This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
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Five people are dead, including three children, a teacher and the 16-year-old male shooter, according to Mike Krantz, Bend Police chief, who spoke at a 5:30 pm press conference Thursday at Bend City Hall. The three children killed were ages 5, 8 and 11.
Crisis counselors will be available to the public Deschutes Central Library on Friday, beginning at 9 am....
Research in psychology and criminology (click here) shows that when a young boy or adolescent attacks classmates, the motives rarely stem from a single cause. Instead, they typically result from a complex mix of psychological, social, and environmental factors:
Bullying, Marginalization, and Humiliation: Many researchers, such as criminologists studying school violence, point to acute feelings of chronic bullying, social rejection, humiliation, or perceived injustice as primary catalysts.
The Desire for Revenge and Glorification: Young males experiencing severe alienation may develop obsessive revenge fantasies, seeking to reclaim power or achieve notoriety (often amplified by real or imagined peer or online audiences).
Mental Health and Emotional Regulation Challenges: Underlying depression, trauma, anger-management issues, or developmental vulnerabilities can impair a youth's ability to cope with stress or interpersonal conflict.
Online Subcultures and Influence: Exposure to toxic online communities, extremist rhetoric, or violent media (such as certain segments of the "manosphere" or incel/hate forums) can desensitize young people or validate aggression as a means of retaliation.
Access to Firearms or Weapons: The physical capacity to carry out a deadly attack almost always relies on the easy availability of unsecured firearms or lethal weapons in the home or environment.
The United States of America is ranked along side of Russia and China. That is an enormous disgrace.
Any and all sanctions placed against the ICC should be litigated within the court system of the USA. The International Criminal Court is a moral force in the world. Countries and their people globally look to the court for recognition of the sanctity of life. The USA's leaders should never be outside the circle of the most moral positions of governments in the world. There is no pretending. There is only living it.
The USA should be in lock step with our allies and not our enemies. There are treaties enforcing it.
State party
Signatory that has not ratified
State party that subsequently withdrew its membership
Signatory that subsequently withdrew its signature
Non-state party, non-signatory
The war in Iraq was an illegal war. The moral decline of the USA never stopped. While Bush believed the attacks of September 11, 2001 took the USA into unknown defensive miliary areas, the lack of return to our best moral content was abandoned. We should still stand with our allies and be a member party.
In the Bush Administration's range of policies (click here) that had negative ramifications for the promotion and respect for international human rights, its approach to the International Criminal Court (ICC) was of particular significance. What was striking was not the Administration's position on the United States' becoming part of the court-the Clinton Administration also had concerns over joining-but rather the intense, virulent assault that the Bush Administration advanced on the Court. Despite official claims to the contrary, the Bush Administration's approach, which was far more strident during its first term, appeared to be an intensive effort to cripple the Court....
The Hague has strong, moral, and capable allies. The Rule of Law matters.
October 16, 2024
By Raffy Boudjikanian
An internal memo told Justin Trudeau's government (click here) that it was expected to pursue the arrests of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his then defence minister and Hamas leaders if the International Criminal Court were to issue the warrants being prepared by one of its prosecutors.
Trudeau and his successor Mark Carney both later said they would act on the warrants. But the document — dated months before the warrants were ultimately issued — offers a rare glimpse at internal advice the government received from a non-partisan source.
"The International Criminal Court is a designated extradition partner under Canada's Extradition Act," Trudeau's national security adviser at the time, Nathalie Drouin, wrote in a memo dated June 10, 2024....
A US federal judge (click here) has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from placing sanctions on two US-based human rights groups for working to help the international criminal court’s (ICC) investigations into war crimes in Gaza.
In a 30-page order issued on Tuesday, Jesse M Furman, a judge at the US district court for the southern district of New York, granted a preliminary injunction to the two groups, Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) and Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide (Taag).
The two organizations sued the Trump administration this summer, challenging an executive order issued in February 2025 that imposed sanctions against the ICC.
The order warned the US government would “impose tangible and significant consequences” on people involved in investigations that Washington said threatened the national security of the US or its allies, including Israel.....
This is political harassment in hoping to stir up some dirt.
This is how Trump is spending our tax dollars.
October 15, 2026
By Amie Parnes
Nearly four months (click here) have passed since California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) publicly and unexpectedly announced President Trump was launching what Newsom described as a politically motivated federal investigation into him and his wife.
Federal agents had “knocked on the doors” of family friends and former employees, the governor said at the time....
The ACLU, Center for Science in the Public Interest and Protect Democracy filed a class action lawsuit against the agency last month, alleging that it is censoring researchers and violating the Administrative Procedures Act....
...Terms including "diversity," such as "bolster diversity," "cohort diversity" and "cultural diversity" are included 85 times.
In reference to race and ethnicity, keywords include "HBCU," "Hispanic serving," "historically Black" and "ethnic segregation." "Racist," "racism" and "racial discrimination" are also included under the DEI category.
Seven terms related to climate change are included, such as "changing climate," "fossil fuel" and "global warming."
There are five keywords with the prefix "trans" on the list: transfeminine, transgender, transmasculine, transphobe and transsexual.
NIH declined UPI's request for comment.....
It is amazing to what an entire administration worship money while terrified of the truth.
JD Vance is lying about the statements Trump made in public and was called out by Retired General Milley.
Well, if Vance doesn't like the accurate reporting of Tapper, let's just look at what he is saying himself. Vance admitted the president wants to send the military after "...far left lunatics...". Lunatics like Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi. The same lunatics who's office was invaded on January 6, 2021, occupied with classified material stolen. Those left wing lunatics that have been in leadership of their constituencies for decades with one serving as the first woman Speaker of the House. Those left wing lunatics?
Vance is advancing hate speech. The same hate speech that brought right wing lunatics to attacks Former Speaker Pelosi's spouse causing permanent damage to the man, and the same hate speech that caused the deaths and injuries of strong and faithful Democratic legislators.
Vance is the enemy within as is his fuhrer.
Thank you, Jake. The interview reveals the lethal campaigns of deceptions, lies, and fear mongering of the Republican leadership. It is all too clear why Trump wants CNN and others silenced. The truth hurts. It doesn't have to, but, in this case for Vance it does. Vance is vested in changing the truth, not living with it. This is our Vice President.
The picture to the left was 1917. That was World War I. The draft age then was 21 to 30. The age of majority changed to 18 when 19-year-olds were being drafted for Vietnam. They did not have a vote as to whom as sending them to war. So, the legislature rather than raising the draft age to 21 again decided to give the vote to 18-year-olds instead of changing the draft policy.
April 8, 2026
Automatic registration (click here) into the U.S. military draft pool for eligible men is slated to begin in December, following efforts from lawmakers and the selective service agency to streamline the previous self-registration process.
The Selective Service System, the federal agency that maintains a database of registered U.S. males who are considered draft-eligible in the event of a national emergency, submitted a proposed rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on March 30, according to the office’s dashboard.
Automatic registration into Selective Service was mandated in December 2025, when President Donald Trump signed into law the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, the agency’s website says.
It may be time for Quakers to brush the dust off of those draft counseling manuals from the 70s. This law would not have been passed if there was no intention of restarting conscription.
There is no fraud. If there are mistakes made by Somali parents entering the USA to save their lives and those of their children and family then they were innocent lies facilitated by a language barrier. I find the entire episode with our US House of Representative Omar nothing more than rough handling of an innocent person and racist.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (click here) is an example of the promise of the USA. She came to this country as a refugee and flourished. There is absolutely everything right about her experience from the age of 12. She was not part of a grand conspiracy to undermine the government of the USA. She came here to be a part of our country and bring fairness to the people of her district.
If mistakes were made by her parents of which her father is now deceased, those mistakes were innocent. She is not the problem. She is a solution for many people in her district. The harassment must stop.
The departure of the last troops of the United Nations' Somalia operation in March 1995 marks a critical juncture for Somalia, and for international peacekeeping. In researching this report, Human Rights Watch set out to discover what would be left behind when the U.N. withdrew, what the prospects would be for the future, and what recommendations should be made to Somalis and the international community based on what we learned. The resulting recommendations are directed at Somali leaders at all levels of society (including those in the Somali diaspora), at various governments in the region, and at the wider international community, in particular the major European powers and the U.S. They concern the protection and promotion of human rights in Somalia, but also larger issues of international peacekeeping, peace enforcement and humanitarian intervention....
Texas Federal officials conducted raids at over 40 so-called "laptop farms" across Texas that the Justice Department says are controlled by North Korea as part of a scheme aimed at fraudulently securing remote jobs to help fund its nuclear program. Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike senior vice president, and Brett Leatherman, FBI Cyber Division assistant director, join to discuss.
None of the below content is allowed on Blogger. Social media can be dangerous when it is laced with lies and deceit. The truth, ethics, and the law must stand.
The war in Ukraine (click here) — and the question of the American role in it — has been thrown into a new moment of chaos and crisis.
Wednesday brought a blizzard of developments: revelations that Ukraine had been abruptly restricted in its use of a satellite service that is crucial to its wartime efforts; an accusation of American betrayal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; and an intervention by the world’s richest man that sought to minimize his responsibility in the farrago....
Trump is all propaganda. Trump swears there is diesel coming from Russia and then a Russian spokesman swears to it. It is all propaganda that is a distraction to the fact Trump is backing Russia.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy also responded to the Russian attacks on Ukraine overnight, saying Moscow has used “more than a hundred different weapons,” from “jet-powered drones, loitering munitions and ballistic missiles.”
And, interestingly, he pointedly says Ukraine had “no early warning” on one of the strikes in Kyiv.
“An ordinary residential building was destroyed in Kharkiv; the rescue operation continued virtually all night as first responders searched for people under the rubble. Four people were killed in this strike on the building in Kharkiv. My condolences to all their families and loved ones. In Kharkiv alone, 41 people were injured in just one evening.
There was also a particularly vile ballistic missile strike on Kyiv – five missiles that hit civilian infrastructure. Unfortunately, we received no early warning from our partners about this strike. Intelligence on Russian ballistic missile launches helps save lives, and this is one of the most critical issues. This is precisely what helps prevent people from being killed – when there is an early warning about ballistic missiles.”
Zelenskyy also says Ukraine has halted strikes on Russian oil refineries for two days after Trump’s ceasefire announcement, but “Russia did not heed the American president.”...
Trump’s weakness and Hegseth’s blundering has allowed Putin’s ambitions to attack NATO to bring the alliance into the Ukraine war, to begin.
After ranting about protecting the Russian facilities in NATO territory Putin has attacked two commercial ships, sinking one off Bulgaria (click here).
This open aggression against non-military targets is for the sole purpose of threatening war with NATO. Bulgaria needs protection and the USA must provide significant protection in the Black Sea.
Kaliningrad Oblast isn’t even close to Bulgaria’s sovereign borders. This is an outrage. Russia has to answer for the sinking of a civilian ship which is highly illegal to international maritime law. There are currently 12 people missing and feared dead.
Corruption exists throughout the party. Trump's sons have been on the take. Now, Guilfoyle was extorting people, and Kushner has been taking charity monies from Saudi Arabia. None of the crimes of Republicans should surprise the American people, ie: Musk.
October 13, 2026 By Sara Dorn
Paxton and his girlfriend, (click here) who is not his wife, Tracy Duhon, partied in Dubai with two American fugitives indicted on healthcare-fraud charges in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a video it viewed showing Paxton and Duhon at the party and court records and sources familiar.
One of the fugitives, healthcare executive Anosh Ahmed, donated $190,000 to Paxton, including $25,000 days after he was indicted, according to the Journal.
He and Sameer Suhail were indicted on federal charges in Illinois in 2024 accusing them of embezzling $15 million from a Chicago hospital where Ahmed worked as the chief financial officer.
Ahmed, who reportedly has business interests in Texas, was later indicted in a $195 million Covid-19 fraud scheme; he has pleaded not guilty.
Both are back in the U.S., and Ahmed is in custody.
A lawyer for Suhail, Adam Sheppard, said he was initially unable to travel to face charges due to civil matters in Dubai, and Ahmed’s attorney said his return was delayed by family health issues, the Journal reported....
...But what if some votes count more than others? (click here) Can there be an authentic representative democracy if equal representation of constituents is not achieved through the electoral process? Can government be fair, if the interests of some groups of voters have more weight than those of less privileged groups in the decisions of their representatives?...
These decisions are based in ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE. Citizens United has proven to be adverse to the very basis of this democracy as the wealthier the person the more votes they have with elections. Citizen's United puts a thumb on the scale in an age of wealthy influence that allows corruption and racketeering, including extortion.
Citizens' United was an experiment that should never have been allowed.
Charles W. Baker and other Tennessee citizens alleged that a 1901 law designed to apportion the seats for the state's General Assembly was virtually ignored. Baker's suit detailed how Tennessee's reapportionment efforts ignored significant economic growth and population shifts within the state.
In 1961, M.O. Sims, David J. Vann (of Vann v. Baggett), John McConnell (McConnell v. Baggett), and other voters from Jefferson County, Alabama, challenged the apportionment of the state legislature. Lines dividing electoral districts had resulted in dramatic population discrepancies among the districts. The state constitution required at least one representative per county and senatorial district. However, the district in Jefferson County, which is near Birmingham, contained 41 times as many eligible voters as those in another district of the state. Sims and the other voters argued that this lack of proportionality prevented them from effectively participating in a republican form of government
We know full well the monies used in elections is corrupting the process. The taxpayers allow a certain amount of money to be used from the income tax they pay for elections. Citizens' United decision erased the precautions of that voter fund.
Gibney was speaking to the New York Times as the film opened in the US (where it is being released by the independent distributor Bleecker Street), and appeared to confirm a story in the Hollywood Reporter that Universal, which had acquired the international rights to the film in 2023, had got cold feet. Asked by the New York Times, “Did Universal Pictures waver in setting up its international release plans?” Gibney replied: “Yes.”...
Trump can't use taxpayer money for political ads.
So.
Musk has decided to throw a quarter billion at the Midterm elections in the USA. It is nothing for him to do that, but, we know he gets quid pro quo when he does. There is a lot of peril for Musk if the Republican Party loses control.
Now that Citizens' United has been the law of the land for many elections it is time to review the legal basis for these monies. We know there is gross corruption accompanying the monies used in elections. Musk is THE POSTER BOY of the level of corruption that exists with Citizens' United in effect now and in the future.
Musk doesn't just throw enormous amounts of money at an election he also seeks to influence voters through digital media. The idea Musk could have mettled in the 2024 elections can be determined by previous records. The political parties should have a way of determining if the voting pattern is normal or not. The states Former Vice President Harris needed to win all fell to Trump and quite frankly it seemed odd they did.
WE NEED TO RETURN TO NORMAL PAPER BALLOTS AND/OR MECHANICAL VOTING MACHINES WITHOUT INTERNET CONNECTIONS.
October 10, 2026 By Sara Boboltz
...St. Clair, (click here) who participated in the film, revealed that Elon Musk told her shortly before Election Day 2024 that he was feeling “optimistic” because “tomorrow we unleash the anomaly in the matrix.
Asked what he meant, Musk pointed to “lasers from space,” saying, “I have over 10,000 lasers in space right now.”
Was Musk interfering in the 2024 election? Gibney has been careful to note that he cannot say whether Musk was bragging to a romantic partner or lying. At a Friday screening of the new film, the director said the texts to St. Clair seemed like a pretty important detail to include. He also shared his theory about what Musk was actually talking about.
“If I was to hazard a guess,” Gibney said, “it had to do with not the switching of votes, but with the reporting of votes, and that he knew sooner than anybody else did because, you know, out of the voting systems, there are things that appear on the internet, and if you know how to hack into them, you can get real-time data.”...
The Tesla and SpaceX boss has dropped $336 million to boost GOP candidates and help the Republican Party keep control of Congress, according to a Monday report from Reuters. Musk — whose $1 trillion net worth makes him the world’s wealthiest person — has accelerated his spending as the midterms have drawn closer, with Reuters reporting he has plowed $276 million into campaigns since July....
This is a weapon system that needs testing long before deployment. The public should have transparency to witness and comment on these issues. That is not happening. Trump is making a determination about applying highly irregular technology to the Pentagon systems that defend this country. It is outrageous that computers are taking over national security. THEY CAN BE HACKED BY OUR ENEMIES.
January 13, 2026
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (click here) said Monday that Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok will join Google's generative AI engine in operating inside the Pentagon network, as part of a broader push to feed as much of the military's data as possible into the developing technology.
"Very soon we will have the world's leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department," Hegseth said in a speech at Musk's space flight company, SpaceX, in South Texas.
The announcement comes just days after Grok — which is embedded into X, the social media network owned by Musk — drew global outcry and scrutiny for generating highly sexualized deepfake images of people without their consent....
The use of public funds for personal legal defense is also a problem. We are seeing these abuses in Florida.
Hope Florida was an attempt by DeSantis' wife to turn the public sector into a profitable business for the private sector. Hope Florida is not a hoax. It was a blatant attempt to turn government into a profit for cronies.
Hope Florida (click here) is an initiative spearheaded by First Lady Casey DeSantis that utilizes Hope Navigators to unite communities while guiding Floridians on an individualized path to prosperity, economic self-sufficiency and hope. Hope Navigators are the key to what makes the Hope Florida Model different. These experts work hand-in-hand with individuals to identify their unique barriers and engage all sectors of the community to be a crucial part of the solution....
This is called corruption of government and it is highly unethical. Government programs are welcome when they solve problems, but, those problems should have a sound basis of concern proven in legislative hearings that prompt legislature and funding. The programs are supposed to be conducted by government offices. If the governor's wife wants to do some PR for the programs that is acceptable. But, the governor's wife in his instance was running the program and repeatedly would ask the Florida legislature for more and more appropriations for her program. There was no model for this program or research to back up the intent of the program OR IT'S OUTCOMES EFFECTIVENESS. This is corruption at it's worst.
October 12, 2026
By Kate Payne
For months, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration (click here) has dismissed the Hope Florida scandal as a “hoax,” maintaining that “nobody did anything wrong.” Yet at the same time, state agencies have quietly shelled out thousands of dollars to high-powered law firms that were hired to keep an investigation of the saga out of public view.
State purchasing records reviewed by The Florida Trib show a flurry of payments to the private law firms hired to represent public officials scrutinized by a Leon County grand jury, which investigated the diversion of $10 million from a state Medicaid settlement into the nonprofit behind first lady Casey DeSantis’ signature welfare initiative.
Recently released court records reveal how state officials represented by private attorneys fought the grand jury findings for months in closed court proceedings that were barred from public view by state law and judicial orders. Meanwhile, public records show the firms hired to represent the officials racked up hefty legal bills, with some lawyers charging the state $800 an hour.
The use of public funds to pay attorney’s fees for public employees called before a grand jury is barred by a longstanding opinion that is still available on the website of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier — who was one of the central subjects of the Hope Florida grand jury....
It doesn't matter if the Supreme Court states it is okay for Trump to destroy a public golf course, Trump is still in contempt.
October 12, 2026
By Jan Wolfe
A US judge said on Monday (click here) that she was "furious" with Justice Department lawyers for their conduct in a lawsuit seeking to halt the Trump administration’s takeover of a historic golf course in Washington, saying it was "inexcusable" that hundreds of trees were removed from the course over the weekend.
"More than being upset and furious right now, I am just deeply disappointed in the government," US District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington told government lawyers during a court hearing. "On what universe did anyone in your office think this was acceptable?"...
What are they doing, cutting them down and putting them in a chipper? That is outrageous. The people aren't important to this administration.
May 2026 Injunction: U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes previously ruled that the administration must provide clear advance notice to the court and plaintiffs before closing the course or removing more than 10 trees.
October 2026 Order: Outraged by the weekend felling, Judge Reyes expressed deep disappointment in Justice Department lawyers and issued an immediate temporary restraining order halting all further tree removal through at least Tuesday morning ahead of emergency hearings.
The Tree Removal Controversy
Scope of Damage: NPS crews cleared around 529 trees—including mature oaks, maples, and a historic cherry tree near the 14th green—primarily in an area known as "Trash Island"
Government Stance: The Interior Department and NPS argued the work was routine landscape maintenance and hazard pruning separate from any larger golf course redesign.
Preservationist Backlash: The DC Preservation League and local golfers argued that the massive tree clearing is an attempt to bypass environmental reviews and fast-track President Trump’s proposed championship-grade golf course overhaul.
I think they have it right. It is the Trump strategy. Do the unthinkable and everyone else is stuck with it.
The trees are worth money. Even dead trees that are taken down for safety reason are worth money. Those trees should be removed with the idea they will provide income to the government property to defer the maintenance. There are ways of managing these lands responsibly that also enhance the land and the protections the people want, including adding to the budget for the land. Golf courses will suffer quality if there is soil erosion. Clear cutting trees definitely allows soil erosion. Management plans should be transparent and allow public testimony and comment.
There is no reason for an investigation. None. She and her family were nearly killed. They made it out and qualified for refuge status in the USA. There was never anything suspicious from day one.
These attacks on Rep. Omar strongly appear to be racist. My instinct say she should file a lawsuit against the government and the decision makers to carry out these attacks, including Trump.