I would think this brush with death of every town in that book would be enough!

Is there any wonder North Korea is driven mad with self interest.

May 27, 2005
By Jeffery Steinberg
The Bush Administration (click here) has quietly put into place contingency plans for the use of nuclear weapons in pre-emptive attacks on at least two countries—Iran and North Korea. Confirmation of the new "global strike" plan appeared in the Washington Post on Sunday, May 15, in a column by William Arkin, a former Army Intelligence analyst. EIR has interviewed several senior U.S. intelligence officials, who have confirmed the essential features of Arkin's report. They link the accelerated drive to prepare for offensive nuclear strikes against Iran and North Korea to the failure of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the dismal results of the use of "shock and awe" massive conventional bombings against Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Afghanistan war of 2003 provided the U.S. Air Force with the opportunity to test, under live combat conditions, the conventional "bunker buster" mega-bombs, which were supposed to penetrate and take out deep-underground hardened targets. But one senior U.S. intelligence source told EIR that, when U.S. troops arrived to do damage assessments, they found that the Taliban and Al Qaeda mountain bunkers were still largely intact, after being hit with the bunker busters....

The people of the USA have no idea what their military thinks or believes is worthwhile. 

Thank you, Secretary John Kerry for this historic moment in a statement about world peace and our nation's children.

11 April 2018

The ministers were presented with necklaces made of paper cranes - a symbol of good luck in Japan - in their national colours

John Kerry (click here) made the comments at a press conference after laying a wreath at the city's atomic bomb memorial.

He is the first US secretary of state ever to visit the memorial or the city.

Around 140,000 people, most of them civilians, were killed when the US dropped its atomic bomb on the city in 1945.

Describing it as "a display that I will, personally, never forget" he said: "It reminds everybody of the extraordinary complexity of choices in war and of what war does to people, to communities, to countries, to the world."...

It wasn't long ago, perhaps a month or two, when I heard someone from the USA military state, "We will always have nuclear weapons." It was a rather surprising statement to me, but, it was also the USA military and why should I expect differently.

I listened for a while today ro the words of Senator Lugar, on CSPAN at a nuclear conference, stating every American should read this book and know how many cities in the USA are targets of nuclear weapons. According to former Senator Lugar that was a reason to understand why the USA will always have nuclear weapons. It is rather odd to realize how single minded some men can be.

From my perspective, the book is the very reason there needs to be aggressive movement to nuclear disarmament by the five permanent nations. France almost did, then came the attacks by Daesh and it was shelved. I would expect the priority to disarm from nuclear weapons to return to France. They had drones flying over those facilities. All the more reason to end this idiocy of a weapon.

I think France should bring all the nuclear countries together in the not too distant future for a summit on disarmament. I think those summits should occur every five years if not more frequently. The five permanent countries have to first see to the disarmament of non-permanent countries. Once that is accomplished the five permanent members need to work out a disarmament strategy that would eventually eliminate all those death bombs, including the submarines.

It can be done and it should be done. Countries like Ukraine don't need to wish they still had their nuclear missiles. Ukraine did the right thing for their children and they should never regret it. 

Such meetings followed by action should result less and less interest in any nuclear weapons by any country, including Iran. I think such movement toward honoring the UN Non-Proliferation Treaty is paramount to end the ambitions of non-permanent members to end their aspirations of arming such monstrosities. 

The non-permanent member countries have very dangerous elements in their societies, such as Pakistan, living within those borders waiting for the time they can have control of those missiles. I would not be surprised if rebel groups would turn the lousy things on ethnic groups. They aren't just interested in firing the darn things at the USA. 

The United Nations and France need to move forward with the meetings of at least the five permanent countries, but, better one day with the five and the next day or two for the non-permanent members jointly with the five. Dialogues should begin. Those wonderful children should never know the fear of complete evaporation of their people and culture. Nuclear weapons can make very effective genocidal methodologies.

The five permanent members need to revisit the current Non-Proliferation Agreement and end the idea of nuclear power plants in third world countries. They don't have the stability or the treasury to have them really. Their people need the treasury to improve their lives and not end others. The disposal of used rods is enough of a worry to sincerely end the dangers to third world countries.

I approve this message!!!!

Republicans should be up in arms. This is an outrage. The vote means nothing in some of these states and caucuses. It is spelled, C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N. The Donald Trump campaign has to write a book. This is unbelievable. 

April 11, 2016
By John Whitesides

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump (click here) lashed out at what he called the party's "rigged" delegate selection rules on Monday after rival Ted Cruz swept all of Colorado's 34 delegates over the weekend.

The New York billionaire, who has been outmaneuvered by Cruz in a series of recent state meetings to select national convention delegates, said the process was set up to protect party insiders and shut out insurgent candidates.

"The system is rigged, it's crooked," Trump said on Fox News on Monday, alleging the Colorado convention results showed voters were being denied a voice in the process.

"There was no voting. I didn't go out there to make a speech or anything, there's no voting," Trump said. "The people out there are going crazy, in the Denver area and Colorado itself, and they're going absolutely crazy because they weren't given a vote. This was given by politicians - it's a crooked deal."...

The Republicans EXCUSE is that the rules were known.  Really? The Republicans actually publish this outrage. Just because it is published doesn't mean anyone running for office would be aware of this disaster. The voters should matter. This a shame. I guess when one is running a revolution these things will crop up from time to time. I mean, there is a revolution, right?!

Ya wonder where they get it from, you know? Or is it you unknown?

Viva la revolution!

China is very clever. Does he have family in China? If the Commander has family in China, the USA military should have known better.

April 11, 2016
By Bill Chappell

A naval officer faces charges (click here) that range from espionage to adultery in a case involving the U.S. Navy's Patrol and Reconnaissance Group, which collects signals intelligence. Both the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are investigating the officer, identified as Lt. Cmdr. Edward Lin.
Lin "wrongfully transported material classified as Secret" and didn't report that material being compromised; he's also accused of failing to report foreign contacts, according to a charging document that emerged after a preliminary hearing Friday.
That charge sheet is heavily redacted, with black bars placed over names and dates. But U.S. officials confirmed Lin's identity after reports emerged that an active-duty naval officer has been held in a brig in Virginia for eight months after being arrested on charges of spying for a foreign power....

But, that isn't what is most interesting.

Remember this plane?  Come on, everyone recognizes this plane unless perhaps one is a millennial. 

Remember, right? 

Bush and Cheney pushed their limits as they did with everything. Then the plane was captured. I think there was a Chinese airman killed when it intercepted this spy plane.

July 3, 2001
By Paul Eckert

The dismantled U.S. EP-3 spy plane (click here) held on China's Hainan Island since April was flown out to the United States today, the U.S. Pacific Command said.

The departure of the EP-3 more than a week ahead of schedule removes a major impediment to improving U.S.-China relations.

"The final flight of the AN-124 carrying the EP-3 departed Lingshui at 4:45 a.m. EST," the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Command Web site said.

Lingshui is the Chinese air base where the EP-3 was held since April 1, when it made an emergency landing after colliding with an intercepting Chinese fighter jet.

China held the 24-member EP-3 crew for 11 days after the collision in a standoff that roiled U.S.-China relations in the first months of the Bush administration....

The thing is this. China already had cover for any information it may have obtained from Lt. Cmdr. Edward Lin. Except for really recent information with a date attached to it, China could say it has advanced hardware adapted from the spy plane it dismantled in 2001. With such an excuse there was cover for any activity by Commander Lin.

While on the topic of report cards, the USA infrastructure received a D+ from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Once every four years, (click here) America’s civil engineers provide a comprehensive assessment of the nation’s major infrastructure categories in ASCE’s Report Card for America’s Infrastructure (Report Card).

Using a simple A to F school report card format, the Report Card provides a comprehensive assessment of current infrastructure conditions and needs, both assigning grades and making recommendations for how to raise the grades. An Advisory Council of ASCE members assigns the grades according to the following eight criteria: capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety, resilience, and innovation. Since 1998, the grades have been near failing, averaging only Ds, due to delayed maintenance and underinvestment across most categories.

Now the 2013 Report Card grades are in, and America’s cumulative GPA for infrastructure rose slightly to a D+. The grades in 2013 ranged from a high of B- for solid waste to a low of D- for inland waterways and levees. Solid waste, drinking water, wastewater, roads, and bridges all saw incremental improvements, and rail jumped from a C- to a C+. No categories saw a decline in grade this year....

Finland's children learn. America's children cannot compete in the real world.

Australia states it will never match the schools of Finland. (click here) Supposedly Australian teachers are allowed to tell the truth.

...We've just finished writing reports, making sure that we have reached "outcomes" that are incomprehensible to parents and students but fulfil a bureaucratic need for accountability. Instead of giving our students marks or, God forbid, rankings, we have disguised their results in generalities so their parents are saved from facing the truth about their children's real progress.

We aren't allowed to tell it how it is. Even though we've been drowning in a sea of paperwork we've done our best to come up for air and actually teach our students. We've tried to give them one-on-one tutelage but the size of our classes has made this impossible....

This is what happens when schools are driven by test results and nonsensical measurements of success. The students lose. Almost worse than that, the teachers are not trusted.

September 2011
By LynNell Hancock

...This tale of a single rescued child (click here) hints at some of the reasons for the tiny Nordic nation’s staggering record of education success, a phenomenon that has inspired, baffled and even irked many of America’s parents and educators. Finnish schooling became an unlikely hot topic after the 2010 documentary film Waiting for “Superman” contrasted it with America’s troubled public schools.

“Whatever it takes” is an attitude that drives not just Kirkkojarvi’s 30 teachers, but most of Finland’s 62,000 educators in 3,500 schools from Lapland to Turku—professionals selected from the top 10 percent of the nation’s graduates to earn a required master’s degree in education. Many schools are small enough so that teachers know every student. If one method fails, teachers consult with colleagues to try something else. They seem to relish the challenges. Nearly 30 percent of Finland’s children receive some kind of special help during their first nine years of school. The school where Louhivuori teaches served 240 first through ninth graders last year; and in contrast with Finland’s reputation for ethnic homogeneity, more than half of its 150 elementary-level students are immigrants—from Somalia, Iraq, Russia, Bangladesh, Estonia and Ethiopia, among other nations. “Children from wealthy families with lots of education can be taught by stupid teachers,” Louhivuori said, smiling. “We try to catch the weak students. It’s deep in our thinking....

PISA 

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) (click here) is an international assessment that measures 15-year-old students' reading, mathematics, and science literacy every three years. First conducted in 2000, the major domain of study rotates between mathematics, science, and reading in each cycle. PISA also includes measures of general or cross-curricular competencies, such as collaborative problem solving. By design, PISA emphasizes functional skills that students have acquired as they near the end of compulsory schooling. PISA is coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental organization of industrialized countries, and is conducted in the United States by NCES. Data collection for the most recent assessment was completed in Fall 2015....

American students aren't even making baseline.

December 3, 2013
By Julia Ryan

...On average, 13 percent of students (click here) scored at the highest or second highest level on the PISA test, making them “top performers.” Fifty-five percent of students in Shanghai-China were considered top performers, while only nine percent of American students were.
One in four U.S. students did not reach the PISA baseline level 2 of mathematics proficiency. At this level, “students begin to demonstrate the skills that will enable them to participate effectively and productively in life,” according to the PISA report.
Even the top students in the United States are behind: This year, the PISA report offered regional scores for Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Florida. Massachusetts, which is a high-achieving U.S. state and which averaged above the national PISA score, is still two years of formal schooling behind Shanghai....

American children can't compete in the real world. Just a reminder as to what matters.

September 3, 2015
By Scott Jaschik

SAT scores dropped significantly (click here) for the class of college-bound seniors this year. All three sections saw declines -- and the numbers were down for male and female students alike.
At the same time, SAT scores showed continued patterns in which white and Asian students, on average, receive higher scores than do black and Latino students. And, as has been the case for years, students from wealthier families score better than do those from disadvantaged families. These and other figures -- including new data on Advanced Placement participation -- are being released today by the College Board.
Over all, scores dropped two points on critical reading, two points on mathematics and three points on writing. The seven-point decline across all three sections compares to a one-point decline the prior year, and no change the year before that....

Stop blaming the teachers and their unions and look at the funding.

This graph is dated, 2004.

Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Education at a Glance, 2004.
This graph shows that on secondary education (per student) the United States spends more than 17 other nations.

The USA relies too much on testing and does not trust their teachers to do their jobs. Teaching to the test is making thing far worse. The testing companies are cronies.

March 30, 2015
By Valerie Strauss
...The four corporations (click here) that dominate the U.S. standardized testing market spend millions of dollars lobbying state and federal officials — as well as sometimes hiring them — to persuade them to favor policies that include mandated student assessments, helping to fuel a nearly $2 billion annual testing business, a new analysis shows.
The analysis, done by the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit liberal watchdog and advocacy agency based in Wisconsin that tracks corporate influence on public policy, says that four companies — Pearson Education, ETS (Educational Testing Service), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and McGraw-Hill—  collectively spent more than $20 million lobbying in states and on Capitol Hill from 2009 to 2014....

It is time to do away with this disaster and return respect to teachers.

Wardrobe dysfunction, again.

April 12, 2016

Hold that dress! (click here) The Duchess of Cambridge had an almost Marilyn Monroe-like mishap in India while visiting the India Gate war memorial in Delhi.

But the mother-of-two managed to catch her white Emilia Wickstead dress just in time before flashing waiting photographers, news.com.au reported.

It came during persistent wind in the most moving moment of their India trip so far, as they laid a wreath at the memorial for Indian soldiers who died during the First World War....

She won't win "Who wore it best" this week. If she didn't have great legs it would actually be an embarrassment. She just may as well get used to it, the wind seems to follow her.

Sixty percent of America's children live in single parent households with women as head of household.

There is a reason America's children are in poverty and it is discrimination and oppression of their parent.

April 11, 2016
By Kelly Poe

Alabama's working women earn 73 cents for every dollar a man (click here) earns, according to a new report  from the National Partnership for Women & Families.
That's 6 cents larger a gap than the nationwide gap, according to the report. Nationwide, women earn 79 cents for every dollar paid to men.
The average median annual pay for a woman working full time in Alabama is  $32,136, according to the report. That's $12,109 less than the average median pay for a man.
Alabama has the sixth-largest pay gap among all U.S. states. Louisiana had the largest gap, with just 65 cents paid for every dollar, followed by Utah, Wyoming, West Virginia, and North Dakota.
The gap has grown from last year. According to last year's report, Alabamian women earned 76 cents for every dollar....

Read the report, "An Unlevel Playing Field" (click here)

This is politics. Hate and war mongering isn't.

Herbert Hoover, 1928, "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." 

Dwight David Eisenhower, 1952, "I like Ike."

s.

It all can be reversed with cooperation between countries in the region with water.

March 2, 2016
By Henry Fountain

Drawing one of the strongest links (click here) yet between global warming and human conflict, researchers said Monday that an extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 was most likely due to climate change, and that the drought was a factor in the violent uprising that began there in 2011.

The drought was the worst in the country in modern times, and in a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists laid the blame for it on a century-long trend toward warmer and drier conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean, rather than on natural climate variability.

The researchers said this trend matched computer simulations of how the region responds to increases in greenhouse-gas emissions, and appeared to be due to two factors: a weakening of winds that bring moisture-laden air from the Mediterranean and hotter temperatures that cause more evaporation.

Colin P. Kelley, the lead author of the study, said he and his colleagues found that while Syria and the rest of the region known as the Fertile Crescent were normally subject to periodic dry periods, “a drought this severe was two to three times more likely” because of the increasing aridity in the region....

Restoration of lands is a very interesting thing. It starts with man made remedies such as dams, water aquifers, water pipelines and irrigation. The restoration starts small and as Earth recovers itself with the return of water vapor to the air, the land comes back to life again.

Syria needs very good and dedicated AND EXCEPTIONALLY LEARNED scientists and hydrologists. The United Nations Climate Change Panel has such scientists. They can begin to restore the biotic content in Syria as well as create jobs for Syrians.

The effort will be lengthy at first because the air is so very dry it takes some time before the return of water vapor. There is nothing to say Syrians cannot return to their cities and towns once a supply of water is provided. The people are all a part of that restoration in returning regular use of water.

The Climate Crisis should have taught those that ignored it, prevention is far, far better and far less expensive then restoration ever could be.

It is rather difficult to accomplish with war continuing. It is why the UN has to be successful in establishing a power sharing agreement between those at conflict. Certainly these leaders don't want to continue the absence of Syrians from their land. It is where they belong and where they are the happiest. None of the leaders to the power sharing structure should be delaying agreements.

Syria does not need more war. It desperately needs more peace.

This is an area in northern Iraq claimed by the Kurds. It has water resources, but, they have to be drilled to establish pumping from an underground aquifer.

Not everything in that region of the world is sand and dust.

The geological formation is called The Neogene Formation. At one time the entire region, including Pakistan and Iran was where hikers would go to see species of animals found nowhere else in the world. But, that all ended when the Iraq war broke out. As a matter of fact the three Americans taken captive in Iran were there for the exact reason. They were hiking and didn't realize they had crossed the Iranian border.

The Anbar province in Iraq had a rough time finding water, but, Saudi Arabia stepped in and found the aquifer and established a water supply.

The basin stretches (click here) across three countries and comprises three aquiferous formations, known as Dibdibba, Lower Fars and Ghar Formations in Iraq and Kuwait, and Hofuf, Dam and Hadrukh Formations in Saudi Arabia. Groundwater has traditionally been abstracted mainly from the Upper Dibdibba Formation in southern Iraq and Kuwait or the Lower Hadrukh Formation in Saudi Arabia, which are mainly sands and gravels of continental origin. In recent years, abstraction of groundwater from these aquifers seems to be limited by two main factors: dewatering of the Dibdibba Formation, which has become largely unsaturated in several areas, and inversion of downward groundwater flow from the Neogene to the Paleogene Formations in heavy abstraction areas....

There is also an aquifer shared between Turkey and Syria.

The Jezira Tertiary Limestone Aquifer System (JTLAS) (click here) comprises two Paleogene Formations: an Eocene (main aquifer) and a Lower Oligocene Formation. It extends from the Jezira Plain on Syria’s northern border (Upper Jezira area) into the south-eastern Anatolian Highlands in Turkey.

Large volumes of groundwater flow from recharge areas in the highlands to groundwater discharge areas along the Syrian border, where many springs, most importantly the Ras al Ain and Ain al Arous Springs, discharge from the aquifer system. Until approximately 2000, these springs discharged a total volume of more than 1,200 MCM and formed the principal source of surface flow in the Balikh and Khabour Rivers, which are the main tributaries of the Euphrates River in Syria....

These are at least two aquifers where Syria shares it's location and/or has a relationship with the bordering country to ask for an aqueduct system or an underground pipeline of which will run only water. It is a matter of making simple wells to begin with, but, then perfecting it on a much later scale to relieve the drought in Syria and facilitate the return of people to the land. 

The only complication in having this occur is Daesh.

How completely ignorant are Republicans when it comes to Syria?

Completely ignorant.

Beyond they are ignorant and blind to any truth except their contrived politically driven world.

What do Republicans and wayward presidential hopefuls see in Syria?

They see war and conflict with Russia and Iran.

"W"rong!!!

Congressman Adam Kinzinger (click here) and what's her name would take the USA into a hideous war when the cause of the Syrian civil war had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH ASSAD.

The Syrian civil war began because of DROUGHT. It is documented and THE TRUTH.

Assad, Russia and Iran did NOT cause Daesh. Daesh grew out of the Saddam Ba'athists.

The Republicans don't care about the truth, they only care about the fear and violence they can sell to American for votes.
Currently, the United Nations is working with the Assad government and representatives from opposition leaders to form a power sharing government. Both sides of the government need to realize they need to return function to their farmers and soon. Otherwise there will be continued suffering and no one will be ABLE to settle into a sustainable economy.

Oh, yeah, what's her name is Nicole Wallace. The woman so much rhetorical is that she really does believe it as the truth. I don't know what you call that, mentally weak?

"Good Night, Moon"

Waxing Crescent 

4.2 days old

18.6 percent lit

April 10, 2016
By Brian Kahn

Before 2000, (click here) Earth's spin axis was drifting toward Canada (left globe). Climate change-driven ice loss in Greenland, Antarctica and elsewhere is pulling the direction of drift eastward....

...And while that cycle isn’t going away, climate change is messing with the axis upon which our fair planet spins. Ice melting has caused a drift in polar motion, a somewhat esoteric term that tells scientists a lot about past and future climate and is crucial in GPS calculations and satellite communication.

Polar motion refers to the periodic wobble and drift of the poles. It’s been observed for more than 130 years, but the process has been going on for eons driven by mass shifts inside the earth as well as ones on the surface. For decades, the north pole had been slowly drifting toward Canada, but there was a shift in the drift about 15 years ago. Now it’s headed almost directly down the Greenwich Meridian (sorry Canada no pole for you, eh)....