Has it actually been a year already?

It seems like yesterday watching the meticulous work of the creators and engineers, correcting any "oops," and then launching the work of perfection into space with prolonged anticipation for deployment. It is so hard to believe a year has passed. 

NASA (click here)

The scientists need a news conference on these anniversaries to allow everyone to understand what we have learned by harnessing perfection.

The first anniversary image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope displays the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. 

July 12, 2023
By Joel Achenbach

The James Webb Space Telescope (click here) was designed to tunnel deeper into space and farther back in time than any previous observatory, with the audacious goal of seeing the very first galaxies that lit up the young universe. Creating pretty pictures was always a pleasant but ancillary feature of having this amazing new piece of hardware out in space.

Today, 365 days after NASA unveiled the mission’s first batch of data and images, it’s clear that the JWST can produce the hard science and the beauty shots with equal aplomb. NASA is marking the first anniversary of the JWST’s scientific debut with the release of a new image, demonstrating the telescope’s ability to re-envision the universe. The dramatic, somewhat hallucinatory image captures the dynamism of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth, where planetary systems like our own could be in the initial stages of forming....

The GOP has lost it's way on every moral issue of our time.

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE INVESTING? (click here)

Sustainable investing refers to a range of practices in which investors aim to achieve financial returns while promoting long-term environmental or social value. Combining traditional investment approaches with environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) insights has led to investors generating more comprehensive analyses and making better investment decisions.

Sustainable investing ensures firms aren’t judged solely on short-term financial gains but on a broader picture of what and how they contribute to society. Investors must think critically about investments’ potential impacts as they relate to environmental, political, and societal landscapes....

I thought the right wing political types were all about free enterprise. When the climate concerns grew and grew there were free enterprise solutions put in place. Now, because Republicans have no basis for any presence in government they are making up reasons to attack the free enterprise system because it doesn't worship oil anymore.

Will someone tell the GOP this is 2023 and not 1923. Please.

July 12, 2023
By Sharon Udasin and Saul Elbein

Members of the House Financial Services Committee (click here) sparred on Wednesday over climate disclosure rules, as the GOP-led body began the first of six hearings attacking sustainable investing.

The committee took aim at a rule proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that would make it easier for investors to judge the climate risk of the companies they invest in.

Over the past decade, there has been an increasing push from investment firms for greater disclosure of information around corporations’ impact on climate change, as well as their exposure to associated risks.

Committee Democrats criticized Republicans for what they characterized as attacks on the free market.

“For over 100 years, the followers of Leon Trotsky and the Socialist Workers Party have waged war against the capitalist model. Today, elements of the Republican Party join them in that effort,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said....

Members of the OUN took an active part in the Holocaust in Ukraine and Poland.

"The West" (click here) as it is known in so many places, was never about war, it was about peace. Always. The people of the USA desire peace and have sought it along with economic viability everywhere in the world. Without exception, the people of Europe and the USA look to peace and prosperity. There is no way there will be a world war again. Unlike Putin, the rest of the world learned a valuable and enduring lesson. The West's military might has always been about prevention of war and not propagation of it.

The world was once a very different place.

Genocide is a METHOD of war as well as hate. When Putin and Moscow states "special military operation" or whatever the verbiage is, it is obvious it is genocide. It is genocide for the reason of Russian expansion and control of land. There will be no real peace, Russia no matter the dialogue does not plan for it or want peace. Any negotiations or diplomatic talks of same is a Russian ruse. 

Right up to the Russian invasion and continued attacks, Ukraine was a self-declared neutrality. Recent Ukrainian constitutions and elections were all based in freedom and peace. The politics of Ukraine was about purging corruption and economic growth. There was nothing Ukraine was engaged in that warranted a confrontation with Russia. Ukraine wanted economic relationships with all countries. There is absolutely no justification for Putin's invasion into Ukraine to commit genocide.

I might add that 

...In October 1942 OUN-B (click here) established the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). In 1943–1944, in an effort to prevent Polish efforts to re-establish prewar borders, UPA units carried out massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia....

Review of recent history leading to exodus of millions of Ukrainians and displacement of millions of others to Russia (click here)

July 12, 2023

Monument to the victims of the Volyn massacre in Warsaw

On Tuesday, July 11, (click here) the Polish Sejm (the lower house of parliament) adopted a resolution to commemorate the victims of the Volhynia tragedy on its 80th anniversary.

The resolution received unanimous support, with a total of 440 Sejm deputies participating in the vote. The document refers to the events of July 11, 1943, in Volhynia, where, according to the resolution, “Bloody Sunday took place – the culminating moment” of the Volhynia tragedy, which Polish deputies describe as genocide.

The Volhynia Massacre has long been an impediment to fully developed Polish-Ukrainian friendship.

As the resolution highlights, on that day, “Ukrainian units of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), often supported by Ukrainian civilians, attacked 99 villages inhabited by Poles in the former Volhynia Voivodeship and killed a significant part of their population.”

According to the document, starting from 2016, July 11 has been designated as the National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide, during which “more than 100,000 Poles were killed – often in a very brutal way.”...

Russia has it wrong. This is about genocide, not NATO expansion.

July 12, 2023

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (L) attends a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 12, 2023.

...“We can never see a repeat of what has happened in Ukraine (click here) and this declaration reaffirms our commitment to ensure it is never left vulnerable to the kind of brutality Russia has inflicted on it again.”

The G7’s long-term plan

G7 nations on Wednesday pledged to offer "enduring" military support to Ukraine to help it fight Russia's invading forces and stop any repeat of the war once it ends.

"We will each work with Ukraine on specific, bilateral, long-term security commitments and arrangements towards ensuring a sustainable force capable of defending Ukraine now and deterring Russian aggression in the future," the G7 said in a statement....

...Russia marks day 2 with another drone attack

Ukraine said on Wednesday it had shot down 11 Russian drones overnight in a second consecutive night of attacks on the capital Kyiv, as NATO leaders prepared to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Vilnius.

“A total of 15 kamikaze drones were involved in the strike. Eleven of them were destroyed in the areas of responsibility of the Centre and East air commands,” Ukraine's air force said on social media....

...More angry Russian reaction

Top Russian officials have accused Kyiv and its allies of bringing humanity closer to World War 3 and prolonging the war in Ukraine in some eyebrow-raising reactions in response to the first day of the NATO summit in Vilnius.

While Zelensky expressed frustration that no firm timetable for his country joining the military alliance was laid out, his anger was dwarfed by that coming out of the Kremlin.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council, went into full-hyperbole mode, saying: “The completely crazy West could not come up with anything else... In fact, it’s a dead end. World War Three is getting closer.

“What does all this mean for us? Everything is obvious. The special military operation will continue with the same goals.”...

Russia is still attacking people that are not attacking Russia. The entire operation in Ukraine is based on defense of the country, it's rightful borders, and the people still living in the country. It would be best if Russia would stop it's nightmare politics by creating an unnecessary war just to kill Ukrainians. There is no world war in progress. It is simply Russian propaganda fear tactics.

This is about genocide. When Russian propaganda states world war three is coming, do they mean they want to genocide the entire world? That is what this is about. You'll excuse me, but, didn't Adolf Hitler want the same thing? It would seem the Nazis are in Moscow's Kremlin, not anywhere else.

Power playing is not about the US Constitution

What the country is witnessing within the corruption of the Supreme Court is power playing without regard to the US Constitution. The Christmas parties of Thomas is about containing an agenda before any proceedings are even begun. It is no different than fancy vacations, or financial favors. It is about a preconceived agenda that was and is the ground work for the political right wing and control of the country without regard to the US Constitution.

The right wing majority on the Supreme Court is corrupt and seek parts of the US Constitution to justify the agenda. That is not at all about constitutional interpretation of the law. Agendas are about power over the US Constitution and not about upholding it. The most resent decision regarding affirmative action is stark in proof of that agenda. 

Affirmative Action was legally legislated to solve a problem. The problem was legitimate and still exists today.

The USA has a shameful history of racism in slavery. The country fought a civil war to defeat it and bring the right to live a free life to all Americans. There were constitutional amendments made to bring those freedoms to the highest levels of law to enshrine the human toll of that war.

Yet, somehow, the current Supreme Court majority refuses to look at the country’s history, the long struggle for civil rights, the innumerable members of White Supremists in prison for acts of violence and murder (including members of the judiciary) and facts regarding racism and its injustice to simply carry out an agenda of self-righteousness hubris. 

Instead of upholding legitimate legislation that provides a measure to correct a racist past it CHOSE to find words that would negate the civil war, the deaths of that war, the constitutional amendments identifying the very reason for that horrible war and take a path not recognized by stare deciss. 

That is a Supreme Court grossly out of step with the US Constitution, the stark reality of the people of this country with an agenda for enormous cultural change to satisfy their benefactors that paved their path to their current wealth and job security. 

The Supreme Court majority is poison to the very freedom this country is built on.