It was never a power grab.The rule is to protect the waters of Americans especially due to the Climate Crisis.

True to form extremists always are dysfunctional communicators taking everything to unbelievable heights that every person uneducated about such a measure as this will be screaming to stop and end the torture of businesses

That is an incredible drought map. See the heart over Oklahoma and Arkansas. 

That heart shaped area are the San Bois mountains (click here) and drainage has left it in drought.

Below is a map that illustrates the geological location of the San Bois mountains.


February 28, 2017
By Evan Halper

...The directive (click here) to undo the clean water initiative is expected to be closely followed by another aimed at unraveling the Obama administration’s ambitious plan to fight climate change by curbing power plant emissions.

“It is such a horrible, horrible rule,” Trump said as he signed the directive Tuesday aimed at the water rules. “It has such a nice name, but everything about it is bad.” He declared the rule, championed by environmental groups to give the EPA broad authority over nearly two-thirds of the water bodies in the nation, “one of the worst examples of federal regulation” and “a massive power grab.”

While the executive orders are a clear sign of the new administration’s distaste for some of the highest profile federal environmental rules, they also reflect the challenge it faces in erasing them. Both the climate and the clean water rules were enacted only after a long and tedious process of public hearings, scientific analysis and bureaucratic review. That entire process must be revisited before they can be weakened. It could take years....

For Earth to have achieved that drought map, it removed all the water vapor from the ITCZ, sent it to the north pole. Then the Arctic Vortex renewed with turbulence from the exchange of hot and cold water sent it back down to lower latitudes along with some sublimed ice. And then there were floods and floods and more floods. The ITCZ and the Arctic Circle is a very large volume of water vapor. Snow and rain and more snow and more rain and the USA has currently very little worry about drought; ie: California's high altitude Oroville Dam.

The "Waters of the United States" rule developed over decades is a fairly sophisticated rule. It acts to protect water that serves as potable water to the American people. One of the things we know about the Climate Crisis is there will be shifting water sources over time. When a river floods it doesn't simply go back into it's banks, it can erode the banks and change it's course. That is also true of small creeks, streams and headwaters. That is why watersheds are assessed for any problems.

This rule would allow the US EPA to enforce potable water without going through individual episodes of contaminated water sources due to flooding or drought. 

During times of drought, (click here) vegetation is visibly dry, stream and river flows decline, water levels in lakes and reservoirs fall, and the depth to water in wells increases. As drought persists, longer-term impacts can emerge, such as land subsidence, seawater intrusion, and damage to ecosystems. Unlike the immediate impacts of drought, however, long-term impacts can be harder to see, but more costly to manage in the future.

The rule empowers the people of the USA to maintain clean water supplies. That is what this rule was drafted for. If a water source develops contamination for one reason or another, the people can take action quickly to resolve the problems. It is a good thing, however, a President "Hubris" Trump is in the Oval Office so anything goes, including a valuable tool to protect citizens from the effects of the climate crisis. 

There are other ways of doing things. It will just take longer.

I am far more interested in the group, it's members, what was discussed and what was promised.

Ms Conway (click here) tries to capture the perfect photograph.

Ms. Conway is former campaign staff. This posture is not unusual for her. I am sure Mr. Trump's staff is far more informal in their demeanor as well.

Isn't that the Kennedy desk?

It looks like it to me.

On second thought, maybe not.

Please don't disgrace a Navy Seal by retreating into political antics. That is beneath this country's integrity.

February 28, 2017
By Matthew Rozsa

Less than a week (click here) after President Donald Trump’s raid on Yemen was denounced by the father of the SEAL who was killed in combat there, officials are reporting that it has not provided meaningful intelligence — which was initially cited as the reason why the raid had been a success.

Senior officials are saying that they don’t know of any so-called “actionable intelligence” gathered by the raid, according to NBC News. One senior congressional official with inside knowledge also told NBC News that he didn’t know why al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was even targeted by the SEAL raid, since he is unaware of any impending threat from that particular al-Qaeda chapter....

THAAD - Parking missile defense at the borders of Russia and China.

February 28, 2017

South Koreans (click here) have staged a protest against a land-swap deal which will see their country host the controversial US defense missile system THAAD. Some living near the host site have also filed a lawsuit against the Defense Ministry, according to attorneys.

Demonstrators holding signs and chanting slogans gathered in front of the Seoul headquarters of retail giant Lotte on Tuesday to protest its deal with the South Korean government....

General Mattis is expected to speak to Japan about THAAD as well. It should be obvious why North Korea is in such a hurry to arm itself.

IT SHOULD ALSO BE OBVIOUS WHY RUSSIA HAS SUCH A DESIRE TO BE COMFY WITH TRUMP!

It doesn't matter if Mattis is promoting THAAD, he is operating under his own steam. There is a good chance Trump may be disapproving Mattis activities. Trump can't complain about General Mattis priorities, he demanded Congress legislate his place in history.

February 3, 2017
By Bruce Harrison

The new U.S. secretary of defense, (click here) retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, arrived in South Korea Thursday where he recommitted Washington to deploying an advanced missile defense battery to the Korean Peninsula.

But amid South Korea’s fractured politics, it’s still very unclear if the deal brokered under the leadership of now-impeached President Park Geun-hye will hold up.

“Mattis sought to lock in the case, but he has little leverage over the political dynamics in Seoul,” said Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Mattis is the first member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet to make an overseas visit. Key Asian ally South Korea is his first stop; Japan is next on the itinerary.

After campaign threats of possibly drawing down military support for South Korea, Trump may be trying to soothe hurt feelings by sending Mattis to Seoul. He may also be attacking an early challenge to his administration: North Korea....

The reporting by CNN is important and valued outside the USA as well.

February 27, 2017
By Rebecca Harrington

The formal independence of the Justice Department dates back to Watergate. (click here)

After President Richard Nixon resigned because of the scandal, President Jimmy Carter sought to give the Justice Department as much insulation from politics as possible, to keep investigations independent of meddling from the White House or Congress.

Other administrations have since strengthened this distinction, explicitly outlining what officials can and cannot do in Department of Justice memoranda.

But President Donald Trump's administration appears to have flouted this longstanding ethical protocol, experts and former FBI and Justice Department officials say, prompting new questions about the impartiality of the FBI's look into Trump and his associates' ties to Russia.

CNN reported Thursday that the FBI (which is housed within the DOJ) rejected a White House request to publicly shoot down a New York Times story reporting repeated communications between Russian operatives and the Trump campaign....

What would Bernard Shaw say about speaking to power?

By Gabriel Sherman

At his press conference last week, (click here) President-elect Trump refused to take a question from CNN reporter Jim Acosta, denouncing the network as a purveyor of “fake news.” Trump’s ire was in response to CNN’s explosive report that U.S. intelligence chiefs had briefed Trump on claims that the Kremlin had collected compromising information on him. In the wake of CNN’s report, BuzzFeed published the unedited, and unverified, opposition-research dossier referenced in the intel briefing, which included lurid allegations about Trump’s behavior and his campaign’s ties to Russia.

On Tuesday morning, I sat down with CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker for a wide-ranging discussion about that controversial scoop, Trump’s threat to press freedom, and why he’s not worried about losing access to the White House....

The protests should start now and continue through to the next election cycle. It worked when "W" wanted $2 trillion from Social Security.

February 28, 2017
By Noam N. Levey

Republicans came into office this year (click here) promising to rescue Americans from rising healthcare bills by repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.

But the party’s emerging healthcare proposals would shift even more costs to patients, feeding the very problem GOP politicians complained about under Obamacare....

...Meanwhile, other GOP plans to overhaul Medicare — which Ryan and Price have championed — would provide seniors with vouchers to shop for commercial health plans, an approach that independent analyses suggest could leave many patients paying more.

Those are politically risky ideas, said Robert Blendon, an authority on public attitudes about healthcare at Harvard University. “Skin in the game has been never popular,” he said. “It may be an economist’s dream. But it’s never been something people say they want.”

The GOP proposals — many bedrock conservative healthcare ideas — also could prove a major obstacle as Republicans labor to convince increasingly skeptical Americans that they have a better alternative to Obamacare....

"W"s announcement regarding his plans to take $2 trillion from Social Security was a disaster as well.

Social InSecurity; Bush 's $2 Trillion Boondoggle. (click here)

Republicans always covet other people's money. They do it when there are elections and take monies for buying elections and they attempt to remove monies in places the American people consider sacred. It never fails. They always tamper with success of large programs funded by the American people.

February 28, 2017

President Donald Trump held a meeting with executives (click here) to get them on board with Republican plans to dismantle the health law.

...CQ Roll Call: Trump To Health Insurers: We've Got A 'Great Plan' 

President Donald Trump told insurance executives Monday his plan to overhaul the health care system would be "a great plan for the patients, for the people, and hopefully for the companies." He shared no details about the proposal but said it will be “a very competitive plan” that reduces health care costs and improves access to care “very, very substantially." "I think people are going to like it a lot," the president said, according to a pool report. Participants included top executives from major insurers, including UnitedHealth Group, Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Anthem, Kaiser Permanente and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, as well as several smaller plans, including Florida Blue, Independence Blue Cross, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. Matt Eyles, an executive vice president at the insurance company's lobbying arm America's Health Insurance Plans, also attended. (Mershon, 2/27)....

Florida and North Carolina do not have the Medicare Expansion and people have died because of it.

I don't know if Trump is baiting the companies to take over the reform effort so it works or holding them hostage.

Will the NYTimes, LA Times  and Time magazine kindly ask the CEOs in the room what insight they can provide and what they object to about the Affordable Care Act. Then be sure to ask if a Public Option would have made a difference in the rollout in 2014?

February 28, 2017
By Sarah Varney

Princeton, Ill — Commuting past the barren winter fields in northern Illinois, (click here) Cathie Chapman worries about the future.

More than a year ago, she lost her job at a nearby rural hospital after it closed and, as Republicans work to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, wonders whether she’ll soon be out of work again.

“Many of my friends did not find jobs they love,” she said. “They’re working for less money or only part time. Some haven’t found any jobs yet, even after a year.”

Now she runs the pharmacy at Perry Memorial Hospital here, warily watching the Republicans’ repeal efforts.

“I think everybody who works in health care now feels a little uneasy,” said Chapman. “We don’t know what’s coming around the corner, and how it will affect us. But we know that change is happening so fast, it is exhausting and difficult to keep up with.”

Rural hospitals have long struggled to stay open. They have far fewer patients and thin profit margins. Dozens have closed across the country in recent years, mostly in states that didn’t expand Medicaid....

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Kasich is not president, but, his statements are a clear understanding of his citizens, their needs and the best approach to protect their health.

As Governor Chris Christie has stated, "...this administration has no experience in government..." That statement was a bit pandering for sympathy for the Trump administration. I am sorry, Governor Christie, but Americans don't have time for the Trump administration to 'get up to speed' to protect their health. The ethical issues and the speed this administration is racking them up should be a very clear warning sign to Americans.

They were living the dream.

February 27, 2017
By the Editorial Board

“I have a question (click here) in my mind,” Sunayana Dumala said after her husband, an Indian engineer, was shot dead last week in a Kansas bar. “Do we belong?”

There is no satisfying response to her concern, which is widely shared. The gunman reportedly yelled “get out of my country” before killing Ms. Dumala’s husband, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, as he was having a glass of whiskey after work with a friend, who was wounded.

President Trump and his administration have not only tried to keep many immigrants and foreign visitors out of the country, they have done so by casting them as criminals, potential terrorists and trespassers, out to steal the jobs and threaten the lives of Americans.

Ms. Dumala and millions of other members of minorities are integral to the United States, which is almost entirely made up of immigrants and their descendants. But this history might not comfort marginalized groups who hear the administration’s words and see what is happening in this country and wonder if it is safe to stay here, or come here....

25 February 2017
By Rajini Vaidyanathan

Sunayana Dumala last saw her husband when he left for work on Wednesday morning

The widow of an Indian man (click here) killed in a suspected race crime in the US has said her husband "loved America" and came to the country "full of dreams".

Sunayana Dumala, who flew to India after the shooting to be with her husband's family, told the BBC she was "devastated" by his death.

Srinivas Kuchibhotla was shot dead in a bar in Olathe, Kansas. His friend Alok Madasani and an American were injured.

Adam Purinton, 51, has been charged with premeditated first-degree murder.

Ms Dumala said that she had grown anxious about racial hatred after the election of Donald Trump, but she said her husband was "dedicated" to their life in the US and to his job as an engineer.

"Just last week we drove to Iowa to see our friends and their new baby," she said. "When we came back, he was working in the car while I was driving. That's how much he loved working... He personally wanted to do so much for this country."...

The Trump Administration cannot continue to exist within their own dreamscape.

...The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, initially dismissed as “absurd” any link between it and Mr. Trump’s rhetoric, but on Monday called the anti-Semitic attacks and the Kansas shooting “equally disturbing.” Each act of hate is easily explained away as the work of a disturbed person. Yet, had these attacks been perpetrated by a Muslim or an undocumented immigrant, the president would surely have claimed that he was right all along....

California's Oroville Dam. A sink hole under the spillway.

There was so reason for the concrete to collapse until the rains weakened the surrounding land and the weight of water on the spillway. The inspections would not have found any flaw as it was out of sight and within the land itself. 

Drought is a dangerous thing. It not only creates water emergencies for people, it is devastating to the land. Drought damages forests and the roots that once held the land together are damaged as well. Drought is a long term emergency and the effects of it are sometimes not known until the rains return, ie: The Oroville Dam.

Everyone is familiar with landslides and mudslides with large rain events, why would this be any different, because it is a dam and already is exposed to water? The land surrounding the dam isn't always exposed to water. 

Everyone was told the proceeding Climate Crisis was not a good idea. But, the Republicans persisted and now every American life is on emergency awareness with failing infrastructure and superstorms.

California had no alternative but to release the waters to prevent a complete collapse of the dam system. It was a remarkable rescue of the people to prevent any deaths. That was all that was left to the Governor. He had no control of this event.

Do you know why Warren Buffet frequently smiles? It is because he is a smart man and reality superstar.

Warren Buffet made a lot of money when Unilever said, "Thanks, but, no thanks." How did that happen? Because all the investment firms that thought it would lead to a hostile takeover jumped on the band wagon and caused the increase in stock prices. Warren sold his interests as soon as it was obvious a company from the UK was not the least bit interested in a different country's flag.

Congratulations to Warren, his stealthy insight and steadfast knowledge.

Omaha, Neb. — The Latest on investor Warren Buffett’s (click here) comments on a variety of topics (all times local):

6:40 a.m.

Warren Buffett says the proposed $143 billion offer to acquire Unilever, a deal with links to his company, fell apart quickly because the European company wasn’t interested.

Buffett said Monday on CNBC that his Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital abandoned Kraft Heinz Foods’ bid for Unilever because they were interested only in a mutually agreed upon tie-up, not a hostile takeover.

Buffett says it initially appeared that Unilever might be open to negotiating a deal, but once a rough offer was delivered it became clear the owner of Lipton and Hellman’s wasn’t interested.

Buffett says there could have been some misunderstanding in the initial conversations between Kraft Heinz and Unilever.                         

Congratulations to all the winners no matter how brief it may have been.

The Academy has finally broken into the 21st century.

February 27, 2017
By Peter Hammond

...I have covered (click here) a lot of Oscar shows in my time, but never have I seen one go down like this one did Sunday night, when La La Land was announced for Best Picture, and speeches were made … only to have it taken away. Due to a mistake in handing the correct envelope to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, Moonlight was then declared the actual winner in a bizarre moment when La La producer Jordan Horowitz  had to stop everything in its tracks and tell the audience his movie was not the winner after all.

It was definitely a say what? moment for the ages....

List of Winners of Oscar Awards 2017:

Best Picture: Moonlight

Best Actor: Casey Affleck

Best Actress: Emma Stone

Supporting Actor: Mahershala

Supporting Actress: Viola Davis

Best Director: Damien Chazelle

Foreign Language Film: The Salesman

Adapted Screenplay: Moonlight by Barry Jenkins

Original Screenplay: Manchester by the Sea by Kenneth Lonergan

Production Design: La La Land

Cinematography: Linus Sandgren

Sound Mixing: Hacksaw Ridge

Sound Editing: Arrival

Original Score: La La Land

Original Song: City of Stars

Costume Design: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Documentary (Short Subject): The White Helmets

Documentary Feature: OBJECTION

Film Editing: Hacksaw Ridge

Makeup and Hairstyling: Suicide Squad

Animated Feature: Zootopia

Animated Short Film: Disney Piper

Live Action Short Film: Sing

Visual Effects: The Jungle Book

I think that covers them all. I don't care how magnificent the OJ film may have been his name belongs nowhere near any award.

"The White Helmets" was an incredible film and I knew it would be chosen for the very real fact people spilled blood in making that nearly hour long film. 

"The White Helmets" is an amazing film and teaches a great deal about the potential for peace in the Middle East. One of the profound problems facing countries destabilized by civil unrest is the fact there are so many factions and ethnic diversity there is not enough land to accommodate them, hence the tensions we see today.

As populations increase over time there is more land needed to allow people to exist and live; that includes agricultural land. Of course we know the drought in Syria and the result of that pressure on populations and their farmers. What "The White Helmets" taught me is that men of all ethnic backgrounds can come together to create something wonderful and good. These people can set aside ancient anger and new population pressure to save ANY person that survived an attack.

I also thought the people of Turkey that took these men under their wing to teach them search and rescue, provide equipment and assist in supplies were also remarkable. Turkey, of course, was the only Western country involved in the organization of these men into a force to be recon with.

"Barrel bombs (click here) - sometimes filled with chlorine - are the biggest killer of civilians in Syria today. Our unarmed and neutral rescue workers have saved more than 78,529 people from the attacks in Syria, but there are many we cannot reach. There are children trapped in rubble we cannot hear. For them, the UN Security Council must follow through on its demand to stop the barrel bombs, by introducing a 'no-fly zone' if necessary." - Raed Saleh, head of the White Helmets, the Syrian Civil Defence.

Over 78,000 lives saved and in order to do so there are about 10 White Helmets that died in that process. That speaks to their proficiency and dauntless bravery.

This documentary needs to be seen by all the people interested in finding a path to peace in the Middle East. It proves that peace is possible and mutual interests can be found between all parties regardless of their difference.

"The White Helmets" are UNARMED. 

It only took fourteen years for the Oscars to catch up with reality.

Hear ye, hear ye: (click here) The Oscars are upon us once again. Jimmy Kimmel will be hosting the 89th annual Academy Awards ceremony, which airs Sunday, February 26, at 8:30 pm EST on ABC. The event will officially conclude a long awards season marked by repeat winners (we see you, La La Land) and increasingly incendiary acceptance speeches wrapping politics into the usual glitz and glamour (hello, Meryl Streep!).

In 2003 the USA crossed a line and everyone stood by and looked for favor to make films about war. In order for a female film director to win an Oscar the topic had to be war. Then the "Hurt Locker" went on to win Best Picture as well. I never saw that picture and won't. 

"Fences" is an incredible picture that won't win nearly as many awards as it should. Denzel Washington was every bit the man he had to be. Viola Davis was magnificent. 

"Fences" is not the usual gangsta picture affiliated with African American stereotypes. It is a respectful picture of real life. Viola Davis gave life to a strong woman with vulnerabilities she was not allowed to question. She only knew how to measure herself against reality after any dream proved unrealistic for an African American woman in the USA.

The flip side of Ms. Davis are the entire crew of African American actresses in "Hidden Figures." That picture was magnificently done, but, it infuriated me to realize where we are in race relations today. I have expect an executive order to arrive at NASA to change the name of the building graced with Katherine Johnson's name.

Hundreds of people turned out May 5 to attend the naming ceremony for the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Chief among those in attendance was Johnson herself. Now 97, Johnson was once a "human computer" at NASA Langley. Among many other impressive feats, she famously calculated the flight trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American in space.


All the films in every category were exceptional this year. It will be a difficult choice to the winners, but, I sincerely hope this is the year films with African American heritage win in large measure. 

Margot Lee Shetterly (click here) is the author of Hidden Figures and founder of The Human Computer Project, which seeks to uncover the history of the women who worked in the early days of the U.S. space program.

I thank Ms. Shetterly for bringing this book to a film. Regardless, of the building the sincere meaning was better felt when put on a movie screen. Thank you, it was very long overdue.

Until tomorrow...

Unlikely bedfellows, Planned Parenthood and Barbara Bush, or are they?

The first act of "W" after his inauguration was to cut international funding to women's health agencies that fund abortions.

Roe v. Wade was a Texas woman wanting an abortion. The idea Texas women see abortion differently than Texas politics is not so surprising.

Barbara Bush , CEO and Co-Founder (click here)

Barbara Bush is CEO & Co-founder of Global Health Corps (GHC), which mobilizes a global community of young leaders to build the movement for health equity. GHC was founded in 2009 by six twenty-somethings who were challenged by Peter Piot at the aids2031 Young Leaders Summit to engage their generation in solving the world’s biggest health challenges. Barbara and her co-founders were united by the belief that health is a human right and that their generation must build the world where this is realized. Since that time, GHC has placed more than 700 young leaders on the front lines of health equity in Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia, and the United States, developing a cadre of creative, effective, and compassionate changemakers.

February 26, 2017

(The Hill) Barbara Pierce Bush, (click here) the daughter of former President George W. Bush, will headline a Planned Parenthood fundraiser next week in Texas, according to a report from the Texas Tribune.

Bush is expected to be the keynote speaker at the Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas’s annual Fort Worth fundraising luncheon.

President Bush pushed for anti-abortion policies during his time in the White House, but his wife Laura Bush has supported legal abortion in the past.

Barbara Bush, left, (click here) and Cecile Richards sitting for lunch at Gotham Bar and Grill in the West Village.

Unwanted pregnancies happen, they are not planned. One of the reasons Planned Parenthood began their mission was to educate women about their choices in reproduction. 

Women want control of their future. They want control of how the family spins out and the success a parent has in promoting their children to a life of wholesomeness and happiness. Unplanned pregnancies can lead to job, but, sometimes leads to hardship. The word "unplanned or unwanted" are not the enemies.

Lack of knowledge about a woman's responsibility in giving birth leads to many venues of disadvantage in the USA. Planned Parenthood sought to provide insight to what can be a life of reproductive control to provide for that happiness.

...2011...Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are a range of factors associated with children’s experiences of economic insecurity, including race/ethnicity and parents’ education and employment....

There are more (click here) than 72 million children under 18 years old in the United States.

• 45 percent – 32.4 million – live in low-income families.
• 22 percent – 16.1 million – live in poor families.

These facts are real. These facts are American. These facts are a national shame and women such as Cecile Richards and Barbara Bush have the knowledge and power to move generations of women and children to health and better quality of life

SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT, the USA legislature is too inept to their own politics to find their way out of a paper bag.

California WAS the sixth largest economy in the world.

Taking care of the Undocumented is a public health interest. We are back to square one.

February 26, 2017
By Robert Samuels

Rumours about deportation raids (click here) started to circulate around the fields again, so Catalina Sanchez and her husband began to calculate the consequences of everything they did.

Cirilo Perez, 36, had to go to work because the tomato crop was getting low, and he needed to pick as much as he could as fast as he could. Sanchez's medical check up would have to wait - going to a clinic was too risky. What they fretted most about was what to do with their daughter Miriam - a natural-born citizen in the third grade - who they worried would come home one day to an empty trailer.

"When she leaves, I wonder if it will be the last time I see her," Sanchez, 26, said on a recent evening.

As President Donald Trump moves to turn the full force of the federal government toward deporting undocumented immigrants, a new found fear of the future has already cast a pall over the tomato farms and strawberry fields in the largely undocumented migrant communities east of Tampa....         

It is all carbon. And. It is still concrete.

February 26, 2017

By Matthew Theunissen

A New Zealand company (click here) is turning plastic waste into high-quality concrete.

Plazrok, the brainchild of south Auckland-based company Enviroplaz, is unique in that it can transform absolutely any type of plastic into a rock-like substance that forms the aggregate of concrete."We don't take the labels off, we don't have to disassemble it or take any of the other components off it, we can use it in its entirety," said Enviroplaz founding director Peter Barrow.

"We don't even need to clean it - the process we put it through does everything for us."

What's more, concrete companies would not have to change their processes at all in order to use the Plazrok in their product.

Yet they would end up with concrete that is 10 to 40 per cent lighter than usual....               

That is really wonderful that the AP and Time decided to side with the First Amendment.

It is only going to get worse from here so journalists should think outside the box to find ways to cover the White House.

This administration has control of the FCC as well. Licenses will be pulled and credentials removed. There will be nothing left but the FOX News propaganda network.

Legal measures need to begin now and continue during Trump's presidency. Anything that is litigate should be brought forward. FOIA requests reaching to the family quarters of the White House should begin now.

There will be a counter news culture that develops out of the void. That can either help, but, most likely hurt media networks. The truth has it's own power and the American people won't stand for lies and misrepresentations.

Counter news culture should begin now with plans to distribute real news and QUESTIONS about the reality of the attack against the First Amendment by Trump. There will be plenty of advertisers if there are readers. I know no better method to BUILD readership than with free newspapers that are quick to read on a daily commute. As soon as the American people realize the outreach of the media is to bring them the truth about their country, they will push back against the propaganda.

Americans aren't stupid. They reason issues out their own way, but, they aren't stupid. They can read, ask the National Inquirer. Product manufacturers should have plenty of ad monies for newsprint entitled, "Freedom of Press Chronicle" and "First Amendment News." They will come to love it. White House briefings will become funnier than the nighttime comedy hour.

Keep it honest and full of humor. The truth, but, easy to swallow.

Oh, let's not forget the cable news networks that DEVOTED their entire daily programming to covering the White House. STUPID. Really stupid. Where is the geography channel? We might even have a public that knows where Mexico is on a map.

February 24, 2017
By Paul Farhi

The White House (click here) blocked a number of news organizations from attending an informal briefing Friday, a rare and surprising move that came amid President Trump’s escalating war against the media.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer banned reporters from CNN, the New York Times, Politico, the Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed from attending a “gaggle,” a non-televised briefing, but gave access to a number of other reporters, including those representing conservative outlets.

The White House said the decision was not made to exclude journalists from organizations that have been the most critical of Trump in their reporting in favor of those who are more favorable. Although the invited included Fox News, Breitbart and the Washington Times — all considered sympathetic to the administration — the approved list also included CBS, NBC, ABC, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Time and the Associated Press.

However, reporters from AP and Time decided against attending the briefing in protest of the exclusion of other news outlets....       

The Supernova 1987A occurred within the Milky Way galaxy.The galaxy that contains our solar system. Energy release that large near Earth interests me.

February 24, 2017
By Donna Weaver

Three decades ago, (click here) astronomers spotted one of the brightest exploding stars in more than 400 years. The titanic supernova, called Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A), blazed with the power of 100 million suns for several months following its discovery on Feb. 23, 1987....

It occurred approximately 51.4 kiloparsecs (168,000 ly) from Earth. This was close enough that it was easily visible to the naked eye and it could be seen from the Southern Hemisphere. It was the closest observed supernova since SN 1604, which occurred in the Milky Way itself

Trump's comments about France can be viewed as inflammatory politics in the USA, but, it could equate to be more or less a battle in Europe.

December 6, 2016

By Peter Allen and Linda Willgress

France's far-right (click here) National Front topped the country's regional election vote on Sunday in a breakthrough that shakes up the country's political landscape. Above, National Front leader leader Marine Le Pen casts her vote at a polling station during the first round of votes on Sunday in Henin-Beaumont, northern France

February 25, 2017
By Rebecca Flood

Marine Le Pen, (click here) the leader of France's National Front (FN), is fighting to achieve a similar earthquake in France in the presidential elections in 2017.

But with her increasing appeal to the centre and the left of French politics, how much can she really be characterised as far-right?

Voters' perceptions and a toxic past

Marine Le Pen is the youngest daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, former leader of the FN and a convicted racist, who last year repeated an old anti-Semitic slur that the Nazi gas chambers were "a detail of history".

Having grown up in a political home, accompanying him to meetings from the age of 13, Marine Le Pen was always going to struggle to shake off the far-right labell.

But she did denounce her father's comments in 2015, and effectively expelled him from the party. While her father was leader, the FN was the party that wanted to deport three million foreigners, the party of Holocaust denial and xenophobia. But under Marine Le Pen the FN began to distance itself from such controversial issues.      

"...We do not discriminate in this country based on religion." WE DO NOW.

There is a dynamic to this that can't be ignored and that is loyalty. This is the first time there has been a White Supremacist in the White House to the point of having his staff reflect those values. 

White Supremacists have been organized for a long time. There was no President or Congress for them, they simply are loyal to their ideology. That is partly what carried Trump into the White House. They blindly followed the ideology without regard to any other reality. That could occur in the country, with the ideology unleashed with an obvious figure head in Bannon, that is a fantastic realization for them.

So, in the case of Muhammad Ali, Jr. was this loyalty or simply lack of knowledge to the issue of the Trump ban?

February 24, 2017

By Chuck Strouse and Jerry Ianneli

Muhammad Ali Jr., (click here) the son of Muhammad Ali, was on his way back from Montego Bay, Jamaica, with his mother and Ali's first wife, Khalilah, when immigration officers detained him. Khalilah showed officers a picture of herself with her ex-husband, who died last June 3, so she was not detained. Ali Jr. had no such photo.

"This is an outrage," says Chris Mancini, a former federal prosecutor and friend of the family. "I don't know what is going on with Mr. Trump's claim that his ban is not religion-based. We do not discriminate in this country based on religion."

Ali Jr., age 44, had no criminal record and carries a United States passport, Mancini says. He recently moved to Deerfield Beach to live with his mother. Last year, Ali Jr. received a large share of his father's multimillion-dollar fortune....

...Mancini says the detention is an instance where a ban proposed by the Trump administration and overturned by both a trial court and an appeals court is nevertheless being enforced.