Continued from a previous entry on July 22, 2019.

Donald J. Trump doesn't care about the life of the USA, why would he be concerned about the lives of Congresspeople of color?

Page 98 of the Special Counsel Report and page 106 of the PDF (click here)

c. Carter Page's July 2016 Trip To Moscow

Page's affiliation with the Trump Campaign took on a higher profile and drew the attention of Russian officials after the candidate named him a foreign policy advisor. As a result, in late April 2016, Page was invited to give a speech at the July 2016 commencement ceremony at the New Economic School (NES) in Moscow. 550 The NES commencement ceremony generally featured high-profile speakers; for example, President Barack Obama delivered a commencement address at the school in 2009. 551 NES officials told the Office that the interest in inviting Page to speak at NES was' based entirely on his status as a Trump Campaign advisor who served as the candidate's Russia expert. 552 Andrej Krickovic, an associate of Page's and assistant professor at the Higher School of Economics in Russia, recommended that NES rector Shlomo Weber invite Page to give the commencement address based on his connection to the Trump Campaign.553 Denis Klimentov, an employee of NES, said that when Russians learned of Page's involvement in the Trump Campaign in March 2016, the excitement was palpable.554 Weber recalled that in summer 2016 there was substantial interest in the Trump Campaign in Moscow, and he felt that bringing a member of the Campaign to the school would be beneficial. 555

I haven't read the book, however, it is being quoted on the internet.

Real News: (click here) An Investigative Reporter Uncovers the Foundations of the Trump-Russia Conspiracy 

...Journalist Scott Stedman (click here) may have discovered clues to upcoming charges in an archived Russian website run by Mikhail Delyagin, a former adviser to former Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin. In a now-deleted post dated July 12, 2016, Delyagin wrote that Page “held secret talks in Moscow,” including a lecture at the New Economic School which, he wrote, “does nothing more than mask the negotiations on the relations between our countries after Trump’s probable victory.”

Page was eager to accept the invitation to speak at NES, and he sought approval from Trump Campaign officials to make the trip to Russia. 556 On May 16, 2016, while that request was still under consideration, Page emailed Clovis, J.D. Gordon, and Walid Phares and suggested that candidate Trump take his place speaking at the commencement ceremony in Moscow. 557 On June 19, 2016, Page followed up again to request approval to speak at the NES event and to reiterate that NES "would love to have Mr. Trump speak at this annual celebration" in Page's place. 558 Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski responded the same day, saying, "If you want to do this, it would be out side [sic] of your role with the DJT for President campaign. I am certain Mr. Trump  will not be able to attend."559

 In early July 2016, Page traveled to Russia for the NES events. On July 5, 2016, Denis Klimentov, copying his brother, Dmitri Klimentov,560 emailed Maria Zakharova, the Director of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Information and Press Department, about Page's visit and his connection to the Trump Campaign.56 1 Denis Klimentov said in the email that he wanted to draw the Russian government's attention to Page's visit in Moscow.562 His message to Zakharova continued: "Page is Trump's adviser on foreign policy. He is a known businessman; he used to work in Russia ... . If you have any questions, I will be happy to help contact him."563 Dmitri Klimentov then contacted Russian Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov (click here)...

Direct Line to Vladimir Putin 
June 20, 2019

Dmitry Pestov (click here) spokesman of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is married to former figure skater.

Nice yarmulke or kippah, whichever word one wants to use.

...about Page's visit to see if Peskov wanted to introduce Page to any Russian government officials.564 The following day, Peskov responded to what appears to have been the same Denis Klimentov-Zakharova email thread. Peskov wrote, "I have read about [Page]. Specialists say that he is far from being the main one. So I better not initiate a meeting in the Kremlin." 565

Footnote 550 Page 3/16/ 17 302, at 2-3; Page 3/10/ 17 302, at 3.
Footnote 551 S. Weber 7/28/17 302, at 3.
Footnote 552 Y. Weber 6/1/17 302, at 4-5; S. Weber 7/28/17 302, at 3.
Footnote 553 See Y. Weber 6/1/17 302, at 4; S. Weber 7/28/17 302, at 3.
Footnote 554 De. Klimentov 6/9/17 302, at 2.
Footnote 555 S. Weber 7/28/17 302, at 3.
Footnote 556 See 5/16/16 Email, Page to Phares et al. (referring to submission of a "campaign advisor request form").
Footnote 557; 5/16/16 Email, Page to Phares et al. 
Footnote 558 6/19/16 Email, Page to Gordon et al.
Footnote 559 6/19/16 Email, Lewandowski to Page et al.
Footnote 560 Dmitri Klimentov is a New York-based public relations consultant.
Footnote 561 7/5/16 Email, Klimentov to Zakharova (translated).
Footnote 562 7/5/16 Email, Klimentov to Zakharova (translated).
Footnote 563 7 /5/16 Email, Klimentov to Zakharova (translated).
Footnote 564 Dm. Klimentov 11/27 /18 302, at 1-2.
Footnote 565 7 /6/16 Email, Peskov to Klimentov (translated). 

The lecture actually happened and the Russians were proud of it and videotaped it. Similar to the Trump "in plain sight" strategy.

continued in the following entry - thank you

10 years - 180 school shootings - 356 victims

Since 2009, (click here) at least 177 of America’s schools experienced a shooting. These tragedies are as diverse as our nation, but the depth of trauma is hard to convey. There is no standard definition for what qualifies as a school shooting in the US. Nor is there a universally accepted database. So CNN built our own. We examined 10 years of shootings on K-12 campuses and found two sobering truths: School shootings are increasing, and no type of community is spared....

July 24, 2019
By Celina Tabor

A new piece of legislation will allow Oregon students (click here) to take “mental health days” off from school, in the same way they can take physical sick days. It will expand the definition of excused absences in schools, and the high school students who propelled the bill through the legislature hope it will take steps toward improving mental health in Oregon.

House Bill 2191 was born out of a brainstorming workshop at the Oregon Association of Student Councils. It’s the first legislation of its kind in the United States. Before HB 2191, students could only have an excused absence for their own or a family member’s physical illness, doctor or dentist appointments, or an emergency. Students in Oregon are allowed up to five excused absences within a three-month period.

Hailey Hardcastle, a Sherwood High School graduate and incoming freshman at the University of Oregon, was one of the students who helped transform the idea into a piece of legislation. She told OPB’s “Think Out Loud” she was partly inspired by mental health issues she saw at her own high school and the impact of suicide in Oregon schools.

“There’s not a single one of my peers that I know that haven’t been affected by mental health,” Hardcastle said....

"Business Insider" put together a documentary on the training of USA Border Patrol. They receive no training to manage a detention center. (click here for Business Insider website - thank you)

Donald J. Trump is a racist. The truth. (click here for news article - thank you)

"Good Night, Moon"

The waning crescent

26.2 days old

12.1 percent lit

July 28, 2019

Honolulu - Neil Armstrong, (click here) Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins' trip to the moon concluded with a stay in Hawaii.

This week marked the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, but after those historic first steps NASA still had to get the three astronauts safely back to Earth — and the waters off Hawaii are where the cone-shaped spacecraft splashed down.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Wednesday, the anniversary of the astronaut's return to Earth, that the crew hit the atmosphere at 25,000 mph, creating a fireball that was visible to the crew of the waiting recovery aircraft carrier USS Hornet stationed about 900 miles (1,448 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii.

"It was like a shooting star when it come out of the sky," recalled Vance Hege, who was a 20-year-old Marine on the Hornet 13 miles from the splashdown site.

After two sonic booms, three huge parachutes slowed the descent to the Pacific Ocean....

Moon Landing Return to Hawaii

In this July 25, 1969, file photo, Capt. Carl Seiberlich, commander of the carrier Hornet, right, says goodbye to Apollo 11 astronauts Edwin Aldrin Jr., from left, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins in Honolulu, Hawaii, before they were taken in their quarantine van to a waiting cargo plane to be flown to Houston, Texas. This week marked the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, but after those historic first steps NASA still had to get the three astronauts safely back to Earth, and the waters off Hawaii are where the cone-shaped spacecraft splashed down.

Life is balanced. It all works.

The Northern Hardwood Forest's Striped Maple's leaves are eaten by a caterpillar called the "Green Looper." It is a herbivore. The Black-capped Chickadee while moving among the branches of the Stripped Maple picks the Green Looper off the leaves. It is a carnivore. While flying aloft the Sharp Skinned Hawk may pick up a chickadee for a meal. That would also hold true for the Long-Tailed Weasel.

Where did this food chain begin? The sun and chlorophyll found in the Striped Maple. The sun's energy is picked up by the tree and passed on in the leaves to the caterpillar, then to the small bird, followed by the hawk and the weasel.

When these animals and the tree dies they are converted into soil and nutrients by the detritivores including fungi, bacteria and soil animals.

Every forest provides for the life of many species of animals. It is all possible because a tree grew and lived off of CO2 and chlorophyll as well as nutrients in the soil and rain from the sky.

Life has purpose and forest is just one example of the purpose found for every species on Earth.

Most honeysuckles are invasive species. New York has three species it considers native.

These three species can be found at New York Division of Land and Forests (click here)

Northern Bush-honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera)

Limber Honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica)

Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)

Also:

New York Invasive Species/Honeysuckle (click here):

...One way to distinguish between native and invasive honeysuckles is by looking at the stems – native honeysuckles have solid stems while invasive honeysuckles have hollow stems....

...The invasive honeysuckle berries do not contain the amount of fat and nutrients present in native honeysuckle berries; eating large amounts of the less nutritious invasive berries rather than native berries can have negative impacts on migrating....

Aerial footage shows aftermath of wildfires in Spain

Mountain Laurel - "Kalmia latifolia L."

It is native to the land of eastern North America.

The information below is from the US Forest Service. What is really nice about this database is the vast amount of information accumulated over decades if not century of time.

Included here and at this database are many species found together with these INDICATOR species. A forest is not all indicator species, so this listing by the US Forest Service includes the wide variety of species found in these habitats.

The picture above is the way a Mountain Laurel might appear by a roadside or in a forest. The picture below is it's beautiful flowers. 

Mountain laurel (click here) occurs in the understory of a variety of habitat types and plant communities throughout eastern North American. It may be found within many plant associations of the southern and Mid-Atlantic states. While not intended as an exhaustive or definitive list, the following are specific examples of communities in which mountain laurel can be found....

...These forests are generally found at middle to high elevations in the central and northern Appalachian Mountains, often transitioning to spruce/fir or mixed hardwood forest at higher or lower elevations, respectively. Common overstory tree species include sugar maple (Acer saccharum), basswood (Tilia americana), yellow birch (B. alleghaniensis), black cherry, red spruce, white spruce (Picea glauca), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), northern red oak (Quercus rubra), white oak (Q. alba), and yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)

Understory associates include beaked hazel (Corylus cornuta), eastern leatherwood (Dirca palustris), red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa var. racemosa), alternate-leaf dogwood (Cornus alternifolia), bush-honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera), Canada yew (Taxus canadensis), red raspberry (Rubus idaeus), and blackberries. Carolina springbeauty (Claytonia caroliniana), snow trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), anemone (Anemone spp.) marsh blue violet (Viola cucullata), downy yellow violet (V. pubescens), hairy Solomon's seal (Polygonatum pubescens), starry Solomon's-seal (Maianthemum stellatum), hairy sweet-cicely (Osmorhiza claytonii), adderstongue (Ophioglossum spp.), Jack-in-the pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), bigleaf aster (Eurybia macrophylla), and clubmosses...

Heath "balds" that form along the tops of the highest (>4000 feet (1200 m)) southern and central Appalachian mountain peaks are dominated by dense thickets of ericaceous shrubs. Mountain laurel is a dominate species of these habitats or may co-dominate with Catawba rosebay (Rhododendron catawbiense) at subxeric/submesic ecotones. However, a considerable difference in the distribution of these 2 species is present over an elevational gradient. Mountain laurel tends to favor the lower elevation balds whereas above 6000 feet (1800 m), where the highest balds exist, Catawba rosebay is common. Common shrub associates include Catawba rosebay, black chokeberry (Photinia melanocarpa), mountain sweetpepperbush (Clethra acuminata), highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), mountain holly, possumhaw, blackberries, and American mountain-ash. Herbaceous abundance is limited by these dense thickets....

The odor and toxicity should keep people away from the beaches until the source is found and the beaches cleaned up,

July 25, 2019
By Brian Broom

Correction:This story has been updated to reflect that water contact warnings are in place on Mississippi's mainland beaches. Barrier Island beaches are not included. We regret the error.

Water contact warnings (click here) are currently in place for all Mississippi mainland beaches due to a harmful algal bloom of blue-green algae, but at other times water contact warnings and advisories are issued for another reason — poop.

"It's Enterococcus," said Chris Wells, Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Chief of Staff. "It's an indicator bacteria. If it's there it indicates fecal presence."

According to Environment America, an environmental protection group, sampling data from 4,523 beach sites in 29 coastal and Great Lakes states and Puerto Rico were submitted to the National Water Quality Monitoring Council. Of those, 2,620 sites indicated potentially unsafe levels of fecal contamination for swimming on at least one day, and 605 were potentially unsafe at least 25 percent of the days that sampling took place in 2018.

In Mississippi, Environment America's report states 21 of 21 beach sites sampled were potentially unsafe for at least one day in 2018. A sampling site at Gulfport East Beach in Harrison County was potentially unsafe for 44 days in 2018, more than any other site in the state.

Sewage overflows and breaks are potential sources while others are more natural and washed in by rain events.

"It can also be from birds and pets," Wells said. "It can be wildlife."

According to MDEQ, pathogens associated with this type of pollution can cause ear, eye, skin and respiratory infections, gastrointestinal illness, and more serious diseases such as meningitis and hepatitis....

Nannyberry - "Viburnum lentago"

The Nannyberry is thought of by botanists as a prarie plant, however, it is wide spread and a native plant in New York State.

To left is a map of the areas in New York State (click here) where the Nannyberry can be found.

This is New York's habitat description:

Shrub and tree swamps, marshes, roadside ditches, and wet to mesic successional fields. A common wetland shrub in at least parts of NY it sometimes occur it large shrub thickets mixed with other shrubs including V. dentatum var. lucidum and Cornus spp. It does best in wet soils but also grows in mesic or seasonally flooded areas.

The "Prarie Nursery" describes it this way.

This versatile shrub (click here) provides year round interest, from the showy white flower in May, to its burgundy color in autumn and dark blue berries in winter. The ripe berries are edible straight off the bush and are popular in jams and jellies. Adaptable to a wide range of sites, Viburnum lentago is found natively in low woods or near stream banks, but also tolerates drier sites. Very shade tolerant in nature, it grows larger in more open sunny areas. Large, upright, and suckering, Nannyberry spreads by roots to form colonies and makes an excellent privacy or hedgerow, or it can be maintained as a small tree by pruning stems and removing suckers at the base....

It has a very pretty flower and can be adapted to a home garden as well.

This is the bush itself as seen in the forest or along a road. It can be tamed a bit to accommodate a home garden. 

These bushes are actually very valuable habitat for the wildlife.

28 July 2019

By Mattha Busby

A man carries his shoes as he walks through flood water on Crossley Road in Greater Manchester.

Forecasters (click here) said parts of the north-west saw 40mm to 50mm of rain between 11am on Saturday and 11am on Sunday, with 52.2mm recorded at Greenfield near Oldham.

Meteorologist Helen Roberts said the monthly average rainfall for the north-west in July was 89.5mm. “This is a lot of rain to fall in the space of 24 hours, especially given the rain has been very consistent and there have been heavy bursts within it,” she said.

The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for rain across parts of the Midlands and the north-west of England until midnight on Sunday, with the Environment Agency also issuing flood warnings across the two regions, as well as for the east of England. Northern Ireland and south-west Scotland were also subject to rain warnings.

The wet weather came after record temperatures, thunderstorms and heavy rainfall wreaked havoc on the transport network....                    

Hobblebush - "Viburnum lantanoides Michx."

This is a really good picture of a Hobblebush in the Spring. And the picture below is Hobblebush in the autumn/fall.

There is a really excellent write up about this plant in a New York website:

Hobblebush (click here) (Viburnum lantanoides) is a native deciduous shrub which abounds in rich, moist woods throughout the Adirondack Mountains. It is one of our most common Adirondack shrubs.

Hobblebush, which was previously classified as a member of the Honeysuckle Family (Caprifoliaceae), is now classified as a member of the moschatel family: Adoxaceae. The name Hobblebush refers to the fact that the plant has pendulous branches which form obstacles which easily trip (or hobble) walkers. This plant is also known as Hobblebush Viburnum, Witch-Hobble, Moosewood (I personally have never referred to this plant as Moosewood. That is the Stripped Maple.), and Alder-leaved Viburnum. Some field guides list the scientific name of this plant as Viburnum alnifolium. This plant is listed as endangered in Kentucky and New Jersey; Rhode Island categorizes it as a plant of special concern....

The heat is drying out the Arctic.

Alaska is on fire.

Large Incident Fire Map (click here)
July 28, 2019

July 10, 2019
By Mattie Stone

Historic, record-breaking heat (click here) isn’t the only environmental malaise that’s gripped Alaska this summer. So has wildfire smoke.

An incredible satellite image taken on July 8 shows smoke spreading far and wide across Alaska as a spate of hot, dry weather causes the state’s wildfire season to kick into high gear. Dense smoke advisories and red flag fire warnings are currently in effect across interior Alaska and on the Kenai Peninsula, while concentrations of particulate matter, which can lodge in the lungs and cause breathing problems, have surged to dangerous levels around Fairbanks and surrounding communities. Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy climatologist Rick Thoman, who’s based in Fairbanks, said that visibility is currently about a mile and described the air quality as “terrible,” noting that one air quality station notched a particulate matter reading of over 700 this morning. Levels over 250 are considered hazardous to human health.

“You can look right at the Sun and it’s that blood orange color” Thoman said....

A smoky Alaska, seen by a NASA satellite on July 8, 2019.

The Striped Maple - "Acer pensylvanicum"

It isn't a flamboyant tree such as the Sugar Maple. It even looks a little scrubby for a tree. It only reaches about 30 feet in height at maturity.

It prefers moist upland soils, inhabits parts of Ontario, Nova Scotia, Canada, and the Northeastern USA with a range from Maine to as far south as Georgia and as far west as Minnesota.

The Striped Maple is a valuable tree to wildlife. As my last entry, I will write an ecosystem that involves the Striped Maple to better appreciate how a tree provides life to forest dwellers.

The bark of the tree is not only unique to identify this tree but, in the winter months, it is used as a food source by wildlife such as deer, moose and beavers. Some people call the tree Moosewood because of the dietary preference by the Moose.

.

Judging by the diameter of the tree it is about ten years old. This is the bark of a Striped Maple. It is thin and smooth with vertical green and white stripes. These stripes lend the name as Snakewood.

The green stripes on young bark of striped maple allow it to photosynthesize better in the shade, even before the leaves appear in spring.

Chlorophyll. All trees have some degree of chlorophyll in their bark, throughout the tree, not just the trunk of the tree.

The leaf of the Stripped Maple is somewhat simple to realize. It is a broadleaf, hairless, 13-18cm (5-7”) in length and like other maples it has lobes, but, only three. They are at the end of the leaf opposite the stem. Each lobe is pointy, triangular and has it's own vein where secondary veins branch off the main. To touch the leaf it is somewhat papery, especially in the autumn/fall when it turns yellow. The margins of the leaves are finely toothed.

It is important to note the finely toothed characteristic of the leaf because the Mountain Maple has the same shape leaf, but, with very coarse toothed edges on the leaf. The leaf is sometimes said to be shaped the same as the foot of a goose and they are some times called the Goose Foot Maple.

This poor tree has more names than any other, but, it is still the same wonderful tree where wildlife gather.

In late spring or early summer, the flowers will bloom to develop into similar seed pods as the Sugar Maple, the familiar helicopter, two-lobed shape by late summer or early autumn/fall. They may be reddish in color at first but progress to a brown tone at maturity.

The Striped Maple is fine-grained and porous. It has limited uses. There are some records of Native Americans using for medicinal purposes. It is a great tree to support the ecosystem within the forest and should be left there.

July 26, 2019

By Toms Yulsman

Monday, July 28, 2019 temperatures (click here)

Heat records were obliterated across Western Europe yesterday, (click here) with Paris reaching an unfathomable all-time high of nearly 109 degrees.

It’s the second heat wave in the region in as many months — and this one has been even more brutal than June’s. As I wrote earlier this week, research shows that human-caused climate change has dramatically upped the odds for extreme heat events like this.

More broadly, July is on track to be the warmest month ever directly recorded on Earth, and 2019 is all but certain to be a top five year.

With all of this in mind, it should probably come as no surprise that a staggering number of intense wildfires have been blazing across vast stretches of Earth’s northern latitudes. Over the last six weeks, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service has tracked more than 100 intense and long-lived wildfires in the Arctic....

In building an understanding of the Northern Hardwood Forest there are many components, they are all dynamic and should be understood.

The canopy of any forest is vital. Depending on the region of the USA or the world for that matter, the canopy takes on different characteristics. But, all forests when comprised of native species have the same components. 

Under the canopy is the "Understory" and "Scrubs." These species do well in some degree of shade. They provide living quarters for animals and birds. 

There are some interesting understory indicator species for the Northern Hardwood Forest:

Striped Maple
Hobblebush
Nannyberry
Mountain Laurel
Canada Honeysuckle

I will look at each one here.

It is Sunday Night

“I want to go back to one thing that was said this morning by Mr. Lieu who said, and I quote, ‘You didn't charge the president because of the OLC opinion.’”

“That is not the correct way to say it,” Mueller said. “As we say in the report and as I said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime.”

There seems to be a lot of misinformation circulating around the net and otherwise, so to be clear. The Special Counsel did not indict the President of the United States of America for obstruction of justice because the Office of Legal Counsel states the DOJ cannot indict a sitting president. Maybe there is someone who can actually straighten this out.

Austin Mahone - Shadow (Official Video) (click here for more about the star - thank you)

"Shadow" by Austin Mahone (click here for official website - thank you)

You walk into the room
So perfect but unaware
Making you stop and stare
Every time I heard he broke your heart
Can I just fix you girl
Show you a different world, oh

I take you anywhere
I push you on a throne
I lay down my heart I swear
And I'll make sure that you'll never be alone

Only my shadow knows
How I feel about you
Only my shadow goes
Where I dream of you and me
Should I go or wait
Is it too soon too late
Only my shadow know

I've been loving you so long
And now that I got the chance
I see you need to dance on your own
So I wait another day
Maybe another year
I'm gonna be right here oh

I take you anywhere
I push you on a throne
I lay down my heart I swear
And I'll make sure that you'll never be alone, alone

Only my shadow knows
How I feel about you
Only my shadow goes
Where I dream of you and me

Should I go or wait
Is it too soon too late
'Cause only my shadow knows

I wish I could say all these words
All these things that your heart never heard, yay
But I saw a pain in your eye and it's in my lips

Only my shadow knows
How I feel about you
Only my shadow goes
Where I dream of you and me
Should I go or wait
Is it too soon too late

Only my shadow knows, ay
Only my shadow knows, oh oh oh
Na hoo, na hoo
Only my shadow knows…