This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
(I receive no compensation from any entry on this blog.)
The 4th and 14th Amendments to the USA Constitution are the Equal Protection Clauses. They are to be sure all citizens are treated the same under the law. But, what happens then if there are social prejudices that oppress some ethnicities and cast them into prison unjustly?
What happens is that racism, bigotry, hate, bias, and discrimination run rampant. That has been the history in the USA. In the case of higher education, it is a matter of the trickle down of circumstances. If a child is raised in adverse circumstances and opportunities are limited or absent due to oppression, where does it stop?
All judicial decisions are supposed to be based on facts. The evidence in the case regarding web design and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community was manufactured. The only thing factual about the evidence is it’s falsehood.
This is gross malpractice by the conservative majority of the court including Chief Justice Roberts. This is a new low for the Supreme Court and it is a glaring miscarriage of justice.
This wrongful decision is one of several that is ideological and sound. It would be best to examine the minority opinions. Op-eds would be welcome here.
The Affirmative Action decision promotes white supremacy as the timeline of racism, bigotry, discrimination and bias continue to be tolerated and evidently preferred by the Supreme Court. What is so astounding is that the Supreme Court finds the federal legislation unfit to be law. The Supreme Court likes to play politics with an ideology that is selective in separation of powers. Stare Decius be damned.
The decision regarding student loan debt was an economically sound decision by President Biden for a burdened population of people that would have expanded opportunity and growth.
This Supreme Court is grossly under qualified to service this democracy well, besides known corruption of at least half of the conservative justices, Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch. Kavanaugh is another issue of character and unethical written content to persuade him as a cinder choice.
…is being set up to be the next Dr. Fauci. The Republicans need a scapegoat for all their lies and false narratives. His testimony to the House Judiciary Committee is to create a celebrity to hate because the committee is going to attempt to tie Hunter Biden’s plea agreement to a corrupt President Biden.
It is the only way to attempt to carry out a groundless impeachment. The Republicans plan to run on corruption if they can get it to stick to Democrats. Corruption in politics begins with an R not a D.
Republicans are the champions of a banana republic.
The canopy of black spruce trees have never been so important. It is an incredible story of dedication. It is a great story of two species, one human and the other elusive. The Bog Elfin Butterfly now adds to the beauty of Vermont.
The bog elfin (click here) had never been confirmed in Vermont, but Pfeiffer’s gut told him it was there. So the entomologist logged countless miles through isolated terrain swarming with mosquitos and black flies, armed with binoculars and a butterfly net and a determination his friends and colleagues marveled at. He was 44 when his search began; a heart attack and a knee replacement later, he found himself at age 65, wondering the sort of things people wonder as the years race by. “Every year I felt like my window was closing,” he said.
But the quest wasn’t just a challenge; it was about a legacy, not for him but for the butterfly. If he could prove the rare insect was in Vermont — he had initially begun his search as part of a team compiling the first-ever Vermont Butterfly Atlas — then it would be recorded forever as something Vermont must preserve. These things matter to Pfeiffer, who decades ago left a career in journalism to “go outside,” as he says.
For the last several years, Pfeiffer’s search had focused on a single bog with plentiful black spruce trees, where bog elfin are known to lay their eggs. But on this fateful day, he decided to explore a new bog. There were two potentials he’d identified but never been to, and something told him to choose one over the other. He made the drive, and after he parked on a country road and started to suit up for the bushwhacking it would take to get to the bog, a bobcat sauntered past. “That had certainly never happened before,” he said....
…whereby death is ever present and possible if one steps outside prescribed public roles? Or is a society so dysfunctional and disordered that public order is the only aspect of life that is not bizarre and normal reactions and feelings cannot exist?
It is my belief that propaganda and not the truth is paramount to such societal maladies. I think dictators, emperors or whatever one wants to call the entity of control requires a societal order that is recognizable in order to act against it in defense of control. Propaganda is a requirement in such a paradigm. Normalcy or normal human emotional response is basically outlawed by the emperor’s propaganda to favor control.
It appears the mercenary group is trying to stop the carnage. They are right to do it. There are large numbers of Ukrainians and Russians dead.
Oh, well, just another day in Russia and Belarus.
The videos are amazing. Russians sweeping the streets while mercenaries take their positions. The citizens are looking at each other as if to say, “What is it this time?”
Putin was the only one scared by it. No one else seemed to be bothered by it.
A special Member Spotlight (click here) for the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies on working in the field of Ukrainian Studies in 2022, including the experience of organizing and curating a worldwide art flash mob "Theory of Protection" by Ukrainian artist Darya Koltsova, marking one month of the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
This beautiful Ukraine scholar has a beautiful heart of inclusion and love of the beauty art can bring to the world while relating a message. The genocide and the refugee movement has not soured her and made her angry. She acted initially to assist others in saving their lives and when she realized what she had to offer as a scholar mattered in ways other acts did not, she returned to the beauty of art and expression.
There is nothing to dislike about Ukraine and it's people that desired nothing but peace through neutrality.
She is a magnificent expression of the people of Ukraine and their aspirations to peace, prosperity and humanity.
Every effort to protect Ukrainians and return their homeland is right and just.
Engineering assistance (click here) can be obtained from NRCS field offices, area offices, state offices, national centers, and the Conservation Engineering Division in Washington, DC.
Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) (click here) announced it is ramping up hiring for key positions that will help strengthen agricultural conservation efforts and turn President Biden’s Investing in America agenda into action. The available positions include engineers, civil engineering technicians and natural resource specialists, building on other large-scale hiring announcements earlier this year. The application period for engineer positions is currently open, and engineering technicians and natural resource specialist opportunities will open over the next two weeks.
“Thanks to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, we are building a robust workforce with the skills necessary to support communities as they address conservation challenges and respond to increasing extreme weather events fueled by climate change,” said NRCS Chief Terry Cosby. “If you are interested in leveraging your skill in engineering or the agricultural sciences to make a positive impact in your local community, you are exactly the kind of candidate we’re looking for. You would work with farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners, as well as other community members, to address a variety of natural resource conservation challenges and support our country’s investment in a climate-smart future for agriculture.”
Today’s announcement is funded by $19.5 billion from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The new NRCS engineers and engineering technicians will play a critical role in solving a host of natural resource problems for agricultural producers and local communities. Their projects may involve stream restoration, erosion control, developing water systems for livestock, improving and conserving irrigation water and restoring wetlands. They may also help communities recover from natural disasters.
Natural resource specialists perform a variety of duties to help landowners meet their conservation objectives. This may include assisting in the implementation of conservation plans, conducting scientific studies and performing on-site evaluations with customers. Their work enhances conservation program delivery and helps build resilient farms and communities across America....
A postal worker (click here) collapsed and died Tuesday while on his route in Dallas amid extreme heat in the area, according to the U.S. Postal Service.
While going door to door during Tuesday’s high temperatures, family members told local outlet Fox 4 Eugene Gates Jr. collapsed in a front yard before a homeowner came outside to perform CPR.
While a cause of death has not yet been determined, the heat index in the Dallas area reached 115 degrees Tuesday. According to NBCDFW, that's the highest in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since 1980.
According to the National Weather Service, heat index is a measure of what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with air temperature....
The map above is what is expected to be the high temperatures throughout the country. As the summer progresses it will get higher and higher. Why? Because the first day of summer just occurred on June 21, 2023 at 10:57 AM. The sun is now in the northern hemisphere and traveling back to the equator. The sun will continue to provide heat to Earth and add to the heat it already was exposed to between Spring and Summer. The autumnal equinox occurs on September 23rd. It will be at that point the sun will return to the southern hemisphere where Spring will begin.
There is a reason why the worst hurricanes happens beginning in late August into September. It is because the sun has warmed Earth to a maximum that spins up hurricanes. This year is also El Nino. So the heat this summer will be significant and those out in the heat doing their jobs in order to work and live in the USA will be suffering.
The death of this postal worker is completely uncalled for and these diligent servants to the public needed protection and planning.
There are options for these folks including ice collars that can help providing their doctors state it is an acceptable method of remaining cool. Otherwise, take the postal workers out of the heat and into air conditioned vehicles.
The climate crisis is expensive. Get used to it.
Everyone is allowed to survive this calamity of the petroleum industry. The petroleum industry needs to be sued for every penny they have for the crimes against humanity it has allowed and is continuing to allow. The petroleum industry is responsible for this postal worker death.
There has been some discussion by a person affiliated with OceanGate that the hull was in question on inspection. I can only imagine what everyone is going through that are affiliated with these brave people. I wish all those involved the very best in finding the vessel. If this fails over time, it will not be for the trying. The effort is astounding.
There are conflicting currents in the region where the Titan was lost. (chart below - click here) The two currents flow in opposite directions. There is the Labrador Current which flows south and the Gulf Stream that flows north. One is a cold water current flowing south and one is a warm water current flowing north. When cold and warm meet there are interactions within the ocean that aren't necessarily mapped.
Basically, the expedition team saw a break in the weather and decided to move into the area of the ship wreck. There is a lot going on with the ocean in that region of the world right now, including issues with changing dynamics of the "global conveyer belt" (click here).
These waters in the conveyer belt are not surface, but, deep ocean currents. Part of what is playing out is also the rapid ice melt of Greenland. All that fresh water dumping into the North Atlantic where the global conveyer belt originates is causing changes in the ocean itself as well as the deep water currents. To say this operation is complex is an understatement when realizing the NEW AND UNCERTAIN dynamics of quickly melting glaciers.
The Titan is a small vessel that will be effected by strong ocean currents. I think the navigation was not as simple as a straight line to the Titanic. The vessel probably was effect by currents no one expected nor could navigate through.
Earth's oceans are not in a good state right now. There are all kinds of warnings that are sent to ocean going vessels when circumstances change in the ocean, but, when it comes to warning about changes in deep water and surface water currents, there simply isn't that degree of involvement by any governing agency or scientific body. I applaud those that love the ocean and understand the fascination for the ship wreck, however, the idea of accepting danger to be in a submersible when a surface operated submersible will achieve the same thing, especially around such an old ship wreck, is worrisome. The North Atlantic on a good day is dangerous, but, to realize the meltwater running into it now creates a lot of concern for such a small vessel.
An underwater rescue of 13,000 feet has never been attempted before.
20 June 2023 By Graham Russell
Contact with the Titan submersible (click here) was lost 1 hour 45 minutes into its dive on Sunday afternoon, according to the US Coast Guard. Here’s what we know about the vessel and what might have happened....
The worst thing anyone can do is repress the free expression of children. The increasing hatred politics is causing real problems.
September 27, 2018 By Lyle Matthew Kan
September (click here) is back to school month for countless children and young people across the country. But school isn’t always a pleasant experience – or even safe space – for LGBTQ children and youth. Moreover, even outside of school, LGBTQ children and youth face a myriad of challenges and a multitude of disparities compared to their straight peers. They are more than two times as likely to experience homelessness as their straight peers– and once homeless, they are much more likely to be physically harmed. Additionally, LGBTQ minors can legally be forced to attend conversion therapy in 36 states – meaning 68 percent of LGBTQ people live in states without protections for LGBTQ youth against this harmful practice....
It has been tough for these children. The states should be funding efforts to make their lives far easier to move through including parents.
Increasing vitriol against trans people is putting both physicians and children at risk, says physician–scientist Jack Turban, who researches the mental health of young people who are trans or from gender minorities, with a focus on providing evidence to support public-policy decisions. “Misinformation scares people and has driven them to make threats of violence toward medical providers and children’s hospitals around the country,” he says. But the “incredible strength” of trans youth gives him hope. “These kids have the courage and sense of self to be themselves anyway — to combat the shame and live openly and authentically. That too makes me optimistic for the future.”
Eastern Tropical Atlantic (AL93): A tropical wave (click here) located several hundred miles south-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands continues to produce a large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Environmental conditions appear favorable for further development of this system, and a tropical depression could form in a couple of days while the system moves westward at 10 to 15 mph across the eastern and central tropical Atlantic.
Surface Ocean Temperatures (click here) with Cabo Verde Islands surface water temperature 72 to 74 Fahrenheit. There is a lot of open ocean to allow this to develop into a hurricane.
The freedom of association (click here) — unlike the rights of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition — is a right not listed in the First Amendment but recognized by the courts as a fundamental right. First Amendment protects two types of associative freedom
There are two types of freedom of association: the right to expressive association and the right to intimate association.
Additionally, the First Amendment protects a right to associate and a right not to associate together....
The court decisions regarding freedom of association are frequently used to continue discriminations and repression.
This story is just astounding to realize the degree in which hatred exists until today.
June 19, 2023
By Craig Sailor
By all standards, (click here) Sam Jones is an accomplished man. He grew up in public housing, raised by a Black single mother. He graduated from college, raised a family, retired from the Navy as a commander and now mentors youth at his Edgewood church. He also, at the age of 15, earned the Boy Scouts of America’s highest honor: Eagle Scout. Only 3-4 percent of all scouts achieve the rank. But for 60 years, Jones hid a mental wound inflicted by uncaring adults who let prejudice and stereotypes color their view of him. A few weeks after Jones earned his Eagle Scout rank in 1962, he visited the offices of his troop’s sponsor — a Rochester, New York-based community outreach nonprofit....
...Jones was 11-years-old when he saw images of something that forever altered his course in life: a forest....
Michelle Obama (click here) says there’s no more “meaningful way” to mark Juneteenth than by registering to vote.
The former first lady made a voter registration pitch Monday in a tweet to her more than 22 million followers that coincided with the federal holiday.
“Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom — a chance to pay tribute to countless advocates, activists, and changemakers and the work they did to build a more perfect Union,” Obama wrote.
“I can’t think of a more meaningful way to honor the actions of so many who came before us than be registering to vote,” she added, including a link to the voter registration and engagement organization that she founded in 2018, When We All Vote....
Emancipation Day celebration, June 19, 1900 held in "East Woods" on East 24th Street in Austin
On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, (click here) the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the south reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation spreading the news of freedom in Confederate States. Only through the Thirteenth Amendment did emancipation end slavery throughout the United States....
Abraham Lincoln and Emancipation
...By July 1862 Lincoln (click here) had written what he termed his "Preliminary Proclamation." He discussed his thoughts for an emancipation proclamation with cabinet secretaries William H. Seward and Gideon Welles on July 13, 1862, while sharing a carriage ride from the funeral of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton's infant son James. Welles later recalled External that neither he nor Seward were prepared to offer opinions on a subject that Seward thought "involved consequences so vast and momentous," but he agreed with Seward's initial impression that the measure was both "justifiable" and perhaps "expedient and necessary."...
The idea of emancipation is foreign to most Americans. In many ways, considering the times we live in I hope that reality continues. There is no reason to apologize for not knowing a great deal about the emancipation that was the central focus of the Late President Abraham Lincoln's governance. But, it is vitally important that the reality of Juneteenth be a part of our national dialogue. There are people that died for the principle of emancipation. The idea of setting free people to live in equal rights as all other peoples in the USA was abhorrent to those that owned slaves. Today, we are seeing a great deal of threat to those that are not equality the same as religion tends to dictate. There are also lingering issues of racism, prejudice and discrimination in the USA. So, one has to ask if the emancipation profoundly practiced by the Late President Lincoln is fully enacted.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."...
Late President Lincoln used the word repression to express the manner in which some would seek to remove freedoms from Americans that were denied their own person in the manner of slavery. The Late President knew fully well that removing freedoms from people can and did take many forms. The Emancipation Proclamation was a document to stop all the measures implemented to remove freedoms from all Americans.
If the Late President Lincoln were alive today, he would be more than disappointed to realize the bloodshed of the American Civil War may have been for not considering the extent there is repressive practices still today. Voting Rights is a clear area of highly repressive acts by state governments. That alone is a fact that exists in the USA today. They are all manipulations of the value the Late President Lincoln wanted most for the people the war was fought to free. It would be still yet years later the necessity of an Amendment to the USA Constitution was necessary. In 1869, the Fifteenth Amendment was passed by law and would be ratified by 1870.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Yet today, regardless of the absolute authority enacted by the people that fought and died to secure emancipation for all Americans we are still witnessing the disgusting practice of repression in many states in this country.
What is it already?
It took more than one amendment to the USA Constitution to address freedom of others and still today, more than a century since the end of the American Civil War, there are still forces that persist to repress SOME Americans from the free expression of voting.
In states like Iowa and Florida there is another form of repression in the way the LGBTQ+ are denied the rights they need to live their lives in peace and prosperity and of all those leading the repression it is the religious that are most offensive.
March 8, 2023
Des Moines, Iowa – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) (click here) — the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization — condemned the Iowa Senate for passing House File 348, which is their version of “Don’t Say LGBTQ+'' legislation. The bill is a discriminatory attack against the LGBTQ+ community that bans instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-6. The bill would also prohibit schools from providing gender-affirming accommodations for transgender students without parental consent, and would require school staff to out transgender students. The Iowa House passed this bill just days after a record-breaking number of Iowans came to Des Moines to protest the slew of anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced by Iowa lawmakers this year....
May 2, 2017
...New research (click here) from the Center for American Progress shows that LGBT people across the country continue to experience pervasive discrimination that negatively impacts all aspects of their lives. In response, LGBT people make subtle but profound changes to their everyday lives to minimize the risk of experiencing discrimination, often hiding their authentic selves....
What is occurring across the USA was never supposed to exist in any manner that Americans appreciate about freedom. There are large numbers of Americans that know the state legislatures are simply wrong in their focus, but, yet the problems these Americans face still exist.
Whether it be voting equality or equality within society the focus of emancipation of the American Civil War where 620,000 deaths (The number of soldiers who died (click here) between 1861 and 1865, generally estimated at 620,000, is approximately equal to the total of American fatalities in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, combined.) occurred has yet to be respected in a country that is supposed to practice democracy and freedom.
There is absolutely no reason for any religious based discrimination in the USA. Religious organizations are protected by law and court decision in practicing their faith. This entire focus regarding Americans that are different than the majority is wrong and unethical.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, or national origin. The act also, however, gives religious organizations an exemption to use religious criteria in hiring “ministerial” employees, such as preachers, youth leaders, and the like.
The practices today that are focusing on minorities in the USA as a means of politics is unlawful and damaging to the American fabric and Americans in general. Most Americans decline to appreciate the hate legislation that manifest in voting rights and/or legislative repression of Americans with differences.
…must be recognized for what it is, along with the people that promote it. The faithful of any religion can no longer fall victim to those that pander to them while promoting hate and uncertain futures of Americans.
June 16, 2023 By Paula Reed Ward and Justin Vellucci
State Rep. Dan Frankel (center background) listens along with trial participants and congregation leaders as Jeff Frankenstein (right), CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, speaks to local media after the guilty verdict was handed down against Robert Bowers on Friday in Pittsburgh.
Even defense attorneys for Robert Bowers told the jury that their client did it.
He’s the one who entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill on the morning of Oct. 27, 2018, carrying an AR-15 and three handguns.
He’s the one who opened fire in the synagogue’s Pervin Chapel, in the lobby, on the stairs, near the rabbi’s study used by the Dor Hadash congregation, outside the New Light congregation’s sanctuary and in a basement kitchen.
He’s the one who killed 11 people as they began services that day focused on the Jewish tradition of welcoming strangers.
And now he’s the one facing possible execution for his actions.
A jury of seven women and five men on Friday found Bowers guilty of all 63 federal counts against him, including that he killed 11 people at the synagogue because they were Jewish....
I am confident everyone at the trial were effected by the day, but, the face of Dan Frankel really reflect the moment. Sorrow along with 'when does this hate actually end?'.
The permission to hate has to end. That means candidates for office at any level must denounce fully hate in any form. It can't be acceptable for any candidate to give the most minor permission of it's presence in the American society.
December 7, 2022 Charles Sykes is Editor-at-Large of the Bulwark.
For most Americans, (click here) including Republicans, the resurgence of hatred against Jewish people is the return of an ancient evil. But Donald Trump, who has refused to disavow his dinner with two of the country’s most virulent antisemites, apparently sees it very differently.
Trump is seldom careful about who he offends — tossing out jibes, insults, and threats with reckless abandon. He is more than willing to lash out at cultural elites and the people he calls “disloyal Jews” who support Democrats. But Trump has been consistent in his reluctance to offend what he regards as a crucial part of the base that he has nurtured over the years. He is unapologetic about associating with overt neo-Nazis, and unwilling to issue full-throated denunciations of antisemitism. Trump is willing to draw this barrage of opprobrium for one simple reason: He believes that he has tapped into something in the American electorate, especially among evangelical Christians, who have ingrained — but complicated — attitudes toward Israel and Jews....
The demand to end hate in the USA must be a part of the political platform of every candidate running for any office. This is not just my point of view, there is common understanding that when influential people lean into the allowance of hate, it takes hold and ignites overt expression of it.
November 4, 2022
By Michael Paulson and Ruth Graham
Simon Taylor (click here) was on his way to an appointment in Flatbush when he pulled into a local filling station one afternoon last week. It was a lovely fall day in Brooklyn, but as he began to fuel up, the climate turned sour: Another customer, spotting the skullcap atop Rabbi Taylor’s head, launched into an expletive-laden rant about how much he hated Jews, and then, when the rabbi photographed his license plate, started chasing him with an upraised fist.
Rabbi Taylor, a 38-year-old father of five who oversees social services and disaster relief programs for an umbrella organization of Orthodox Jews, was shaken. A native of England who now lives on Long Island, he wondered if the incident was connected to a mainstreaming of antisemitic rhetoric in America.
“I’ve never had anything like this in New York, and it definitely felt to me like this whole Kanye West thing had something to do with it,” said Rabbi Taylor, referring to the ugly utterances of the hip-hop legend now known as Ye. “All it takes is a couple influential people to say things, and suddenly it becomes very tense.”...
Antisemitism is not a minor issue. The hate must stop. Regardless of the type of hate of any human being in the USA, must stop.
December 9, 2022 by Marc Rod
Jewish leaders gathered with senior administration officials yesterday to discuss methods for tackling antisemitism
A first-of-its-kind White House summit on antisemitism (click here) highlighted a growing push inside the organized Jewish community for a national strategy to combat antisemitism — alongside long-standing concerns like antisemitism on campus — according to Jewish community leaders who attended the meeting.
Senior White House and Biden administration officials, led by the Jewish second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, convened a roundtable Wednesday with leaders from 14 Jewish community groups, where each offered suggestions on strategies, policies and programs for combating antisemitism.
According to those present, a push for a formalized interagency strategy to combat antisemitism domestically — also highlighted in a congressional letter this week — came up frequently in remarks from Jewish community representatives. And in interviews with Jewish Insider following the meeting, nearly every one of the attendees expressed support for such a move.
“We think tying all these efforts together, both from security- and non-security agencies, to develop a comprehensive strategy that doesn’t just securitize the issue of antisemitism, but also allows for innovation, new data sets and an opportunity to combat it and all its forms,” George Selim, the Anti-Defamation League’s senior vice president for national affairs, explained. “We think that’s where the future lies on this issue.”...
It is time to call out hatred at every turn. Candidates for office have an obligation to all the people that voted. It is not a pick and choose democracy where only those that voted for the candidate are treated with importance. Every American is important and every form of difference among the more than 330 million Americans must be recognized as a "legitimate state of being" so long as it is not promoting crime.
The hate must stop and everyone is responsible to hold candidates responsible for eliminating hate and recognizing difference in a way that promotes the well being of all Americans in their "legitimate state of being."
...We would encourage people to take a moment to realize the effect that their words and actions have on others. Regardless of the reason, it's never okay to bully somebody for being different; and that includes those who might not agree with you. Calling people names and vilifying them is not going to help anybody, anywhere; and we hope that from this point on, people will take that into consideration before they tweet, post, or say anything hateful and hurtful....
The Republican Party has lost it's moral compass.
This is very bad politics that victimizes innocent people, including children. This is the politics of hate that divides people into groups allowed to hate. Hate is a powerful tool since Trump turned it loose with his victimization politics. That is all this is, hate, nothing more. Hate is being used as a political driver to send people to the ballot box.
What is so incredibly stupid about people that hate for the purpose of politics is that those leading with the permission of hate will turn on the very voters that put them in power. Trump turned on the people of the USA when he entered idiotic ideas like injecting bleach to end the pandemic. His entire handling of the pandemic from the Oval Office was a disgusting display of hate in the worst possible content of a pandemic when people are supposed to strive to survive it and not succumb to it. Trump can take credit for all those that perished in the USA. This country had the highest infection rate and death rate in the world. There is conscience in that at all. Nor is there a conscience in DeSantis' politics.
June 16, 2023
By Dave Berman, Eric Rogers and Jim Waymer
Gov. Ron DeSantis (click here) on Thursday vetoed a $2 million state budget appropriation for an aquarium that the Brevard Zoo plans to build at Port Canaveral.
Florida Rep. Randy Fine, R-Melbourne Beach, had encouraged the governor to veto the funding, which had been in the 2023-24 state budget that the Florida House and Senate unanimously approved on May 5.
Fine's rift with zoo came in the wake of a controversy involving Fine renting the Nyami Nyami River Lodge at the Viera zoo after zoo hours on Feb. 27 for a political fundraising event for his 2024 Florida Senate campaign.
The event drew a crowd of protesters angry over the south Brevard County legislator's stance on transgender issues and push to ban certain therapies for transgender children.
Opponents of Fine at the time questioned whether it was appropriate for such political fundraising events to be held at the zoo. Following the backlash, Brevard Zoo Executive Director Keith Winsten had said he was recommending the zoo no longer rent event space to political campaigns after the 2024 election cycle. The decision would rest with the zoo's board of directors; no policy changes have been made....
Here is the other end of the spectrum.
Upcoming Virtual Events:
June 20 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. | LGBTQIA+ Youth Advocacy Training, learn how to advocate and support the children in your care.
Presented by the Children Advocacy Center (click here) in Genesee and Shiawassee Counties virtually on zoom – LGBTQIA+ Youth Advocacy Training is a two-hour introductory training that covers common terminology and identities within the LGBTQIA+ community. We will discuss identity, intersectionality, the connection between minority stress and health disparities faced by queer folx, and the importance of family acceptance for LGBTQIA+ youth for boosting positive health outcomes.
June 27 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. | Foster and Adoption Myth (click here) Busting for the LGBTQIA+ Community, join us as we dispel common misconceptions and answer your foster and adoption questions.
This is about genocide. There is no looking the other way or ending support for the fight in that country. This is about genocide and what is so remarkable is that a country like China and others support Russia in some sort of idea this is about a border war. It is ridiculous.
I stand with Speaker McCarthy when he stands for aid to Ukraine.
What is troubling is the idea that the propaganda actually works. We are seeing people think the USA is doing too much. They want to make a political issue of Ukraine's defense of it's people. This is not a political issue, it never has been. It is about ending genocide. That willingness to kill extends past Ukraine when one considers the populations of people Ukraine's agriculture supports. The Ukraine agriculture is threatened by the dam collapse. This conflict extends well past the Ukrainian people, it is about the world and how communists believe they have a right to kill at will, ie: Syria and others.
This was never political in nature. Ever. From the time Colonel Vindman came forward with his concerns while the Trump administration was in the Oval Office. This was never a political issue. It is about genocide and how the world views it.
The White House didn't agree, it saved the country from default.
For every dollar the IRS spends to collect taxes, there is at least a dollar returned until one gets to the upper 90 percentile of income, the return then becomes $2 to $6 return on every dollar spent.
The upper 90 percent are the cronies to the Republicans. The Republicans defunded the IRS and the USA Treasury is diminished with income and increases the deficit. That's right, the Republicans did not decrease the deficit, they increased it.
June 14, 2023
By Catherine Rampell and Youyou Zhou
The White House and Congress (click here) recently agreed to claw back more than $20 billion earmarked for the Internal Revenue Service. This deal was, ostensibly, part of a grand bargain to reduce budget deficits.
Unfortunately, it’s likely to have the opposite effect. Every dollar available for auditing taxpayers generates many times that amount for government coffers — and the rate of return is especially astonishing for audits of the wealthiest Americans, according to new research shared exclusively with The Post.
A team of researchers at Harvard University, the University of Sydney and the Treasury Department examined internal IRS data for approximately 710,000 in-person audits from 2010 to 2014....
So, Trump not only allowed the spy base in Cuba, he looked the other way when Chinese Spy Satellites were flying over our nuclear missile bases. I want to know what happened in Helsinki. I want to know if he made a deal with Russia and China. We already know Trump was using the USA military for his billionaire allies in Saudi Arabia when he assassinated two Iranian generals, what else was he contemplating for his own purpose?
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the U.S. intelligence community has been aware of China's spying from Cuba and a larger effort to set up intelligence-gathering operations around the globe for some time.
The Biden administration has stepped up efforts to thwart the Chinese push to expand its spying operations and believes it has made some progress through diplomacy and other unspecified action, according to the official, who was familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter.
The existence of the Chinese spy base was confirmed after The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that China and Cuba had reached an agreement in principle to build an electronic eavesdropping station on the island. The Journal reported China planned to pay a cash-strapped Cuba billions of dollars as part of the negotiations....
Trump was never interested in the national security of the USA, he was only interested in his own personal security. I think Former Vice President Pence is right, we need to look at the criminal reform law passed under Trump. If Pence sees a problem it needs to be addressed.
There were nuclear secrets found in Maralago. Is there any doubt he was selling information to the communists? Where is the bank roll? Putin was using offshore banks and false companies to move money around.
3 October 2021
By Luke Harding
...The identity of the flat’s buyer was a mystery. (click here) The official “purchaser” was an offshore company listed in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Brockville Development Ltd. Brockville was in turn owned by two further Panama-registered entities – Sefton Securities and, later, Radnor Investments SA. To outsiders, the arrangements looked a little like a Russian doll, with the ultimate beneficiary nestled under layers....
...Krivonogikh was a business student and worked as a cleaner in a store. Then, in the late 1990s, she appears to have acquired a benefactor: Vladimir Putin....
The same method of deceit occurred with Butina. Where is Trump's bankroll? It is somewhere.
U.S. spy agencies (click here) still do not have any solid evidence to determine who caused the destruction, the senior administration official said....
There is a lot of damage from the dam collapse (click here). Beside the damage there are also people endangered by the incident. The evidence of an explosion before the dam collapse is still not conclusive that the dam was sabotaged or used as a weapon to kill more Ukrainians. The conclusions turn to accusations because this war is so bad and so ill conceived and fought by the perpetrators. This is no different than the gas pipeline that burst. There is no conclusion, especially, when it is incompetence and/or the negligence that war brings to infrastructure.
The nuclear power plant of Zaporizhzhia is now once again a concern and once again the IAEA is the best group of professionals to bring consultation and plans to contain any contamination. With this dam collapse I really don't know how Europe and NATO specifically can simply sit this one out. It is not about war anymore, it is about damage to Earth and the innocent. We need engineers and a "Fukushima Daiichi" strategy.
This war by Russia with a proxy by China is a complete disaster. Russia has no military anymore. Its soldiers are scattering when in battle to save their own lives. It is time to stop this idiocy planned during the years of Trump with hubris from Helsinki. There is no purpose to this war. Just lobbing missiles in the air for the purpose of politics is not only a travesty, but, the Russian people are suffering because of these very dangerous politics.
..NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel is here to talk more about what the loss of this dam means. Geoff, begin with just explaining what happened at the site of the dam.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: This dam sits right on the front lines, with Ukrainian forces on one side and Russian troops on the other. And for months, it's been battered by artillery fire and explosions. Then, in May, the reservoir controls flooded with spring rainwater. It seems like no one was on the Russian side to open the dam's gates up and let some of that water out. So the water level got so high it was spilling over the top of the dam. And then, this morning, it appears that the dam was almost completely washed away. Russia blames Ukraine for attacking it. Ukraine blames Russia for blowing it up. But given all the stress it was under, it's also possible it just collapsed.
SHAPIRO: So the dam was holding back this huge reservoir, and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is right on the shores of that reservoir. What are the implications for the plant?...
The Energy Department and two companies aim to share costs on the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE) at the Idaho National Laboratory and use more than 1,322 pounds (600 kg) of fuel containing 93% enriched uranium....
If one really wants to know about uranium there is an agency within the United Nations that knows just about everything there is to know about uranium. The professional agency that handles the entire world's knowledge of uranium and its current use is the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) (click here).
In an age of bringing society to answer for it's Wall Street permissions of "Forever Chemicals," (click here) I find it really hard to believe this attempt to bring more danger to the world is nothing short of covert and one of those Wall Street "slick" ways to allow profits where they should be FORBIDDEN. Not all profits are good profits for Wall Street and the PFAS movement proves that.
This nuclear focus by people who believe using weapons grade uranium is a good idea is not only wrong headed, but, it compromises national security in that if this begins in the USA it will take hold elsewhere and the IAEA will have no real purpose except to warn everyone of the error of their ways.
In case the right political wing of the USA continues to laugh at the United Nations as a pariah organization, their role in the Zaporizhzhia power plant was vital. The members of the IAEA were not only brilliant in bringing the information to the public, they were absolutely brave enough to go to the plant to report on the structural insults brought about by the war initiated by Russia. This agency is vital to any and all peaceful use of nuclear power. They are also vital to any movement that might be left to denuclearization Earth and the foolish brinkmanship that is carried out by the communists.
The idea weapons grade uranium would be on the loose in the use of power generation is not only dangerous, but, completely unnecessary. In my opinion, the US Department of Energy has been allowed to develop policies as loose as the former President of the USA. This idea is a bad idea and needs to be put away in the annals of stupidity.
All of Wall Street profits are not good ideas. Let's see if I can account for a few of them; the petroleum industry, internal combustion engine, PFAS, attempts to profit off the poor Chinese people allowing it's communist government to seek power over the world rather than peaceful use of monetary power, bringing the f#*^king cyber world into the world while launching artificial intelligence on every phone to gather personal data, and inventing social media which is a threat to democracy. Those are just a few of the aspects of Wall Street of which I would rather have seen eliminated rather than propagated. This use of weapon's grade uranium has to be the ultimate insult to the intelligence of the American people.
January 10, 2012
By Sarah Zielinski
Enriched uranium (click here) is back in the news with a report that Iran has begun creating the stuff at a heavily fortified site in the north of that country. But what is enriched uranium?
Uranium is element 92 on the periodic table–every molecule has 92 protons in its nucleus. The number of neutrons can vary, and that’s the difference between the three isotopes of uranium that we find here on Earth. Uranium-238 (92 protons plus 146 neutrons) is the most abundant form, and about 99.3 percent of all uranium is U-238. The rest is U-235 (0.7 percent), with a trace amount of U-234....
These pictures are from an Axios (click here) newsletter. It is appalling to realize this country was so very compromised by someone elected President. He had nuclear information that was never supposed to leave the White House. The communists love Trump. No wonder he was their pick for 2016 and beyond.
This is the American democracy and not Trump's private access spy agency.
“Turns out I was wrong. I couldn’t make him a better candidate and I couldn’t make him a better president, and he disappointed me,” Christie told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead,” calling election night 2020 “the breaking point.”
Christie, who announced his 2024 campaign on Tuesday, is putting attacks on the former president – currently the front-runner for the GOP nomination – at the center of his campaign....
I did not see the interview on CNN, but, in the write up Christi speaks to all the problems he encountered in his second term in office where hubris turned into a real legal issue.
The thing about Christi, besides his reasonably honest demeanor, is that he is smart and knows the law. This is not the first time Trump's circle is falling into legal problems. Christi was responsible for the prosecution of corruption in this circle of people before. He knows what he is talking about and he is correct to keep the focus where it belongs and on the one person that not only turned on his party, but, the country exposing some of the most sensitive information within the Executive Branch.
The climate crisis is real, not a game. I cannot believe the level of distrust that has to exist in order to try to contain the crisis that is obviously before the world. Arabia should be at the top of the donor list to serve the impoverished countries. THEIR OIL HAS BEEN A REAL PROBLEM!
Don't act as if the petroleum was necessary. It never was. NEVER WAS NECESSARY. Alternative energies and vehicles have been around for nearly a century. The petroleum was NEVER NECESSARY.
7 June 2023 By Damian Carrington
...There is a concern (click here) about an obvious conflict of interest with Al Jaber leading the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28), which aims to reduce the carbon commissions in the world by half in the next seven years. However, as Dubai gears up to host the COP28 summit this year, here is a look at its president-designate’s professional achievements which made him qualify for this responsibility....
The UAE is hosting the UN climate summit in November and the president of Cop28 is Sultan Al Jaber, who is also chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc). The revelations have been called “explosive” and a “scandal” by lawmakers.
The Cop28 office had claimed its email system was “standalone” and “separate” from that of Adnoc. But expert technical analysis showed the office shared email servers with Adnoc. After the Guardian’s inquiries, the Cop28 office switched to a different server on Monday....
This is the message he was so desperately spying for in regard to the upcoming meeting. Let's see if he actually lives up to it.
...According to the statement, he is looking to invest USD 15 billion (Rs 1,223.45 billion approximately) over five years, through ADNOC, in the new low-carbon solutions business to deliver the target to reduce carbon intensity by 25 percent by 2030.
Speaking about his goal upon taking up this new responsibility he says, “This will be a critical year in a critical decade for climate action. The UAE is approaching COP28 with a strong sense of responsibility and the highest possible level of ambition.”
He adds, “In cooperation with the UNFCCC and the COP27 Presidency, we will champion an inclusive agenda that ramps up action on mitigation, encourages a just energy transition that leaves no one behind, ensures substantial, affordable climate finance is directed to the most vulnerable, accelerates funding for adaptation and builds out a robust funding facility to address loss and damage.”...
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