Have you ever seen this man. Case closed, but, never found.

Dan Cooper was believed to be in his forties in 1971, that would make him in his eighties today. He may be dead by now. Or. Maybe not.

July 14, 2016

By Rohan Smith

Only a handful of cases stump (click here) America's most experienced investigators. This is one of them.

In 1971, a well-groomed businessman-type boarded a Boeing 727 in Portland, Oregon. It was bound for Seattle, Washington, but the passenger had other plans.

Shortly after the Northwest Orient Airlines jet took off, the man calling himself Dan Cooper gestured to a flight attendant before handing her a napkin with a note scrawled in capital letters. On it were demands for $200,000 cash, four parachutes and his freedom.

The man, believed to be in his early 40s, told the woman he had a bomb. He showed her the inside of his briefcase where eight red cylinders were attached to a series of wires....

Wow, the ATF actually did something!

July 12, 2016
Did federal authorities (click here) in Louisiana manage to prevent another round of cop killing with the arrest of three people in Baton Rouge this week? WBRZ-TV is reporting that ATF agents, sheriff’s deputies, and police raided a home Monday and might have foiled a plan to kill officers at a protest over the police-involved shooting death of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge last week....

It was really scary, huh? But, nothing stops the big, tough and brave ATF.

Did I tell you? Right? Salvos of more to come. Please tell me the ATF had this figured out before I did.

How can US Representative Keith Ellison (click here) state Paul Ryan is a great guy and I can work with him.

Really?

I have immense respect for Rep. Ellison. He is a model citizen. He worries about his district, the safety of citizens and speaks words needed to defend a minority religion in the USA. I don't know where the country would be without his words and willingness to speak out.

But.

Ryan? 

Paul "No Clue" Ryan is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

I wish US Rep. Ellison would speak honestly, otherwise, the way I see it, his willingness to extend kind words to Paul "No Clue" Ryan is nothing more than go along to get along. 

Paul Ryan has a very bad record on human rights, the budget, respect for President Obama. I would think after Orlando the US House would be moved to act against military style weapons. 

Honestly, Rep. Ellison, Paul Ryan is more a hindrance to protect the people you speak for. He is not a nice man. He is not easy to work with. He is upholding the very danger American face from the free flow of guns in the USA. Please, stop it.

I think Senator Bernie Sanders should be promised a Presidential Cabinet position.

The Republican political platform is defined by pluralistic ignorance throughout.

Democratic Party candidates across the spectrum of government should be carrying this as a banner into the November elections.

Republicans are destroying the two party system.

Pluralistic ignorance is when a group of members reject a norm. They incorrectly assume that most others accept it. Supposedly, it is an unspoken truth or wish for a society to achieve.

Basically, the people creating the Republican platform live in isolation of reality and the norms and values of most of the country. This is a defeated platform. It is rejected by most if not all Americans, save this drafting committee that is completely laughable.

Political platforms can be extreme, but, for a country in turbulence and one leaders are trying to unite, this is not the way. This is pluralistic ignorance. There is a name for it.

July 12, 2016
By Jeremy W. Peters

Cleveland — Republicans moved on Tuesday (click here) toward adopting a staunchly conservative platform that takes a strict, traditionalist view of the family and child rearing, bars military women from combat, describes coal as a “clean” energy source and declares pornography a “public health crisis.”

Amazing. In most federal elections the military votes Republican, but, this year I think it is an open debate about the military vote. The military will vote for better benefits and quality of life for their families including support for caregivers when women or men are called into battle. The USA military today is different than eight years ago. Today, women in the military speak out about sexual assault and there are same sex marriages recognized. The issues today are about a changing paradigm in the military and one the country mostly embraces.

It is a platform that at times seems to channel the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump — calling to “destroy ISIS,” belittling President Obama as weak and accusing his administration of inviting attacks from adversaries.

But, the document positions itself far to the right of Mr. Trump’s beliefs in other places — and amounts to a rightward lurch even from the party’s hard-line platform in 2012 — especially as it addresses gay men, lesbians and transgender people.

As delegates debated in two marathon sessions here on Monday and Tuesday, they repeatedly rejected efforts by more moderate members of the platform committee to add language that would acknowledge or condemn anti-gay discrimination — something Mr. Trump has done himself....

The chairwoman for the platform committee was Virginia Fox from North Carolina. There is no description needed. North Carolina has grown to be among the most corrupted states in the country.

...Additional provisions included those that promoted state laws to limit which restrooms transgender people could use, nodded to “conversion therapy” for gays by saying that parents should be free to make medical decisions about their children without interference and stated that “natural marriage” between a man and a woman is most likely to result in offspring who do not become drug-addicted or otherwise damaged....

There is absolutely no research that upholds any of these positions, except, for that coming out of Dobson's "Focus on the Family." The entire Republican platform is pluralistic ignorance so that the followers of radio shows and FOX News will pay attention to the date of the election. It is all populous nonsense that damages the country and does nothing to unite it.

Facial Recognition Technology is not perfected enough for police use.

July 2, 2016
By Robinson Meyer

Facebook has also been thinking about faces. (click here) Last summer, the company’s artificial intelligence team announced that its facial-recognition software passed key tests with near human-level accuracy. Last week, it presented a further development: Yann LeCun, the AI team’s director, boasted that a different algorithm could identify people 83 percent of the time even if their faces were not in the picture. The program instead works from a person’s hairdo, posture, and body type....

Mike Pence, no different than Paul "No Clue" Ryan in 2012, needs a career saving event.

July 13, 2016
By Tony Cook, Chelsea Schneider, Jill Disis and Chris Sikich

A fiery (click here) Gov. Mike Pence praised Donald Trump and slammed Hillary Clinton during a rally in Westfield on Tuesday that was widely seen as an audition to become Trump’s running mate.

Trump made no announcement, but seemed to relish teasing his Indiana audience with the prospect....

...Others under consideration for the vice presidential slot have also joined Trump on the campaign trail in recent days, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has compared the selection process to Trump’s reality TV show The Apprentice.

Those who attended the private fundraiser at the Columbia Club said Trump spoke highly of Pence. Indiana Senate leader David Long, a Fort Wayne Republican who attended the fundraiser, said that at one point Trump asked if Pence would be a good vice president and the crowd roared “Yes!”

Pence isn’t the only possible vice presidential pick who Trump has dropped hints about. At a rally in Ohio last week, he said Gingrich “will be involved with our government,” according to the Washington Post....

The climate crisis is not about believing. It is fact. It is very scary fact.

This is a heat wave of 123.8 F, not simply a daytime high.

May 26, 2016

By Gavin Fernando

A severe heatwave (click here to see video) has set off new records in India, so much so that the roads beneath pedestrians are literally melting like wet cement.

Literally.

In the footage above, pedestrians' footwear can be seen actually sinking into the tarmac as they walk due to how hot it is.

For farmers in particular, the effects have been widespread and devastating, worsening poverty and even prompting suicide.

The Indian government has estimated that as much as 25 per cent of the country - 330 million Indians - could be affected by the shortages.

Temperatures in the northern desert province of Rajasthan have soared to 51C (123.6 Fahrenheit), the highest in the country's recorded history, and the third-highest temperature ever documented on Earth....

Justice Ginsberg public comments makes it to New Zealand.

Some people believe if a case regarding Donald Trump in anyway makes it to the Supreme Court then Justice Ginsberg should recuse herself. 

The Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment for the very reason politics doesn't effect their decisions. It is debatable that is the case, but, for a Supreme Court Justice to recuse themselves is a very serious issue.

In demanding Justice Ginsberg recuse herself is to say she is not able to separate her passions for political commentary from her decision making on the job. That is not an accurate depiction of Justice Ginsberg. She has been making public comment about politics for as long as she is a Justice. She speaks frequently to law students and less frequently to the public. She has a wonderful personality and is a pleasure to hear speak. I think she is a very competent Justice to the Supreme Court and should continue speaking freely at ever opportunity.

I have not always agreed with her decisions either, but, to censor her public life is completely wrong. It would set very bad precedent. 

July 13, 2016

...She said her late husband (click here) would have said: "Now it is time for us to move to New Zealand".

She also told AP that she assumed Democrat Hillary Clinton would win the November election. The 83-year-old Ginsburg was nominated to the court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.

Asked what would happen if Trump won instead, she said, "I don't want to think about that possibility, but if it should be, then everything is up for grabs."

Her comments were met with a wave of alarm by many judicial ethics experts, who called them surprising if not potentially recusal-worthy should a legal issue involving Trump come before the court....