Sunday, June 13, 2021

2060 is too late to achieve needed measures to deter any further degradation of Earth.

October 15, 2021
By Lindsay Maizland

China’s environmental crisis (click here), the result of decades of rapid industrialization, not only threatens the health and livelihoods of the country’s 1.4 billion people but also the global fight against climate change. As the world’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in recent years, China suffers from notoriously bad air pollution. Its carbon-intensive industries have caused additional environmental challenges, including water scarcity and soil contamination. And, like the rest of the world, China will face increasingly harsh consequences of climate change in the coming decades, including flooding and droughts.

In response, Beijing has implemented policies to curb emissions and stem further degradation, such as by signing the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate and pledging to be carbon neutral by 2060. However, following through won’t be easy, experts say, as the government struggles to maintain economic growth; ease public discontent; and overcome tensions with the United States, the second-largest emitter....

The events of January 6, 2021 MUST be brought to justice. This is real. It needs to end. NOW!

June 11, 2021
By Connor Radnovich

Salem, Ore. - The Oregon House of Representatives (click here) ousted Republican Rep. Mike Nearman Thursday night, the first time in state history a sitting Oregon lawmaker has been expelled.

The tally was 59-1, with the only vote against coming from Nearman himself. He showed no contrition during brief comments on the floor of the House.

Nearman was removed for the disorderly behavior of allowing rioters into the closed Capitol building during a special legislative session on Dec. 21, 2020.

His actions led to dozens of people — some armed and wearing body armor — gaining access to the Capitol, thousands of dollars in damage and six injured Salem and Oregon State police officers.

"Colleagues, it couldn't be any clearer. Rep. Mike Nearman intentionally allowed armed protestors, occupiers, to illegally enter the building during the peak of the pandemic," Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, said on the floor of the House. "He coordinated with his supporters and extremist groups and then opened a door to let them in."...

When the axis of the planet shifts so does the travel of direct rays from the sun. It effects the seasons and Earth's delicate balance.

April 23, 2021
By Damian Carrington

The massive melting of glaciers as a result of global heating (click here) has caused marked shifts in the Earth’s axis of rotation since the 1990s, research has shown. It demonstrates the profound impact humans are having on the planet, scientists said.

The planet’s geographic north and south poles are the point where its axis of rotation intersects the surface, but they are not fixed. Changes in how the Earth’s mass is distributed around the planet cause the axis, and therefore the poles, to move.

In the past, only natural factors such as ocean currents and the convection of hot rock in the deep Earth contributed to the drifting position of the poles. But the new research shows that since the 1990s, the loss of hundreds of billions of tonnes of ice a year into the oceans resulting from the climate crisis has caused the poles to move in new directions....

The circumstances of a very changing Earth on it's rotation around the sun is about as serious as it can get. I don't know what has to happen next to get the entire human population to take themselves seriously. The Stratosphere is shrinking and the axis of Earth is changing. It is time to pay attention.

Doesn't Europe import more coal than it mines and the import is from China?

June 13, 2021
By Dulcie Lee and Joseph Lee

World leaders meeting in Cornwall (click here) are to adopt strict measures on coal-fired power stations as part of the battle against climate change.

The G7 group will promise to move away from coal plants, unless they have technology to capture carbon emissions.

It comes as Sir David Attenborough warned that humans could be "on the verge of destabilising the entire planet".

He said G7 leaders faced the most important decisions in human history.

The coal announcement came from the White House, which said it was the first time the leaders of wealthy nations had committed to keeping the projected global temperature rise to 1.5C.

That requires a range of urgent policies, chief among them being phasing out coal burning unless it includes carbon capture technology....

March 24, 2021
By Kira Taylor

Half of Europe’s 324 coal-fuelled power plants (click here) have either closed or announced a retirement date before 2030, it emerged on Monday (22 March) when French power utility EDF announced the 162nd plant will close in 2022.

EDF’s planned closure of the West Burton coal-fuelled power plant in the north of England – one of two remaining in Britain – means half of Europe’s coal plants will have closed by 2030.

“We are in the endgame for the coal industry in Europe,” said Kathrin Gutmann, campaign director at Europe Beyond Coal, an alliance of civil society groups campaigning to phase-out coal.

“After years of unrelenting decline, half of Europe’s coal fleet is history. Governments, energy companies and financial institutions must now plan for a 2030 or earlier coal exit, end all funding flows to coal and fossil gas, and instead, direct their support to sustainable renewables, and the just transition of impacted communities,” she added.

Coal produces the most CO2 per kilogram of all fossil fuels, producing nearly double the amount natural gas does. It also causes air pollution by releasing particulates when it burns.

Phasing out the use of coal is key to tackling climate change. Last week Mike Bloomberg, the UN’s special envoy for climate ambition and solutions, wrote an opinion piece for CNN with EU climate chief Frans Timmermans calling to end coal subsidies world-wide.

“If we want to tackle climate change and ensure people’s health and well-being, we have to accelerate our move away from coal. Ending our dependence on coal will save lives,” they wrote....

Moscow Mitch is in Trump's back pocket.

May 28, 2021
By Greg Sargent

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (click here) just staged a last-ditch effort to persuade Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to reconsider his opposition to a commission to examine the Jan. 6 insurrection. The Alaska Republican appealed to her Kentucky colleague’s conscience.

In an extraordinary nine-minute session with reporters, Murkowski called on McConnell to stop placing “short-term political gain” before the need to grapple with what really happened on Jan. 6. At stake are the “principles of democracy we hold so dear,” which must be valued “beyond just one election cycle.”...

Maybe there is something else the Alaskan Senator has in common with President Biden. They both love the US Constitution and Earth without excessive atmospheric heat.

In three years time, the Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica is breaking up.

First, the terminus was gone and resulted in the complete melting of the glacier as it hit the far warner water with every move to the ocean. Now, the glacier itself is breaking up and will melt far sooner than it has been melting. The more cracks in a glacier, the more warm air it is exposed to. This is a similar process that Greenland Ice is undergoing, except, this is the southern cap of Earth and not a glacier in the North Atlantic. Antarctica is more stable than Greenland because it's surroundings are far colder than the Arctic Ocean. The Arctic Ocean is down to new annual ice and not much more. It is succumbing to the heat in the troposphere created by anthropogenic greenhouse gas pollution.

June 12, 2021
By University of Washington

...These glaciers have attracted attention in recent decades (click here) as their ice shelves thinned because warmer ocean currents melted the ice’s underside. From the 1990s to 2009, Pine Island Glacier’s motion toward the sea accelerated from 2.5 kilometers per year to 4 kilometers per year (1.5 miles per year to 2.5 miles per year). The glacier’s speed then stabilized for almost a decade.

Results show that what’s happened more recently is a different process, Joughin said, related to internal forces on the glacier.

From 2017 to 2020, Pine Island’s ice shelf lost one-fifth of its area in a few dramatic breaks that were captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites, operated by the European Space Agency on behalf of the European Union. The researchers analyzed images from January 2015 to March 2020 and found that the recent changes on the ice shelf were not caused by processes directly related to ocean melting.

The ice shelf appears to be ripping itself apart due to the glacier’s acceleration in the past decade or two,” Joughin said....

June 11, 2021
By Seth Borenstein

...That ice shelf has retreated by 12 miles (20 kilometers) (click here) between 2017 and 2020, according to a study in Friday’s Science Advances The crumbling shelf was caught on time-lapse video from a European satellite that takes pictures every six days.

The tearing apart are crevasses in the ice becoming larger both due to added hot air exposure and the weight of the glacier is no longer supported by the terminus. I spoke to this years ago on the blog. The supporting ice structures will melt and finally, the ice cap will melt and fall into the oceans causing coastal disruption. These are huge ice structures at either end of the planet and they are melting and becoming circulating water for as long as the ocean circulation continues.

DO NOT CONTINUE THE POLITICS OF THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY.

“You can see stuff just tearing apart,” said study lead author Ian Joughin, a University of Washington glaciologist. “So it almost looks like the speed-up itself is weakening the glacier. ... And so far we’ve lost maybe 20% of the main shelf.”...

 

Manchin says he is going to make "the place" (US Senate) work. Not on our time.

The US Senate with Moscow Mitch leading the way with obstruction after obstruction is not working. Manchin is destroying the Democratic agenda in his attempt at bipartisanship. There are members of "the party" that aren't interested in the USA Constitution and Manchin thinks he is going to bring about bipartisanship? It will never happen because Moscow Mitch is going to prove he is still in charge.

June 13, 2021
By Daniel Dale

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (click here) was asked Tuesday where he stands on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a Democratic bill that aims to prevent states from implementing racially discriminatory voting laws.

McConnell's response, in which he expressed opposition to the bill, omitted a bunch of key context, got at least one fact wrong, and misleadingly described a top Democrat's comments on the issue.

McConnell's office declined to comment on the record for this article....

Come on, Joe. You know better than to play footsie with Moscow Mitch.

It's Sunday Night

The issues of today for women and minorities have not changed in over 60 years. All these issues of equality and climate have been stalled over and over again. There is no surprise that finally, a man in the Oval Office is speaking up for those that elected him to bring about EQUALITY and CONSCIENCE to our society.

Women have done all they could including burning bras and nothing was resolved. Then came President Obama and now his former Vice President, currently President Biden, has the helm and all is somewhat the same, but, different this time. The folks form the 1960s remember all the ATTEMPTS at equality and they are finished with attempts and want results. 

Enough of the filibuster. As if the obstruction isn't enough for Moscow McConnell, now Republican aides are saying McConnell is attempting to divide Democrats.

...Senate Republican aides say McConnell (click here) is daring Biden to split with progressives who want to shut down the bipartisan talks and pile as much of Biden’s $4.1 trillion spending agenda as possible into a budget reconciliation package, which under complicated Senate rules could bypass a filibuster and avoid the need for GOP support — if Democrats stick together.

One Republican aide who requested anonymity to discuss strategy said McConnell’s “posture all along has been he’s willing to work with Biden if he’s moderate.”

“The question is whether Democrats are willing to swallow that and that’s unclear at this point,” the GOP aide added....

Where Do We Go From Here by Deborah Cox

When you're in love
Some things you take for granted
Until someone pulls it apart
And leaves you with half of your heart
How do I trade
The best I had for less
Without giving up
Should I slowly accept that we'll be no more than just friends

How do I know
When to let go
I know what I'm feeling inside
But part of me still wants to try

So tell me
Where do we go from here
Why's my heart filled with so much fear
When all that you are
Is all I need and more

There's no winning bets
The battle's just begun
I know it's over
But I still feel the same
You'll always remain number one

'Cause letting go
More and so much
I know what I'm feeling inside
But part of me still wants to try

So tell me
Where do we go from here
Why's my heart filled with so much fear
When all that you are
Is…

Saturday, June 12, 2021

There isn't much news about the trials of the Flint Nine.

There is a lot going on in Flint, including a government budget that hasn't passed for two votes of the city council.

There is ongoing discussions about lead pipes in the country. Flint has inspired such inventory.

May 25, 2021
By Steve Carmody

Harold Harrington (click here) is a master plumber. Fixing people's pipes is what he does. But it was something he found in his own home in Flint, Mich., that disturbed him.

"This came out of my house," Harrington says as he holds a small piece of pipe. "This piece of galvanized was in my basement. It fed my upstairs faucet and this is out of my upstairs bathroom. ... It's full of lead."

Harrington is among the tens of thousands of residents of Flint whose contaminated drinking water cast a spotlight on a threat faced by communities across the United States....

Genesee County is looking for teenagers for summer work. Flint is finally putting air conditioning in eight of it's schools.

There is another way for cities across the USA can help return citizens to their best selves. Expungement should also return voting rights.

June 2, 2021
By Winter Keefer

Flint - Nearly 1,000 Genesee County residents (click here) had the opportunity to wipe their criminal record at an expungement fair held on the lawn of the Genesee County Jail Wednesday.

The Wednesday, June 2, event was the first of many expungement fairs that will take place across the state, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

Nessel, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II were all in attendance, along with many other public officials....

The Non-partisan Biden Justice Department is doing the hard work.

Routing out the "Trump Culture" has to start somewhere.

June 11, 2021
By Kristine Phillips

Washington - The Justice Department (click here) will beef up its civil rights unit as part of an aggressive effort to fight policies and legislation that restrict voter access and discriminate against marginalized voters, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday.

"To meet the challenge of the current moment, we must re-dedicate the resources of the Department of Justice to a critical part of its original mission: enforcing federal law to protect the franchise for all eligible voters," Garland said, noting a recent wave of legislation in several states that restrict voter access.

Garland said within the next 30 days, the department will double the enforcement staff of the civil rights unit, a powerful division within the agency that investigates hate crimes, police abuses and other civil rights violations....

Journalism is our fourth estate, next to Government and People, Spiritual and Legal.(click here)  If the people of the USA sincerely want to be heard outside that of an election, quality journalism is vital to their future and that of their country.

June 11, 2021
By Josh Meyer and Kristine Phillips

Washington - The Justice Department’s independent watchdog (click here) on Friday announced that it was launching a broad investigation into whether the Trump administration and its two attorneys general improperly seized phone records of House Democratic lawmakers, their staff and journalists as part of an aggressive 2018 leak investigation.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz confirmed that he would launch an investigation into it, as well as on the use of subpoenas to obtain journalists' phone records. Horowitz also said his watchdog agency would look beyond subpoenas to “other legal authorities [used] to obtain communication records … in connection with recent investigations of alleged unauthorized disclosures of information to the media by government officials.”

“The review will examine the Department’s compliance with applicable DOJ policies and procedures,” Horowitz said, “and whether any such uses, or the investigations, were based upon improper considerations. If circumstances warrant, the OIG will consider other issues that may arise during the review.”...

Do media services have to reach to the bottom for viewers and readers?

Tucker Carlson never won a Pulitzer. To that reality, FOX News defames the Pulitzer Organization. That is their focus, money, and hate. When is that journalism going to surface that actually proves FOX News is a parasite to democracy. Where is that Pulitzer?

Let me make this real clear. FOX News facilitated the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Why? Because they don't care. They get their MILLIONS AND BILLIONS from sensationalism and NOT journalism. They facilitated the hate that inspired criminality and assault against democracy.

The reason FOX News is sponsoring, "Let's hate Kamala" agenda is because they are scared she is right about anything and will be presidential material in the future. I mean if they can assault Harris like they did Clinton, Trump is a shoo-in. 

The other reason the Vice President is being harrassed is that FOX does not want to report the FACT, that Trump is under investigation for his role in the insurgency of 2021. Every news service should be reporting loud and clear that the former President who never was removed from office because of sympathetic Senate Republicans lead by Moscow Mitch, is under investigation for his role in the country's turmoil and insurrection on January 6, 2021.

EVERY MEDIA SERVICE SHOULD BE REPORTING ABOUT TRUMP'S ATTEMPT TO END OUR DEMOCRACY IN FAVOR OF HIS HEIRACHY.  That is real sensationalism, not the empty detention camps at the USA southern border.

June 19, 2012

By Andy Borowitz

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report (click here)—In an unprecedented honor for the Rupert Murdoch-led network, the Fox News Channel today won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

In its official statement, the prize committee praised Fox for exhibiting “an imagination and inventiveness that rival the best of Charles Dickens and J. R. R. Tolkien.”

In hailing Fox, the committee singled out the network’s fourteen-part story about President Obama’s birth in a mud-hut in Kenya.

For Mr. Murdoch, the stunning Pulitzer Prize win was a rare bright spot in what he acknowledged had been “a difficult year.”

“When I first heard about the Pulitzer committee’s decision, I didn’t believe it,” he said. “I had to listen to their voice mails to hear it for myself.”

The Kentucky Attorney General looked the other way when an innocent woman was gunned down.

June 11, 2021

The Courier Journal (click here) was named a finalist for a 2021 Pulitzer Prize in two categories for its reporting on the police slaying of Breonna Taylor and the more than 180 consecutive days of protest it provoked in Louisville.

The Courier Journal staff were a finalist in the breaking news and public service categories.

"Much of what we now know about the night Breonna Taylor was fatally shot by police is because of the Louisville Courier Journal’s dogged reporting, determination and demands for transparency," said Amalie Nash, senior vice president of local news for the USA TODAY Network. "The Courier Journal has been reporting on this case from the start, shedding light on a killing that subsequently gained national and international attention."

The winner in breaking news was the staff of the Minneapolis Star Tribune for its coverage of the George Floyd murder. The New York Times won the public service category, the Pulitzer’s top prize, for its coverage of the coronavirus pandemic....

Vice President Harris gave a great interview with Lester Holt. Evidently, it wasn't sensational enough for FOX News so they have to spice up the hate.

What else is there to say to other countries' leadership? The basis of Vice President Harris' visit was to bring a common understanding and common ground to USA foreign policy.

The very policy Vice President Harris is trying to RE-establish is the foreign policy that worked with the Northern Triad before Trump defunded it. He defunded the policies that addressed the problems the countries had and illegal immigration to the USA Southern Border went through the roof.

2019 saw the highest illegal immigration in history. Trump's approach was to treat the immigrants as criminals and housing them like animals. The Biden Administration is looking at the root causes of the illegal immigrants at the border. That is why Vice President Harris' approach in returning to sound policy will work to reduce immigration.

The one issue affecting the larger numbers at the border since the Biden Administration is the pandemic and the fact the USA had the highest number of vaccines to reduce the highest global incidence of infection and deaths. The largest population group at the USA southern border allowed into the country are unaccompanied AND abandoned children. The drug cartels and terrified parents are the reason. However, Vice President Harris has begun to address the child migrant crisis and the number of children held at the border has reduced.

May 5, 2021

The number of unaccompanied migrant children (click here) being kept in cramped government-detention facilities on the US southern border with Mexico has fallen sharply, after a 20-year high influx of border crossings led to overcrowding.

The massive influx of children left US immigration officials scrambling earlier this year for facilities to house the children.

The number of children being held in by US Customs and Border Protection (CPB) has dropped 88% between late March and late April, according to government officials.

The decrease comes as a task force set up by President Joe Biden begins to reunite families that were separated under his predecessor Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy.

Mr Biden has urged migrants not to attempt to travel to the US border - "Don't leave your town or city or community," he has said - but with Mr Trump out of office, some believe immigration to the US is now more possible....

There isn't much hate to find at the USA southern border anymore. What has resulted instead of hate is a pragmatic approach to end the crisis. When a country south of the USA is experiencing mass emigration there needs to be a solution to end the exodus. That is what Vice President Harris is doing in the Northern Triad and Mexico. Obviously, she is right in that the administration has sent their people to the southern border and the circumstances now have to be addressed within the countries in crisis. 

The children being accepted into the USA are here temporarily unless an American adopts them. The USA Supreme Court made it completely clear that people in crisis finding refuge in the USA are not here permanently. Some of the people that come to the USA due to a crisis in their homeland do stay after achieving a working status and use other means of immigration to qualify. They are not granted permanent citizen status simply because their homeland is in crisis and "Gee that is terrible." 

The immigration issue must be addressed in legislation in Congress. That is the story and not the fact the Vice President is in the Northern Triad rather than at the USA southern border. The crisis of the children at the USA southern border is solved and there are minimal number housed there. The humanitarian crisis is addressed and now the Vice President is addressing the underlying causes.  Questions? 

I guess Vice President Harris is NOT a "Photo Op" politician.

So, here is the process.

l. Solve the crisis at the southern border.
2. Advocate for immigration reform in the legislature.
3. Address the crisis within the countries where immigrants are coming from so the migration will end and lives are not in danger to "attempt to make it to the USA." The travel through those countries is dangerous and should not be attempted.

Got it? 

Not very sensational even for a photo op.

Where FOX News goes, so many other news agencies follow thinking that FOX is all that. Well, FOX News is only good for one thing and one thing only; fear-mongering facilitated by hate. I dare anyone to say otherwise.

The rest of the media that are like sheep over a cliff need to practice journalism and not sensationalism.

   

Thursday, June 10, 2021

THIS is the type of movement that needs to dominate The West and their international alliances.

It is great when an American President actually takes on the hard work that the country needs to have done.

June 10, 2021
By David E. Sanger and Michael D. Shear

Carbis Bay, England. England is surrounded by water with some of the most romantic places to visit.

Carbis Bay, England - President Biden (click here) and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain signed a new version of the 80-year old “Atlantic Charter” on Thursday, using their first meeting to redefine the Western alliance and accentuate what they said was a growing divide between battered democracies and their autocratic rivals, led by Russia and China.

The two leaders unveiled the new charter as they sought to focus the world’s attention on emerging threats from cyber attacks, the Covid-19 pandemic that has upended the global economy, and climate change, using language about reinforcing NATO and international institutions that Mr. Biden hoped would make clear that the Trump era of America First was over.

But the two men also continued to grapple with old-world challenges, including Mr. Biden’s private admonishment of the prime minister against taking actions that could inflame sectarian violence in Northern Ireland....

This settles any question about the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and where The West stands on an independent investigation.

10 June 2021
By Finbarr Bermingham

The leaders of the United States and Britain (click here) vowed to support an independent investigation into the origins of Covid-19, “including in China”, in a meeting on the eve of the
G7 Leaders’ Summit in Cornwall.

A joint statement from US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson added to earlier comments from European Union leaders urging China to permit inspectors “complete access” to all relevant sites and information related to the pandemic.

“We will also support a timely, transparent and evidence-based independent process for the next phase of the WHO-convened Covid-19 origins study, including in China, and for investigating outbreaks of unknown origin in the future,” said the statement, issued on Thursday.

The readout referred to China only once by name, but hinted at the rivalry with Beijing throughout, vowing to advance “the values of liberal democracies, open societies and open markets” and to “defend media freedom [and] advance a free and open internet”....

President Biden does not have to apologize for the large number of vaccines in the USA, because, Trump left the USA in shambles. The USA had the highest number of cases and the highest number of deaths. Someone had to bring the virus in the USA under control and it was President Biden and his vaccination efforts.

There are countries that won't need vaccines at all. There are countries like India that will require not only vaccines, but, a complete readdress of the way the people live. India needs a new quality of life and living in slums where people are stacked densely has to be replaced with more modern buildings that allow for safe quarantine. Other countries that faced or are still facing these deplorable conditions also need to improve the people's quality of life. All that can be done with an eye on the horizon of the climate crisis and putting the global community back together in a way that benefits all and Earth as well.

June 10, 2021
By Betsy KleinKate Sullivan and Maegan Vazquez

Falmouth, England - President Joe Biden announced Thursday (click here) evening that the United States plans to donate 500 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses globally as part of his efforts to reassert US leadership on the world stage.

"America knows first-hand the tragedy of this pandemic. We've had more people die in the United States than anywhere in the world, nearly 600,000 of our fellow Americans," Biden said in remarks after meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

He added, "We know the tragedy. We also know the path to recovery."

The move will also serve to counter efforts by Russia and China to use their own state-funded vaccines to expand their global influence....

The West needs to decide about Russia and it's failed society, as well as a failed economy reflected by it's failed currency. The only strength Russia has in the global community is regarding ballistics and it's use to intimidate other countries. There is no benevolence to Russia anymore. It needs to return to a better economic status and revitalize a freedom movement within that country abandoned by Vladimir Putin when he needed the communist vote to win re-election.

In exchange for Russia to become a global trading partner with the USA and NATO again, it needs to come clean about the information Trump handed to them and why.

NATO should come together to sponsor their own space station and eliminate communist countries from the opportunity.

June 7, 2021

The head of Russia's space agency (click here) on Monday suggested Moscow would withdraw from the International Space Station in 2025 unless Washington lifted sanctions on the space sector that were hampering Russian satellite launches.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, was addressing parliamentarians ahead of a summit in Geneva later this month between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden.

Rogozin said Moscow was struggling to launch some of its satellites because of U.S. sanctions which meant Russia could not import certain microchip sets needed for its space programme.

"We have more than enough rockets but nothing to launch them with," Rogozin said, in a rare admission by a senior Russian official that Western sanctions are seriously impeding the development of a given industry....

I honestly don't believe Russian spacemen will be leaving the ISS anytime soon. But, honestly, who cares?

13 May 2021
By Catherine Shoard

Yulia Peresild has been announced as the female lead in the Russian production. 

The space race (click here) appears set for a relaunch following the news that Russia is to send an actor and director to the International Space Station in October, with the ambition of making the first feature film in space.

The crew are scheduled to begin their expedition on 5 October 2021. While on the space station they could encounter some fellow film-makers: Tom Cruise and the director Doug Liman, who are also due to travel there in October to make a movie.

The exact date of Cruise’s blastoff has not yet been revealed, but the departure of the Russians in the first few days of the month suggests an intention to beat the Americans.

Russia was first reported to be mounting a rival production last year, shortly after plans were confirmed last summer for Cruise, who will be 59 at the time of his mission, to go into low Earth orbit, backed by Nasa and Elon Musk....

Fire sale in Russia!

May 19, 2021

Russia (click here) has put up for sale one of its space modules, which in 2018 returned a Russian and two Americans from the International Space Station (ISS)....

June 4, 2021
By Sissi Cao

Next month, (click here) a big module called Pirs will be jettisoned from the Russian half of the International Space Station and fall into Earth’s atmosphere. No need to worry about pieces of metal falling from the sky, though, as calculation suggests that the giant debris should have completely burned up before making it to the ground.

Still, it will be the first ISS module to be completely decommissioned and discarded in space. On Wednesday, a pair of ISS residents, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, went outside the orbital lab and performed a seven-hour spacewalk to prepare for Pirs’s release....

The communists have their own space station. Russia will be going here. Now, why not be a part of the ISS? Right? Assets spent together provides for better domestic budgets. 

BECAUSE THE COMMUNISTS DON'T CARE ABOUT PEACEFUL USE OF SPACE.

May 31, 2021
By Arjun Kharopal

Guangzhou, China - China (click here) has completed another major part of its own space station, the latest in a string of ambitious extraterrestrial projects from the world’s second-largest economy.

The Long March 7 rocket carrying the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft took off at 8:55 p.m. local time on Saturday from the Wenchang launch site, according to the China Manned Space agency.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, Tianzhou-2 docked with the core module of the space station called Tianhe.

China’s space station will be made of three modules which includes the Tianhe “core,” cargo spacecraft such as Tianzhou-2 and laboratories. China will carry out 11 missions this year and next to complete the construction of the space station, and bring astronauts and supplies up too. The space station is expected to go into operation in 2022....

Tuesday, June 08, 2021

The Voting Rights Act of 1964 was impressive and massively changed everything about voting oppression.

Joe Machin is ridiculous. On one hand he touts all the expansions afforded the people of West Virginia. Then on the other hand he pretends as if all the changes he made as West Virginia Secretary of State are permanent and will never change.

Either Joe Machin hasn’t read a newspaper lately or he simply doesn’t care about the vulnerability of voting rights regardless of it’s fundamental and constitutional right to every citizen. He treats the “For the People Act” as a partisan witch hunt to eliminate Republicans. He is wrong and his rhetoric is disgraceful.

I have a suggestion for Speaker Pelosi. Break down “For the People Act” into smaller bills so those voting against it can be identified to their particular hatred of freedom and Democracy. 

When the “For The People Act” is broken down into separate parts and still rejected by the US Senate, send it on a tour of the country asking citizens to do two things. First, adopt the provisions into a state referendum. Second, begin the process of an Amendment proposal that will take voting rights out of the hands of politicians and into the hands of the people. 

For Amendments to be successful Americans need to understand the proposed Amendment and how best to support it through a 2/3rds vote in Congress and in the states.

E. Jean Carroll Case

President Biden needs to consider filing an Amicus Brief with the courts regarding the proper function of a President of the USA in regard to women’s rights and sexual assault. There can be no back sliding in regard to the efficacy of these sexual assault cases. Women and prosecutors have made incredible gains in taking back a woman’s dignity and rights in cases of sexual abuse assault. Ms. Carroll was assaulted by the Former President. When she came forward her employment was then in peril. There is a lot wrong with what occurred in Ms. Carroll’s life. Since the assault including her deafening silence for decades because of fear of retribution. She was right in being silent in this white wealthy man dominated society where money talks louder than a woman’s right to safety from sexual predators.

The DOJ may be technically correct but is morally disgraceful within its purview. A friend of the court filing is necessary by the White House to set the record straight. This behavior of sexual assault cannot be tolerated in the highest ranking officer in the military either. There is a great deal at stake and the Biden Administration has a place in this case far afield from Merrick Garland’s DOJ.

Mayoral races? Really?

Texas isn’t really all that surprising, now is it. The Democrats have given up for so long in Texas that they didn’t have candidates with governance experience or familiarity to the voters. McAllen is a city right on the Mexican border chocked full of illegal migrants. How willing were the voters to over turn a familiar government? If Democrats want to continue to win in states where Republicans have dominated the corruption has to be routed out and made part of  a campaign. Candidates will have to be familiar and with some experience in governance and not just experience in politics.

Sunday, June 06, 2021

Thank you for stopping by, but, It’s Sunday Night will occur later this week. 

There is a lot of climate misinformation and I have to tackle that. 

Until later...