Michigan and Pennsylvania are at least two states with legislative agendas to legalize online gambling. 

Is everyone asleep out there?

What is ALEC up to?

Monies will move from education lotteries to licensed private online casinos. The state legislatures are seeing additional revenues. The monies collected by the states are not exclusive as if nothing else will change. The education lotteries are not immediate gratification nor do Americans have to leave the home to participate in online gambling. There are many reasons to oppose the online gambling. They will probably be an exclusive extension to the casinos. 

Not the truth police? The President has an untrustworthy Secretary of Defense and no one tells the President?

Amazing. Comey needs to be replaced. I know there is a conflict of interest with AG Sessions and stupid PR claims by Trump, but, what is this mess with Comey? He decides to be loyal to Trump regardless of the threat to the USA with Michael Flynn, but, when he believes there is political fodder with Clinton it is "Game on." I don't trust him.

March 6, 2017
By Steve Benen

The day before Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, (click here) then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-CIA Director John Brennan wanted to tell the incoming White House team that Michael Flynn had been lying about his contacts with Russia. FBI Director James Comey disagreed.

As the Washington Post reported last month, Comey pushed back against the idea “primarily on the grounds that notifying the new administration could complicate the agency’s investigation” into Russia’s intervention on Trump’s behalf. Quoting a source familiar with Comey’s thinking at the time, the FBI director didn’t think the bureau should be “the truth police.”

“In other words, if there’s not a violation of law here, it’s not our job to go and tell the vice president that he’s been lied to,” the source said....

Comey is playing with power. It is a real heady game and I am sure he has no problem living with his political volleys either. I think he is a danger to the country. No, I take that back. Comey is a known danger to the country.

The lies about President Obama are an attempt by Trump to raise his polls. He loves polls. He ran with them in 2016. It is a stunt to bring President Obama into a national food fight.

I think President Obama can take care of himself.

The American people don't know what they have with Comey. We don't know what sort of priorities he has within the department either. Comey is a problem.

Congress is oppressing the will of the USA people!

This is what the people want. What seems to be the problem? Cronies? The power of political money? Is that the problem?

The Republicans need to remove their lapel pins. They don't display the American flag, they display the Republican flag.

March 5, 2016
By Susan Page

...By 58%-35%, those surveyed support an independent inquiry, an idea backed by Democratic leaders and a handful of congressional Republicans who argue that a special prosecutor or bipartisan commission should be appointed. White House officials and leaders of the GOP-controlled House and Senate say an ongoing FBI investigation and oversight by congressional committees are sufficient....

Europeans like European cars. There is nothing wrong with that. I congratulate GM on the sale.

March 6, 2017
By Steven Overly

General Motors (click here) is selling its two major European brands to French automaker PSA Group and pulling back from the world’s third-largest auto market, where the company has struggled to turn a profit for nearly two decades.

GM’s Opel and Vauxhall brands, as well as the European arm of its financial division, were valued at about $2.3 billion in the transaction. If the deal clears regulators, it is expected to close by the end of the year, the companies said.

PSA Group will then become the second-largest automaker in Europe behind Volkswagen.

The sale includes 11 manufacturing facilities and one engineering center that collectively employ about 40,000 people, according to the companies. GM will incur a non-cash accounting charge of $4 billion to $4.5 billion as a result of the sale....

GM's CEO has a much healthier vision for the company. Building facilities and cars in Europe has not worked and will not work. Building cars in the USA for the USA market and exporting them will work. It is the way it is suppose to work.

August 5, 2017
By David Sheperson

Washington — U.S. auto imports (click here) hit a new all-time high in the first half of the year — as auto production is surging in lower wage countries such as Mexico and a strong dollar is hindering American exports.

The overall U.S. trade deficit rose 7.1 percent — adjusted for seasonal fluctuations — to $43.8 billion in June. Autos, which includes vehicles, parts and engines, accounted for more than one-third of the trade deficit as U.S. auto imports rose to $29.8 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

U.S. exports of autos are down $3 billion in the first half of 2015 to $74.8 billion. Auto exports were flat in June at $12.6 billion — up just $62 million.

By contrast, U.S. imports of autos rose by $10.8 billion to $171.5 billion in the first six months of the year....

...The U.S. sent Japan about $1 billion in total auto exports in the first half of the year, while Japan sent the United States $25 billion in cars, trucks and parts.

Both nations are fighting in the ongoing free trade talks over rules that would make each country more attractive for production.

The U.S. auto trade deficit is soaring. In May, the United States imported $29.4 billion in autos — nearly as much as July. In the first half of the year, the U.S. imported $171.5 billion in autos — up $10.8 billion.

Auto imports have been rising steadily. Americans bought $254 billion in imported automobiles in 2011, $298 billion in 2012, $309 billion in 2013 and $328 billion last year. The auto trade deficit is also rising — it was $156 billion in 2013 and $169 billion last year....

Japan as an ally needs the USA market, but, does it need this much of the USA market?

Interestingly, Japan's economy is not impoverished. It is not Third World. He has many programs to support it's people. It has a higher minimum wage than the USA, yet, it has products the American consumer still purchases over that of a USA product.

Imagine that, a First World country that actually values it's people and still sells products on the USA market with exceptional results. The Japanese people have a high quality of life.

March 6, 2017

New York - Japanese automakers logged record sales (click here) in the United States in 2015 as the overall market swelled to an unprecedented level, driven by the stronger economy and robust demand for sport utility vehicles and trucks, Autodata Corp. data showed Tuesday.

Manufacturers sold 17.47 million cars in 2015, up 5.7 percent from the year before. The figure broke the previous record of 17.40 million cars sold in 2000, according to the U.S. research company.

Low fuel prices intensified the shift toward SUVs and pickup trucks and away from hybrid and electric vehicles. Light trucks made up 52.1 percent of the market in 2015, compared to 50.1 percent in 2014 and 48.8 percent in 2013, according to Autodata....

...Among Japanese automakers, Toyota Motor Corp. reported all-time high sales of 344,601 for its Lexus luxury brand, up 10.7 percent. Toyota’s overall sales expanded 5.3 percent to 2,499,313 units — its third-best annual result after 2.62 million in 2007 and 2.54 million in 2006. Japan’s top automaker was the third-largest player in the United States.

“December closed out an all-time, best-ever year with sales we couldn’t have predicted,” Lexus group Vice President Jeff Bracken said in a press release, adding that the brand is “well positioned for 2016.”...

"The Trump Backlash" is oppressing the USA Constitution.

March 4, 2017
By Ellen McCarthy

Apparently, in Trump’s view, (click here) long-simmering feuds regarding his old reality show “The Apprentice” don’t qualify as trivial.

On Friday the show’s new host, Arnold Schwarzenegger, released a statement saying he would not return for a second season. “I loved every second of working with NBC and Mark Burnett. Everyone — from the celebrities to the crew to the marketing department — was a straight 10, and I would absolutely work with all of them again on a show that doesn’t have this baggage.”

Schwarzenegger later explained that the “baggage” to which he was referring is Trump. “With Trump being involved in the show, people have a bad taste and don’t want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show,” he told Empire magazine....

"Ah"nold was the one person that could not cause Trump agida. He is not born in the USA so he could never go from "The Apprentice" to POTUS.

The USA Constitution is oppressed because Republicans are afraid of taking on the issues that support impeachment, namely, Mr. Trump's continued practice in private business and hiring relatives to sensitive positions in the White House. There are certainly other issues supporting impeachment, but, what difference does it make if Congress won't uphold the law?

Paul Ryan plays footsies with Trump all the time. Will Ryan actually have the guts to protect the US Constitution? No. Why? Because he will fall out of grace with his constituency. The cronies are winning all kinds of favors because Congress has no back bone. We don't have a country anymore, we have anarchy.

The Christian Bible won in the case of a young man who is transgender.  So much for the separation of church and state IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The Robert's Court is lame. Whatever happened to separate and equal? What happened to Brown vs Board of Ed? The US Constitution is clear, there has to be room for everyone and all citizens are to be treated equally under the law. The USA Constitution demands a public school to accommodate all student issues, even transgender.

March 6, 2017
By Adam Liptik

Washington - The Supreme Court (click here) announced on Monday that it would not hear a major case on transgender rights after all, acting after the Trump administration changed the federal government’s position on whether public schools had to allow transgender youths to use bathrooms that matched their gender identities.

In a one-sentence order, the Supreme Court vacated an appeal’s court decision in favor of a transgender boy, Gavin Grimm, and sent the case back for further consideration in light of the new guidance from the Trump administration....

Kim Jong Un is celebrating Arbor Day early.

March 5, 2017
By Anna Fifield

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Mangyongdae Revolutionary School and planted trees with its students last week.

Tokyo — North Korea launched four missiles (click here) Monday morning, a provocative barrage that coincided both with joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises on the southern half of the peninsula and with the opening of the annual National People’s Congress in China.

The launches follow a remarkable month in which Kim Jong Un’s regime tested a solid-fuel rocket that it says is part of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States and in which the regime is accused of assassinating the leader’s half brother.

Both actions have angered allies and adversaries in the region, and Monday’s launches will only exacerbate that....

2 March 2017

People hold photos of their family members, who they say were killed due to their alleged involvement in illegal drugs, during a protest against extra-judicial killings (EJK) while marching in an open area of a Roman Catholic Church in Paranaque city, metro Manila, Philippines

4 March 2017

Women take part in a performance to protest against the disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa College Raul Isidro Burgos in Guerrero, in Mexico City, Mexico

4 March 2017

A demonstrator in opposition of US President Donald Trump sets a hat on fire during a 'People 4 Trump' rally in Berkeley, California

March 5, 2017

People with portraits (click here) of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin gather outside his museum in his native town of Gori, some 80 kms outside Tbilisi, on the 64th anniversary of Stalin's death. While historians blame Stalin for the deaths of millions in purges, prison camps and forced collectivization, many in Russia still praise him for leading the Soviet Union to victory over Nazi Germany in World War I.

"Good Night, Moon"

The waxing gibbous

8.1 day old moon

57.2% lit

February 22, 2017
Updated by Brian Resnick

The past few years (click here) have seen an explosion in the discovery of planets outside our solar system. Astronomers have now confirmed 3,442 exoplanets in the galaxy, and they think there could be 100 billion or more in total. But NASA and astronomers around the world aren’t just hunting for any ordinary planets. They’re particularly focused on the search for planets in the “habitable zone” of star systems, meaning, in theory, that water could exist on the surface in a liquid form. Finding Earth-size, potentially habitable planets is believed to be the first step to finding other life in the universe....

Poster for NASA Earth-sized planets, TRAPPIST-1. (click here) There is the possibility that future study of this unique planetary system could reveal conditions suitable for life.

SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOO Stars) (click here)

James Webb Space Telescope (click here)