Former Secretary Clinton has no worries over her reset with Russia. It was done genuinely and with hopes for a better outcome.
No one. I do mean no one, ever expected Russia to violate a long held treaty that protected it, Europe and the USA. Additionally, the treaty created the neutrality Ukraine wanted. The invasion took everyone by surprise and it has been disastrous. Nothing good has come out of the invasion either. Peace is elusive at best.
19 January 2015
Dozens of people (click here) have
been killed or wounded as fighting escalates along the front line in
eastern Ukraine and the battle for Donetsk airport continues.
Artillery fire was reported in several areas of the eastern
Donetsk and Luhansk regions and a hospital in Donetsk city was hit,
reports said.
Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels both said they controlled the airport.
As Russia warned Ukraine not to make a strategic mistake, Kiev said more Russian troops had crossed the border.
Russia has repeatedly denied claims that its regular forces
are in eastern Ukraine, but has admitted that a number of "volunteers"
are fighting alongside the rebels.
The surge of violence began last week as the fight for
control of the airport intensified. Government forces fought back after
rebels said they had finally seized the new terminal building having
besieged government forces for months....
Never did any country believe Ukraine would be facing this after it's nuclear capacity was surrendered.
The Minsk Agreement isn't worth the paper it is written on because the Russian Federation has not been able to provide reassurances to the deescalation of hostilities by the rebels at Ukraine border.
As a result of consideration and discussion (click here) of the proposals from
members of consultations in Minsk on Sept. 1. 2014, the Trilateral
contact group composed of representatives from Ukraine, Russian
Federation and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, an
understanding was reached regarding the need to take the following
steps:
1. Provide for immediate and two-sided ceasefire.
2. Provide monitoring and verification from the side of OSCE of the ceasefire.
3.
Conduct decentralization of power, including through approval of the
Law of Ukraine “On temporary order of local self-government in certain
districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions” (Law on special status)
4.
Provide permanent monitoring at the Ukrainian-Russian state border, and
verification by OSCE, with creation of a safety zone in the areas
adjacent to the border in Ukraine and Russian Federation.
There should be a demilitarized zone and there isn't.
5. Immediately free all hostages and illegally held persons.
6.
Approve a law to prevent persecution and punishment of persons in
relation to events that took place in certain districts of Donetsk and
Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
7. Continue an inclusive national dialogue.
8. Take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Donbas.
9.
Conduct early local elections in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On
temporary order of local self-government in certain districts of
Donetsk and Luhansk regions” (Law on special status).
10. Remove illegal military formations, military equipment and militants and mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine.
11. Approve a program for economic development of Donbas and renew the vital functions of the region.
12. Give guarantees of personal security for participants of consultations.
Members of the Trilateral contact group:
If the very basics of stability can't be obtained, how can the remainder of the agreement take place?
The only place Americans should be playing roulette is at a gambling establishment. On January 20, 2001 President Bush signed an Executive Order raising the limits on arsenic in drinking water. Ever since that day Americans sought local authority to insure their well being in having safe drinking water. But, with that order Americans began to wonder if any regulations served them or are they over doing it.
January 19, 2015
By Matthew Brown
GLENDIVE, Mont. — Officials said Monday (click here) that they were bringing
truckloads of drinking water to the eastern Montana city of Glendive
after traces of 50,000 gallons of oil that spilled into the Yellowstone
River were found in the city's water supply.
State and federal
officials said preliminary tests Monday indicated that at least some oil
entered the supply for the city of 5,300 people. They stressed they are
shipping drinking water as a precaution and do not know yet whether
there is any public health threat to residents. They will perform
further tests to determine that....
Water is H20. Not H20 with additives. Distilled water is fairly bland when drinking only water. To improve the taste of water there are sometimes minerals allowed to exist in the water and/or added to it and then it might be called Spring Water, etc.
Oil has a lot chemicals in it. It isn't simply oil. It is also benzene, chromium, iron, mercury, nickel, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, toluene, and xylene. At no point in time after there is an oil spill anywhere near a water source for at the very least human beings should it be tolerated. The demand is simple, give communities safe drinking water as soon as the spill is found and send the oil company with the poor attention to safety the bill.
Questions:
1. Promote a higher minimum wage
2. Promote unions with the obvious relationship with growing the Middle Class
3. Moratorium on pension monies as part of a corporate take over
4. Identify the causes for poverty in the USA, realizing 2009 US Poverty Rate Highest Since 1994, 43.6 Million Americans Living Below Poverty Line (click here)
5. Realizing the Republican fundamentals for economic policy actually caused the rise in poverty and fall in wages following the 2008 Global Economic Collapse, where is the PROOF cutting taxes on the wealthy benefits the 47 percent to improve their quality of life?
6. What are the Romney policies to stem the continued accumulation of wealth by one percent of people IN THE WORLD?
...But the billionaires (click here) who saw the greatest increase in wealth were
those with “interests and activities” in the pharmaceutical and health
care sectors. They’re not the household names their elite cousins in
finance are, but with a 47 percent collective wealth increase between
2013 and 2014, and health care at the center of America’s political
debate, they’ve had significant clout.The pharmaceutical and
health care sectors spent more on lobbying in 2013 than any other sector
in the U.S., dishing out more than $487 million. Their influence has
been felt in Europe, too, where these sectors spend an estimated $50
million each year....
7. Post secondary school is necessary in order to find better employment to facilitate a realistic ambition to have the American Dream. President Obama is seeing a free Community College/Junior College as a potential to that end. He is asking two free years for people to complete an Associate Degree. In the case of computer and health care focus there are some sincerely career jobs that can be found with Associate Degrees. The program is very realistic and long over due. What is the program Mr. Romney sees lifting all boats in the shortest period of time.
8. What reassurances does Mr. Romney purport to have to labor in the USA that trade aspirations of the Republicans will not outsource American jobs of cause a decline in wages?
9. What benefits does Mr. Romney see as necessary in any labor package upon hiring, including, time off for pregnancy, birth, adoption and early parenting for both parents; vacation time; sick days; holidays and if an employee is required to work more than 40 hours per week; one and a half times their salary will be paid for those hours. Yes, benefits in addition to minimum wage even for the janitors.
I think that is a good start for Mr. Romney to begin to heal the wounds of campaigns past.
January 19, 2015
Israel expressed “deep sorrow” (click here) Monday at the death of the Argentinian
special prosecutor investigating the 1994 terrorist attack on the AMIA
Jewish Center in Buenos Aires, saying it hoped Argentina would continue
Alberto Nisman's work and bring the perpetrators of that attack to
justice.
Eighty-five people were killed in that bombing that was linked to Hezbollah and Iran....
The Argentines have been incredible in their dedication to more their country forward, they should not suffer deaths in their country while trying to do the right thing. This is a good example of how a transitioning country wants to be a member of the international community in a meaningful way. When investigations are important offering help should be a topic at any summit.
Israel should not interfere in the investigation, but insuring it goes forward is a reasonable place of their support and expertise. Israeli intelligence services are incredible, both in dedication, training and development of tools and measures to protect the country.
So, let me get this right. The NSA is vital to the USA because it carries out spying that never ends the danger to the USA or it's allies, right? The FBI didn't stop the attack, did it? What good is the program if it does nothing but inflame international theaters where trust is required to end such programs as North Korea's nuclear program?
Here again, Americans get facts AFTER a successful attack and not before. The programs of the NSA should never be in the spot light. It should be so covert and so successful attacks don't happen and there is not a ripple of evidence the USA has controlled yet again an attack on the USA or allies infrastructure.
January 19, 2015
When the FBI said definitively (click here) last month that North Korea was "responsible" for the hack of Sony Pictures, there were those who doubted the veracity of the report.
How could North Korea, a country not exactly known for being a
high-tech hub, pull off such a complex hack? And how did the U.S.
conclude so quickly that the secretive nation was behind the attack?
As it turns out, the U.S. had some inside information. According to reports from Der Spiegel and The New York Times, the U.S. knew that North Korea hacked Sony because the U.S. had hacked North Korea.
The National Security Agency (NSA), in fact, has had access to North Korean networks and computers since 2010, the Times
said. Officials wanted to keep tabs on the country's nuclear program,
its high-ranking officials, and any plans to attack South Korea,
according to a document published by Der Spiege....
The NSA stopped nothing!
If the intelligence programs of the USA don't prevent attacks of ANY KIND they are useless.
January 19, 2015
As global movers and shakers (click here) head to the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam is warning that an increasing wealth disparity
is “leaving ordinary people voiceless and their interests uncared for.”
The collective wealth of the world’s richest 1 percent will
exceed that of the other 99 percent of the global population next
year, unless steps are taken to address the inequality, Oxfam
warned ahead of the annual Davos meeting.
Oxfam, (click here) an anti-poverty charity, released a report titled, “Wealth: Having It All
and Wanting More,” which reveals that the richest 1 percent,
who had an average wealth of $2.7 million per adult in 2014, have
seen their share of global wealth soar yet further, increasing
from 44 percent in 2009 to 48 percent in 2014.
Winnnie Byanyima in photo on the right. Her husband, Warren Kizza Besigye Kifefe, commonly known as Kizza Besigye, is a Ugandan physician, politician and former military officer. Her spouse has attempted election to the presidency of Uganda but has yet to lead a successful campaign.
The combined wealth (click here) of the richest 1 percent will overtake
that of the other 99 percent of people next year unless the current
trend of rising inequality is checked, Oxfam warned today ahead of the
annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
The
international agency, whose executive director Winnie Byanyima will
co-chair the Davos event, warned that the explosion in inequality is
holding back the fight against global poverty at a time when 1 in 9
people do not have enough to eat and more than a billion people still
live on less than $1.25-a-day....
Really? Well, I guess the US military has extended the generational war this far, if it can make it to November 2016 there actually might be a forever war, right?
Here is a definition to war in defense of USA the military needs to incorporate into their manual.
"If a war takes 14 years without resulting in the safety of the people of the USA, then the war failed.' Completely failed.
I tell you what, if the USA military left Afghanistan today, the country would never have to worry about Osama bin Laden again. That is a fact.
War becomes a failure when it drains a country of it's treasury so it can't afford war anymore. Take that to the Joint Chiefs planning table when they sign on for complete failures in spending like the F-35. The F-35 makes the USA military weaker and not stronger. Use that understanding to spending. It would be a good beginning in recapturing a military that works. When a military spending program costs more than a year of USA budgetary spending, it is draconian and should never exist. END THE DRONE DEVELOPMENT, too! I don't want Dick Cheney to have a military he can control from his war bunker.
January 19, 2015
By Michelle Tan
As the Afghan National Security Forces (click here) prepare for another tough
fighting season, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said he could
still recommend extending the mission and keeping more U.S. troops in
country.
"I'm taking a look and assessing every day based on the
enemy situation, based on how much we're getting done with the Afghans,
how they're progressing on their lines of effort, how the [Train, Advise
and Assist mission] is going, how the government's coming along, [and]
if we can really get after the objectives that we set," said Gen. John
Campbell, commander of the Resolute Support mission, during an interview
Jan. 15 with Army Times.
There are about 10,600 U.S. troops in
Afghanistan today; plans call for that number to drop to 9,800 by May 1
and 5,500 by the end of the year. It's too early to say, Campbell said,
if he'll ask for permission to keep more troops in theater....
My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. (click here) We were taught snipers were cowards.
Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren't heroes. And invaders r worse.
And who needs this? Arizona. Men in opposition of the rent owed the American people were preparing to kill government employees.
War and it's elements should never be celebrated. Memorial Day, Veteran's Day are solemn events. I realize the commercial aspect of 'a day off from work' can bring about a necessary day of relaxation, but, in all honesty to reflect on the brevity of these holidays is important.
The movies that cause focus on the elements of war can be a populous event. But, in all honesty, films like The American Sniper, The Hurt Locker and even the all popular and adrenalin pumping Top Gun glamorizes killing.
War in defense of our country is important, but, it should not be glamorized. The USA military is also running into problems with the authors within it's ranks. There is a positive feedback loop whereby a person can use their experience to sell a book and hope for a movie contract. That is not a reason to become a USA soldier.
January 19, 2015
By Evin Horwitz
Martin Luther King Jr. Day (click here) had already been a holiday for nearly a
decade when it was reconsecrated as a “Day of Service” in 1994.
Today,
many treat the holiday as a “day on,” rather than a day off, an
opportunity to commemorate Dr. King’s legacy through volunteerism.
That’s how the White House now chooses to mark the day: last year the
First Family and Vice President Joe Biden volunteered at DC soup
kitchens....
...The third Monday of January was set aside in 1986 to commemorate King’s birthday and his contributions to American history.
Then
in 1994, Representatives John Lewis and Harris Wofford — both veterans
of the Civil Rights movement and former friends of Dr. King — introduced
a bill to turn MLK day into a “day of action, not apathy.” It was a way, as Wofford put it, to “remember Martin the way he would have liked.”...
"Morning Papers"
The Rooster
"Okeydoke"
Waning Moon or New Moon
27.9 days old
2.8 percent lit
Hear the latest from Mars. The USA found the British rover, Beagle 2. I think that is what they call it. The Beagle was the ship Darwin sailed on when he made his discoveries in evolution. But, this Beagle 2 looks as though it is stuck in a valley from the satellite pictures.
And the best news yet from Mars is that we found Spock.
An ‘alien coffin’ (click here) might possibly be added to the long list of curious
objects found on the surface of the Red Planet. Puzzled UFO enthusiasts
now want NASA’s Curiosity rover to take a closer look.
