For those following polls, here is one from St. Petersburg, Florida

This is Pinellas County and not Miami-Dade County. The population of St. Petersburg is about one quarter of a million people (250,000).

The communities (click here) of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area cover a peninsula in the Tampa Bay area, from Tarpon Springs at the far north to Tierra Verde in the south. Much of the area’s reknown comes from our awesome, award-winning beach towns. Clearwater Beach was voted “Best Beach Town in Florida” in 2013; St. Pete was voted No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 5 in the world by TripAdvisor in 2012; and Tierra Verde’s famous Fort de Soto Park has more awards than we can even list here.

This is the downtown of St. Petersburg. If that shelf cloud decided to make an impression on the city, it would not be pretty.

Besides the tourism industry there is a few other businesses such as Raymond James with 3000 employees, several hospitals employing several thousand people and HSN (Home Shopping Network) employs about 2500 people. There is also an insurance company or two with a thousand or so people employed. No manufacturing to speak of, mostly tourism. Tourism is a year round business.

The communities of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area cover a peninsula in the Tampa Bay area, from Tarpon Springs at the far north to Tierra Verde in the south. Much of the area’s reknown comes from our awesome, award-winning beach towns. Clearwater Beach was voted “Best Beach Town in Florida” in 2013; St. Pete was voted No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 5 in the world by TripAdvisor in 2012; and Tierra Verde’s famous Fort de Soto Park has more awards than we can even list here. - See more at: http://www.visitstpeteclearwater.com/communities#sthash.heCAQiRx.dpuf

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The communities of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area cover a peninsula in the Tampa Bay area, from Tarpon Springs at the far north to Tierra Verde in the south. Much of the area’s reknown comes from our awesome, award-winning beach towns. Clearwater Beach was voted “Best Beach Town in Florida” in 2013; St. Pete was voted No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 5 in the world by TripAdvisor in 2012; and Tierra Verde’s famous Fort de Soto Park has more awards than we can even list here. - See more at: http://www.visitstpeteclearwater.com/communities#sthash.heCAQiRx.dpuf

The communities of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area cover a peninsula in the Tampa Bay area, from Tarpon Springs at the far north to Tierra Verde in the south. Much of the area’s reknown comes from our awesome, award-winning beach towns. Clearwater Beach was voted “Best Beach Town in Florida” in 2013; St. Pete was voted No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 5 in the world by TripAdvisor in 2012; and Tierra Verde’s famous Fort de Soto Park has more awards than we can even list here. - See more at: http://www.visitstpeteclearwater.com/communities#sthash.heCAQiRx.dpu

St.PetePolls.org
A Division of Fextel, Inc.

July 28, 2015

Scientific Summary of Scientific Results: (click here)

Republican presidential primary election were held today who would you chose?

Ted Cruz: - 4.2%
Rand Paul: 3.3%
Marco Rubio: 9.7%
Ben Carson: 4.5%
Jeb Bush: 20.0%
Donald Trump: 26.1%
Scott Walker: 12.2%
John Kasich: 4.1%
Unsure or Someone else: 15.9 %        

I'd like to remind folks that Donald Trump has achieved this level of approval by Republicans without raising a single ad. I have not seen the iconic "TRUMP !" logo. I don't think he has a logo, right? So, while everyone is engaging the debate machine, Donald Trump is cruising along without a care. He has a solid 32% (the Republican Base) against any Democratic candidate. He hasn't done anything about ads or campaigning in any traditional method. 

I'm just sayin'. I never took him lightly. Call me crazy.

While northern California was fighting fires, thie manifests over St. Petersburg, Florida on July 27, 2015.

It is a shelf cloud. There is a rain shadow immediately behind the system's edge.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. (AP) — Triple-digit temperatures (click here) and gusty winds thrust Northern California into full-fledged wildfire season Thursday with several new blazes flaring up, forcing hundreds of people from their homes.

California's 14 large fires, mostly in the scorched northern half of the state, are pushing 7,000 firefighters to their limits as they battle flames amid drought, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Fire and Forestry Protection.

Dozens of fires started Wednesday, but Berlant said crews quickly corralled all but five of them.

"They only need a little wind to allow them to burn at an explosive rate," Berlant said.

People are to blame for most wildfires, but Berlant said California's drought provides the fuel to get the flames burning rapidly.

The California National Guard said Thursday that it is sending in a fleet of nine helicopters — Blackhawks, Chinooks and Lakotas — to back up Cal Fire crews. They'll douse flames with water, evacuate the injured, and move around firefighters and their equipment....

This is the size of the Rocky Fire. Look at the size of the trees compared to the inferno.

Rocky Fire (click here)

Last Updated:	July 30, 2015 4:15 pm
Date/Time Started:	July 29, 2015 3:29 pm
Administrative Unit:	CAL FIRE Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit
County:	Lake County
Location:	near Morgan Valley Road and Rocky Creek Road, east of Lower Lake
Acres Burned - Containment:	8,500 acres - 5% contained
Structures Destroyed:	3 Structures destroyed, Multiple outbuildings destroyed/damaged.
Evacuations:	Mandatory evacuations are in place for Morgan Valley Rd, both sides of the road to Knoxville Rd, Dam Rd, Mustang Court, Boham Rd, Ouarterhorse, Sleepy Hollow, Jerusalem Grade Road, Spruce Grove Rd (north), Noble Ranch Rd and Cantwell Ranch Rd. An evacuation center is opened at the Highland Senior Center, 3245 Bowers Road, Clearlake. An animal evacuation center is opened at the Lower Lake Social Services parking lot, 15975 Anderson Ranch Parkway, Lower Lake.
Road Closures :	All mandatory evacuated (listed above) roads and Morgan Valley Road at Hwy 53.

The Trump Organization and their problems in Scotland is not going to phase one Republicans voter.

Webpage (click here)

Set amidst The Great Dunes of Scotland, (click here) Trump International Golf Links embraces mile after mile of spectacular Aberdeenshire coastline and guarantees the experience of a lifetime. Against a dramatic North Sea backdrop, our award-winning championship course, designed by renowned links golf architect, Dr. Martin Hawtree, offers breathtaking scenery and an unparalleled test of golf. Woven through the majestic dunes, the course rises to find panoramic views of the sea and plunges into secluded valleys with each hole boasting distinct characteristics and unique features. Experience the unrivalled beauty, atmosphere and Scottish hospitality of Trump International – the ultimate golfing destination.

Republican voters will applaud his success in providing Scotland with a world class facility. Republicans want to eliminate the EPA from any president's cabinet. Does anyone think they care about this? 

Michael Forbes has his own page on Wikipedia. (click here) 

12 November 2007

EVEN after suffering defeat in his first battle, (click here) Michael Forbes is adamant he will never allow himself to be Trumped.

The day after Donald Trump's vast 1 billion golf resort overcame its first obstacle, receiving planning permission from the local planning committee, Mr Forbes was unrepentant.
"Nothing's changed," he insisted. "I've said from the start that I'd never sell, and Mr Trump knows that."

The truculence exhibited by the 55-year-old smallholder and salmon fisherman is winning him supporters. Mail from around the world arrives daily to his battered home in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire.

There, generations of his family have resided quietly on the unkempt 23-acre site. Though unsightly in the eyes of some, the place attracts little attention. But because it lies between the two championship golf courses planned by Mr Trump, his humble home has become a cause clbre.... 

The environmentalists received an honorable mention, but, what Bloomberg noticed was the backing of local politicians. Wall Street is interested in profit. He may have even received notice from potential investors. That is one expensive golf course.

November 27, 2007
By Peter Woodfield

Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump's (click here) plan to build a 1 billion-pound ($2.1 billion) Scottish golf resort may move a step closer to reality today when local politicians consider the project that's opposed by environmental groups and some residents. 

The proposal, northern Scotland's biggest planned development in more than 25 years, will probably be ``rubber-stamped'' by a committee of the Aberdeenshire Council, said Paul Gallagher, a spokesman for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, a leading opponent of the project. Scotland's national government will have the final say because the course would encroach on a legally protected nature reserve and the area has not been zoned for housing.... 

Didn't Scotland want to leave the UK? I think there was a vote.

The difference between a socialist and a Democrat is private property ownership and laws that protect personal liberties. 

Democrats believe in the American Dream as the central strength of our democracy. It is about upward movement and hope for each generation. There is a big difference between socialism and democracy as practiced by Democrats.

It is grossly unfair to call Senator Sanders a socialist. He wants people to have a chance to improve their lives. That is not socialism.  

Republicans are more socialists than Democrats. They nationalized the banks in order to save them. Business bailouts is not democracy, it is socialism. A free market system would not be bailing out any business.

Republicans absolutely loved Quantitative Easing. That is socialism, not democracy or the free market. 

Major financial structures was raking in millions and billions from The Fed. They were getting the money for nothing. They simply had to present the ownership of treasury bonds. That is easy money. That is not the free market system.

This is the first time I've seen an accounting of the dead of the Afganistan War.

July 30, 2015
By Jon Lee Anderson

...The international conflict (click here) that Mullah Omar helped to start in 2001 is still going on, having cost, thus far, the lives of an estimated ninety-one thousand Afghans, twenty-six thousand of them civilians. Three thousand three hundred and ninety-three soldiers from twenty-nine different countries died, too, the majority of them—two thousand three hundred and sixteen—Americans. The financial cost to U.S. taxpayers alone has been around a trillion dollars, with billions more to come, in the years ahead, in medical bills and other long-term costs for Afghan-war veterans....

The Afghan war has been invisible. Mullah Omar has been dead for two years and no one seemed to have known anything about it until some of his words turned up in some reports overseas. That is a lot of dead people.

...Along the way, the Taliban spun off a lethal franchise in neighboring Pakistan. Among their targets: the schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who survived a bullet in the head in 2012....

I really think the Taliban had taken over Pakistan. They may have taken over Karachi even before the Afghan invasion. It was no time before Daniel Pearl fell victim to them. That was very early on. 

The ISI has always had this precarious position in Pakistan. They were always between the official government and the street government. I think it was the Taliban. 

After the US invasion into Afghanistan the Taliban ran into Pakistan in large measure. They populated the country expecting to take over the government. There was a National Geographics edition that explored the presence of the Taliban in Lahore. That is the second largest city only smaller to Karachi. My heart fell to my feet when I read that article. BUT. The people of Pakistan never agreed with the Taliban's brutal regime. The people never had to do anything except live their lives on their own terms and the Taliban left and went back to Afghanistan.

But, let's face it, bin Laden was among friends all the years he lived near a  military academy at Musharraf's back door. Bin Laden was fine while the Taliban tried to kill then President-General Musharraf. 

A very odd part of the world. They have all winter to plan for war and deaths at the first blush of spring. It used to be a magnificent place. It was once a beautiful country.

Cecil is a member of an endangered species. He is protected by law. 

Questions? 

Anyone playing devil's advocate is a putz. Amazing the talent cable takes on as legitimate. 

Where does anyone ever get the idea a life other than their own is up for debate? Where does that arrogance find footing in the face of laws? Everything is up for discussion in a warped sense of a greater understanding to dismiss the idea slaughtering animals protected by laws, some international, is okay? 

That has to be an American speaking. An arrogant and irreverent Americans who believes the world is theirs for the taking. 

America's media carries out arrogant discussions all the time. Arrogance and the right wing is what passed laws such as "Stand Your Ground." That same paradigm is at work when a minority falls to the guns of law enforcement for no reason at all. That arrogance is carried out in the legislative majority under the Capital Dome. 

Life has no meaning except what is their 'monetary value,' is that it? That is not arrogance entirely, it is a danger that can come to visit the arrogant as well. 

American arrogance is present in corruption. The majority Republicans practice corruption day after day and it is all okay. Corruption brought the USA to the brink of it's bond rating. But, who cares about that, the world after all could not exist without the USA. Arrogance took away protections. Voter rights protections by a oddly activist court and the legislators did dearly little to return those rights and protections to AMERICANS. 

So, here we are again, at the brink of arrogance to trash the idea of high esteem for protections for endangered species that live in countries outside USA borders. Ah, but, the slayer is an American. Just fact, not hubris.

July 30, 2015
By Jorge Braanco

A magnitude 5.3 earthquake (click here) that struck off the coast of Fraser Island will go down as one of the largest in Queensland history.

Tremors were felt from Bundaberg, where CBD buildings were evacuated, to Tweed Heads in northern New South Wales....

There may be more to come.

September 26, 2008

Fault Lines Located in Australia Map data source courtesy : Geoscience Australia

..Australia (click here) is not as geologically stable as many think. Despite popular belief, Australia is a geologically active continent with moving fault-lines, regular seismic activity, and a long history of mountain making, said internationally respected geologist, Associate Professor Malcolm Wallace from the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne....

More poaching in Africa.

July 30, 2015
By Kevin Sieff

A family of elephants walks after cooling themselves in a pond during a census at the Amboseli National Park, 290km south-east of Kenya's capital Nairobi, in 2013. Photo: Reuters

Nairobi: (click here) While the world mourned Cecil, the 13-year-old lion that was allegedly shot by a American hunter, dentist Walter Palmer, in Zimbabwe, another devastating poaching incident was quietly carried out in Kenya.

Poachers killed five elephants in Tsavo West National Park on Monday night. The carcasses were recovered by rangers on Tuesday morning — what appeared to be an adult female and her four offspring, their tusks hacked off....