and deliver the food in the time allotted according to the car tracking device to ensure profits to the corporation. Got it now? See, employees can demand all sorts of pay rates, but, the profitability of the company must be maintained, so the product at the end of the pay rate has to exceed the costs to provide profits to the stockholders. In the case of Walmart, to deliver profits to the Walton Family.

To say I have a "thing" about corporations is an understatement. They are profit driven and as a result depersonalize the people that work for them. Believe me when I say corporations rather rely on drones and robots than people. That by the way is the actual goal for trucking companies and McDonalds. Trucking firms can use driverless trucks across the interstates and McDonalds can enact kiosks for self-serve while it dispenses exactly what the person ordered.

As a rule, people cause problems for Wall Street corporations as well as family owned businesses like Walmart in profitability.

So.

That said, people will never be machines nor should they be nor should they be asked to produce as a machine. People are highly valuable to the USA economy and when they are replaced by robots and drones, the USA economy will faulter.

So, the corporations that feel uncomfortable about a good paying wage and seek profits through unrealistic outcomes by human beings, then I strongly suggest their CEOs don't belong in the board room and the unions need to be in negotiations with them.

I know the gun people will side with Walmart and state the gunman had mental health problems. If that is true, then my only statement is, "Why?"

My sincerest sympathies to the friends and families of:

People from Chesapeake.

Fernando Chavez-Barron, 16
Brian Pendleton, 38
Kellie Pyle, 52
Lorenzo Gamble, 43
Randy Blevins, 70

Person from Portsmouth.

Tyneka Johnson, 22

Happy Thanksgiving

A world without greenhouse gas emissions is more than possible.

November 22, 2022
By Alexa Heah

The Pillswood Project, (click here) Europe’s biggest battery energy storage system, has been finally been fired up near Hull in Yorkshire.

Developed by Harmony Energy Limited and running on a Tesla two-hour Megapack system, the facility is said to be able to store up to 196 MWh of electricity in a single cycle—or enough energy to power 300,000 UK homes for two hours.

According to the firm, the power system will bring “critical balancing services” to the country’s electricity grid network, while allowing for fossil fuels to be replaced with eco-friendly, renewable sources of energy....

This is not happening in Russia, it is happening in Europe.

...Next year, the adjacent Dogger Bank, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, will go online, sharing the same connection point with Pillswood Project to maximize the efficiency of the wind farms, such as limiting the amount of time it will need to be switched off....

This is called peace, prosperity, self-reliance and a world to inherit for all generations to come. This is moral!

There is no reason why the USA is not engaging this technology throughout the entire country.

November 22, 2022
By Sharon Udasin

The Biden administration (click here) announced on Tuesday that it will be allocating $550 million to support the deployment of community-based clean energy initiatives.

Through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block (EECBG) Program, the funds will help state, local and tribal governments implement plans aimed at reducing fossil fuel emissions and overall energy use, according to a notice of intent first shared with The Hill....

THIS IS CALLED MORAL!

States and Tribes don't have to go it alone. The DOE is a partner.

....DOE (click here) looks forward to being a partner for states, communities, and industry as we move the U.S. economy towards a clean energy, lower carbon emissions future by strengthening the nation’s out dated energy infrastructure....

The Republicans have a real problem with Trump's announcements.

He brings back into focus all the adverse baggage that adheres to him. Trump and his minions are about money, never about governance. So, when they act as consultants they are making money and the governance that results is ungovernable as demonstrated in the USA with out of control everything. They deregulate and stand back to let chaos prevail.

November 23, 2022

...Others want a global fight over free speech....

While tens of thousands of supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro (click here) camp outside military facilities across Brazil to protest his election loss, members of Bolsonaro’s inner circle are meeting with advisers to former president Donald Trump to discuss next steps.

Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president’s son, has visited Florida since the Oct. 30 vote, meeting Trump at Mar-a-Lago and strategizing with other political allies by phone. He spoke with former Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who was in Arizona assisting the campaign of GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, about the power of the pro-Bolsonaro protests and potential challenges to the Brazilian election results, Bannon said. He lunched in South Florida with former Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller, now CEO of the social media company Gettr, and discussed online censorship and free speech, Miller said....

Bannon is only one of the bad actors that seek power over governance. The list is long and I am confident they want back in power like Michael Flynn.

...Viktor Orbán (click here) wins elections and claims a democratic mandate, but his legislative maneuvers and rewrites to the constitution have rendered political opposition increasingly powerless. Marantz finds the admiration for him from many on the American right unsettling. “I couldn’t really imagine a Putin-style takeover” of power in America, Marantz says, but “this kind of technical, legalistic Orbán model” seems all too plausible.

These bad actors are really impressed by Viktor Orban and want to emulate his success, if you can call it that. Basically, Viktor Orban is a surprise success that occurred after the fact. His election was not on the idea that democracy is weak and needs to be replaced by an autocratic leader that limits freedom and turns loose the beasts of regulation.

November 16, 2022

BUDAPEST,- Hungary will ratify Sweden's and Finland's accession to NATO (click here) before Turkey, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff told a briefing on Wednesday.

Hungary and Turkey are the only members of the alliance who have not yet cleared the accession. The Hungarian government has submitted the relevant legislation to parliament but it has not yet been tabled for debate and vote.

Of course Orban will seek approval of Findland and Sweden because Turkey is the last hold out. Why would Orban withhold ratification to NATO as it makes him look bad.

The article below is on the website of the country of Hungary, but, it comes out of the right wing Washington Times in the USA. The entire article is about genocide as if language is the only aspect of an ethnicity that needs to be preserved by autocrats while removing freedom. It is fascinating to watch these bozos turn morality on it's head. 

As inconvenient as this may seem, the attacks such as this upon Ukraine has to be answered. Ukraine needs it's own State Department (it does not have to be housed in Kyiv) to intercept such tactics. It is important to let them know this garbage exists and won't be tolerated. There needs to be methods for the diaspora to vote on issues concerning Ukraine. The people want to return, should have the right of return and the Ukraine Constitution is vital to that purpose. Allowing these chronic problems of dialogue to exist with sovereignties such as Hungary muddies up the waters. Russia and it's minions have to understand the people of Ukraine are displaced because of their ideologies.

The Balsonaro PLOT against democracy also has to be answered by the government of Brazil. These trouble makers cannot be ignored and allowed to continue to blackmail legitimate government with lies and attempts at treason. The people need to know the truth and its brevity in their lives.

These are sovereign governments with enormous capacity in the world. Their people must be defended with strong language to ensure peace and democracy. The trouble makers cannot pretend to be winners when in fact they are not.

It is unsafe for democracy to leave things as they are without confrontation. Old arguments that were settled in the past election must not be rekindled. Not recognizing the continued danger is to allow it to fester. Disagreements from the past must be put to rest and on a regular basis to reassure the people their freedom is preserved and safe. These people are not about governance, they are about wealth and sequestering it where they can control it.

...First, “ethnic minorities” (click here) in the United States and Central and Eastern Europe are not comparable. To stick with the Hungarian example, there are approximately 2 million ethnic Hungarians who live in Hungary’s neighbor countries whose mother tongue is Hungarian. They became citizens of these states as a result of the border changes after the two world wars, including some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians in Subcarpathia. The borders moved, not the people. My great-grandfather, for instance, was born in 1919, and was the citizen of five different states without leaving his village in today’s South Slovakia where his ancestors lived for centuries.

In contrast, American minorities, with the exception of African Americans, the Native American population and Hispanics living in the Southern states, became minorities as a result of their own decision by immigrating to the U.S. Therefore, it is a legitimate expectation that they adjust to the norms of their chosen homeland and use the English language in public relations, and even then, non-English languages are often accommodated. But forbidding people to use their mother tongue in their own homeland, just because it came under the authority of a different state due to geopolitical events, is a whole different ballgame.

Second, one of the hardest lessons learned from the 20th century is that the stability of multiethnic Eastern Europe is contingent upon the protection of the rights of national minorities. The most fundamental of such rights, having long-standing traditions in Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, is the opportunity to be educated in the mother tongue.

This, of course, does not mean that national minorities in Ukraine, for example, are refusing to learn or speak the official state language. There is a mutual understanding that every citizen, regardless of their mother tongue, must properly speak Ukrainian. However, the new Ukrainian legislation, instead of improving the quality of teaching Ukrainian for ethnic minorities, poses a serious threat to the very existence of national minorities in Ukraine.

Third, Hungary has a special bond to ethnic Hungarians living beyond its borders — just like other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The well-being of these communities, including ethnic Hungarians in Subcarpathia, has always been important for Hungary. This is, in fact, not only the priority of the current government but also an obligation under its Fundamental Law dating back to the country’s independence.

Since taking away the most fundamental language rights of the community is a clear violation of this principle, Hungary’s reaction was quite foreseeable. All actors in the region were aware of this sensitivity, Ukraine knew that its move would strike a nerve in Budapest.

Here we come back to Russia, which is a key player of the dispute....

Any movement even distantly affiliated with Russia must be identified and denounced. Venezuela is a prime example of the dangers of silence in identifying the dangers.

The entire language focus in this Washington Times article is exactly from the Russian playbook.

According to Vladimir Putin, Russia is the only aggrieved country in the world and this dialogue is supposed to be proof of the leadership that really cares about the people and their country when in fact Putin seeks control over land and people for his own purposes. Freedom and healthy economics is the last on the list of these leaders. The current wars Putin is engaging in with his economic alliance is proof there is no free choice or peace on his agenda. Putin wants to build strength by conquering people and pressing them to obey with nationalism as his banner and language as his tool.

Ukraine’s energy crisis

For those remaining in Ukraine there is a personal level of energy generation. Solar panels and batteries. The personal and portable solar panels can recharge batteries that can be used when night falls. 

Rooftop panels can be installed for larger batteries. The rooftop panels might open the building up to drones and bombs, but, smaller, portable varieties can go undetected allowing greater safety.

That and subzero sleeping bags will work for the Ukrainians that refuse to surrender to these horrific and genocidal attacks by Russia. 

Russia and its few allies are engaged in a multi-front war. Until Russian leadership changes and decides their tyranny is a human rights issue there is little hope for significant reprieve. 

Starve the beast that is Russia and bring about an end is the only real hope for the world. It is a horrible country and cannot be allowed to continue it’s march to greater human suffering.

White Supremacy/Nationalists are about power. Racism is the vehicle.

The Caucasian movement that results in murders in the USA is about power at the highest levels as Trump demonstrated in his politics. What is so incredible is that there is no reverse racism. The Southern USA is awash with white politicians and they are elected with minority Americans voting for them. There are black legislators, but, they are disproportionate to their populations. 

As an example of the nature of minority representation is Mississippi (click here). There is a comprehensive list of the African American representatives in Mississippi past and present (click here). The state has been represented primarily by Caucasian men and women. The graph above spans four generations. That is 80 years and the phenomena has yet to end.

As of 2022:

Mississippi Demographics (click here)

According to the most recent ACS, the racial composition of Mississippiwas:

White: 58.00%
Black or African American: 37.68%
Two or more races: 1.68%
Other race: 1.14%
Asian: 1.00%
Native American: 0.47%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: 0.04%

What is sad but true is to understand some of the US House members that are extremists, such as Marjory Taylor Greene. She is considered the best qualified for federal office in her district. Hoping to change such characters out of the US House through exposure of their disqualifying demeanor is not a real choice. Some areas of the USA have disparities in education and with that sophistication in understanding government and the USA Constitution. Basically, these populations are easily lead to vote for people they believe represents their values that are mostly populous in nature.

In the USA such dynamics is called politics. It isn't real, it is simply relating to the voters and driving the vote to the polls. Then once elected and heading to Washington, DC to represent the people they roll back the rhetoric and begin to actually govern. That was the old school. Today, the person heading to Washington, DC is exactly what they appear, extremists that do not find the USA Constitution helpful in their lives or the lives of their constituents, hence, Trump and his minions such as Greene and Hawley.

On November 15, 2022 the world population reached 8 billion people (click here). That is interesting to discuss in many ways, but, in relation to White Supremacy/Nationalists the news does not get better. You see in the graph below the pale face is the least populated across the entire Earth. It has been the case for most of the existence of people on Earth.

The concern of the world is not about skin color and the preservation of it. The focus of genocide is not about skin color either as it can change in a tanning booth and one turns the color orange. Issues of ethnicity are about culture, language and the right of those realities to exist, their populations increase and their land secure in the borders that provide them a homeland. Earth has never nor will ever be dominated by Caucasian people. Let's face it the original inhabitants of the USA were the Red Man or Native American Indians. The Caucasians came to dominate the land in the USA long before there were organized governments that cared about humanity and the end of Adolph Hitler. 

November 19, 2022

What is the most common skin color on earth today? (click here)

Sometime in May 2020, Payton Gendron, (click here) a 16-year-old in upstate New York, was browsing the website 4chan when he came across a GIF.

It was taken from a livestream recording made the previous year by a gunman as he killed 51 people and wounded more than 40 others at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The killer had written a manifesto explaining that he was motivated by the fear of great replacement theory, the racist belief that secretive forces are importing nonwhite people to dilute countries’ white majorities.

Seeing the video and the manifesto “started my real research into the problems with immigration and foreigners in our white lands — without his livestream I would likely have no idea about the real problems the West is facing,” Mr. Gendron wrote in his own manifesto, posted on the internet shortly before, officials say, he drove to a Tops grocery store in Buffalo and carried out a massacre of his own that left 10 Black people dead.

The authorities say Mr. Gendron’s attack in May mimicked the massacre in Christchurch not just in its motivation but also in tactics....

...That’s why it is alarming to see the great replacement idea espoused by political leaders around the globe, including Jordan Bardella, who this month was confirmed as the successor to Marine Le Pen as head of France’s leading far-right party. It has been cited approvingly by Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary and darling of some American conservatives. Tucker Carlson of Fox News talks about it often. An alarming poll by The Associated Press-NORC this year found that about one in three American adults believes that “a group of people is trying to replace native-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains.” Last year a poll found that 61 percent of French people believe that, too.

That the great replacement theory has gone mainstream is a victory for white supremacists and their cause....

...One of the best ways to counter a global ideology of violent extremism in a country that also wants to protect civil liberties is to create problems for extremists — to work to make them less popular and less capable, notes Daniel Byman in his new book, “Spreading Hate: The Global Rise of White Supremacist Terrorism (click here).”...

The Democrats need to move forward with it's agenda of protecting diversity and encouraging minorities to step up and run for office. That means there are plenty of social programs to prop them up and provide stepping stones to a better future, such as tuition forgiveness. Keep fighting. We have a lousy Supreme Court that may very well be illegal in their focus and decisions, but, emboldened  with self-righteousness of a lifetime appointment. Let's face it, Clarence Thomas just doesn't care about being silent anymore.

Good night. I am teaching tomorrow. There is a lot of what I want to write about and will.

Oh.

I don't bring a gun to my teaching. There is no way I would ever do that. No matter how much I may worry about the availability of guns, the wrongful thinking of some young men influenced by White Supremacist/Nationalist, there is something completely unnatural about nurturing learning and being guarded by a personal weapon out of site of the class in the room. THE GUN is more powerful than all of us and the outcomes of carrying one into such a room of acquaintances due to common learning goals is unconscionable. More guns is not the answer, regulation is.

The University of Virginia Threat Assessment Team needs to have a campus wide background check for everyone.

Currently, the University of Virginia requires background checks on their employees.

Who Is Covered by this Policy:Classified and University staff;

Faculty, including visiting scholars and visiting faculty;
Medical Center employees;
Professional research staff, including post-doctoral research associates;
Non-employee post-doctoral fellows;
Wage employees, including staff, faculty, and professional research staff;
UVA Temps; and...

There is an enormous gap in this policy. Why?

...UVA students whose employment/academic work, or internships/practica through the University will involve providing clinical services to, direct supervision of minors who are not enrolled as students at UVA, or will require access to Controlled Unclassified Information subject to NIST SP 800-171 safeguarding requirements.

I believe I ready that Lavel Davis Jr. was a medical student. He underwent a background check because a medical student will ultimately be licensed. Anyone with convictions may not be admitted for a licensing exam. The requirements for the professions such as medicine and law are fairly strict when it comes to a state license to practice in most states. There are ethical issues when dealing the a physician that is ultimately responsible for another person's life regardless of the specialty practiced.

Below is the background check required for the U of Va School of Medicine.

All admitted students (click here) must undergo an AMCAS facilitated criminal background check, in which searches will be conducted by social security number, by areas of prior residence (on county-wide, state-wide and national levels), and by sex offender databases. The check will seek conviction information for all criminal felonies and misdemeanors committed as an adult, as well as for all unresolved offenses and arrests.

The criminal background check will not encompass offenses committed as a juvenile, with the exception of those offenses for which the juvenile was deemed an adult.

Enrollment at the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia is conditional upon the results of the criminal background check. The School of Medicine reserves the right to revoke an offer of admission based upon information received through the criminal background check. An applicant with criminal convictions listed in Virginia Code Section 37.2-314 typically shall be barred from matriculating at the School of Medicine. However, for all criminal convictions, consideration will be given to the nature and seriousness of the offense; the age of the person when the offense was committed; whether the offense was an isolated incident or part of a habitual, repetitive pattern; and the length of time that has elapsed since the offense was committed. Serious deliberation will be conducted as to whether the offense(s) may indicate a future jeopardy to patient care and well-being....

The University of Virginia does not allow guns on campus. Period. Not even if a person has a permit for guns. It is the correct policy for a university campus. Without a doubt.

See, I have a concealed carry permit. I own a handgun. The reasons are not important. I can handle the gun competently, but, in all honesty I should practice more and maybe even compete in order to feel as though the gun has a purpose greater than killing in self-defense. 

I am not an expert, but, most Americans that own and conceal carry handguns are not experts either. Most Americans that own guns and have permits to carry them won't carry them or use them anyway. A gun is a hazard in anyone's life that carries. The gun can be turned on the owner, too. It isn't easy pulling that trigger when the target is an actual human being. The responsibility in doing so is enormous and many that have killed face charges regardless of the permit or the fact the killing was justified from the point of self-defense or defense of the owner's home with or without family inside.

Every gun association and/or club advocates for subscribing to it to ensure there are lawyers waiting to defend it's members. There is also some discussions about mandatory addition of a gun liability policy to home insurance policies. Some say the gun owns you and you don't own the gun. That seems like a true reality. An owner has to be aware of the gun and whether it is safely stowed or reasonably safe while carrying. There is no absolute safety with concealed carry, but, that is another discussion.

The fact the University of Virginia will receive complaints about their policy by the NRA and who knows who else, there is a reality that cannot be ignored, this incident could have been avoided if the school conducted it's background check for all students. The murderer was on the bus when he should not have been. 

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. had failed a background check at a gun shop 

...On Wednesday, (click here) a gun shop owner said Jones had twice tried to buy a gun – once failing a background check – before buying a handgun and a rifle in separate purchases this year....

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. was holding on to tightly and when the investigation began he didn't see his life taking the path a college education were to bring him. He never saw a different path or a way to mitigate the damages of a misdemeanor conviction. He only saw his life failing no matter what he tried and his anger manifested in vengeful actions to those members of the student body that did not face his hurdles to success.

It has nothing to do with popularity or grade point averages. Jones failed to see his life successful when the investigation found his misdemeanor.

The University needs to close the loophole of gun ownership and possession on campus. It also needs to first enroll a student in a counseling session before an investigation is begun to allow the student to see himself or herself as successful regardless of their status on campus. There have to be alternatives to a college education in any student's life, but, especially when there are issues of legal principles involved. Family involvement seems an answer, but, Jones is 22 years old and hardly a teenager as some college students are at 17, 18 or 19. 

I am so sorry to see this happen at U of Va. I do not know any of these people. What is written here is an opinion based on facts that I found. This is still yet another tragedy in the USA because of the free flow of weapons that is completely legal. The idea of owning a gun and then carrying it concealed is a huge responsibility that should not be taken lightly nor for political reasons. Weapons should never be politicized.

Stating there are other weapons, such as a hammer, that can be just as dangerous as a gun. That simply is not true. Other weapons besides guns cause injury and death, but, the statistics speak for themselves; gun deaths in the USA outnumber by 10 to 1 of stabbing deaths (click here).

We have to end gun violence. There are too many guns on the streets of the USA.

The deep corruption of the Flint Water Crisis must be prosecuted.

July 21, 2021
By Jordan Chariton and Jenn Dize

In October 2015, (click here) then-Michigan Governor Rick Snyder finally announced that Flint's water was contaminated with dangerous lead levels. That public admission had come after more than a year of pleading from the city's residents to examine the situation. The city, Snyder promised, would immediately stop using water from the Flint River, which residents had been drinking for 18 months.

The public announcement raised as many questions as it answered, and kick-started a years-long investigation into how the decision that delivered the toxic water to Flint had been made in the first place, how many people were sickened and killed as a result, and when senior government officials first learned of the deadly consequences....

The water supply to the residents of Flint, Michigan took place on April 2014. Almost immediately the people began to discover a problem with the water. Snyder didn't even recognize the problem until October 2015. What ensued when the water was switched was a cover-up to the deed and gross negligence of the government. 

The Former Governor Snyder did not care about the people of Flint, Michigan. He cared about his friends and/or donors and didn't want to change a thing about his Emergency Manager law passed by his legislature. He liked the idea of micromanaging democracy and changed the lives of the people of Flint forever and not for the better. 

The State of Michigan cannot look the other way. Governor Gretchen Whitmer was reelected for a second term. It is time she turn her attentions to investigate the gross negligence of the office of the Governor during Snyder's term, including not just, but, the entire of the administrations cover-ups and crony favoritism that parceled out land and created projects to grease the palms of their hands. 

The gross negligence of Flint and the loss of life is only the beginning and it is time for a committee to investigate the crimes of the Governor, including Flint. The media cannot be the only method of knowing the dangers of such an administration and it cannot be the only venue of justice.

Below is a report of continued government negligence. When is it going to change?

November 22, 2022
By Ron Fonger

Flint - Two state agencies haven’t fixed oversight of some Flint water crisis programs (click here) a year after problems were first reported by the Michigan Office of Auditor General.

A new report issued last week says the Michigan Department of Education hasn’t resolved all issues related to insufficient monitoring of state funding for the Flint Community Schools’ school social worker program, which resulted in more than $1 million in unsupported spending and $316,371 in improper expenditures....

Nord Stream

What type of explosives were found? It may not be Russia.

The pipelines were 80 to 110 meters or 250 to 400 feet down. That requires undersea drones. At 100 feet down divers only have 15 minutes before they begin their assent. Setting the explosives required sophisticated equipment. 

What does satellites say about ship movements before the explosions.

It easily could be Russia, but, there maybe other evidence.

September 27, 2022
By Madison Selcho

...The two main timeline stamps (click here) for the feud between Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and The Walt Disney Company

...State Rep. Carlos Guillermo-Smith, a Democrat who represents parts of Orange County, declared that DeSantis’ statements on this issue were “an alarming turn of events.”

“This is the DeSantis administration openly saying they plan to seize control of a local government for opposing his extreme agenda,” Guillermo-Smith said. “The gravity of what we’re seeing happening in front of us should be a warning sign to all Americans and to all Floridians.”

November 15, 2022
By Katie Rice

Disney World (click here) on Tuesday revealed increases in theme-park ticket prices and said for the first time it will charge extra for one-day tickets based on which park a customer reserves.

Starting Dec. 8, the minimum one-day price for the Magic Kingdom will rise nearly 14% from $109 to $124 and reach a maximum of $189 during the nine-day Christmas holidays. The one-day price for Epcot will range from $114 to $179....

November 15, 2022
By Mike Schuler

The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet intercepted a fishing vessel (click here) attempting to smuggle a “massive amount” of explosive material from Iran to Yemen.

U.S. Coast Guard’s USCGC John Scheuerman (WPC 1146) and guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) interdicted the vessel as it transited international waters in the Gulf of Oman on November 8.

A weeklong search of the vessel assisted by Navy explosive ordnance disposal technicians from the USS Hurricane (PC 3) uncovered more than 70 tons of ammonium perchlorate, a powerful oxidizer commonly used to make rocket and missile fuel as well as explosives. Th Navy said it’s the 5th Fleet’s first-ever interdiction of the material.

The search also found more than 100 tons of urea fertilizer, which is also known for use in explosives....

Ammonium perchorate (click here)

Ammonium perchlorate appears as a white, crystalline solid or powder. Classified as a division 1.1 explosive if powdered into particles smaller than 15 microns in diameter or if powdered into larger particles but thoroughly dried. Does not readily burn, but will burn if contaminated by combustible material. May explode under prolonged exposure to heat or fire. Used to make rocket propellants, explosives, pyrotechnics, as an etching and engraving agent, and in analytical chemistry.

November 15, 2022
By Marianna Parraga

Nov 14 (Reuters) – The international ship registries of Djibouti and the Cook Islands (click here) suspended the flags on five oil tankers, following sanctions by the United States this month for having facilitated oil trade for Hezbollah and Iran’s Quds Force, nongovernment organization United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) said on Monday.

The U.S. Treasury Department in early November imposed sanctions on a wide network of companies, people and vessels accused of concealing the Iranian origins of shipments and exporting them around the world.

Oil tankers Bueno, B Luminosa, Bluefins and Boceanica were suspended in recent days from the Djibouti International Ship Registry after the sanctions, while vessel Rain Drop was removed from the Maritime Cook Island’s registry, according to communications provided by UANI.

Washington maintains sweeping sanctions on Tehran and has looked for ways to increase pressure as attempts have stalled to resurrect the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

Ships that lack a country’s flag, seaworthy classification or insurance are restricted from moving among international ports.

Most of the tankers are in Venezuelan waters, where they are being used by state-run oil firm PDVSA to move oil and fuel between domestic ports, according to internal company documents seen by Reuters....

Hezbollah runs it's drug cartel from Venezuela.

October 7, 2020

Too often, (click here) Hezbollah in Venezuela is characterized as only a potential terrorist threat. In reality, the Lebanese terrorist group has helped to turn Venezuela into a hub for the convergence of transnational organized crime and international terrorism.

When the Supreme Court cared about the people.

 

This is the original Affirmative Action decision.

...In a 5-4 opinion delivered by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (click here), the Court held that the Equal Protection Clause does not prohibit the Law School's narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body. The Court reasoned that, because the Law School conducts highly individualized review of each applicant, no acceptance or rejection is based automatically on a variable such as race and that this process ensures that all factors that may contribute to diversity are meaningfully considered alongside race. Justice O'Connor wrote, "in the context of its individualized inquiry into the possible diversity contributions of all applicants, the Law School's race-conscious admissions program does not unduly harm nonminority applicants."

In the oral arguments on that page Clarence Thomas asks no questions. Justice Scalia chimes in a few times, but, never Thomas.

Besides Thomas none of the original Justices that rendered the opinion are on the court. Thomas is the only original judge. Thomas also brings a lot of religious bias to his decisions, but, in this article even the Catholics are questioning his decision about Affirmative Action.

...So it is not a surprise that Thomas, (click here) a celebrated member of the conservative Catholic community made the connection in his concurring opinion about the Indiana abortion law. He noted the origins of eugenics (click here) as a scientific and academic discipline, explaining that "leaders in the eugenics movement held prominent positions at Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, among other schools, and eugenics was taught at 376 universities and colleges."

Whatever the truth to the claims that abortion policy and jurisprudence are rooted in eugenic ideas, it is clear that eugenics itself is contrary to Catholic morals and social teaching. And it could be easily grasped why a Catholic justice would be concerned about the mischief that eugenic thinking in policy and medicine could do in a system that is not properly inoculated against it.

Which is why it was surprising to hear him take the opposite position to modest anti-racism policies in recent oral arguments for cases challenging affirmative action.

On Oct. 31, the Supreme Court heard two different cases challenging affirmative action. One case involves affirmative action in a public university, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina, and the other in a private university, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.

During oral arguments in the North Carolina case, Thomas questioned the educational benefit of racially diverse schools: "...

Always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I was beginning to wonder if the USA's huge venture into space flight again would ever get off the ground. It happened and we are on the way to Moon missions.

The world’s most powerful rocket (click here) will make a trip around the Moon in 2022 — a step towards landing people there in 2025, and part of the US Artemis programme.

16 November 2022
By Alexandra Witze

NASA’s huge new rocket (click here) blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1.47 a.m. Eastern time today, achieving a major milestone in the agency’s plans to send astronauts back to the Moon.

“We rise together, back to the Moon and beyond,” said NASA launch commentator Derrol Nail as the mighty rocket thundered into the night skies above Cape Canaveral.

The launch put an uncrewed astronaut capsule, called Orion, into Earth orbit and towards a planned course to fly past the Moon and back over the next 26 days. The flight, known as Artemis I, will test whether the rocket and capsule will be able to transport humans safely, while carrying a number of scientific experiments.

This is the first time in half a century that NASA has flown a rocket powerful enough to send humans beyond low Earth orbit.

The flight was delayed after two attempts in late August and early September, which were cut short owing to hardware problems, including leaks of liquid hydrogen fuel. NASA then passed on a launch opportunity in late September because of an approaching hurricane, before putting it back on the launch pad, where it experienced high winds and rain from a different storm last week. NASA managers say that storm caused only minor damage to the rocket, including peeling off a strip of caulking that they say will not endanger the launch....

Don't try to understand all the jargon, just sit back and watch.

Clarence Thomas has some serious issues as an Associate Justice.

The Roberts' Court is not high in the ranking of knowledgeable and competent. There is a great deal of hatred and anger within this court of the American people. The conservative majority is simply wrong about most of their decisions. They are Anti-American and lean into religious prejudice.

November 16, 2022

By Steven Lubet

The six conservative justice (click here) on the U.S. Supreme Court have seemingly come to think of themselves as historians, able to excavate the original meaning of the Constitution from archival sources revealed to them in the briefs of petitioners and respondents. The result has been bad history and worse law, culminating in last term’s New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, where the majority invalidated New York’s restrictions on carrying concealed handguns because it was deemed inconsistent with “this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

According to Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinion, a gun control statute can be upheld only if there is an “American tradition justifying” its specific provisions, meaning similar laws in force around 1791 (when the Second Amendment was adopted) or 1868 (when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, which made the Bill of Rights applicable to the states)....

That is a very confused set of values. There is a reason why he voted with the late Justice Scalia, because he had no clue.

October 24, 2022

Congress should investigate Ginni Thomas for her involvement in the January 6th attack (click here) on the Capitol and attempts to overthrow the 2020 election and Justice Clarence Thomas for his failure to recuse from related cases, according to a request sent by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington today to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.

Ginni Thomas, who holds a government position as a board member of the Library of Congress Trust Fund, messaged the Trump White House encouraging then-president Donald Trump to refuse to concede and join an attempt by Sidney Powell to have the Supreme Court overturn the election result. She also contacted multiple state officials in an attempt to have them set aside and alter the result of the election in their states. She told Trump’s chief of staff that an army was gathering to keep Trump in office and took part in the January 6th rallies that led to the attack on the Capitol.

“It is critical that those responsible for the attack on the Capitol be held accountable and that the integrity of the Supreme Court not be tainted by conflicts of interest,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said. “The Judiciary Committees have responsibility for the oversight of our judiciary and law enforcement agencies, and investigating Ginni Thomas’s conduct and Justice Thomas’s failure to recuse is an essential exercise of that oversight responsibility.”

Justice Thomas has recused himself from 54 cases since joining the Supreme Court in order to avoid the perception of potential conflicts of interest, including 17 cases involving his son. He has never recused because of a potential conflict involving his wife, and was the sole vote to keep the White House’s communications around the attempt to reject the election results secret despite his wife’s communications with the White House on related issues.

“It is hard to imagine something more damaging to the public trust in the Supreme Court than a Justice ruling on cases that could relate to their spouses’ attempts to overturn American democracy,” Bookbinder said. “An immediate investigation is needed.”...

Ginny Thomas has practiced pure hate filled venom in her insider role with the Trump White House including that of Mark Meadows. Normally, this is nothing more than bad sportsmanship, but, not when it is linked to a deadly insurrection. She definitely seems to know of the movement that was to take place on January 6th. There are people dead from that insurrection. Her emails are not simply in bad taste, they direct the President's Chief of Staff. These are people that are allies and not friends. She isn't angry at a dinner party, she is angry to the Chief of Staff in the White House.

March 26, 2022
By Danny Hakim, Jo Becker and Alan Feuer

Two days after the 2020 election, (click here) Virginia Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, texted an old friend, Mark Meadows, the chief of staff to President Donald J. Trump.

She sent messages that had been making the rounds on pro-Trump sites, where anger over the election echoed her own raw feelings, including this passage: “Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.”

Then she added of this fanciful, if chilling, set of conspiracy theories: “I hope this is true.”

She texted Mr. Meadows again the next day. “Do not concede,” she wrote. “It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back.”

The messages were among a flurry of text traffic between Ms. Thomas and Mr. Meadows that was revealed this past week, part of a trove of documents previously turned over to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. (Ms. Thomas has openly opposed the committee and called for Republicans who serve on it to be expelled from the House Republican conference.)...

It is time for Americans to get busy and bring back enforcement of civil rights in the USA.

There are legislators that need guidance in deciding some issues. The LGBT community is a minority community in the USA. They need other Americans to join them in affirming the right of marriage to their partners. This civil right no longer has to be debated because there is a significant history of couples wanting to be married for their security and well being.

Marriage elevates a partner in life to husband and/or wife. There is a great deal of security in that including being able to attend to an ill married partner. There are enormous legal reasons for marriage to have a broader definition as to whom is married and protected by law in the USA. 

The opposition of these civil rights only seek to cause harm to individual Americans by making marriage an exclusive club for heterosexuals engaging in having and supporting a family. That level of hatred of "the other" is dangerous and irresponsible of a democracy.

Every relationship that lasts and is full of love needs protecting under the law. The Senate bill is important and should be passed without debate or question. The fact the Republicans will demand 60 votes for passage is a form of hatred and political pandering to those that see marriage as an exclusive club defined by religious prejudice.

November 16, 2022
By Amy B Wang

The Senate on Wednesday (click here) advanced the Respect for Marriage Act, which would enshrine marriage equality into federal law, clearing the way for the bill’s final passage in the chamber this week.

In a 62-to-37 vote, senators agreed to end debate on the bill and advance it. Twelve Republicans joined all 50 members of the Democratic caucus to vote in support of the bill, surpassing the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster.

Democrats have warned since June that federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages, as well as other rights, could be at risk after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which for nearly 50 years had guaranteed the right to an abortion in the United States.

“Today, the Senate is taking a truly bold step forward in the march towards greater justice, greater equality, by advancing the Respect for Marriage Act,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said before the vote Wednesday. “It’s a simple, narrowly tailored, but exceedingly important piece of legislation that will do so much good for so many Americans. It will make our country a better, fairer place to live.”...

Why the energy grid? Putin is losing the grip on these countries.

October 1, 2022

Chisinau Oct 1 (Reuters) - Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) (click here) cut natural gas supplies to Moldova on Saturday by around 30%, the director of gas firm Moldovagaz, Vadim Ceban, said.

A day earlier, deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu said Gazprom had warned Moldova about the reduction in supplies. 

Spinu said on Saturday that technical problems were behind the reduction and the country would ask Gazprom to increase supplies....

Putin has three to four war fronts considering the larger economic affiliates. Russia wants control. Bombing Ukraine is a stalemate status until Putin can control the other smaller countries. Putin and his countrymen covet all these countries in a way that is supposed to lend control to Russia, but, the countries are not interested in being taken over by communists.

Putin is attacking all the measures these countries have formulated to maintain their independence. That is all they want. They want to be independent from Russia, but, was more than willing to participate in free trade agreements. Free trade is not on Russia's agenda.

The question is will Russia survive a multi-front war?

I think Putin is screaming nukes because he is losing his quest. He may feel the need to dominate with such a weapon, but, no one is attacking Russia nor Russian sovereign borders. It is difficult justifying using nukes when Russian sovereignty is intact and without threat.

September 27, 2022

By Madalin Necsutu

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mihailo Podolyak (click here) told Pro TV Chisinau on Monday evening that his country will deliver more electricity if supplies are halted from the Cuciurgan power plant in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, which operates on Russian gas.

“This [help with electricity] is indisputable. However, for us, it is a matter of principle. It is a matter of our humane attitude, absolutely benevolent towards our partners and neighbours,” said Pololyak.

Currently, EU aspirant state Moldova gets 67 per cent of its electricity from the Cuciurgan plant, while 33 per cent comes from Ukraine.

Moldova’s Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development, Andrei Spinu, said on Monday evening that there has been no response from Gazprom about deliveries of Russian gas from October 1, when public heating is switched on for the winter season.

If there was a halt, Moldova has stored 35 million cubic metres of gas in Romania, which would last approximately ten days. The gas can be transported through the Iasi-Ungheni-Chisinau pipeline, which has been operating since 2021.

Spinu warned that if Russia halts supplies, the Moscow-backed Transnistria region would also be affected as it would have to buy gas at the market price and pay in advance.

Transnistria, a region on the left bank of the Dniester River with a de facto population of no more than 350,000 people, is dependent on Russian gas for the functioning of its economy. Russia has given passports to more than 220,000 of Transnistria’s residents and has peacekeeping troops based there....