This is not the same image. They were both from April 30, 2014.

Image to left is at 2300z this evening.










Image to the right is at  0100z this morning.

The image below probably looks confusing. The vortex in the Atlantic east of USA shoreline is moving primarily north northeast.

The vortex over the USA has a circulation center over northeast Iowa. It appears to be over the New Albin Big Lake Wildlife Area. The water vapor fueling this vortex is directly off South America.

U.S. Severe Weather Map (click here)
Updated: 12:41 AM GMT on May 01, 2014

Gratefully there are no tornadoes watch currently. There is flooding in the Mid-Atlantic states, Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle. High wind warnings for southern coastal California. There are also special warning in the northwest which bears notice.

Special Statement (click here)

Statement as of 2:53 PM PDT on April 30, 2014

...Use caution along area rivers as they are deceptively cold and fast moving this time of year... The near record to record warmth through Thursday may cause some individuals to seek relief around area rivers. Every year people are killed in rivers around the Pacific northwest...overestimating their ability to handle the higher river flows and the cold water temperatures. Please exercise caution if recreating along or in any area rivers Thursday.
Neuman

There is a vortex in the Pacific with a circulation center offshore northern California. That primarily took shape in the past 12 hours.

I know this is going to be hard to believe, but, sleep hasn't come easy the past few days. I'm tired. Until tomorrow.

UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of North and West Hemisphere (click here for 12 hour loop)
April 30, 2014
2330.19z

WASHINGTON 

May 1, 2014 (AP)

By DEB RIECHMANN 

Associated Press

The International Monetary Fund (click here) board on Wednesday approved a two-year, $17 billion loan package for cash-strapped Ukraine as it seeks to regain stability following Russia's annexation of Crimea.

The IMF assistance pledged in March was hinged on economic reforms in Ukraine, including raising taxes, freezing the minimum wage and raising energy prices — all steps that could hit households hard and strain the interim government's tenuous hold on power.

"Urgent actions were necessary. Urgent decisions were taken by Ukraine and decisions now have just been taken by the IMF," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told reporters at the monetary fund's headquarters.

Ukraine's interim government finds itself caught between the demands of international creditors and a restive population that has endured decades of economic stagnation, corruption and mismanagement....

There's asylum seekers? Really? I didn't think anyone was clambering to get out of Russia.

Efrem Lukatsky and Nataliya Vasilyeva 
Associated Press
04/30/2014 02:34:41 PM PDT

ZHDANIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow (click here) calls the detention center under construction near the Russian border a "fascist concentration camp." Inside the barbed-wire fences, the reality is less ominous: It's an EU-funded project to hold asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, similar to other such detention centers across Europe. 

The accusation is part of a relentless Kremlin-driven propaganda offensive that uses World War II-era terms and imagery to rail against Ukraine's fledging government. "Nazis," ''fascists" and "Fritzes" are some of the terms that Russia is hurling at Ukrainian authorities who took power after the ouster of the last elected president, a reversal in political fortunes that has led to a pro-Western Ukrainian government in Kiev and a pro-Russian insurgency in the country's east....

Russia is afraid of emigration out of the country. Holy smokes. Who knew?

2014 UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) regional operations profile - Northern, Western, Central and Southern Europe (click here)

The 36 countries in this subregion have long traditions of refugee protection, strong legal frameworks and, for the majority of them, functioning national asylum systems. Nevertheless, different legal traditions and asylum and migration experiences shape the protection landscape of each country. Croatia, which became the 28th member-State of the European Union in July 2013, is the newest participant in the Common European Asylum System (CEAS).

The most significant development in 2013 was the adoption of amended European Union legislation on asylum and the reception of asylum-seekers. The recast statutes, which will require extensive transposition at the national level in 2014, strengthen protection standards in the region. However, discrepancies in implementation persist, leading to protection gaps in some countries and posing challenges to the functioning of the CEAS. These include challenges in the application of the Dublin III Regulation, which determines which Member State is responsible for examining an asylum application....

I want to know the serum level of potassium chlorida in Clayton Lockett when he had a heart attack! There is also the chance a substance was injected directly into his heart.

Corrections Director Robert Patton addresses reporters Tuesday after a failed attempt to execute convicted murderer Clayton Lockett.

Matt Trotter Public Radio Tulsa

For the average sized person it takes about 8 grams of serum potassium chloride to stop the heart from beating. I want to know if Mr. Lockett was murdered when his execution failed.


OKLAHOMA CITY 
April 30, 2014
By BAILEY ELISE McBRIDE and SEAN MURPHY 
Associated Press

Clayton Lockett, (click here) who had an apparent heart attack 43 minutes after the start of an execution in which the state was using a new drug combination for the first time, had his day in court....

The FBI needs to get on it. None of the medications administered to Mr. Lockett during his FAILED execution would have caused a heart attack. There is a lot wrong here. It starts with the intimidation of a State Supreme Court and ends with a lot of questions to the cause of death of Mr. Lockett.

Discrimination based on economic status.

It is a foregone conclusion raising the minimum wage would alleviate the strain on the government to INSURE the well being of Americans. Had the Minimum Wage Bill passed the Senate it would have been the beginning of reducing the federal deficit and national debt. 

The ideology the Republicans adheres to victimizing the majority of Americans while directly benefiting the wealthy and their campaign donors. It is corruption based in the hopes media corruption will follow carrying false facts and claims to the electorate while instilling fear.

The Republicans ideology invokes fear of an oppressed electorate to maintain their hold on power in the House and Senate. This is a stark example of that. 

Susan Davis
USA TODAY 4:03 p.m. EDT 
April 30, 2014

WASHINGTON — A Democratic bill (click here) to raise the federal minimum wage failed in a key procedural vote in the Senate on Wednesday. The defeat was expected, but that did not deter President Obama and Senate Democrats who have pledged to make it an issue in the 2014 elections.

Hours after the vote, President Obama lashed out against Republican lawmakers for blocking the legislation, citing polling that shows a majority of Americans support a hike in the minimum wage.

In remarks at the White House, he said Americans shouldn't be deterred by the vote, and urged voters to pressure GOP lawmakers to embrace raising the minimum wage, which was increased to $7.25 in 2008."

"If your member of Congress doesn't support raising the minimum wage, you got to let them know they are out of step, and if they keep putting politics ahead of working Americans, you'll put them out of office," Obama said....

Republicans know nothing about economics. They have cast the American people into poverty to attempt to compete with China's wage labor. 

Below is the Australian Debt to GDP ratio. The USA should be so lucky to have a well paid population to facilitate economic growth and a sustainable tax base. Australia has one of the highest minimum wages in the world. It doesn't get more obvious than that. 

China is a communist nation where private property is not within reach of the average citizens. That is exactly where America is heading under decades of Republican ideology.

 

This is coersion.

By SEAN MURPHY

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Two death row inmates (click here) who want to know the source of drugs that will be used to execute them have placed Oklahoma’s two highest courts at odds and prompted calls for impeaching justices on the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

The state’s high court delayed the inmates’ execution Monday even though the judges are restricted to ruling on civil matters. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, which handles cases from inmates, said it wasn’t authorized to weigh in on the request for a stay because the inmates challenged the execution procedures in civil court, not criminal....

The decision the Oklahoma Supreme Court judges made to reverse their earlier decision is not valid. In that reality is the fact Fallin has broken the law, both at the state level and federal.

Fallin can't identify coersion? She didn't stop the legislature from imperiling the justice system in Oklahoma? The legislature was carrying out a coup. Where was she when the people of Oklahoma was assaulted by extremism in her state. She is liable in many ways. 

Understand, regardless of what she states the cases were not brought before the Oklahoma Supreme Court for hearing to new facts, it was not appealed, the Oklahoma legislature intimidated the state's highest court. There is no valid legal proceedings that validates the change of decision. 

Fallin signed the death sentences and set the date in the face of a legislative coup. What is there to understand? The people of Oklahoma are compromised by radical governing bodies.

It is human traffiking

Culture and religion doesn't rule the day. In the USA there are limits to the power adverse culture and religion. The most popular example is Jehovah Witness limiting medical treatment of children.

This a traumatic incident to these girls. This is criminal. 

An unidentified mother cries out during a demonstration to raise awareness of kidnapped school girls at a government school on Tuesday April 29, 2014, in Abuja, Nigeria.  (AP Photo/ Gbemiga Olamikan)

Samson Dawah was nervous. (click here) For two weeks, he had waited for any bit of information regarding his niece, who was among the 234 Nigerian school girls likely kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram. This week, he gathered his extended family. He had news but also an unusual request. He asked that the elderly not attend. He wasn’t sure they could bear what he had to say.

“We have heard from members of the forest community where they took the girls,” he told them. ”They said there had been mass marriages and the girls are being shared out as wives among the Boko Haram militants.”

The girl’s father fainted, the Guardian reported, and has since been hospitalized. But the news got worse. Village elder Pogo Bitrus told Agence France Presse locals had consulted with “various sources” in the nation’s forested northeast. “From the information we received yesterday from Cameroonian border towns our abducted girls were taken… into Chad and Cameroon,” he said, adding that each girl was sold as a bride to Islamist militants for 2,000 naira — $12....

In the USA PURCHASING women for sexual purpose is prostitution. Dowry arrangements occur in many cultures and countries. Dowry is a method of improving a husband's grasp of his responsibility. Dowries are when a father provides monies, good and services to the new husband. Purchasing girls for sex while calling them a wife is human trafficking.

Human trafficking is the acquisition of people (click here) by improper means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them.

Smuggling migrants involves the procurement for financial or other material benefit of illegal entry of a person into a State of which that person is not a national or resident.

Virtually every country in the world is affected by these crimes. The challenge for all countries, rich and poor, is to target the criminals who exploit desperate people and to protect and assist victims of trafficking and smuggled migrants, many of whom endure unimaginable hardships in their bid for a better life....

Did anyone hear about this? The man died from a simple fall. He hit his head.

April 24, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) — The Prince of Wales and his wife, Camilla, (click here) are "utterly devastated" by the death of her brother, who fell outside a hotel bar and suffered a head injury, British royal officials said.

Mark Shand, chairman of an elephant conservation charity, was in New York for a charity auction at Sotheby's...

"Bad Words," it's a fun movie. Nothing profound, just fun.

You think English is easy?

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture..

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

In the USA "Net Neutrality" is still alive, but, challenged. The fight goes on. Lobbyists.

April 23, 2014

It’s become apparent (click here) this week that the Federal Communications Commission plans on proposing a set of rules which would affect the way we access the internet. While in the past, "Net Neutrality" bills have suggested there be no blocking or preferential treatment of or for companies with webpages and web provider networks. This week the FCC is proposing that these companies can have their cake and eat it too.

Rules proposed this week would do two relatively simple things. The first is along the same lines as previous Net Neutrality bills - preventing internet service providers from blocking or discriminating against specific websites and brands. The second is new, and is essentially against the Net Neutrality cause....


...Groups - or individuals - who wish to host their own content and do so without cost are not said to be getting the boot, in this situation, but they’re certainly not getting the long end of the stick.

Putin is continuing his "War of Control."

By Ilya Khrennikov and Anastasia Ustinova  
Apr 30, 2014 6:42 AM ET

Google Inc. (GOOG) (click here) Chairman Eric Schmidt warned last year that Russia was “on the path” toward China’s model of Internet censorship. Vladimir Putin is proving him right. 

With Russia locked in the worst standoff with the U.S. since the Cold War, the Russian president last week said his government needs to impose greater control over information flows through the World Wide Web, which the former KGB colonel called a creation of U.S. spy agencies....

The Communists need to 'give it up.' They need to stop their "Cold War" strategies. Putin knows this isn't going to work. This is the politics of Russia. Regressive, controlling and expansive. 

MOSCOW April 30, 2014 (AP)

By NATALIYA VASILYEVA 

Associated Press 

The International Monetary Fund (click here) estimates that Russia's economy has already entered recession as fears of broad economic sanctions weigh on the economy.

Russia's economy shrank 0.5 percent in the first quarter of the year compared with the previous three-month period and is expected to continue struggling, said the head of the IMF mission in Russia, Antonio Spilimbergo.

"If you understand by recession two quarters of negative economic growth then Russia is experiencing recession now," Spilimbergo told reporters.

Investors are worried that the U.S. and Europe will step up sanctions against Russia because of its policies in Ukraine. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula last month and has been blamed for fomenting unrest in the country's Russian-speaking east.

As a result, investors pulled about $60 billion from Russia in the first quarter of the year — more than in all of 2013. The IMF expects the capital outflows at around $100 billion this year, Spilimbergo said....

Putin needs to revisit his history and encourage his communist buddies to do the same. 

Remember the Hungarian Uprising of 1956? It was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. Any resemblance to Eastern Ukraine? Big difference in the year 2014 though, isn't there? There is no Soviet Union and the post soviet states have viable opportunities to grow their economies and be members of NATO.

Putin needs to begin to advise the communists their propaganda isn't working and it's going to work. They need to join the real world and seek to roll back sanctions. 

Nobody wants a war and expansionism is over. Not bragging, just the truth. Putin should have seen this for what it is and moved off aggressions before it completely assaulted the Russian economy. It's still not too late.

The Russian people don't want it anymore Vladimir! 

Putin thought he could bully his way through this. Well, he should have known. Ukraine is not Hungary. 

The world is not turning their backs, Vladimir. The plans for expansionism and oppression isn't going to be tolerated. 

The threat is not leaving. The east coast system is connecting to an equatorial supply of water vapor.

UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Satellite (click here)
April 30, 2014
13.30.20z

The flooding is enormous under the current southern end of the east coast system. Something like 12 inches in the past 24 hours. Infrastructure doesn't hold up to this. In lower elevations there is going to be isolation of communities and emergency routes will be cut off. It's dangerous.

The departure from low temperatures along this east coast system is higher than yesterday. It's the tropical air from the equator. The majority of the country is experiencing double digit lower than normal temperatures because of the arctic air. The east and west coasts are experiencing higher than normal temperatures. The coastal temperatures reveal what the country would look like once the arctic air mass resolves. 

The offshore vortex is moving easterly, but, the movement is still slow. There is no ocean system taking shape at this point. 

Complete and breaking coverage of the destructive weather hammering states from Iowa to the Carolinas, decimating homes, towns and families. (click here)

This is more than weather. At this point states and emergency services have to anticipate infrastructure failure and consider evacuations. People have to realize they can become isolated in areas flooding with continuing storms.

Tornado alerts were issued for parts of Georgia, Alabama, Florida and North Carolina early Wednesday as the deadly slow-moving storm system brought more extreme weather to the Deep South.

The Weather Channel's Kevin Roth said the risk of tornadoes Wednesday appeared higher than on Tuesday with the threat appearing highest from South Carolina into central Virginia, south of Washington, D.C....

15 inches of water in 12 hours.