February 19, 2020
By Julian E. Barnes

President Trump (click here) on Wednesday named Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany who quickly antagonized the establishment after arriving in Berlin in 2018, to be the acting director of national intelligence overseeing the nation’s 17 spy agencies.

By choosing Mr. Grenell, who has little experience in intelligence or in running a large bureaucracy, the president signaled that he wants a trusted, aggressive leader atop an intelligence community that he has long viewed with suspicion and at times gone to war against.

As ambassador, Mr. Grenell made public statements that some German officials took as expressing opposition to the government there, an extraordinary intervention into domestic affairs that diplomats typically avoid. He attacked what he called “failed” open-border policies in Germany, which has resettled hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, and criticized Berlin’s stances on Iran, military spending and Chinese investment in global telephone networks. He also expressed an eagerness to empower conservatives throughout Europe.

“I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders,” Mr. Grenell told Breitbart, a far-right website, in an interview shortly after his arrival in Germany. “I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left.”...

The US Department of Justice needs deconfliction of Ukraine actions, though?

This is unbelievable and maybe it does show that Trump's tweets are reeking havoc in the US Justice Department. But, this intervention by Donoghue is concerning as well as inappropriate. If there are many US Attorney offices finding criminal activity with "Trump Players" that is what should be upsetting, not that there needs to be coordination. I don't believe it does need coordination at all, as a matter of fact, crossing state lines to bring together criminal charges under one process is unconstitutional.

I do believe Mr. Donoghue's authority as well as Durham's will be found to be very inappropriate and politically motivated when this mess ends. Throw in unconstitutional because there are issues of States Rights in the attempts by Donoghue to minimize any proceedings regarding Ukraine. There better not be any watered down investigations that are carried out to protect Trump by Barr either.

February 18, 2020
By Josh Gerstein

The top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, (click here) Richard Donoghue, is now vetting and managing all Ukraine-related efforts by the Justice Department in the wake of President Donald Trump's impeachment over his actions toward the former Soviet republic.

Donoghue will "coordinate" these activities in the interest of deconfliction and efficiency, Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Stephen Boyd said in a letter sent Tuesday to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and his Republican counterpart, Doug Collins. But the letter is vague about the specific Ukraine-linked issues that might require review.

In a Jan. 17 memo, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who picked Donoghue for the role, simply referred to "several distinct open investigations being handled by different U.S. Attorney's Offices and/or Department components that in some way potentially relate to Ukraine."

Last October, federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the indictments of two associates of Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on campaign finance charges allegedly related to an effort to influence U.S. officials on behalf of a Ukrainian government official. The scheme also involved efforts to oust the U.S. ambassador to Kyiv at the time, Marie Yovanovitch....

I am STILL waiting for the 2020 Worldwide Threat Assessment (click here).


January 15, 2020

A year ago, (click here) very few Americans had ever heard of the U.S. intelligence community’s annual worldwide threats assessment and briefing to Congress. This year, the country should be paying close attention to them. We outline three areas of special interest and concern.

But first, some background.

Each year, generally in January or February, the intelligence community provides an overarching look at global threats to American interests, including in an unfamiliar manner for the intelligence community: in unclassified form. The leaders of the community, including the Director of National Intelligence and CIA Director, then brief Congress on that assessment—again, in an uncharacteristically unclassified and public setting. In 2019, this annual tradition received more attention than usual, as the intelligence community leaders provided candid assessments of Iran, North Korea, and ISIS that departed from the characterizations of those threats by the President to support his preferred policies. Trump dramatically summoned to the Oval Office his intel chiefs, snapped a photo with them for Twitter, and claimed that any apparent divergence was the result of media mischaracterizations, not actual disagreement....

It isn't Shifty Schiff, it is however Shifty and Shady Trump. 

February 8, 2020
By Marty Johnson

A House Intelligence Committee (click here) public hearing scheduled for next week has been canceled, pushing back the U.S. intelligence community's presentation on the top threats facing America.

"We are still having productive discussions with the committees on the timing of the Worldwide Threat Assessment hearings," a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told CBS News on Friday.

Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) had initially requested both public and closed-door hearings for Wednesday, Feb. 12, but a committee member confirmed to the network that the proceedings had been put on hold....

All too often American politicians, correction Republican politicians (I never know what country the Republicans identify with, USA, Russia, Ukraine?) present the idea, the climate is not or is responsible for their particular point of view. That is an extremist excuse for not addressing the climate crisis.

In this reporting from the BBC, they responsibly assigned the climate 30 % responsible for the inferno that was Australia.

It is not all or nothing. It never has been. The TRENDS for decades have pointed to a hotter troposphere. The weather manifestations are those normally seen in climate, however, the extreme events that are taking place are catastrophic. The weather due to climate is not always catastrophic.

As an example:

Traditional weather in the USA only three decades ago saw tornadoes in the USA from March through June. Then the tornado season would end only to realize the Atlantic hurricane season began from June 1st to November 30, while the Pacific hurricane season began May 15th and end November 30th.

All that SEASONAL weather has changed. Tornadoes are no longer just those few months but occur year round. We now have seen a very strong in March that killed Americans. (click here) It was a tornado, yes. But, it was not a normal tornado during a normal tornado season. Not only this as an example, but, the normal tornado season now spawns tornado outbreaks of multiple vortexes. That was once a rare occurrence, now it happens frequently every tornado season.

The climate crisis has changed Earth's climate and it is showing up in catastrophic weather. Australia even lost it's beautiful Great Barrier Reef because of ocean temperatures. It is long past time to take this seriously.

4 March 2020
By Pallab Ghosh

Global warming boosted the risk of the hot, dry weather (click here) that's likely to cause bushfires by at least 30%, they say.

But the study suggests the figure is likely to be much greater.

It says that if global temperatures rise by 2C, as seems likely, such conditions would occur at least four times more often.

The analysis has been carried out by the World Weather Attribution consortium....

February 11, 2020
Bu Bob Berwyn

Rural Fire Service crews engage in property protection during wildfires along the Old Hume Highway near the town of Tahmoor, Australia, outside Sydney, Dec. 19, 2019. Wildfires have been burning since August and have destroyed an area comparable to the combined region of the Netherlands and Belgium.

As extreme wildfires (click here) burn across large swaths of Australia, scientists say we're witnessing how global warming can push forest ecosystems past a point of no return.

Some of those forests won't recover in today's warmer climate, scientists say. They expect the same in other regions scarred by flames in recent years; in semi-arid areas like parts of the American West, the Mediterranean Basin and Australia, some post-fire forest landscapes will shift to brush or grassland.

More than 17 million acres have burned in Australia over the last three months amid record heat that has dried vegetation and pulled moisture from the land. Hundreds of millions of animals, including a large number of koalas, are believed to have perished in the infernos. The survivors will face drastically changed habitats. Water flows and vegetation will change, and carbon emissions will rise as burning trees release carbon and fewer living trees are left to pull CO2 out of the air and store it.

In many ways, it's the definition of a tipping point, as ecosystems transform from one type into another....

Was Erik Prince in on this though?

12 February 2020
By Alex Woodward

Picture of Hyde and Trump (click here)

A donor to Donald Trump (click here) who was accused of "stalking" the former ambassador to Ukraine at the behest of Rudy Giuliani's associates has provided documents to Congress as it opens its investigation into the ousting of Marie Yovanovitch, a crucial witness in the president's impeachment.

The Daily Beast reports that Robert Hyde, a Republican congressional candidate from Connecticut, gave "everything" he had between himself and Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani who has been indicted for campaign finance violations involving foreign money.

Mr Hyde told the outlet he gave the House Foreign Affairs Committee "everything that I had between Parnas and I". He said the committee wanted to "talk about Parnas and how I know him" and said that "you should look into Parnas. Bad man"....

In the picture to the right they have somewhat the same color tie.

Oh, look, there he is with Roger J. Stone.










And a group outing, huh? These guys are real boy scouts for Trump, now aren't they?

FBI visits CT home of Robert Hyde (report says) (click here)

Possibly missing records (click here)

Oklahoma is on fire: (click here)

Southern Area (PL 1) New fires: 332 New large incidents: 19 Uncontained large fires: 6 * Chilesvile, Okmulgee Field Office, BIA. Three miles north of Boley, OK. Timber and tall grass. Active fire behavior with running.

Russell Mountain, Oklahoma Division of Forestry. Thirty-one miles southwest of Ft. Smith, AR. Timber. Active fire behavior with wind-driven runs.

Longfellow Nine Mile Complex, Texas A & M Forest Service. Twelve miles northeast of Sanderson, TX. Short grass and brush. Minimal fire behavior.

Stray, Kisatchie National Forest, USFS. One mile northeast of Otis, LA. Timber. Minimal fire behavior.

Red Hill, Okmulgee Field Office, BIA. Eight miles SE of Henryetta, OK. Timber. Minimal fire behavior with smoldering. Structures threatened.

Henderson Ridge, Oklahoma Division of Forestry. Thirty-three miles southeast of McAlester, OK. Timber and short grass. Active fire behavior with uphill runs, wind-driven runs and flanking. Structures threatened.

Starr, Cherokee Nation Agency, BIA. Four miles north of Kansas, OK. Timber and hardwood litter. Moderate fire behavior with running, backing and flanking. Structures threatened. Last narrative unless significant activity occurs.

How are they fighting these fires if they can't breath for the smoke?

March 8, 2020

Kansas firefighters responded Saturday to help in Oklahoma (click here) to help fight a large grass fire which prompted multiple evacuations.

According to the Kansas Forest Service, wildland fire personnel and Tanker 95 from the Kansas Forest Service responded to the 412 Fire in Beaver County, Oklahoma. The fire was was estimated at 10,000 acres according to the Oklahoma Forestry Service. Local officials had placed an evacuation in effect for Beaver, Oklahoma.

Multiple Kansas volunteer fire departments and the Clark County Wildland Fire Task Force were also on scene to assist local resources with the 412 Fire. In addition to the support of resources on scene, the 7 County Wildland Fire Task Force is in Meade County, Kansas, to provide fire response coverage while local fire departments assist with the 412 Fire.

“It is through partnerships we establish before a wildfire starts that we are able to provide mutual aid when the need arises,” said State Fire Management Officer Mark Neely.

KFS worked closely with Oklahoma Forestry Services to make resources available knowing that high fire danger days were in the forecast. Assigning resources across state lines is made possible by the Great Plains Interstate Fire Compact....

Before Trump was for vaccines, he was against them, though.

Let's put this babe to rest.
With all the news (click here) about the recent upswing in measles cases -- and the all discussions about kids not being vaccinated -- we had been curious about details regarding how a big a difference the measles vaccine made when it was introduced....

I doubt scientists will come up with a better alternative.


April 29, 2019

Public health advocates (click here) had criticized President Donald Trump's silence in the midst of one of the country's worst measles outbreaks in decades. Others worried that if he did speak out he'd recommend against vaccinations. Trump on Friday, however, came down adamantly in favor of kids getting their shots. In other news: hundreds of students at Los Angeles universities are quarantined over exposure fears; religious leaders urge their followers to get vaccinations; outbreaks raise questions about adult immunity; and more.

Reuters: Trump Tells Americans: Go Get Your Measles Vaccination

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday urged Americans to protect themselves with the measles vaccination as the number of cases of the once-eradicated disease in the United States hit the highest levels since 2000. The growing outbreak in pockets across the country has triggered multiple public health efforts seeking to limit exposure to measles, including quarantines at two California universities. (Heavey and Mason, 4/26)

Stat: Trump, Once A Vaccine Skeptic, Changes His Tune Amid Measles Outbreaks

As measles outbreaks rage in a number of states across the country, President Trump urged families to vaccinate their children on Friday. “They have to get the shots. The vaccinations are so important,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House. “This is really going around now. They have to get their shots. ”The endorsement of vaccination from a previously vaccine-questioning president comes as a bit of a surprise. Before winning the presidency, Trump several times alleged there was a link between the number of vaccines children get in early infancy and the development of autism. (Branswell, 4/26)...

This is a direct result of climate, not weather, CLIMATE and seasonal changes.

I believe this is the first signs of the climate effecting maple syrup productions. This is the Longitude and Latitude of Orange County, New York.

41.3912° N, 74.3118° W

This is the longetude and latitude of Vermont.

44.5588° N, 72.5778° W

Basically what I am saying is that things are always hot at the equator. The equator receives the rays of the sun more frequently and hotter than any other place on Earth. The poles receive the least. As a matter of fact, the poles have days of complete light and complete darkness, so Earth there has a cooling period. If one applies that understanding to the climate crisis, global warming if you will, that means the lower latitudes will have seasonal change due to warming earlier than higher latitudes. It is uncertain to say Vermont will eventually experience the climate crisis the same as Orange County, but, there will be some degree of seasonal change and that will serve as a tipping point.

March 7, 2020
By Emma Newburger

The Green Mountain (click here) state posted a total production this year of 1.99 million gallons of syrup -- that's more than three gallons of maple syrup for every person in the state. And Vermont's yield per tap was .410 gallons, way ahead of the rest of the field. (For comparison, #2 in yield per tap was Maine at .363 and New York's was "just" .281.)

Orange County - Dana Putnam (click here) drilled into a maple tree, added a plastic tube and waited for the sap to flow.

Nothing happened.

It’s the end of winter — prime tree-tapping time for New York maple farmers. But for Putnam, a fourth-generation maple farmer, last week was too hot for the trees to properly freeze, thaw and produce sap.

After weeks of experiencing hotter temperatures, Putnam is anxious his season will end early. And he’s only collected half of the crop yield he says he should already have at this point.

“If we don’t harvest enough syrup, we’ll have to buy it. That changes our cost structure entirely,” Putnam said. “I think about climate change and whether or not this maple business will be viable in a decade — it might not be.”

Maple trees won’t produce sap unless they undergo freezing and thawing cycles. But in New York this winter, there’s been no snow or frost on the ground as climate change accelerates. The hotter temperatures have made it harder for farmers to pull sap from the trees and threaten to end the production season early....

The Process (click here)

There is no peace deal, though.

February 28, 2020
By Deborah Avant

A soldier (click here) walks outside a military outpost in the village of Loy Mandah, Afghanistan, carrying a portable speaker, in an often-violent area that has seen no clashes during the reduction of violence, on Feb. 23.

On Saturday night (click here) — right at midnight — the United States’ agreement with the Afghan Taliban is scheduled to take effect. While the agreement says the United States will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, we know nothing of what it says about military contractors. But contractors have provided the lion’s share of U.S. military staffing in Afghanistan, and other post-9/11 wars.

Here’s what you need to know about military contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The contractor force is largely hidden.

Since the U.S. government began keeping track in the mid-aughts, contractors have made up more than half of the military personnel working for the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But stories about contractors rarely make the news. In a 2010 study, Lee Sigelman and I tracked news coverage of contractors and service members between 2003 and 2007. Articles mentioning service members ranged from 476 to 1,251 each quarter. Those mentioning contractors ranged from one to 95 a quarter — a dramatically smaller number. As Steven Schooner, T. Christian Miller and others have documented, even their deaths remain unsung, making them a “disposable army.” According to The Washington Post’s Afghanistan Papers, more than 3,814 U.S. contractors have died in that war — while only 2,300 U.S. military personnel have. The deaths of contractors overtook those of soldiers in 2010. That imbalance significantly reduces the political costs of U.S. wars....

The Taliban went on vacation until their 5000 members were released from Afghan prisons. Now that it isn't happening, there is no peace deal. Americans also need to be skeptical when there are rallies or celebrations or protests like this because they are staged to bring about American sentiment. When they have American sentiment, they know it effects the elections. Don't be stupid, the truth is the truth.

March 6, 2020
By David Welna

Afghan Taliban militants and villagers celebrate the U.S. peace deal Monday in the Alingar district of Laghman Province. The group resumed offensive operations against Afghan security forces this week, ending a partial truce.

With less than four days to go (click here) before peace talks are to begin in Afghanistan between that nation's authorities and the Taliban insurgency, things are not looking promising.

Taliban fighters are stepping up attacks on Afghan security forces. American warplanes are counterattacking. And a prisoner exchange that was to take place before those intra-Afghan talks start is being rejected by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

On Friday in western Kabul, the Associated Press reports that gunmen opened fire at a largely Shiite gathering, killing at least 32 and injuring scores more. The Islamic State-Khorasan Province claimed responsibility for the attack.

All this comes after the U.S. and the Taliban — but not the Afghan government — signed an agreement Feb. 29 in Doha, Qatar with the stated aim of "bringing peace to Afghanistan" more than 18 years after U.S. forces pushed the Taliban out of power....

Diseases are opportunistic. If conditions are right for mutation and/or replication, they will become more novel and in that dangerous.

February 6, 2020

By Justin Worland

...But, as pathogens are exposed to gradually warmer temperatures (click here) in the natural world, they become better equipped to survive the high temperature inside the human body. “Every time we have a very hot day, we have a selection event,” says Arturo Casadevall, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. The pathogens that survive—and reproduce—are better adapted to higher temperatures, including those in our bodies. And, with that, one of our body’s primary defense mechanisms diminishes in effectiveness.

This is not a theoretical, far-off concern. Last year, Casadevall and colleagues documented in the journal mBio how Candida auris (a fungus that gets into the bloodstream, leading to a range of ailments) emerged simultaneously in patients in three different isolated places—southern Asia, Venezuela and South Africa—between 2012 and 2015. In our globalized world, diseases are often transported by human carriers who hop on planes, but in this case the scientists concluded that similar changing climatic conditions in each of these places likely drove the simultaneous development. It’s hard to say how widespread this effect could be, Casadevall says, but there’s no reason to think that it would be limited to fungi like Candida auris....

Viruses and bacteria are sensitive to temperature, hence, climate. One of the warnings climate scientists have stated for decades is that if the climate becomes too warm there will be OPPORTUNITY for single cell organisms to cause disease never before a part of our world. So, what did politicians lob onto as a way to corrupt the issue and provide for their petroleum industry cronys? Heat. If there is snow outside there is no global warming. "W"rong! Never once did the morons in the Republican Party stop to realize they were padding their bank accounts with money that would cause people their lives. The current Republican Senate is fraught with corruption and they still don't see the forest for the trees.

6 March 2020

...South Korea, Italy and Iran (click here) have been worst affected, with more than 6,200 cases in South Korea, almost 4,000 in Italy and more than 3,500 in Iran.

However, infectious disease specialists at Imperial College London estimate about two thirds of cases originating in mainland China remain undetected worldwide.

This could mean "multiple chains of as yet undetected human-to-human transmission" internationally, they say....

It must be in the name of god, though.

Ambition is one thing and it can be a good thing, but, in the case of Erik Prince, it is a ridiculously dangerous thing.

Net worth: 2.4 billion (click here)

The majority of that money has come from governments, especially that of the USA federal and locals. The local governments contract training for their SWAT teams.

So, the proposed take over of the world for Prince's financial well being is hardly an issue.

Erik Prince, no different than Duvos and all the other LOYALISTS in Trump World have their own agendas. Erik Prince is more than willing to take his skills while in service to the USA government to find SOMETHING to exploit by spying for political reasons. Somehow, the complaining about the Steele Dossier makes more sense than ever. I could never understand what the big fuss was because it was reviewed by the Former Director of the FBI Robert Mueller before including any information in his investigation. The complaints were because Prince was stressed out. See, he understands what spying can do if real information is found and he didn't want his benefactor, Donald "Kompromat" Trump to lose the presidency.

Very interesting.

Does anyone realize the level of trouble Erik Prince would cause if he is successful in replacing the USA military with his private companies? There is absolutely no reason to replace the USA military. None. As a matter of fact, the proposition of Mayor Pete Buttigieg when he was running for the presidency would make Erik Prince a happy man. Imagine Erik Prince heading up the privatized US Military. OMG.

March 7, 2020
By Mark Mazzetti and Adam Goldman

Five security guards (click here) from Blackwater Worldwide have been indicted on charges related to a 2007 shooting in which 17 Iraqis were killed in a Baghdad square, two sources said Friday.




Washington - Erik Prince, (click here) the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents.

One of the former spies, an ex-MI6 officer named Richard Seddon, helped run a 2017 operation to copy files and record conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers’ unions in the nation. Mr. Seddon directed an undercover operative to secretly tape the union’s local leaders and try to gather information that could be made public to damage the organization, documents show.

Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her....

In the petroleum industry regulations are to be ignored and pay offs for deaths is part of the profit margin.

In the case of this pipeline, it probably should not have been built, no different than the Keystone (click here). Not all land is the same and many times the land is protecting a very valuable water source, UNDERGROUND, where it is less likely to evaporate due to the climate crisis. But, to protect people and water, the land has to be protected first!

February 26, 2020
By Anya Litvak

The same steep (click here) and loamy hillside that tumbled in a landslide causing a natural gas pipeline to burst open and ignite in Beaver County on Sept. 10 has proven difficult to stabilize, even temporarily....

The U.S. Department of Justice (click here) has launched a criminal investigation into the 2018 natural gas pipeline explosion in Beaver County, adding to a growing list of state and federal probes into Energy Transfer’s pipeline projects in Pennsylvania.

The investigation has been going on since at least November, according to a disclosure in the Texas-based pipeline company’s financial filings. Energy Transfer said the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania “issued a federal grand jury subpoena for documents relevant to the incident,” which is also being examined by the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office.

“The scope of these investigations is not further known at this time,” Energy Transfer wrote in its annual report earlier this month.

Energy Transfer disclosed Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s investigation into the Revolution pipeline’s failure in a financial filing in August 2019....

I don't make the statement about a petroleum's bottom line out of hubris or fiction, the FACTS, both with the petroleum industry (continually subsidized by the US Congress) and the coal mining industry (continually regulated by the government) adding regulatory fines and lawsuits of ill health and deaths as an operating expense.

Let's get this right. These companies don't care about their customers. They dispatch for complaints, BUT, WHEN IT COMES TO THE IMPORTANT LIFE SAVING STUFF LIKE COMPLIANCE WITH REGULATIONS, THEY DON'T CARE.\

Both of these companies are in violation and liability.

February 26, 2020

The 2018 Columbia (click here) Gas disaster in the Merrimack Valley displaced thousands of people and damaged homes such as this one on Jefferson Street in Lawrence.

Boston - The United States Attorney's Office (click here) has announced federal charges against Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, following the deadly gas explosions in the Merrimack Valley in 2018. The company has "agreed to plead guilty to violating the Pipeline Safety Act."

The FBI's Boston Office said the charges come after a joint investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General. The U.S. Attorney's Office held a press conference at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston.

Officials said Columbia Gas is "criminally" and "financially accountable" for the 2018 explosions in the Merrimack Valley, which took the life of 18-year-old Leonel Rondon, and damaged dozens of homes and buildings.

"Under the terms of the plea agreement filed in court today, first Columbia Gas will pay a $53 million fine... by far the largest criminal fine ever imposed by the Pipeline Safety Act," said U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. "Until Columbia Gas is sold, an independent monitor... will monitor the company's activities... and report to the government on a monthly basis."

Columbia Gas is also to be sold by its parent company NiSource Inc., which will have to stop doing business in the state, and Columbia Gas will be on probation for three years....

I need to correct a bit of illogical thinking, though.

The world is not made of money, it is made of many things, including people.

If there are no people there is no economy.

I realize Wall Street and Donald "Kompromat" Trump are spazzing out over the impact of the worldwide cronoavirus, but, people aren't born to die for others' bank accounts.

March 8, 2020
By Jason Horowitz

Milan (click here)

Rome - Italy’s government (click here) early Sunday took the extraordinary step of locking down much of the country’s north, restricting movement for about a quarter of the Italian population in regions that serve as the country’s economic engine.

The move represents the most sweeping effort outside China to stop the spread of the coronavirus, and is tantamount to sacrificing the Italian economy in the short term to save it from the ravages of the virus in the long term.

By taking such tough measures, Italy, which is suffering the worst outbreak in Europe, sent a signal that restrictive clampdowns at odds with some of the core values of Western democracies may be necessary to contain and defeat the virus....

The people of Milan and other areas of the WORLD built their economy. It didn't happen to spring up. The people of Milan will again resume their economy when it is safe to do so.

Honestly. The wealthy are sincerely a product of greed.

It's Sunday Afternoon


Though - in spite of the possibility that : even if

The Wonder Stuff - Good Night Though (From the DVD 'Construction For The...) (click here for their Facebook page - thank you)

"Good Night, Though" by "The Wonder Stuff" (click here for their webpage - thank you)

Goodbye

So long

Well there's a lady that knows

All that glitters is not gold, she said

"Don't play that awful song

Don't play that awful song, cos then we'll know

close

volume_off

That the party has gone on too long."
I said, "This stairway ain't to heaven
This one's to oblivion"
She said "You get too drunk, you get too high
Oh tell me why
Sod this, I'm going home on my own."
Goodbye
So long

close

volume_off

That the party has gone on too long."

Yet another story of power, politics and profit in America. The story continues.

March 6, 2020
By Clive Irving

A majority (click here) Democratic US House found fault with Boeing and the FAA under the administration of Donald John Trump. The "self regulation" afforded Boeing and the Lion Air crash was enjoyed by Donald John Trump on 29 October 2018.

Nearly a year after a second crash of a Boeing 737 MAX (click here) that led to its grounding, the full extent of the company’s complicity and negligence, abetted by regulators, is revealed by a damning report from the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

And the issue of how soon this deeply flawed company culture and regulatory system will be fixed becomes even more urgent.

One thing is for sure: in the history of air crash investigations, since the beginning of the Jet Age 60 years ago, there has never been such a serious and sustained breakdown in the safeguards intended to keep flying safe.

I have covered the MAX catastrophe for The Daily Beast since the first crash, of Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia that killed 189 passengers and crew on October 29, 2018. Like many other reporters, I was stonewalled and misled by Boeing’s carefully orchestrated and sustained campaign to resist grounding the airplane.

For example, it was obvious to me and other experienced reporters that the Lion Air pilots had been swiftly overcome by a problem that that they had not been trained to prepare for because it was related to a new control system, Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), that they—along with all other MAX flight crews—did not know even existed....