The hiatus is a myth. The ice never stopped melting and the climate continued to heat.

Haitus? These years some of the hottest years on record. They gave birth to enormous icebergs from collapsing ice shelves and the Great Barrier Reef whitened along with other reefs globally in the same exact time period.

Enough!

November 22, 2018
By Laura Geggel

A seasonal ice beacon collects temperature data in the Arctic.

Credit: Ignatius Rigor/Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington

Evidence is mounting (click here) against the so-called climate change hiatus — a period lasting from 1998 to 2012 — when global temperatures allegedly stopped rising as sharply as they had before. This misconception can be explained, in part, by missing temperature data from the Arctic, a new study finds.

That seeming pause in rising global temperatures had been used as evidence by climate skeptics to suggest that the Earth wasn't really warming at an unnatural pace.

To get around the data gap, researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and China created the first global data set of surface temperatures. They filled in the missing puzzle piece with data taken from buoys drifting in the Arctic Ocean during the so-called global warming hiatus, the researchers said. [6 Unexpected Effects of Climate Change....

I think Trump is trying to disrupt the talks between North and South Korea.

"North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times,'" the president tweeted. "Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"

Trump has no place on the Korean Peninsula anymore.

I like Senator Doug Jones already. He chose an experienced staffer as his chief of staff.

January 2, 2018

By Zola Ray

Doug Jones, (click here) the Democratic Alabama senator-elect, said Tuesday that he’s chosen Dana Gresham (click here) to be his chief of staff. Jones will be the only Democratic senator with a black person in the chief of staff position, The Hill reported Tuesday.

Gresham has held positions on Capitol Hill for 14 years and was a leader of the Department of Transportation’s Legislative Affairs Office during former president Barack Obama’s eight years in office, The Hill reported. Democratic Representative Terri A. Sewell of Alabama said in a tweet that Gresham, who is originally from Birmingham, Alabama, is “Birmingham’s own stand out."...

Charlie Dent is not a center-right Congressman, he is a right wing extremist.

Today, he is complaining about a New York Times article that cites approximately seven FBI agents. He states the FBI agents have no right to speak to the press as an anonymous source. That is exactly why long lived newspapers like The Washington Post, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, LA Times and Boston Globe as examples, exist. They exist to buffer abuses by government and that frequently comes from FBI agents involved in operations that run into corruption and/or crime. 

September 7, 2017
By Laura Olson

Republican U. S. Rep. Charlie Dent (click here) stunned his colleagues and constituents Thursday evening when the seven-term Lehigh Valley lawmaker announced that he will not seek re-election next year.

An outspoken figure within the dwindling center-right of the Republican Party, Dent has gained national prominence for this role within what he describes as the “governing” wing of the party. He is a co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, a caucus of moderates within the GOP, and from that post, he has called out colleagues who he views as blocking action in Congress...

When politicians complain about agents of any kind it is a red flag to ask the question, what is that politician doing wrong OR unable to do wrong for a crony? The politicians promise the sky and then find out they can't deliver the goods to their political cronies. 

So, ah, what is Charlie Dent doing wrong or wants to do wrong? He has no problem providing funding to US intelligence agencies on the Appropriation Committee.

Dent's voting record does not match his rhetoric;

Voted Yes on: (click here) Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (HR 3180, second vote)

 Bill Passed (380-35) on July 28, 2017

This bill proposed authorizing appropriations for fiscal year 2018 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States Government, the Community Management Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes.

This is a bit chilling.

We have seen the injustice of our legal system. More often than not the woman victim is made the perpetrator and seductress of her rape. There need to be stronger ethics standards involved within the Justice Department. I don't care the issue, there should be no judge in our legal system that even comes close to the lines that define ethics.

January 1, 2018
By Doreen McCallister

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (click here) released his annual report on the federal judiciary on Sunday.

In one section of the 16-page report, he promised a careful evaluation of the judiciary's sexual misconduct policies.

He said recent events have "illuminated the depth of the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace."

Roberts added, "Events in the past few weeks have made clear that the judicial branch is not immune."...

Saeed Kamali Dehghan and Emma Graham-Harrison

I congratulate North and South Korea in finding a bridge across the void of diplomacy by the USA.

It is amazing to realize the North Koreans are ready to participate in the Winter Olympics. That is a surprise. I congratulate Supreme leader Un on the fitness of his people to participate. This is a pleasant surprise.

I hope this bridge will hold up and the Korean Peninsula will find more and more reasons to cooperate with each other. To be honest, I am worried about the North Korean people, a severe winter and potential food shortages. The North Korean people are incredible when it comes to living under harsh conditions, but, humanitarian efforts should be considered if Kim Jong Un would consent to safe passage for those that can help.


2 January 2017

By Harriet

Kim Jong-un's suggestion that North KoreaKim Jong-un's suggestion that North Korea (click here) could send athletes to next month's Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, has prompted host nation South Korea to propose high-level talks before the games begin.

It comes as tension in the region has ratcheted up after Pyongyang conducted a series of ballistic missile tests and a pair of nuclear tests over the last year.

“We hope the two sides sit down for frank talks,"  the South's unification minister, Cho Myoung-gyon, told a news conference....