The Trump administration is an existential threat.

I think this entire administration is measurable and an existential threat. The USA can't fight the world and invokes many strategies to protect the American people.

Christmas Day of 1991 the Soviet flag no longer had a sovereign country to represent. That is a victory for the free world. No one wants to destroy Russia to simply destroy Russia, but, a weaker country is the goal of USA policies.

The equation is real simple, Russia promoted Trump into the White House with the help of Comey who cost Hillary Clinton over 4 percentage points in the matter of 4 days. Trump gets the Oval Office and places the CEO of Exxon in the Secretary of State position. The Secretary of State will facilitate oil exploration and profits at every corner of the globe, especially in the Russia waters of the Arctic Ocean. (I might point out Dutch Royal Shell already determined there is no measurable PROFIT drilling the Arctic Ocean.) But, the USA Secretary of State under Donald Trump will provide for new oil revenue (profit or loss it is still cash flow revenue) to Russia. That strengthens Russia for the first time in not quite a generation (20 years) since the dissolve of the Soviet Union. That is treason. 

Donald Trump with every appointee announced is slowly but assuredly committing treason against the USA. The actual acts that are measurable just haven't occurred yet.

Donald Trump is providing new revenue to Russia after it assisted in electing him only to turn his back on NATO at the same time. If that isn't treason, then I don't know what is.

November 3, 2016

By Charles M. Blow

There are only a handful of days until Election Day (click here) and an end to this phase of a nation’s — and the world’s — ebb and flow of anxiety. The day after the votes are cast and counted that anxiety will either dissipate or become a fixed feature. Which of these it will be is very much in flux.

While Hillary Clinton still maintains a lead in the polls and a built-in advantage on the electoral map, recent polls suggest that Donald Trump is closing the gap. There are now plausible — however improbable — electoral map routes to victory for him.

I leave it to others to make predictions about how all this will play out, but I feel that I must say again, and until the last minute and with my last breath: America, are you (expletive) kidding?!

I simply cannot wrap my head around how others with level heads and sound minds can even consider Trump for president of this country and leader of the free world. The logic simply escapes me....

The Republicans have an interesting sprinkling of right wing enthusiasts, even in it's leadership. 

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), (click here) the House majority whip, acknowledged Monday that he spoke at a gathering hosted by white nationalist leaders while serving as a state representative in 2002, thrusting a racial controversy into House Republican ranks days before the party assumes control of both congressional chambers. The 48-year-old Scalise, who ascended to the House GOP’s third-ranking post earlier this year, confirmed that he once appeared at a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization. That organization, founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Beyond hosting a website, whitecivilrights.com, and staging an occasional conference, EURO is a paper tiger, serving primarily as a vehicle to publicize Duke’s writing and sell his books,” the SPLC writes on its Web site.

When Trump won the White House he needed to have experts that could carry the burden, so his choices are assured to be experts, but, also loyal to him and no one else. There is no one in government in their right minds that would want to be involved with the Trump experts.

Trump reached into the corruption barrel of monkeys and turned them loose as partners to right wingers waiting for the chance to rule the roost. He is overthrowing in the government. He calls it ideology. Is everyone going to actually wait until it is obvious before the investigation begins? I hope not because the 'character' of this administration is obvious and I am writing this now because it is so obvious. It would seem there are journalists calling the alarm, no different than Paul Revere.

The investigation needs to begin now.

December 20, 2016
By Matthew Rozsa

It appears that President-elect Donald Trump’s (click here) decision to appoint a conspiracy theorist as his national security adviser isn’t sitting well with many National Security Council staffers.

A disproportionately high number of junior-level civil servants working for the NSC are considering leaving their jobs due to Trump’s selection of retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn as his national security adviser, according to a Sunday report in The Guardian. The British newspaper spoke with current and former NSC officials and pinned the number of potentially exiting staffers at roughly 400. As one official put it: “Career people are looking to get out and go back to their agencies and pressure is being put on them to get them to stay. There is concern there will be a half-empty NSC by the time the new administration arrives, which no one wants.”...

Finally, the responsibility is finding the true perpetrators.

There ultimately is one person more responsible than any other and that is Governor Rick Snyder. How horrible this has been for anyone who cared.

The Emergency Manager law was rescinded by THE VOTE and the one man responsible for the deaths and injury to the people of Flint cancelled the will of the people of Michigan and reinstated it.

The Emergency Manager Law as it existed under Rick Snyder is very different than the original Emergency Manager Law used by past Governors to assist with cities facing problems with funding and primarily for education. The Emergency Manager under Snyder and the majority Republican legislature allowed horrible acts that lead to these deaths and injury.

This is what happens when a law violates the rights of the individual in the USA. This is Republican Hubris at nearly it's worst. Liberty and Freedom can be measured and it begins with the REGULATIONS that protect human life above any amount of money needed to return a balance sheet to function.

There were better answers than a hideous law that robbed the elected mayor and council of it's function to protect the lives of the citizens that voted. There are real reasons why local power is important. Local power provides for a city's economy, education of it's children and protections that insures the lives of it's citizens. Local power is real and this is an example of what occurs when it is discarded as 'inefficient.' Really? Inefficient? I guess that is the difference between Americans that believe life comes first and wealth comes further down the line in priorities.

Death and injury is what happens when life is given a back seat to wealth. What do you value?

December 20, 2016

Flint, MI -- Two former emergency managers (click here) appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to run the city are among four defendants charged today with crimes related to the Flint water crisis.

Darnell Earley, who served as Flint emergency manager at the time the city changed its water source to the Flint River in April 2014, was charged Tuesday, Dec. 20, in Genesee District Court.

Also charged were former emergency manager Jerry Ambrose; Howard Croft, former Department of Public Works director; and Daugherty Johnson, former utilities administrator for the city....

The beginning of winter, the longest night of the year.

In 2016, the Moon today is in a Waning Gibbous Phase. This is the first phase after the Full Moon occurs.

In 2016, the winter solstice begins at:

Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 10:44 UTC (Universal Time Coordinated other wise known as Greenwich Mean Time) It occurs five hours before current time of the east coast of the USA.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 5:44 am EST

Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 4:44 am CST

Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 3:44 am MST

Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 2:44 am PST

Ever since people first noticed the changing length of the days, the longest night of the year has been a special time marked by celebration. Ancient cultures around the world, from Rome to China to the Americas, developed customs and rituals designed to welcome the return of the sun and the beginning of the march towards summer’s light and warmth. Some are still celebrated today, while many of the traditions we now associate with such winter holidays as Hanukkah and Christmas can be traced back to these ancient solstice celebrations. In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice falls on December 21 or 22, while the longest night of the year in the Southern Hemisphere is June 20 or 21.

Saturnalia (click here)

Western culture owes many of the traditional midwinter celebrations—including those of Christmas—to this ancient Roman solstice celebration dedicated to the Saturn, the god of agriculture and time....

...St. Lucia’s Day

This traditional festival of lights in Scandinavia honors St. Lucia, one of the earliest Christian martyrs, but was incorporated with earlier Norse solstice traditions after many Norsemen converted to Christianity around 1000 A.D....

...Dong Zhi

The Chinese celebration of the winter solstice, Dong Zhi (which means “Winter Arrives”) welcomes the return of longer days and the corresponding increase in positive energy in the year to come....

...Shab-e Yalda

On the longest night of the year, Iranians all over the world celebrate the triumph of Mithra, the Sun God, over darkness in the ancient festival of Shab-e Yalda (which translates to “Night of Birth”)....

...Inti Raymi

In Peru, like the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, the winter solstice is celebrated in June. The Inti Raymi (Quechua for “sun festival”), which takes place on the solstice, is dedicated to honoring Inti, the sun god....

...Shalako – Zuni Indians

For the Zuni, one of the Native American Pueblo peoples in western New Mexico, the winter solstice signifies the beginning of the year, and is marked with a ceremonial dance called Shalako....

... Soyal

Like the Zuni, the Hopi of northern Arizona are believed to be among the descendants of the mysterious Anasazi people, ancient Native Americans who flourished beginning in 200 B.C. (As the Anasazi left no written records, we can only speculate about their winter solstice rites, but the placement of stones and structures in their ruins, such as New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, indicate they certainly took a keen interest in the sun’s movement.) In the Hopi solstice celebration of Soyal, the Sun Chief takes on the duties of the Zuni Pekwin, announcing the setting of the sun on the solstice....

...Toji

In Japan, the winter solstice is less a festival than a traditional practice centered around starting the new year with health and good luck. It’s a particularly sacred time of the year for farmers, who welcome the return of a sun that will nurture their crops after the long, cold winter....

Secretary Tom Perez is right for the leadership of the DNC.

The Democratic Party is about labor and the American Dream. Tom Perez is good for the DNC.

I am about labor and always have been. That is the focus of the DNC. President Obama put more Americans back to work than any other president in history. He believes in the talent of the American worker and so does Perez.

The Democratic Party needs someone at the top of leadership that will provide a party that wins and does so in support of the American worker. 

Labor leaders are tough. They know they are holding the lives of American families in their hands and they take it seriously. I'll back labor every time. There is no doubt unions are the answer to a stable and thriving Middle Class. The facts back that statement. The USA economy is as great as it is today because of the Middle Class. The unions support that Middle Class and someone like Tom Perez knows the facts and 'gets it.'

December 19, 2016
By Alex Seitz-Wald

The International Association of Firefighters, (click here) the main union representing American firefighters, has placed itself on a collision course with the AFL-CIO in the race for the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee, deciding to back Labor Secretary Tom Perez over Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison.

The Democratic leadership contest has taken on unusual significance in the wake of Hillary Clinton's devastating loss last month, dividing the labor movement between two Democrats whom it has long seen as allies.

The AFL-CIO, a federation of 55 unions that includes the IAFF, endorsed Ellison just before Perez entered the race last week, despite protests from IAFF President Harold Schaitberger and others.

In a statement, Schaitberger praised Perez as a "a tireless advocate for civil and human rights" who can transcend what the union president called "a narrow focus on identity and cultural politics that alienated" some longtime Democrats from the party....

Don't blow this off as something Washington, DC will absorb. This is not the Monroe presidency. Monroe didn't have nukes. From FDR going forward is the only timeline that matters and when looking for a parallel university it is "W" all over again.

Lies cannot be the truth. Wars should not reflect populous priorities to facilitate lies and danger to other people.

I am waiting for the "Axis of Evil" speech that includes Africa.

When examining the timeline from FDR forward there were dearly few USA presidents that sought to end this genocidal weapon. There are a few that haven't and used the USA military capacity to deserve respect. "W" never talked about peace.

It is "W" all over again. The media loves violence. Here we go again. There hasn't been 24 hours since the attacks in Europe and the film loops are hot stuff.

This occurred in Europe. NATO is vital to the security of Europe. That is what should be discussed and how Trump has attacked the NATO Alliance.