Dominos's Pizza supports religious efforts. One of them is at Domino Farms, the "Ave Maria University Chapel (click here)." The chapel has an office there and a book store and conducts fund raising. There may be a chance Domino's Pizza would be interested in working with the Nuns in Massachusetts to protect their monastery.
Monday, July 11, 2022
Solar windows
ubiquitous energy (click here)
From the IPCC:
...Opportunities (click here) to advance climate resilient development in cities include implementing integrated, inclusive planning and integration of climate change concerns into investments in urban infrastructure, including social and ecological infrastructures. Safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystems and ensuring equitable outcomes contributes has multiple be to multiple benefits for health and well-being, including for marginalized and vulnerable communities....
July 9, 2022By Alex Knapp and Alan Ohnsman
...Last week, BP released its annual Statistical Review of World Energy, (click here) which provides a comprehensive look at the global energy industry. One of the most interesting statistics within it was the growth of renewable energy, consumption of which grew 15% in 2021. Hydroelectric, nuclear and renewable energy accounted for about 18% of energy consumption around the globe, with the balance being provided by fossil fuels. Wind and solar power combined accounted for 10.1% of total global energy production, the first time that number has been above 10%. “Together, wind and solar power provided 2,894 Terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2021,” writes Forbes senior Energy contributor Robert Rapier. “For perspective, in 2010 that number was 380 TWh.”...
"Good night, moon"
11.7 day old moon
89.8 percent lit
July 10, 2022
By Len Melisurgo
The second (click here) of two consecutive “supermoons” will be glowing brightly in the night sky this week, as the full “buck moon” of July 2022 rises and gives sky watchers a special summer treat.
Here are a few things to know about the July full moon, when to see it and why it’s so unique among this year’s moons.
The first full moon of the summer season (the June moon turned full a week before the summer solstice) will officially reach its fullest phase at 2:37 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, July 13. So, it will be at its biggest and brightest when it rises above the horizon Wednesday night....
Sunday, July 10, 2022
Sister Simone Campbell was awarded the Medal of Freedom.
Pope Francis is a Franciscan Jesuit (click here).
By Emily Sweeney
...Kathy Kottaridis, (click here) the executive director of Historic Boston Inc., said the monastery appears to be the oldest remaining purpose-built women’s monastery in New England. Many in the community want the building to be preserved.
“I’m glad they’re moving in that direction,” she said. “It has such an institutional presence right there, and it has an interesting history.”
Sister Clare Frances McAvoy, the abbess of the monastery, said although the demolition plans are “off the table,” the sisters are moving forward with their plans of vacating the property.
“We do need to move,” she said. “This building is too big. And it’s too expensive.”...
This really does seem wrong. Their income is not all that. I am sure there is a foundation somewhere that can smile on this monastery. Maybe modernize it and make it more livable. But, to allow them to simply move to a different place while their home is taken in as a historical building just doesn't seem right. I am glad the building is valued, but, it needs nuns in it to keep it alive.
Either we believe in longevity or not.
President Biden is liked by a lot of people. Governor Pritzker is supposed to have already endorsed his run for a second term. I strongly believe after the exploitation of the USA with Russia during the time Trump was in office, especially with NATO, Joe Biden as president was a brilliant decision by the American people.
I think it is important for the Democratic Party to be comfortable with him in the presidency, but, in all honesty, except for stuttering from time to time there are really no complaints. The stuttering has been a characteristic for all his life, not simply as he aged. A president with a stuttering disability is no one to be ashamed of either. Who really notices?
We as a society have valued longevity for a very long time. The only time longevity was not valued for all Americans is when Trump was in office. He didn't care who lived or died during the global pandemic and it was no error because of age; he just didn't care.
President Joe Biden is just the opposite. He cares a great deal about Americans. Refreshingly, he cares a great deal about the Middle Class. I think the country has vastly improved from the Trump years and it was Joe's leadership that did it. He knows what he is doing. He knows the American people. He has had a great presidency to date. NATO is back and not only back but standing the ground against genocide by a country we once trusted enough to be trade partners.
He wants the gun violence to stop. He knows the climate crisis is real and must be addressed. He is appalled by the decision by the Supreme Court about Roe v. Wade, which was considered settled law. He values everything American and wants peace as a top agenda item, but, he is also realistic in knowing other countries don't care about peace.
I have no problem with President Biden being 79 years old. Correct me if I am wrong, but, isn't Social Security encouraging Americans to work until the age of 75? Isn't the benefit for SSI scaled now to reflect some degree of penalty if one retires at the age of 65. So, what are we saying when we worry about President Biden? Are we saying we are worried about him and his ability to lead longer, or are we saying he is simply to old and we want someone else.
Really? Someone else? Because of age?
Is that who we are? Is that who we really are?
President Joe Biden gets respect from nearly everyone, except, those that want to replace him in 2024 with who? With Donald John Trump.
Really? Trump? Is that who we really are?
By Peter Baker
Washington - When President Biden (click here) leaves Tuesday night for a four-day swing through the Middle East, he will presumably be more rested than he would have been had he followed the original plan.
The trip was initially tacked onto another journey last month to Europe, which would have made for an arduous 10-day overseas trek until it became clear to Mr. Biden’s team that such extended travel might be unnecessarily taxing for a 79-year-old president, or “crazy,” as one official put it.
Aides also cited political and diplomatic reasons to reorganize the extra stops as a separate trip weeks later. But the reality is that managing the schedule of the oldest president in American history presents distinct challenges. And as Mr. Biden insists he plans to run for a second term, his age has increasingly become an uncomfortable issue for him, his team and his party...
It seems all the sewer rats are afraid of the flood of truth coming to Americans.
Mr. Bannon has acted as a criminal before with his offshore office. He was caught fair and square, but, his buddy Trump gave him a pardon. Now, he broke the law again, refused to be interviewed by the January 6th Committee, is about to stand trial and he comes forward with his tail between his legs looking for a way out.
I think he should be interviewed, but, he has no right to demand it be televised. He must follow the process everyone else has followed and be interviewed in a closed session with cameras running. If his testimony is found to be credible then perhaps have him face the American people in the public forum of the committee. I think to provide him a special interview session as a public forum would be unfair to all the other witnesses that freely came forward and answered questions.
I don't know what he could add to the information anyway. Most everything about him is already known from others and from his podcast. All he can do is validate the facts already discovered. It is up to the judge and any jurors to decide about refusing to cooperate with Congress.
By Katie Wadington
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon (click here) has told the committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol that he may be willing to testify, after all.
Bannon, who was in contact with former President Donald Trump in the days leading up to the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, refused to comply with a subpoena issued last fall, claiming executive privilege from Trump. Both the committee and full House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Overnight Sunday, the committee received a letter from Bannon's lawyer stating the former adviser would testify.
"Mr. Bannon was obligated to honor the President’s invocation (of executive privilege), unless and until, either your Committee reached a constitutionally required accommodation with President Trump as to the invocation of executive privilege or your Committee obtained a ruling from the Federal District Court that the invocation of executive privilege was improper or did not apply to the particular question or document sought," attorney Robert Costello wrote. "While Mr. Bannon has been steadfast in his convictions, circumstances have now changed."...
Mitch McConnell is corrupt to the core and must be replaced as soon as possible.
I think McConnell is a communist. It is far too easy for oligarchs and his Chinese family to talk him into a corrupted state of mind to benefit their own purposes. This is just too much already. Just before the 2020 elections he changed a vote to allow a Russian oligarch to build a steel rolling plant in Kentucky. We also know while his wife was Secretary of Transportation preference was given to Kentucky to receive monies for roads and bridges.
Not only that but McConnell had a hissy fit over the Supreme Court and any adjustments that need to be made to secure equal representation of all Americans not just the wealthy, Evangelicals (click here). McConnell wants a majority US Senate to control the Supreme Court. Make no doubts about it, that is his purpose.
Now, besides ending abortions, he wants to end a bill that will bring balance back to the USA when it comes to important domestic production of vital products such as medications and silicon computer chips. The US Senate seat in Ohio has the issue of computer chips at the center of the race.
Blocking this innovation bill serves no one except the Chinese and it has to end. The bill must go forward and now. The USA has to function when any emergency hits and realizing the failure of the Republicans during the pandemic only brings home the very wrong path the Republicans are taking the USA. We must stop them. They are compromising our national security, in practice and not in policy.
McConnell's wrongful priorities need to be investigated. This is more than a bad habit.
By Michael Lee
The White House lashed out at Senate Minority (click here) Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., over his threat to hold up negotiations on the bipartisan innovation bill if Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., moves forward with a reconciliation bill aimed at tackling prescription drug costs and climate change.
"Senator McConnell is holding hostage a bipartisan package to make more in America and strengthen our competitive edge with China to protect big Pharma’s profits. It’s outrageous - we can and must do both," a White House official told Fox News.
"Leader McConnell himself agreed last fall that bipartisan negotiations shouldn’t be paused for other priorities saying: ‘Republicans have been negotiating in bipartisan good faith to meet the real infrastructure needs of our nation. The President cannot let congressional Democrats hold a bipartisan bill hostage over a separate and partisan process.’"...
Louisiana doesn't have the energy problem it thinks it has.
The Louisiana offshore 90-meter (m) height wind map (click here) and wind resource potential estimates are provided on this page. Areas with annual average wind speeds of 7 meters per second (m/s) and greater at 90-m height are generally considered to be suitable for offshore development.
Louisiana's entire offshore is completely able to produce electric power for the state. I look at it this way. It won't be underwater when sea level rise hits.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has produced these estimates of the gross (not reduced by environmental or human use considerations) offshore wind potential expressed in "installed capacity." This is the potential megawatts (MW) of rated capacity that could be installed at offshore areas with mean annual wind speeds of 7 m/s and greater at a 90-m height, assuming 5 MW of installed capacity per square kilometer of water. The offshore wind potential tables present the resource broken down by annual wind speed, water depth, and distance from shore.
Louisiana's entire offshore is completely able to produce electric power for the state. I look at it this way. It won't be underwater when sea level rise hits.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has produced these estimates of the gross (not reduced by environmental or human use considerations) offshore wind potential expressed in "installed capacity." This is the potential megawatts (MW) of rated capacity that could be installed at offshore areas with mean annual wind speeds of 7 m/s and greater at a 90-m height, assuming 5 MW of installed capacity per square kilometer of water. The offshore wind potential tables present the resource broken down by annual wind speed, water depth, and distance from shore.
St. James Parish President Pete Dufresne may or may not be influenced by the petroleum industry, but, one thing is for sure the companies he wants to see in his parish want alternative energy. The people of the USA want the switch and they want it now.
American agriculture has never been more important. The agricultural land may also be compatible with wind turbines, too. But, for Mr. Dufresne to simply exclude alternative energy production as wrong is irresponsible. The people want it and valuing their consumers, the companies want it. While a reassessment is in order to determine the importance and production of the farmland, there are plenty of opportunity for solar that are mounted on top of buildings as well.
That said, METHANE IS NOT A GREEN ENERGY.
Cities across the USA must provide a forum to move them from petroleum based energy to alternative energies.
IT MUST HAPPEN.
There is no politics or back room deals to be tolerated. Alternative energies must take hold and now.
July 10, 2022
By David J. Mitchell
..."That's the most valuable real estate we have. (click here) That's the most valuable real estate, accessible to rail and river, and it's just taking away so many opportunities that could be other clean projects, as well, you know, that could actually bring jobs, and that's what our concern is," Dufresne told a few solar, utility and media representatives after a recent Parish Council meeting.
"We need jobs. I mean these thousands of acres of solar farms is not bringing any jobs, and who's getting the benefit? Who's getting the real benefit of these solar panels," he added.
Dufresne's and other local officials' concerns reflect the unease that has arisen among some in rural Louisiana over the proliferation of solar farms over thousands of acres agricultural land....
By David J. Mitchell
..."That's the most valuable real estate we have. (click here) That's the most valuable real estate, accessible to rail and river, and it's just taking away so many opportunities that could be other clean projects, as well, you know, that could actually bring jobs, and that's what our concern is," Dufresne told a few solar, utility and media representatives after a recent Parish Council meeting.
"We need jobs. I mean these thousands of acres of solar farms is not bringing any jobs, and who's getting the benefit? Who's getting the real benefit of these solar panels," he added.
Dufresne's and other local officials' concerns reflect the unease that has arisen among some in rural Louisiana over the proliferation of solar farms over thousands of acres agricultural land....
This is a disgrace. Some how human fecal discharge is occurring.
There is no hiding from this because enterococci comes from human colons. The US EPA needs to begin to hand out summons and fines for the towns or countries that are contributing to this problem. There are fisheries along the Gulf Coast. At least there used to be before the Deepwater Horizon. I thought there was serious rehabilitation of those areas. The fisheries are vital and there cannot be this level of abuse of coastal waters anywhere anymore.
By Roshaun Higgins
There are only two beaches in Louisiana (click here) that are open and safe to swim in: Cypremort Point State Park and Lake Charles North Beach. Every other beach is either closed or has a swimming advisory.
Every year, from April 1 through October 31, the Louisiana Department of Health does weekly water quality sampling for 24 coastal recreational beaches.
Swimming advisories are issued when an area is deemed so polluted with enterococci bacteria that it could have adverse health effects. Advisories are separate from the standing swim at your own risk notice for all Louisiana waters.
Under the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000, the water quality must be in line with the EPA's recreational water quality criteria....
Every year, from April 1 through October 31, the Louisiana Department of Health does weekly water quality sampling for 24 coastal recreational beaches.
Swimming advisories are issued when an area is deemed so polluted with enterococci bacteria that it could have adverse health effects. Advisories are separate from the standing swim at your own risk notice for all Louisiana waters.
Under the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000, the water quality must be in line with the EPA's recreational water quality criteria....
Hurricanes are a bit of the old world. The best word to describe these storms are system.
July 8, 2022
By Jesse Ferrell and John Murphy
The second named (click here) system of the year in the Atlantic Basin, which crossed over Central America and became a post-tropical cyclone away from land in the Eastern Pacific basin on Sunday, July 3, was anything but a typical tropical cyclone. From its unusual track to the locations it has impacted, Bonnie was full of surprises....
Do NOT turn these young people over to a private prison or jail!
July 8, 2022
By Elyse Carmosino and Paul Cobler
Some of the state’s most rural parishes (click here) are struggling to find places for their youngest criminal defendants after Alabama announced this week it would no longer house Louisiana’s juvenile inmates. One district attorney with no local facility to hold youths is calling on state officials to fund the construction of regional facilities.
Alabama’s decision, announced Wednesday, left 18th Judicial District Attorney Tony Clayton and others scrambling to find places for the teens in a state that has long held underage pre-trial inmates in other jurisdictions because of a purported lack of adequate in-state resources....
By Elyse Carmosino and Paul Cobler
Some of the state’s most rural parishes (click here) are struggling to find places for their youngest criminal defendants after Alabama announced this week it would no longer house Louisiana’s juvenile inmates. One district attorney with no local facility to hold youths is calling on state officials to fund the construction of regional facilities.
Alabama’s decision, announced Wednesday, left 18th Judicial District Attorney Tony Clayton and others scrambling to find places for the teens in a state that has long held underage pre-trial inmates in other jurisdictions because of a purported lack of adequate in-state resources....
...
The PGA did the right and best thing.
The game in the USA is better for the shake up. I firmly believe that. It seems like more of a sport to me.
This is from "Forbes."
July 9, 2022By Derek Saul
...LIV Golf formally launched last fall (click here) with Australian former world No. 1 Greg Norman as its chief executive, but began to truly make waves in February when Mickelson defended his ties to the Saudi-backed league with inflammatory comments about the Saudi government’s involvement in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and its criminalization of homosexuality. Mickelson said and disappeared from the public eye for months before playing his first tournament in June at LIV Golf’s first-ever tournament at the Centurion Golf Club near London. The PGA Tour announced last month the suspension of any golfers playing in LIV Golf tournaments from the tour. DeChambeau made his LIV Golf debut at the series’ first U.S. tournament June 30, where Koepka, Reed and Ancer also made their debuts....
The USA military at least a decade ago, if not two, stated the climate crisis was a national priority.
This is why and it is only beginning. This problem must be solved. It is complex and can be treacherous politically. But, this is the 21st Century and water is a valuable commodity complicated by a war no country on Earth wanted, except for Russia's Putin. I doubt the people of Russia want this war, but, it rages just the same. The water issue in the USA West must be solved. Conservation is important and protecting forests are important as they act to purify water and maintain a cooling effect on the land and air.
Everyone that has a stake in this must be heard and a solution found.
By Stephanie Elm
With a megadrought draining water reserves in the West, (click here) states are looking for alternatives to handle water rights, many of which were set more than 100 years ago when water supplies were far more abundant.
Back then, just posting a sign next to a water diversion was enough to be considered a right, one which could still be honored now. But the climate crisis is now straining those rights. There just isn't enough water in California to satisfy what's been allotted on paper.
For years, debate has raged in California about the best way to fix the water rights system for life in the modern era. Many of the senior water rights held in the state were set before 1914 when the permit system was established and when mining was big business.
"It's an old water system that many perceive isn't set up to deal with current climatic and hydraulic conditions," Nathan Metcalf, a water rights attorney for California law firm Hanson Bridgett, told CNN. "It's just not really set up to deal with climate change and the changing needs for water both from an environmental standpoint, and then there's also the rub between agriculture and municipal."...
This problem must be solved.
I have one word for California agriculture.
"Ukraine."
By Tom Stokley
California’s once-abundant salmon (click here) runs are on the verge of collapse. That’s a tragedy, but this story is bigger than the extinction of an iconic fish that once fed millions of people and was the basis of thriving commercial, tribal and sport fisheries. Salmon (to mix zoological metaphors) are the canary in the coal mine for California’s water and power ratepayers.
Our salmon are flirting with extinction because they’re not getting the cold water they need to survive. Over the last few decades, that water mostly has been supplied from Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River, other dams on Sacramento and San Joaquin river tributaries, and Trinity Dam on the Trinity and Klamath river system. These rivers comprise the state’s remaining salmon strongholds.
The ongoing drought and resource mismanagement, however, have left such cold water in short supply. Although they were aware of the growing water crisis, state and federal water managers have drawn down reservoirs rapidly over the past three years, leaving cold water — indeed, any water — in short supply. Why? To provide water to a small subset of commercial growers....
By Paul Rogers
Californians continue to miss conservation targets (click here) by a large margin, new numbers released Friday show, despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s warning six weeks ago that mandatory statewide restrictions are on the way if local conservation efforts don’t improve.
Last July, Newsom declared a drought emergency and asked California residents to voluntarily cut urban water use by 15% compared to 2020 levels. Although Northern Californians reduced consumption by 8.5% in May, Southern California regions fell far short at just 2.2% and dragged the statewide reduction in use to 3.1% compared to May 2020.
The new numbers represent only a slight improvement from last July through May, when residents, businesses and government agencies cumulatively reduced water use statewide by 2% compared to the same period in 2020, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.
Is a crackdown coming, with mandatory conservation targets for each city? That’s what former Gov. Jerry Brown imposed during California’s last drought, but Newsom’s office wasn’t saying on Friday....
Last July, Newsom declared a drought emergency and asked California residents to voluntarily cut urban water use by 15% compared to 2020 levels. Although Northern Californians reduced consumption by 8.5% in May, Southern California regions fell far short at just 2.2% and dragged the statewide reduction in use to 3.1% compared to May 2020.
The new numbers represent only a slight improvement from last July through May, when residents, businesses and government agencies cumulatively reduced water use statewide by 2% compared to the same period in 2020, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.
Is a crackdown coming, with mandatory conservation targets for each city? That’s what former Gov. Jerry Brown imposed during California’s last drought, but Newsom’s office wasn’t saying on Friday....
California is droughted. Alaska is on fire.
By Rick Hurd
Yosemite - The Mariposa Grove (click here) in Yosemite National Park remained closed Friday afternoon as a wildfire that ignited Thursday near the lower portion of the popular destination continued to expand, fire officials said.
The Washburn Fire had increased to 250 acres by late Friday morning, according to a statement from Yosemite Fire officials. There was no estimate on containment of the fire.
The fire was first reported on the park’s the Washburn Trail — for which the fire was then named — in the Mariposa Grove’s lower section on Thursday around 2 p.m. by 911 callers, according to Nancy Phillipe, a Yosemite fire information spokesperson. Its cause remains under investigation.
Authorities evacuated the area and firefighters were battling the blaze with engines, crews and aircraft....
Yellowstone Bison
July 9, 2022
By Dennis Jorgensen, bison program manager for World Wildlife Fund's U.S. Northern Great Plains Program
As a resident Montanan, (click here) professional bison conservationist and neighbor of nearby Yellowstone National Park, I can understand why people feel the urge to touch these massive mammals. They are a sight to behold — both undeniably cute and seemingly oblivious to our presence. However, as a biologist, I assure you that they are keenly aware of our approach. They can and will respond with lightning-fast reflexes if we get too close.
By Dennis Jorgensen, bison program manager for World Wildlife Fund's U.S. Northern Great Plains Program
As a resident Montanan, (click here) professional bison conservationist and neighbor of nearby Yellowstone National Park, I can understand why people feel the urge to touch these massive mammals. They are a sight to behold — both undeniably cute and seemingly oblivious to our presence. However, as a biologist, I assure you that they are keenly aware of our approach. They can and will respond with lightning-fast reflexes if we get too close.
Bison are wild animals and Yellowstone is not a Zoo.
There have been at least two incidents of goring by Bison at Yellowstone recently. To begin this is a season when males are looking for females. They are very territorial. But, that has been the case before and why the goring now?
Climate change is providing very abnormal behaviors among the wildlife and not just Yellowstone. Currently, the oceans are a mess. The waters are warmer and schools of fish are found more north than they usually are found. That is an issue because fish are the food source for more than people.
But, the issues with food sources and territorial demands at Yellowstone are causing issues. The bison normally have a large range to graze and herd, but, they are now found near Old Faithful. That means they are in close range of tourists.
We all know the severe storms that hit Yellowstone closing the north east corner for an extended period of time. That is land most likely closed to wildlife as well, making territory less abundant. That storm also caused a lot of movement of the wildlife at Yellowstone. I am sure there were creatures lost to the ravages of the water torrent and that is trauma and confusion to wild animals.
All that said, the National Park Rangers need to have a collective meeting along with management and scientists to determine if Yellowstone should be open at all. The storm was trauma to wildlife, the staff that loves the park, but, also to a country that loves the park along with those that were planning to visit for the first time this year.
It is difficult for the National Park Service to turn away tourists and visitors. They want people to appreciate the beauty and learn what the natural world is all about to better understand the country we live in and planet Earth's majesty. Yellowstone National Park is majestic. There is no getting around it. It is also very wild. People do die there when they have the wrong orientation or attitude to the natural world.
Please, please understand that closing a National Park is serious business and should never be entered into except for extreme circumstances. I think Yellowstone National Park is exhibiting extreme reasons to close it until the Park Rangers believe it is stable enough to have Americans and tourists return.
Hi, first to complete the picture of Russia and then I am moving on to discuss Bison.
It's Sunday Night.
On Saturday night the entry was about nuclear weapons. Ridiculous nuclear weapons. The kind that will obliterate life.
Just to be clear about the intent of those nuclear weapons, Putin his no desire to allow others to live. Russia's nuclear arsenal that is being researched and deployed to readiness started development and building before the war in Ukraine.
Why is that important?
Because, realizing Russia openly engages in genocide to achieve it's own end is a far different reality than accepting the fact Russia develops weapons of mass destruction as a counter balance to other countries. As a counter balance it is more defensive than offensive purpose and thought of as more or less a beneficial balance of power.
Since Ukraine the "Balance of Power" valued by most any global leader may actually be a ruse. No, not may be, is a ruse.
CRUX (click here) is a Russia You Tube publisher. I have no idea if this is simply propaganda, but, it nearly doesn't matter. The image this You Tube video portrays is a country intent on powerful weapons to dominate the world.
The global community must maintain the understanding that there is no feasible "Balance of Power" anymore. There is ONLY denuclearization and peace as a horizon from here going forward. The idea of a balance of power using nuclear weapons is hideous. Communists have to end their aggression and realize Earth belongs to everyone who lives here and Earth requires peace.
Saturday, July 09, 2022
The IAEA needs to push non-proliferation.
This episode in Ukraine regarding Russia's aggressive agenda based in ideology has exposed the vulnerability of TRUST when writing treaties. Treaties are supposed to be ethical while upholding virtues that elevate societies and people. Russia is far afield of any ethical commitment to the world. It is UNABLE, under the current leadership, to provide any kind of valuable virtue.
This is not a conventional weapon.
July 8, 2022By Sam LaGrone
A Russian Navy submarine (click here) armed with a strategic nuclear torpedo the size of a school bus was delivered to the Kremlin this week, according to an announcement from the shipyard.
Project 09852 Belgorod is based on a Russian Oscar-class guided-cruise missile submarine that has been altered to accommodate six 80-foot Poseidon nuclear torpedoes that could be armed with a warhead of up to 100 megatons, USNI News previously reported.
The submarine was delivered to the Russian Navy in a ceremony in at the Northern Fleet’s headquarters in Severodvinsk on Friday,
“The Belgorod submarine opens up new opportunities for Russia in conducting various research, allows conducting diverse scientific expeditions and rescue operations in the most remote areas of the world ocean,” according to a statement from Russian Navy chief Adm. Nikolai Anatolyevich Yevmenov.
“The ship is designed to solve diverse scientific problems, conduct search and rescue operations, and can also be used as a carrier of rescue deep-sea and autonomous unmanned underwater vehicles.”...
Russia is worse than North Korea in it's obsession with nuclear warfare. Russia currently holds the most nuclear warheads in it's stockpile and it also owns the largest capacity nuclear weapon.
A 100 megaton nuclear weapon has never been tested to record what it will do to Earth yet alone people and destructions of cities. This is outrageous and speaks to Putin's preoccupation with nuclear weapons.
October 29, 2021By Alex Wellerstein
In the early hours of October 30, 1961, (click here) a bomber took off from an airstrip in northern Russia and began its flight through cloudy skies over the frigid Arctic island of Novaya Zemlya. Slung below the plane’s belly was a nuclear bomb the size of a small school bus—the largest and most powerful bomb ever created....
In the early hours of October 30, 1961, (click here) a bomber took off from an airstrip in northern Russia and began its flight through cloudy skies over the frigid Arctic island of Novaya Zemlya. Slung below the plane’s belly was a nuclear bomb the size of a small school bus—the largest and most powerful bomb ever created....
...A fire-red ball of enormous size rose and grew. It grew larger and larger, and when it reached enormous size, it went up. Behind it, like a funnel, the whole earth seemed to be drawn in. The sight was fantastic, unreal, and the fireball looked like some other planet. It was an unearthly spectacle!
The flash alone lasted more than a minute. The fireball expanded to nearly six miles in diameter—large enough to include the entire urban core of Washington or San Francisco, or all of midtown and downtown Manhattan. Over several minutes it rose and mushroomed into a massive cloud. Within ten minutes, it had reached a height of 42 miles and a diameter of some 60 miles. One civilian witness remarked that it was “as if the Earth was killed.” Decades later, the weapon would be given the name it is most commonly known by today: Tsar Bomba, meaning “emperor bomb.”...
The USA has fewer nukes than Russia, but, numbers of nukes and the capacity to carry warheads is not the point. The USA is second to Russia but larger in numbers of nukes than any other country. The point is that a certain number of nuclear bombs is all that one country needs because of the overkill capacity of all these weapons.
42 miles is equal to 67.6 kilometers, that places the 50 megaton bomb's height through the troposphere and stratosphere and half way to the mesosphere. What will a 100 megaton bomb do? Perhaps reach all the way to the top of Earth's atmospheres only to have the radiation contamination be forever in the space around Earth and quite possibly changing the way Earth receives light from the sun. Then multiple that destruction by all the nukes in every country on Earth and it is called obliteration.
The largest bomb to ever be known on Earth was a 50 megaton bomb created by Russia. The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was entered into to prevent the explosion of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere of Earth.
We know from the two American detonations during WWII that these weapons kill millions of civilians at a time and lay waste to any evidence of civilization over enormous pieces of land. The picture above is from the record of the 50 megaton explosion a long time ago.
The problem with nuclear weapons besides the death and destruction is the fact they reach high into Earth's atmospheres.
The diagram to the right is from Wiki. It shows Earth's atmospheres in kilometers, not miles.
This is the 21st Century, not the 1950s although Putin seems to like the old days better than civilizations of innovation and sophistication. To prove how far we have come; in the 1950s there was no cyber warfare.
The IAEA monitors nuclear activity in countries. The agency needs to create a picture for the global community of what a nuclear war, if ever embarked upon, with these weapons will look like at the beginning, middle and end.
The agency should enforce the idea of mutual assured destruction and non-proliferation with an annual signature of every leader of every nation on Earth. They don't have to commit to anything, except, to understand a common knowledge of what mutual assured destruction looks like. This will bring the entire world under the same understanding of what will occur when nukes are turned loose for no reason except to destroy cities, countries and people.
We have learned from the experience in Ukraine that Russia has no idea of what they are doing with nuclear power. Russia regularly loses scientists to radiation exposure ultimately leading to their deaths. Scandinavia has recorded multiple spikes of nuclear content of the wind/air that blows from Russia to their countries. Russia does not care if other countries are as contaminated as it is because of their accidents and experiments.
If every world leader did nothing else but understand the power of nuclear weapons and the lack of sophistication of the use of them, it would at least prove that every country is aware of the power of nuclear weapons, the danger of nuclear material in power plants and understands nuclear radiation and how it travels to contaminate fisheries, water and land rendering all as useless. Such a capacity of the IAEA would speak to radiation sickness and how it has no cure, but, kills.
I sincerely believe whatever goes on in Russia is due to ignorance as well as carelessness. The Russian scientists, navy personnel and others that assemble these weapons have a right to their lives without the danger of nuclear contamination. In Ukraine, the Russians showed no sophistication in maintaining nuclear dust out of the atmosphere, contaminated the surrounding area of Chernobyl and ultimately stole equipment from a lab and kidnapped experts from that lab to take to Belarus.
The world needs to come to terms with these weapons and insist on removing them completely from any venue of war forever.
Hi, sorry I am late.
I think my computer got COVID, it hasn't been it's usual self today. I still test negative so i think the virus is contained in the computer.
That was a joke, you were supposed to laugh.
It is a good Executive Order, but, it will be interesting to watch the Supreme Court's descent.
It provides for free and open movement between all the states to ensure those in need of an abortion can move freely to obtain one. Free movement of commerce is guaranteed by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC should also control commerce involving genetic medicine and it’s research.
The order goes on to protect the privacy of the women seeking abortions. That is also cited as appropriate by the FTC. It may be the FCC will also have to chime in to protect internet providers and prevent those following women in that form of commerce.
This order should protect online agents so the current requests for information regarding women seeking abortion and/or requesting appointments for that intervention are prohibited.
Hacking of abortion providers should be reported to local authorities as well as federal authority when discovered. Hacking information is illegal and information obtained in that manner should be handled as if any other theft.
I think the people intent on following requests of women online to find much needed abortion services shows the depth of the religious hatred involved in all these issues. Hating "the other" is at the basis of a great deal of the violence found in the country.
The order directs the White House staff to accept volunteer attorneys to work with those seeking abortion and finding problems in doing so. These attorneys will provide pro bono assistance. That is a remarkable recognition of the hardest hit by this decision, namely impoverished women.
The order provides for a task force to assess the country's impact and the venues of which all concerns need to be addressed.
The picture is interesting. There are more and more emergency executive orders limiting the number of people available to stand and witness the signature. In the case of the gun executive order signing First Lady Jill Biden stood at his side at that signing. I think it speaks to the degree of which extremism has penetrated our society.
By the authority (click here) vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. Nearly 50 years ago, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), articulated the United States Constitution’s protection of women’s fundamental right to make reproductive healthcare decisions. These deeply private decisions should not be subject to government interference. Yet today, fundamental rights — to privacy, autonomy, freedom, and equality — have been denied to millions of women across the country.
Eliminating the right recognized in Roe has already had and will continue to have devastating implications for women’s health and public health more broadly. Access to reproductive healthcare services is now threatened for millions of Americans, and especially for those who live in States that are banning or severely restricting abortion care. Women’s health clinics are being forced to close — including clinics that offer other preventive healthcare services such as contraception — leaving many communities without access to critical reproductive healthcare services. Women seeking abortion care — especially those in low-income, rural, and other underserved communities — now have to travel to jurisdictions where services remain legal notwithstanding the cost or risks.
In the face of this health crisis, the Federal Government is taking action to protect healthcare service delivery and promote access to critical reproductive healthcare services, including abortion. It remains the policy of my Administration to support women’s right to choose and to protect and defend reproductive rights. Doing so is essential to justice, equality, and our health, safety, and progress as a Nation....
By the authority (click here) vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. Nearly 50 years ago, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), articulated the United States Constitution’s protection of women’s fundamental right to make reproductive healthcare decisions. These deeply private decisions should not be subject to government interference. Yet today, fundamental rights — to privacy, autonomy, freedom, and equality — have been denied to millions of women across the country.
Eliminating the right recognized in Roe has already had and will continue to have devastating implications for women’s health and public health more broadly. Access to reproductive healthcare services is now threatened for millions of Americans, and especially for those who live in States that are banning or severely restricting abortion care. Women’s health clinics are being forced to close — including clinics that offer other preventive healthcare services such as contraception — leaving many communities without access to critical reproductive healthcare services. Women seeking abortion care — especially those in low-income, rural, and other underserved communities — now have to travel to jurisdictions where services remain legal notwithstanding the cost or risks.
In the face of this health crisis, the Federal Government is taking action to protect healthcare service delivery and promote access to critical reproductive healthcare services, including abortion. It remains the policy of my Administration to support women’s right to choose and to protect and defend reproductive rights. Doing so is essential to justice, equality, and our health, safety, and progress as a Nation....
Six unelected people on the Supreme Court have caused a great deal of chaos in the country. This is yet again another health emergency. These justices caused impact on chemotherapy as well as other aspects of health care that can imperil a woman's life when it comes to miscarriages and troubled pregnancies. This is pure stupidity on their part.
Women that have miscarriages grieve when it occurs and now their grief will not be honored and treated so much as placing them in handcuffs for law violation. Fetal personhood has to be made a crime. There is no other way of preventing this extremism.
Fetal personhood is a gross disrespect for women. It definitely places them into the category of a non-citizen. A woman's life is no longer valued over and above her reproductive capacity. It is the most disgusting expression of the hate of women, misogyny, ever in the history of this country since the women's movement a century ago.
The only place that the US Constitution depersonalizes an American is in its decisions about crime. Make no mistake, depersonalizing women to replace them with fetal personhood is nothing short of charging them with murder. By placing fetuses before the uterus they occupy returns women to the status of chattel, returning slavery as a priority over life in the USA.
Women can direct their own care. They don't need a paternalistic government to oversee their choices in life. The removal of Roe v. Wade has far reaching implications and elevates the idea that women are not as capable of making personal choices as those that rule over her.
Both partners are hurt in a miscarriage. Is the spouse going to be arrested, too?
By Krissi Danielsson
If you have recently miscarried (click here) or learned that you will miscarry, you will likely experience the five stages of grief. Typical emotions can range from shock or anger to sadness or numbness. Whatever you are feeling is OK. Everyone reacts differently to pregnancy loss, and pretty much any expression of miscarriage grief is normal.
Your feelings of grief may be at their strongest immediately after your loss and may feel similar to depression. The pregnancy hormone (hCG) has dropped in your body, and you will likely feel an overwhelming sadness. Feelings of grief may continue even after your menstrual period returns and your body recovers.
When people discuss grief, they often think of it in terms of five stages, a theory which originated in 1969 with the American-Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's book "On Death and Dying." Many people may find their grief after a miscarriage follows a similar pattern....
Adoption is NOT a substitute for abortion. The emotions of either of these circumstances are completely different. The fact that Coney-Barrett stated adoption is an equal to abortion only proves the lack of sophistication of these justices. Her priority to adoption was included in the opinion by Alito, so that only goes on to prove this is religious bigotry without respect for women or even seeking the knowledge to understand the difference.
If one examines Alito's opinions he always is the most extreme in deciding religious prejudice therefore providing proof of his intentions. He does not administer the law, he seeks to lean into it's moral content as a gift from a Christian god. American law carries a great deal of morality within it's content. That morality is respect for the Americans it is written to protect and respect. It has nothing to do with aligning to any form of scripture. Quite the contrary, the morality of American law reflects the people and scholars that carry THE MORALITY OF DEMOCRACY within legislative content.
Americans, by nature, are moral and compassion and SEEK JUSTICE. Seeking justice in a realizable democracy with judicial oversight provides for the reliability of democracy. What the six justices did to Roe v. Wade is violate that deep seated trust of the American democracy. That decision was a direct assault against democracy.
Democracy is an experience and learned. Some of it is innate to human nature, but, the aspect that links to governance is experience and develops trust in that governance.
President Biden not only signed his executive order he spoke to the American people imparting his disgust in the cruelty that is now the USA Supreme Court when a ten year old girl who was raped had to travel to another state to get an abortion. The abortion was an emergency issue.
A girl needs to be a girl empowered to go into life as an adult believing in her options and knowing the democracy treats her fairly and EQUALLY. If she was further victimized by governance what does that tell her and her peers about their value as an American woman? That FEELING and REASSURANCE of her democratic governance is realized in her life experiences and that LEARNING is vital to the survival of the USA's democracy.
President Biden could not be more correct to speak to the American people about voting in order to provide a Congress that will pass Roe v. Wade into law. That is the only way to address a woman's right to abortion. I congratulate him in understanding women's rights and the need to codify what protects those rights.
Here again the oppressive dogma of Republican politicians have translated into real oppression of every woman in the country. This is not just about abortion rights, this is about WOMEN'S HEALTH as the cancellation of the 50 year old protected judicial decision extends far beyond than an abortion of an unwanted pregnancy. It maps out the assault on Americans by the religious right extremists to bring all Americans into compliance with a particular form of religion. It is interesting to realize how wealthy evangelicals believe they have the answer for everyone and think nothing of assaulting the spiritual content of personality.
That desire to change Americans to Christian Dictatorship is being aggressively pursued by Roman Catholics. Since the days from the decision the Catholic television station has done nothing but focused on virginity, purity, atheism and agnostic beliefs from their ritualized masses in Alabama. It is called SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS and disrespects the fact the USA respects DIFFERENCE in personal choices.
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