Definitely unethical...

 ...and my be illegal. 

Governor Abbott of Texas is attempting to use fear of intimidation to force his agenda on the Texas Democrats by withholding food and beverages to demonstrators and legislators. Will they stop at nothing?

This Illinois legislation needs to be federal law.

May 31, 2021

By Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen

Parents and nonprofit groups (click here) are suing districts for teachers isolating students improperly in school isolation rooms.

Illinois lawmakers (click here) took sweeping action Sunday to limit the use of seclusion and restraint in schools, following through on promises made after a 2019 Tribune-ProPublica investigation revealed that school workers had regularly misused the practices to punish students.

The House voted unanimously to pass legislation barring school workers from locking children alone in seclusion spaces and limiting the use of any type of isolated timeout or physical restraint to when there’s “imminent danger of physical harm.” The legislation requires schools that receive state funding to make a plan to reduce — and eventually eliminate — the practices over the next three years. Schools that develop plans more quickly can receive priority for new grant funding for staff training....

The FCC needs to do something about FOX News and their commentators.

Their programming recently featured the headline that violence in USA cities was picking up as if that is actually news. I think most Americans recognize the violence that has broken out in this country because of incompetent leadership in 2020. But, it wasn't even that they recognized the increased violence in cities, they had a former I.C.E. executive on the program to talk about it. The segment I watched was intended to imply the increased violence was due to illegal immigrants and of course some of the worst-hit cities were sanctuary cities. There were no facts, it was a segment built on the inspiration of hate of illegal immigrants. 

Additionally, I saw a segment from Hannity designed to disgrace President Biden as an aged-old coot that is incompetent in his responsibilities as president. The segment was nothing but Age Discrimination. There were segments of President Biden as a young Senator and then there were segments of him as he aged and then of course as President Biden is now. There were no real facts to state that in an annual physical certain deficit turned up that raised question of his competency. It was pure age discrimination and buffoonery. 

This is not entertainment or infotainment, it is pure unadulterated slander.

After January 6, 2021, it is the FCC's responsibility to take action against such performances that are intended to promulgate hate. FOX News and its commentators do nothing by promoting the hate of others. It is time to call them out and do something about it.

Some time ago the American people decided to ostracize a word was a good idea. There was a recent column about it. And why did that occur?? It stigmatized people and as a society and country, we could not get past the negativity of that word. We are at the same crossroads as the infotainment industry. They dictate the hate people should feel for others and it is time to end that practice. No different than a stigmatizing word, the industry involved is not journalism. As a country, we have tolerated this too long and it has hurt our democracy. 

Enough. I do not believe infotainment, as it is practiced by FOX News and other right-wing extremist channels, is freedom of speech. That is true of organizations such as White Supremacists that tantalized young minds with power and hate to become extremists themselves. And now, we see the product of those organizations carrying weapons of war to the streets of the USA and killing at will. Even the sanctity of churches is not safe anymore. 

Enough. We as a society have been slapped in the face too many times and it is time to end this debate about freedom of speech as related to right-wing extremism. They are cruel people that hate freedom and democracy. They only want to hate and kill others that are different from them. It is time to end the infotainment industry's stranglehold on power and hate and return this country back to a place of domestic peace.

April 30, 2021
By John McWhorter

...In 1934, Allen Walker Read, (click here) an etymologist and lexicographer, laid out the history of the word that, then, had “the deepest stigma of any in the language.” In the entire article, in line with the strength of the taboo he was referring to, he never actually wrote the word itself. The obscenity to which he referred, “fuck,” though not used in polite company (or, typically, in this newspaper), is no longer verboten. These days, there are two other words that an American writer would treat as Mr. Read did. One is “cunt,” and the other is “nigger.” The latter, though, has become more than a slur. It has become taboo....

Oh, one more thing. When it comes to President Biden, he is the best President for our time, and harassment such as the kind the "hate-entertainment" industry hands out is giving our country a black eye internationally.

When President Biden sits down with Putin and speaks of human rights, the entire country should be behind him.

There needs to be similar legislation as a federal law as adopted in Illinois.

Ya know real freedom of speech such as attending government meetings and even meetings of citizens with similar interests is the hallmark of democracy. It is protected by the First Amendment and Freedom to assemble. This action by police regarding citizens is appalling. There needs to be a further investigation of the people targeted by the police and whether they were actually kept silent and if so what transpired with a government that should not have. The legislation is the first step, there need to be more investigations and quite possibly charges filed. 

May 31, 2021

By Jeremy Gorner, Gregory Pratt, and Dan Petrella

Illinois lawmakers approved a bill (click here) that makes it illegal for police to access at least one commonly used law enforcement database to perform criminal background checks on citizens who sign up to speak at public meetings.

A previous version of the measure was introduced in the House by state Rep. Kam Buckner, a Chicago Democrat, in 2019 after the Tribune disclosed how the Chicago Police Department ran secret background checks for more than a decade on several hundred citizens who signed up to speak at public meetings before the Chicago Police Board....

This Veteran's Day military families need to be recognized as well.

There is an association that is supposed to help military families during deployments and when their family is serving at home. I think there should be a monument that is recognized for the service families provide along with their soldiers. Dr. Jill Biden served the interest of military families when she was Second Lady. Perhaps she can capture that spirit in asking for a monument to military families in appreciation of their sacrifice to this country.

Alexandria, VA — The National Military Family Association (click here) Board of Governors is delighted to announce Besa Pinchotti as the Association’s new Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer.

Pinchotti steps into this position after having served most recently as Acting Executive Director and Senior Director for Advancement at the National Military Family Association (NMFA).

“In her eight years at NMFA, Besa has demonstrated unparalleled leadership, enthusiasm and commitment to the Association, its people, and the community we serve,” said Tina Jonas, Chairman of the Board of Governors. “The Board is excited to strengthen its support of military families under Besa’s continued leadership.”

As Executive Director, Pinchotti brings years of leadership at NMFA, a deep understanding of the military community, and strong partner relationships. She is an award-winning journalist and marketer whose passion for our military began during her time as a reporter and television news anchor. From Jacksonville, NC to Kosovo, her assignments opened her eyes to the post-9/11 military experience, and its cycles of deployment, redeployment, and constant transition....

This was a good initiative to stem corruption. That is something every state should be doing since the 4 years of Trump.

May 4, 2021
By Craig Mauger

Lansing - The Michigan House (click here) voted unanimously Tuesday to place new limits on separation agreements between agencies and departing state employees two months after revelations of secret deals roiled the Capitol.

Most notably, Robert Gordon, the former state health director, received nine months of pay after he resigned on Jan. 22, and Steve Gray, the former unemployment director, got nearly seven months of pay when he left on Nov. 5. Both deals required Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration and the ex-officials to maintain confidentiality about the circumstances of the departures....

Americans need to know who sincerely cares about them.

The map to the left is from the New York Times' continuous coverage of the virus.

Risk for unvaccinated people based on cases and test positive. (click here) The color key is at the news article. Orange is a high risk, red is very high risk and purple is extremely high risk.

May 27, 2021

By Lance Lambert and Nicolas Rapp

...These 24 states (click here) all have Republican governors who argue that the federal enhanced benefit—which is paid on top of state benefits—is incentivizing jobless Americans to not go back to work. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce agrees. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp expressed that view recently on Fox News: "We’re not doing away with regular unemployment...We’re just taking away this federal subsidy that’s encouraging people not to get in the workforce."

The White House doesn't agree with the assessment. Instead, the Biden administration cites school and daycare closures and low wages for many jobs as bigger contributors to the increasingly tight labor market....

The $300 per week was to assist in the gap when SAFE employment wasn't available. No American should be choosing between being safe and being dead. We have seen incidents like that, with a meatpacking plant and other restaurant businesses where people have gone back to work out of necessity and subsequently became ill and died. The $300 subsidy allows Americans to be protected from a financial burden that accumulates due to UNSAFE WORKING CONDITIONS.

Life and death in the USA are all political. Guns, Covid, and now unemployment benefits. If Americans are  in a red state their longevity could be cut short because of their Governor. It is the lower population density of the Red States involved that allows Governors to shirt the issue without too much damage to their political careers. The southeast USA just doesn't vote for their own best interest and it shows.

Have a better Memorial Day. Until later, good night.

 

Beto O'Rourke is correct. The Republican voting bill in Texas changes the QUALITY of evidence.

It is an unconstitutional law. It is not only unconstitutional, it changes the basis of our democracy is proving a crime.

May 8, 2021
By David Montgomery

...“This is the single greatest attack on our democracy, (click here) not just in our lifetime, but perhaps in the lifetime of this very democracy,” said former Representative Beto O’Rourke, who was a Democratic presidential candidate in the 2020 presidential primary....

The Texas law is so dangerous it cannot be allowed to stand. The quality of evidence it calls for lowers the standard of "beyond a shadow of a doubt." Only a preponderance of the evidence is required. That is more than ridiculous because voting is about numbers. Voting is about the majority of voting being successful in turning out the vote. The basis of the USA democracy is based in "the majority" when it comes to winning elections. There would have to be a greater number of "preponderance votes" than the number the winning candidate drew to his election. But, the elections these days are often won by a small majority, even a few votes. So, the idea a preponderance will overturn an election is real. But, that isn't the worst aspect of this law. Introducing the word "preponderance" changes the quality of evidence needed for the conviction of a crime. The word "preponderance" hacks away at our Rule of Law.

The Texas legislature has a majority of crooks voting in laws in Texas. The entire paradigm of Texas' legislature is a threat to human life and not just a democracy. It is based in the superiority of protecting private concerns over that of the public. The utility laws that killed so many people this past year is clear proof of the leanings of the power structure in Texas. This new initiative is a real threat to a democracy whereby the Rule of Law demands proof of a crime beyond a shadow of a doubt and not simply the preponderance of the evidence. It puts too much power in the hands of a few officials and not enough power in the power of the people.

Anyone voting for this bill hates democracy and prefers dictatorial powers.

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address:

...But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The morality of the government we elect lies in his words that every American shall cherish.

This legislature is an assault on our democracy seeking to change the quality of evidence upheld by the Rule of Law. We cannot allow it, nor tolerate those that create and defends it.

Ukraine was determined to get rid of Russian corruption and the pursuit is still engaged.

Another name for this is "Russian Mission Creep." It is intentional and measured. The Republicans think Moscow Mitch is nothing to worry about, I beg your pardon. How can the USA demand corruption to be stemmed and ended in Ukraine and not expect the same of Moscow Mitch McConnell?

January 6, 2021, occurred partly because of the backing Trump received from Russia in whichever way it could leverage power over the USA. 

The Kentucky steal plant should be condemned for it's pollution and the land returned back to the authority of Kentucky.

Trump was compromised by Russia during his entire presidency and he didn't care.

President Donald Trump (click here) sparked widespread concern within the US and Israeli intelligence communities earlier this year when he disclosed details of a highly classified Israeli operation to Russian officials, according to a new Vanity Fair report....

...Their target: (click here) an ISIS cell that was racing to get a deadly new weapon thought to have been devised by Ibrahim al-Asiri, the Saudi national who was al-Qaeda’s master bombmaker in Yemen....

The information Trump supplied to the Russians was treason. He exposed the military operations of an ally. End of discussion. And the US Senate acquitted him of his impeachment charges. Excuse me?

May 25, 2021
By Alice Yurchenko

Pro-Kremlin lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk (click here, then English at the top of the page and Google Translate) took hold of a lucrative 800-kilometer pipeline by colluding with Ukrainian authorities, according to new tapes published on May 24 by the Bihus.info investigative journalism project.

This is the second part of Medvedchuk’s wiretapped conversations published by the project.

On the tapes, Medvedchuk discusses with Nikolay Tokarev, head of Russia’s state-controlled oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, how they can help Transneft take control of the Ukrainian Prikarpatzahidtrans pipeline. Medvedchuk says he’ll discuss the question with “the head.”

Journalists allege that “the head” is then-President Petro Poroshenko.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the pipeline was acquired by Russia but later a court transferred it to the Ukrainian government.

However, in 2015, after the alleged conversations between Medvedchuk and Tokarev, a local court gave the pipeline back to Transneft....

January 6, 2021

I think this Memorial Day when we remember the Fallen is an excellent time to reflect on the brevity of the January 6th Insurrection. 

We will never forget!

These monies go directly to the city of Flint, not the victims.

May 11, 2021
By Matt Franklin

Flint - The U.S. Treasury (click here) released final allocation numbers for the American Recovery Plan, outlining $94.7 million for the City of Flint, according to a new release from the city.

The release goes on to say, Mayor Sheldon Neeley has invited residents to weigh in on their top priorities for how these dollars should be spent in the City of Flint. The Treasury release updates an estimate of $99 million released previously by the federal government.

“These pennies from heaven are truly a blessing. This funding will be a game-changer for our community,” Mayor Neeley said. “Through prayer, planning and partnership, we are working to make sure these dollars are invested in a way that reflects the community’s priorities.”

Other local entities also are set to receive dollars through the American Recovery Plan, including $78.8 million for Genesee County and $6.5 billion for the state of Michigan. Flint schools previously were estimated to receive $114 million....

Homicides in Flint have increased 30 percent in the past year. (click here) I think there has been an uptick in violence across the country. 

May 28, 2021
By Christine Kanerva

Flint - Last month, ABC12 told you about some teens (click here) who are sick of the violence in Flint and took action. Now, we’ve learned their calls for change has reached the halls of Congress.

“I wanted to join this to make a least a little bit of a difference,” said Guadalupe Gurrola, a 16-year-old from Flint.

Behind closed doors, a group of teens and community members met with Representative Dan Kildee at the Church Without Walls in Flint to talk about ending violence in their community.

“I want to hear the perspective of these young people. Because you know, they live this life every single day, and they’re the experts their life experience,” said Representative Kildee (D-MI), fifth district....

Flint is not isolated in the increase in violence in 2020.

December 30, 2020

By Josiah Bates

...This year, (click here) many Americans have experienced significantly higher levels of violence both wrought on and within their communities. Gun violence and gun crime has, in particular, risen drastically, with over 19,000 people killed in shootings and firearm-related incidents in 2020. That’s the highest death toll in over 20 years, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), an online site that collects gun violence data, and the Britannia Group’s non-partisan site procon.org....

Moscow Mitch, the American communist, wants control over January 6th.

An independent counsel was the correct path to take in investigations of the Insurrection of January 6, 2021. Moscow Mitch is still protecting Trump in allowing “The Big Lie” to exist.

There is every indication Moscow Mitch and his Kentucky Oligarch are loyal to the Russian interference in our election, that continues even today, and the permission Donald John Trump gave for the insurrection.

“The Big Lie” has to be defeated at every turn and where it exists in politics exploited to educate Americans about the truth of the Republican Party.

There are insurrectionists in the GOP like that of Hawley who was raised and educated to do exactly what he is doing now, destroy the USA Constitution. There are Americans like Hawley raised and educated to carry out agendas that don’t exactly fit the definition of American freedom. 

An independent council would have brought all those truths to be exposed. Moscow Mitch doesn’t want that, he wants to be famous for instilling right-wing extremist governance over the Rule of Law of the USA Constitution. Moscow Mitch twice defeated the will of the people in removing Trump from office. The second time it was deliberate manipulation.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/13/mitch-mcconnell-trump-republicans

McConnell along with every other Senator who voted down the independent investigation is automatically suspicious of agendas to undermine the USA Constitution. We know it is true with McConnell who prefers the status quo of the oppression of the people. He caters to his family’s business in China and Russian Oligarchs that build very polluting steal plants in Kentucky. 

It is NOT time for the American people to “move on” from the modern day insurrection master minded by Trump and supported even today with this Senate vote.

Joe Biden is correct in background our allies regardless of a gas pipeline.

To begin, I would like President Biden to demand President Alexei Navalny of Free Russia come to the Geneva Summit so he could talk with Putin, the communist leader of Russia and the president of Free Russia, Alexei Navalny at the same time.

That said, all President Biden can do in relation to climate is bring about change in the gas guzzling nation of the USA. There is much to be done in the world to tackle the climate crisis. One of the biggest climate insults in the world in every country are methane leaks. The climate crisis has brought about all kinds of negative loops to ending it, but, methane is a big one.

As an example, Russia has developed huge holes that leak methane or actually have burning pits of leaking methane. Those holes have to be closed and the only way to do it is set of small nuclear explosions deep in Earth to close them. No matter how it is looked at they are a danger to life on Earth.

Countries, like India, need to seal leaks in their drilling. That goes for every other country that is practicing fracking. Hydraulic fracturing is a fool’s dream. It destroys the very land where the trapped gas lies. The best example is the fool hearty fracking Capitol of the world, the state of Oklahoma. There is land that can no longer be lived on or have crops grown there because the land has become unstable and polluted with methane and will ultimately be destroyed by land liquifaction. The instability in Oklahoma is so bad it sent an earthquake all the way to Iowa and cracked the North American carton.

Earth is a gift of life that few seem to value. Earth has been stable because the forces of men were not overwhelming and it stood strong. But, Earth’s atmospheres are deteriorating because of human pollution into the gaseous layers that protects life. Some question how long can humans pollute Earth until it becomes to dangerous and have to stop. That is a completely unreasonable question. Earth’s axis has tilted because the caps are melting and the trillion of pounds of water released had redistributed the water’s weight. My concern is not that the axis has tilted wrongly away from sunlight, but, more what happens when the polar weights no longer balance Earth’s rotation at all?

Earth has limits. Humans don’t respect that. 

President Biden is the most dedicated president to date in regard to righting the climate. The USA has to do the heavy lifting. There is no choice in this. The truth released by NOAA and NASA is finally making it to our allies and Germany is changing it’s trajectory to 2045 from 2050. Other countries are rethinking their projections and conferencing among their scientists, diplomats and leaders.

The pipeline will be built but at great financial loss when the climate finally wins over greed and  the pipeline had no use in the future. President Biden knows this and stands with allies in their decision rather than lose them to foes who don’t care about Earth so much as building nuclear and hypersonic weapons of war.

For everyone trying to propagandize the COVID-19 virus as germ warfare...

 ...it only shows how stupid you are.

I suppose China is responsible for all the variants in the world, too, right? China has all these idiots with variants setting COVID fires everywhere. Why I betcha Donald John Trump has the latest intel on all of it.

The SARS virus was observed during the George W. Bush administration. It came right out of China and traced back to the impoverished peoples’ wild animal markets.

The SARS virus is the epitome of the most dangerous virus in the world because it is a coronavirus that can mute to match it’s victims with mRNA.

I don’t expect every American to understand the way coronavirus multiply and mutate, but, I do expect every American to accept the findings of scientists that were brave enough to visit China and explore the potential of germ warfare vs. viral mutation in wild animals in China that then cross species lines and became deadly dangerous.

There are mutations now in the second tier of seriousness when it comes to being a killer without a cure. There are three tiers of ranking deadly virus. At least two of the variants are second tier. If they hit third tier there is nothing to be done but go in complete shutdown to END THE SPREAD! Those two variants are in the USA. No surprise there considering the number exposed and dead.

The USA and the world have not seen a nightmare scenario like the Plague in modern day. But, if Americans are not serious about these variants and protecting from them, the nightmare will be far worse than the original SARS-CoV-2. No hospital will have a cure and people will die once exposed.

I am concerned about the inflammatory heart DISEASE resulting in teens given the Pfizer vaccine. Moderna is only beginning the approval process. I think Moderna is also looking to vaccinate babies eventually.

The inflammatory response in children has been significant when they contracted the virus. Now, we are seeing that response from the Pfizer vaccine. The doses are too large. There needs to be three or four doses and not two.

Children are very different than adults. They have growth plates, their internal organs and brain and spinal cord are still growing. The hormones are different and do not act so much as steroids to protect against natural and artificial inflammation, but, are utilized in the growth regime.

Any reaction in children should not be tolerated as an anomaly UNLESS the anomaly can be definitively identified without ANY doubt.

I am personally surprised that Pfizer’s vaccine is causing this inflammation reaction with an mRNA as it’s active ingredient. I would expect a dead virus vaccine such as J&J to cause such a reaction, but, not mRNA. This is new and worrisome and needs to be understood far better than it is. We don’t need child variants either.

To return one more time to China, one of the scientists that succumbed to the virus was calling attention to its discovery long before it had spread far and wide. It was China’s top down communist authoritarian government that completely ignored those within its borders that wanted the virus to end its spread than kill people in Wuhan. 

Enough of this nonsense about germ warfare.

The FCC needs to chime in on this and take DeSantis to court.

Rarely is social media a public forum, therefore, the private sector can maintain its own standards for the audience they attract. The private sector is regulated because Americans don't want children watching the Playboy Channel.

Lifetime is not going to be holding candidate forums because that does not appeal to their audience.

Facebook has gone through a great deal of trouble to end the hate speech found in political talk. White Supremacists are known to infiltrate the internet to attract young men in their teens to recruit them for their national agenda and killing.

Over and over parent groups are nailing the incidence of bullying and harsh language that offends the senses and maims the hearts and minds of children. There are a lot of people that want to see hate curtailed on social media. DeSantis and his hellions in the Florida legislature is not setting precedent they are pretending to be correct when they are grossly attempting to promote the level of hate that Trump did that inspired insurrectionists.

There is no going back to "social media gone wild." If there is social media that offer platforms for political speech, then there will opportunity for everyone to reach the people in trying to be elected. But, hate speech that the right-wing institutes is definitely extreme and should be forbidden especially after January 6th. There is no way private enterprise has to provide a forum for candidates if it is out of their normal realm of viewership or a listening audience.

The United States of America is not going to have a political party that promotes hate and insurrection. These bozos mean it. All one has to do is read the biography of Hawley and realize he has no use for the USA Constitution and that is most of his life. So, while freedom of speech is a part of the First Amendment to the USA Constitution, it is not absolute. Computers are megaphones and the country has to come to terms with the fact that enemies of the USA both foreign and domestic attempt to harm this democracy through intrusion upon our media. It has to end. We cannot allow this country to believe in hate and institute violence whenever it pleases a political candidate. There have to be limits to the harm a candidate can cause to the rights of others. Hate is a strong emotion and fear when mixed with hate is incredibly powerful. The best example of that is the dilemma of the Asian American community and the role of hate speech and fear.

I think most Americans have had their fill of hate, bigotry and racism in this country and want it to end.

The FCC has a role in this and MUST protect the lives of Americans from "hate and fear politics."

Shut down the websites and end the Twittering. It is right and just to protect the American people. 

May 24, 2021
By David McCabe

Washington - Florida on Monday(click here) became the first state to regulate how companies like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter moderate speech online, by imposing fines on social media companies that permanently bar political candidates for statewide office.

The law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is a direct response to Facebook’s and Twitter’s bans of former President Donald J. Trump in January. In addition to the fines for barring candidates, it makes it illegal to prevent some news outlets from posting to their platforms in response to the contents of their stories.

Mr. DeSantis said signing the bill meant that Floridians would be “guaranteed protection against the Silicon Valley elites.”

“If Big Tech censors enforce rules inconsistently, to discriminate in favor of the dominant Silicon Valley ideology, they will now be held accountable,” he said in a statement....

"Good Night, Moon"

Waxing gibbous

12.0 days old

91.9 percent full

Poor little tardigrades are so mistreated. I think it is because they are ugly. No one cares about a tardigrade.

May 18, 2021
By Jonathan O'Callaghan

...Traspas (click here) and her supervisor, Mark Burchell, a planetary scientist at the University of Kent, wanted to find out whether tardigrades could survive such an impact—and they wanted to conduct their experiment ethically. So after feeding about 20 tardigrades moss and mineral water, they put them into hibernation, a so-called “tun” state in which their metabolism decreases to 0.1% of their normal activity, by freezing them for 48 hours.

They then placed two to four at a time in a hollow nylon bullet and fired them at increasing speeds using a two-stage light gas gun, a tool in physics experiments that can achieve muzzle velocities far higher than any conventional gun. When shooting the bullets into a sand target several meters away, the researchers found the creatures could survive impacts up to about 900 meters per second (or about 3000 kilometers per hour), and momentary shock pressures up to a limit of 1.14 gigapascals (GPa), they report this month in Astrobiology. “Above [those speeds], they just mush,” Traspas says.

The results suggest the tardigrades on Beresheet were unlikely to survive. Although the lander is thought to have crashed at a few hundred meters per second, the shock pressure its metal frame generated hitting the surface would have been “well above” 1.14 GPa, Traspas says. “We can confirm they didn’t survive.”...

Here is another issue that should have been resolved a long time ago. The pipeline should be ended because it is too dangerous.

Line Five should have never been built and now that it is deteriorated and dangerous to the Great Lakes it is a political issue when there is no political issue here! This is a matter of governance and protecting the people!

Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline (click here) transports 22 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids across 645 miles of countryside every, single day — from Superior, Wisconsin through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, under the Straits of Mackinac, and down to refineries in Sarnia, Ontario. Originally built in 1953, this aging line — which has long outlived its anticipated lifespan — has significantly deteriorated over the course of the last several decades and poses catastrophic risks to the neighboring farmland, pristine natural areas, valuable freshwater sources (including 400 rivers, streams, and wetlands), and tribal lands that it cuts through.

Alarmingly, Line 5 has a long history of unleashing environmental damage. In the last 50 years, the pipeline has had 29 spills, releasing a total of 1.1 million gallons of toxic oil into the environment. Researchers recently determined that most spills were not even discovered by Enbridge’s leak detection systems, which Enbridge uses to justify reckless pipeline routes. Additionally, parts of the pipeline have begun corroding and cracking, and other parts were recently found to violate Enbridge’s original easement due to improper bracing and a failure to provide adequate structural support. One portion has even lost an astonishing 26 percent of its original wall thickness, and another sustained a series of damaging dents from a ship’s anchor. 

Thankfully, there haven’t been any spills in the most vulnerable locations — at least not yet....

May 5, 2021
By Geoffrey Morgan

Calgary - For Mike Bradley, (click here) the mayor of Sarnia, the impending shutdown of a pipeline that supplies fuel to his city’s biggest employers has been “hovering” for seven months.

That anxiety has been steadily building ahead of a deadline this month imposed by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer for Enbridge Inc. to shut down its Line 5 pipeline, which crosses through Michigan, where it delivers more than half of the state’s propane needs, en route to deliver oil to Ontario, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

In November, Whitmer cancelled the easement that allows Enbridge’s pipeline to pass under the straits and provided a deadline of May 12 to shut the line down. Enbridge, for its part, has vowed to defy the order that comes into force next week in a move that lawyers say will make its case more difficult to argue in state and federal courts.

The two sides are currently in mediation and there is the potential that this fight turns into a national dispute between Canada and the U.S., leaving communities like Sarnia largely powerless in an entrenched environmental fight that could imperil thousands of existing jobs....

Canada has done a really lousy job of protecting the land and now the water in allowing these companies to place people in danger and the land in peril. This is not reasonable. The pipeline should have been closed a long time ago. This is not about oil anymore, it is about unfit decision making that does not put the people and the Great Lakes first!

May 7, 2021

By Beth LaBlanc

The United Steelworkers International union and workers (click here) from the Toledo Refining Company are mounting renewed opposition to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's planned closure of Enbridge's Line 5. 

The United Steelworkers has been advocating for Line 5's continued operation since 2019 but launched the "Future on the Line" campaign in February to increase the union's reach. 

Refinery workers plan to testify and gather at the Lansing Capitol Tuesday, the day before Whitmer's deadline for the closure of the oil pipeline through the Straits of Mackinac. They plan to line the Capitol lawn with more than 300 hardhats to represent the Steelworkers union jobs that would be lost at the Toledo refinery if the pipeline is closed. 

It's unlikely the pipeline will actually close by Wednesday as Enbridge and the state continue to meet for mediation over Whitmer's November revocation of the line's easement. Enbridge had sued in federal court over the attempted closure, arguing the pipeline is subject to federal regulators, not state....

There is nothing to mediate. The FACTS are clear, the pipeline is too dangerous to leave intact and working. It needs to be shut down. This has gone on for 20 years and the lousy thing is still running oil through it. It has to stop sometime and the time is now.

Scientists have been screaming about the climaate and greenhouse gases since the 1960s.

I may have posted this before, but, I am posting it again! Making political decisions to benefit the petroleum/fossil fuel industry is dangerous and completely irresponsible. The USA must lead in this change in paradigm and the sooner the better.

12 May 2021
By Damian Carrington

Humanity’s enormous emissions of greenhouse gases (click here) are shrinking the stratosphere, a new study has revealed.

The thickness of the atmospheric layer has contracted by 400 metres since the 1980s, the researchers found, and will thin by about another kilometre by 2080 without major cuts in emissions. The changes have the potential to affect satellite operations, the GPS navigation system and radio communications.

400 meters is a quarter of a mile. One kilometer is about 6 tenths of a mile, over half a mile. The issue isn't just the height or thickness of the stratosphere. It is also the weight of the AIR/GAS and it's formation as it lies on top of the planet. The ice melted and it wasn't just that the ice melted, but, the weight of the ice as a solid maintained a certain tilt of the Earth. Now that it is redistributed around the planet the tilt has changed. That can effect all sorts of things when the angle of the sun is no longer "normal." 

The discovery is the latest to show the profound impact of humans on the planet. In April, scientists showed that the climate crisis had shifted the Earth’s axis as the massive melting of glaciers redistributes weight around the globe.

The stratosphere extends from about 20km to 60km above the Earth’s surface. Below is the troposphere, in which humans live, and here carbon dioxide heats and expands the air. This pushes up the lower boundary of the stratosphere. But, in addition, when CO2 enters the stratosphere it actually cools the air, causing it to contract....

I think it is time for Matt Gaetz to resign his seat. This is very serious stuff. He doesn't belong in Congress anymore.

May 21, 2021
By Tessa Stuart

Brian Beute (click here) had been a teacher for almost two and half decades when he got the idea in his head to run for local office. A week after Beute filed his paperwork to run for tax collector of Seminole County, Florida, the school where he’d worked for 17 years received an anonymous letter falsely accusing him of an improper relationship with a student. Soon, sock-puppet accounts appeared online parroting the same lie. Beute went on administrative leave, and two weeks later, an investigation by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Department cleared his name.

Beute went back to work, and kept campaigning. It would take almost eight months before local police, and later federal investigators, would unravel the scheme and ultimately arrest the man responsible for spreading those lies: Joel Greenberg, the Seminole County tax collector Beute sought to unseat. In addition to attempting to smear Beute as a pervert and a racist, Greenberg was later accused of a host of other crimes — 33 in total — including using drivers licenses confiscated by his office, embezzling and diverting nearly half a million taxpayer dollars to purchase cryptocurrency and sports memorabilia, and defrauding a Covid relief program. It was many months before Beute realized the investigation that started with Greenberg’s false accusations against him would ultimately threaten to take down a sitting congressman and one of former President Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz....

Joel Greenberg is not getting away with anything regardless of his cooperation with law enforcement.

May 14, 2021
By Emilee Speck

Orlando - Former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg (click here) is expected to plead guilty Monday to six federal charges, including sex trafficking, as part of a plea deal in exchange for his cooperation of an ongoing federal investigation, according to court documents released Friday.

The Seminole County Republican previously entered a not guilty plea to stalking, unlawful use of means to identify another person, production of identification and false identification documents, aggravated identity theft, sex trafficking of a child and violating the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.

A notice filed Thursday shows he plans to change his plea during a hearing at 10 a.m. Monday. Federal Judge Leslie Hoffman will oversee the change of plea hearing....

...Federal prosecutors write that the funds obtained through wire fraud have been transferred to third parties and cannot be located by the U.S.

According to the plea agreement, Greenberg will plead guilty to sex trafficking of a child, production of a false document, aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, stalking and conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S....

May 11, 2021

By Bess Levin

When we last checked in with Representative Matt Gaetz (click here) and the Justice Department investigation into accusations that he paid women for sex and, separately, slept with a minor and transported her across state lines, things were not looking great for the Florida congressman, whose wingman Joel Greenberg had reportedly written a “confession” letter detailing their many alleged sex crimes. And almost two weeks later, things…continue to not look good!

CNN reports that federal investigators are seeking the cooperation of a former Capitol Hill intern who also once dated the Republican lawmaker, according to sources familiar with the matter. (That, of course, is on top of the formal cooperation they could secure from Greenberg, CNN notes. Greenberg is negotiating a plea deal over 33 charges, including sex trafficking of a minor, bribery, stalking, and defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program, and is facing a deadline this week to cut the plea deal with prosecutors.) Investigators are reportedly interested in the assistance of the former girlfriend, who was reportedly on a 2018 Bahamas trip with Gaetz that has come under scrutiny for potentially violating the Mann Act, which makes it a felony to transport people across state lines to engage in prostitution. The ex-girlfriend is believed to “have knowledge of drug use and arrangements with women,” sources told CNN....

It was so very nice to have South Korea's President Moon Jae-in to visit.

May 20, 2021
By Lisa Friedman

President Moon Jae-in (click here) speaks in a virtual meeting of the two-day Group of 20 summit which concluded Sunday. The G-20 leaders adopted a joint declaration calling for the affordable and equitable access of Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics for all people. 

Washington - The United States (click here) is calling on South Korea to set more ambitious climate targets, an issue that will be a part of discussions when President Moon Jae-in meets with President Biden on Friday at the White House.

Last month John Kerry, Mr. Biden’s international climate envoy, traveled to South Korea and, according to officials in both countries, surprised members of Mr. Moon’s government by suggesting the country take “corresponding efforts” to the United States in reducing planet-warming emissions. That would nearly double South Korea’s current target of cutting carbon 24.4 percent below 2017 levels by the end of the decade.

South Korea, the world’s seventh-largest emitter of planet-warming carbon dioxide, is important to the Biden administration’s effort to show that other industrialized countries are acting vigorously against climate change....

Call in the Pandas. Let them find the bamboo quickly.

May 19, 2021

By Erin Jones and Linda Johnson

Although Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, (click here) there is still misinformation circulating about the election results in Maricopa County, Ariz....

...On Monday, May 17, the Republican-led Maricopa County Board of Supervisors called for an end to an election audit that began on April 23, debunking several claims made by Arizona Senate Republicans that there was any fraud in connection to the 2020 presidential election results in the county.

The Board sent a scathing letter in response to Arizona State Senate President Karen Fann’s claims that the county deleted important data, mishandled the ballots and did not comply with legislative subpoenas. In the letter, the Board also acknowledged a conspiracy theory that alleges the election boxes were stuffed with 40,000 ballots from Asia, and those ballots may contain bamboo fibers.

THE QUESTION

Is there any evidence of bamboo fibers in the paper ballots cast in Maricopa County, Arizona, during the 2020 presidential election?...

Don't fly over enemy territory. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko should resign.

May 23, 2021
By Neil Vigdor and Ivan Nechepurenko

It has all of the elements of a Jason Bourne plot: (click here) A commercial flight carrying a dissident journalist is intercepted by a MiG-29 fighter jet under orders from the strongman president of Belarus.

This protagonist is very much real. His name is Roman Protasevich, and on Sunday, he drew worldwide attention because the Belarusian government and its authoritarian leader went to extraordinary lengths to stop him.

Mr. Protasevich, 26, was traveling by commercial airline from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, when the Belarusian air force scrambled a fighter jet. The flight, on the Irish airline Ryanair, was diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where the millennial opposition figure was taken into custody.

The widely condemned tactic was the latest attempt by Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the country’s authoritarian leader, to suppress the influential voice of Mr. Protasevich....

Perhaps America needs to return to the EF Model T.

May 19, 2021
By Mark Phelan

Henry Ford's Lizzie (click here) would famously run on gasoline or ethanol, but it definitely wouldn't run on the motor vehicle fuel preferred by Ford's friend and contemporary, Thomas Edison--electricity.

Ford Motor Co. (click here) put down a multibillion-dollar bet that lightning will strike twice in the same place Wednesday night when it revealed an all-electric version of America’s bestselling vehicle, the F-150 pickup, on a massive outdoor wall of video screens at company HQ in Dearborn.

The 2022 F-150 Lightning aims to drive electric vehicles into the heart of the U.S. car market, leading the next transportation revolution in the same way the company did more than a century ago when the Model T put the world on wheels as the first automobile an average worker could afford and use every day....

There are some complaints about the cost of these machines. The cost of the fuel of the old machines, the internal combustion engine, is too expensive in more than one way to maintain a culture of fossil fuels. The time has come to end the pollution of Earth's gaseous layers that support life on this planet. It is time to realize the days of fossil fuels are over.

2030 is a tipping point. It is time to grow up and be grateful for the CEOs that made the hard call and put the Earth First. We needed the change to happen and now is the time.

There is going to be a lot of change to air quality on the highways and roads of the USA. No noise. No tailpipes. No emissions. it is going to be nice for a change. No more coughing garage mechanics.

Make America Great Again, outlaw air pollution. The oil rig workers can now go to work capping the wells they forgot about to end the pollution of methane.

RACISM. With a capital R!

May 21, 2021
By Jenny Whidden

We don't want any  more of those "nappy headed hos" (click here)

When state Sen. Mike Simmons (click here) learned about Gus “Jett” Hawkins, a 4-year-old Chicago boy who was told to take out his braids due to his West Side school’s dress code, it sparked memories of his own childhood.

The rookie lawmaker, a North Side Democrat who now wears his hair in free form locs, said he has encountered societal challenges with styling his hair throughout his life.

Simmons is sponsoring legislation that would prohibit schools from issuing policies on hairstyles including those traditionally associated with race and ethnicity such as braids, dreadlocks and cornrows.

The bill passed the Senate on May 12 and is in the hands of the House, which would have to pass it before the General Assembly’s scheduled May 31 adjournment.

Simmons said for him, the legislation represents “the tip of the iceberg” of the challenges that young Black people face both in school and in interactions with law enforcement.

“We’re living through the Black Lives Matter movement right now, and I think as a country we’re rising up and trying to turn the page on a lot of injustices that fall on Black people,” he said. “This is ground zero for that.”...

I told you so.

May 20, 2021
By Natalie O'Neill

Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted that the public is confused (click here) about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new guidance allowing vaccinated Americans to go mask-free in most places — saying people aren’t reading the advice carefully enough.

“I think people are misinterpreting, thinking that this is a removal of a mask mandate for everyone. It’s not,” he said in an interview with Axios Wednesday. “It’s an assurance to those who are vaccinated that they can feel safe, be they outdoors or indoors.”

The nation’s top infectious disease expert said many people erroneously believe that everyone is free to ditch the face covers because they didn’t read the new advice properly....

I think Chicago Teachers are awesome. The last time I checked, the little guys and girls are not going back to the classroom until they are vaccinated. Awesome stuff.

INDOOR AIR QUALITY

It is always a big deal. We, as a society are concerned, if the office we spend so much time in is safe and there are no toxins lurking about. We have an FDA to make sure what we are eating and drinking is safe. An EPA to look into all the pollutants we are exposed to and also more abstract toxins such as Greenhouse Gases that on their face seem all to innocent until we take a look at the troposphere and now the STRATOSPHERE. 

So, this entire mess with the coronavirus is simply out of character for the USA. But, could it be because the character of the White House was so insulting to us all. "Morons Making Money" are the only crowd still willing to stand with a former president that should have been removed from office BEFORE JANUARY 6, 2021. 

For all the deaths, was it worth having the latest in vaccines put on the front burner, mRNA to the rescue. I am glad the vaccines were perfected, but, not considering the many and profoundly minority deaths that occurred. There were two in my family. Is there anyone in the USA that wasn't touched in some way by that monstrous virus?

But, INDOOR AIR QUALITY, is the issue with masks. Large crowds in open-air gatherings are also an issue. Everyone demonstrating for some sort of human right out there needs to still wear masks. We are still protecting the OTHER GUY. I go to Planet Fitness nearly every day unless life throws me a curve ball. There is definitely a change in the number of people wearing masks since this announcement. Dr. Fauci needs to be very public about the misinterpretation of the mask mandate.

Speaker Pelosi appeared in another non-story this week when FOX News used her in a meeting with many other people, I think most were Democrats, not wearing masks. So, what? It isn't as though the curvy couch every put masks on daily. What is the point? People in glass houses......

But, to be honest, now that the country is taking a breath of relief and put their masks away, I don't think they are going to put them on real soon again. There was even an article in the New York Times as to what to do with them not that they are no longer needed. Businesses should take down the announcement that masks are no longer necessary if a person is fully vaccinated. That is grossly inaccurate and die-hards like me, even though I am protected, still wear them.

It would be best if Dr. Fauci makes it clear in a very public statement that close encounters and indoor air quality can still be an issue that requires mask wearing.

Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

CoinMarketCap and Coindesk, (click here) online resources for finding the price of cryptocurrencies, have gone down.

The websites’ crash comes amid another crash of cryptocurrency values; bitcoin, ethereum, and other digital currencies dropped dramatically in the wake of a coming Chinese crackdown on the use and trading of virtual currencies.

You guys got to be kidding me, right? China wants to replace the USA dollar as the standard currency in the world. That isn't going to happen just because Donald Trump occupied the White House for four years. The guy needed a place to live while the prosecutors took a real look at his scheming and dreaming. So, Barr said there is no way anyone is coming near Donald John Trump. What could be better?

But, seriously, and this is something I have been thinking and saying intermittently about the communists, they copy everything the USA does in a mimic, like the space shot to Mars. Trump give that away, too, when no one was looking?

But, the killer coronavirus that caused a global pandemic didn't exactly add to China's sovereign value. China does not have the value to it's currency and/or it's a sovereign place in the world that promotes confidence in changing major global currency. 

Russia is no different. It is hanging anyone that actually wants to give democracy a chance. That is not exactly instilling confidence in the Ruble. So what does Putin do instead of giving peace and prosperity a chance? He decides to try to use the internet to cause chaos in democracies around the world.

Hm.

Let's see. Merkle is still heading up Germany. Although I am not crazy about conservatives, they are still running 10 Downing Street, Macron is still trying to get the French to realize he did a heck of a job against the lousy virus. And he did.

And low and behold, the prize in Putin's cyberwar is no longer in the White House and President Joe Biden is restoring the USA stronger and better than before. Joe is awesome. I have little to criticize.

So, this whole "cryptocurrency thing" gave Wall Street something to toy with while the entire world stood still for nearly a year, but, it really isn't going anywhere in the real sense of the word.

Envionrmental Justice and ethylene oxide

Ethylene oxide (EtO) is produced in large volumes (click here) and is primarily used as an intermediate in the production of several industrial chemicals, the most notable of which is ethylene glycol. It is also used as a fumigant in certain agricultural products and as a sterilant for medical equipment and supplies. Unfortunately, EtO possesses several physical and health hazards that merit special attention. EtO is both flammable and highly reactive. Acute exposures to EtO gas may result in respiratory irritation and lung injury, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, shortness of breath, and cyanosis. Chronic exposure has been associated with the occurrence of cancer, reproductive effects, mutagenic changes, neurotoxicity, and sensitization.

If the toxin isn't contained, then shut down the plant using it with abandon. There isn't anything difficult about this. Companies can either practice their craft with regard to human well being or they simply are shut down. End of discussion. This is the 21st Century. Okay?

This is the difference between Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats address dangers that are Environmental Justice and Republicans simply end the regulations that make a company accountable. Republicans let lawsuits win the day. It adds to the Wall Street wealth of more Widows and Orphans. It all works out, right?

May 17, 2021
By Michael Hawthorne

Nearly every major industrial source of ethylene oxide (click here) makes it relatively easy for Americans to know how much of the cancer-causing gas drifts into surrounding communities.

The only outliers are two Illinois-based companies that for years have failed to report emissions to the Toxics Release Inventory, a Tribune review of federal records found.

A Medline Industries plant in north suburban Waukegan last appeared in the inventory during the mid-2000s, even though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency later determined the facility has been responsible for some of the nation’s highest cancer risks from air pollution....

...Sterigenics closed the Willowbrook plant in 2019. It still uses ethylene oxide to fumigate medical equipment in eight other cities, including suburbs of Atlanta and Los Angeles. But the past four years of emissions are absent from the EPA’s inventory — omissions the agency refused to address during the Trump administration.

Annual pollution disclosures are the least that should be required from corporations, environmental activists said, especially when it comes to chemicals that thousands of Americans breathe every day....