The PRO Act

H. R. 842

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

March 11, 2021

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

To amend the National Labor Relations Act, the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, and for other purposes.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

(a) Short Title.—This Act may be cited as the “Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021”.

(b) Table Of Contents.—The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

TITLE I—AMENDMENTS TO THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT

Sec. 101. Definitions.
Sec. 102. Reports.
Sec. 103. Appointment.
Sec. 104. Unfair labor practices.
Sec. 105. Representatives and elections.
Sec. 106. Damages for unfair labor practices.
Sec. 107. Enforcing compliance with orders of the board.
Sec. 108. Injunctions against unfair labor practices involving discharge or other serious economic harm.
Sec. 109. Penalties.
Sec. 110. Limitations on the right to strike.
Sec. 111. Fair share agreements permitted.

TITLE II—AMENDMENTS TO THE LABOR MANAGEMENT RELATIONS ACT, 1947 AND THE LABOR-MANAGEMENT REPORTING AND DISCLOSURE ACT OF 1959

Sec. 201. Conforming amendments to the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947.
Sec. 202. Amendments to the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959.

TITLE III—OTHER MATTERS

Sec. 301. Electronic voting in Union elections.
Sec. 302. GAO report on sectoral bargaining.
Sec. 303. Severability.
Sec. 304. Authorization of appropriations.
Sec. 305. Rule of Construction.
Sec. 306. Rule of Construction.
Sec. 307. Rule of Construction.
Sec. 308. Rule of Construction.
Sec. 309. GAO Report.

To be continued...

I could not agree more. President Biden needs to carry through with the US Senate in agreement regarding Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism.

This is not taken lightly, it has been more than a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia has had more than ample time to present a reason for the unprovoked invasion into Ukraine to the world and the United Nations. It has not presented a case at all. The proof that Russia overwhelmingly wasn't just invading to correct a specific danger to its people is exhibited by the lack of diplomacy, the lack of instituting agreements previous to the invasion, lack of limiting weapons to the rebels in Donbas, and the overwhelming proof of mass graves of innocent civilians, including children and the elderly.

March 15, 2022

Ukraine and Russia explore neutrality plan in peace talks (click here)

July 27, 2022

Calling on the Secretary of State to designate the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism. (click here)

23-11-2022

On Wednesday, (click here) Parliament adopted a resolution on the latest developments in Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. MEPs highlight that the deliberate attacks and atrocities committed by Russian forces and their proxies against civilians in Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and other serious violations of international and humanitarian law amount to acts of terror and constitute war crimes. In light of this, they recognise Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and as a state that “uses means of terrorism”.

EU legal framework needed

As the EU currently cannot officially designate states as sponsors of terrorism, Parliament calls on the EU and its member states to put in place the proper legal framework and consider adding Russia to such a list. This would trigger a number of significant restrictive measures against Moscow and have profound restrictive implications for EU relations with Russia.

In the meantime, MEPs call on the Council to include the Russian paramilitary organisation ‘the Wagner Group’, the 141st Special Motorized Regiment, also known as the “Kadyrovites”, and other Russian-funded armed groups, militias and proxies, on the EU’s terrorist list....

 

The Middle Class

 President Joe Biden’s greatest achievement is the return of a strong Middle Class and their unions. 

Erdogan is trying to have it both ways.

First, the Free World is very concerned for the people of Turkey and Syria that have suffered due to enormous earthquakes that have turned cities to rubble. That should be reassuring to the leaders involved. The USA has been responding to disasters in countries normally considered enemies of the USA, first Cuba and now Syria.

February 6, 2023

The United States has deployed a team of disaster response specialists (click here) after an earthquake killed more than 2,700 people in Turkey and northwest Syria, USAID Administrator Samantha Power said on Monday.

The Disaster Assistance Response Team "will work in close coordination with Turkish authorities on the front lines, as well as with our partners on the ground and agencies across the U.S. government," Power said in a statement....

February 6, 2023

Governments around the world (click here) were quick to respond to requests for international assistance after Monday’s devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria, deploying rescue teams and offering aid.

The European Union said it was urgently dispatching search and rescue teams from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania to Turkey to help. In a statement, the bloc also said it was directing its satellite system to support Turkish efforts in mapping the quake and its aftermath.

Greece said it was sending a C-130 transport aircraft to help neighboring Turkey, along with 21 members of the Greek fire service’s special disaster management unit, rescue dogs, a rescue vehicle, medics and the head of the government’s organization for disaster management, the Greek Civil Protection Agency said....

But, with the dust settling after the earthquakes, Turkey needs to remain loyal to it's NATO allies. Turkey is often viewed as a friendly country to Russia as its geographic location places it at Russian borders, the Black Sea, Crimea, Syria, Iraq and Iran. What a neighborhood. But, Turkey is also near Greece and Europe. So, President Erdogan must improve his loyalty to those most moral and aligned with anti-genocide values. Turkey needs to clearly express it is not involved in any way with the support of such regimes as Putin assembled. Supply lines to Russia is killing people.

Russia has not been attacked. There is no moral reason to provide Russia with parts or supplies to any aspect of the Russian military including the Wagner Group. There is a right and wrong side, Turkey needs to make clear where it stands by ending it's shipments to Russia.

February 6, 2023

By Paul Iddon

Aside from having the second-largest army in NATO, (click here) Turkey also operates the third-largest fleet of U.S.-built F-16 fighter jets in the world. However, unlike many U.S. allies in the wider region, it does not have any French or British jets, making it heavily reliant on the United States, a state of affairs some Turks have begun to question and scrutinize.

Cagri Erhan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security and foreign policy advisor, brought up the iconic fighter jets several times in January. For example, he tweeted on Jan. 20 that Turkey doesn’t need any more F-16s and even dubiously claimed that the aircraft is not even among the top 10 best fighters in the world.

Erhan later expressed similar sentiments in a Jan. 28 television interview. He questioned why Turkey does not operate any non-American fighter jets. He claimed that Ankara did not turn to other NATO countries for any different fighter types over the decades since its pilots had received specific training for the F-16....

February 4, 2023
By Jonathan Spicer

The United States warned Turkey (click here) in recent days about the export to Russia of chemicals, microchips and other products that can be used in Moscow's war effort in Ukraine, and it could move to punish Turkish companies or banks contravening sanctions.

Brian Nelson, the U.S. Treasury Department's top sanctions official, visited Turkish government and private sector officials on Thursday and Friday to urge more cooperation in disrupting the flow of such goods....

Anderson has a good piece about the deadly conditions at the summit.

If this doesn't look like the "Day After Tomorrow," don't ask me what does.

Day After Tomorrow (click here)

Thank you to the USA military. They take excellent care of us.

It is always good to know exactly where you stand with a communist.

That was no benign spy balloon. It didn't belong in the USA air space. Any scientific balloons that would enter our air space legally would have been with an affiliation within the USA that would have been sanctioned by the USA government.

The Chinese balloon was over the USA illegally. We had every right to bring it down over the ocean where it could not hurt anyone or contaminate land. There was some talk about another Chinese balloon over Brazil shortly after this one arrived. If that is true then the Chinese were practicing triangulation. They were measuring distances to decide trajectory of missiles when the USA came to help defend Taiwan. That is exactly what it was doing over the USA. No other reason.

February 4, 2023
By Zeke Miller, Michael Balsamo, Colleen Long, Aamer Madhani and Lolita C. Baldor

Washington - The U.S. military (click here) on Saturday shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast on orders from President Joe Biden after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America, the latest flashpoint in tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Biden wanted the balloon downed on Wednesday but was advised that the best time for the operation would be when it was over water, U.S. officials said. Military officials determined that bringing it down over land from an altitude of 60,000 feet would pose an undue risk to people on the ground.

The presence of the balloon in the skies above the U.S. this week dealt a severe blow to already strained U.S.-Chinese relations that have been in a downward spiral for years. It prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to abruptly cancel a high-stakes Beijing trip aimed at easing tensions.

“They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators who did it,” Biden said after getting off Air Force One en route to Camp David....

I would like to point to the extent the USA is totally misguided by petroleum corporation profits.

During the "W" Bush administration there was a push in Cheney's 2005 Energy Policy for increased production of natural gas. Of course, much of that was through the disastrous industry of fracking.

May 24, 2004 – January 31, 2006 (click here) 

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports to the United States are increasing to supplement domestic gas production. Recent actions by Congress and federal agencies have promoted greater LNG supplies by changing regulations, clarifying siting authorities, and streamlining the approval process for LNG import terminals. Were these policies to continue and gas demand to grow, LNG might account for as much as 21% of U.S. gas supply by 2025, up from 3% in 2005. Congress is examining the infrastructure and market implications of greater U.S. LNG demand....

The production of domestic natural gas was successful. It was so successful the idea of exporting came to light.

Since 2010, (click here) of 35 applications it has received that require a public interest review, the Department of Energy (DOE) has approved 3 applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) and 6 applications are conditionally approved with final approval contingent on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) issuance of a satisfactory environmental review of the export facility. DOE considers a range of factors to determine whether each application is in the public interest. After the first application was conditionally approved in 2011, DOE commissioned a study to help it determine whether additional LNG exports were in the public interest. Since the 16-month study was published in December 2012, DOE issued 7 conditional approvals (one of which became final) and 1 other final approval (see fig. below). In August 2014, DOE suspended its practice of issuing conditional approvals; instead, DOE will review applications after FERC completes its environmental review....

March 7, 2016

The growth of natural gas production in the US (click here) over the past decade has prompted the development of LNG export terminals.
The EIA observes that with the rapid growth of supply from shale gas resources over the past decade, US natural gas production has grown each year since 2006.
The decline in domestic natural gas prices has led to rising natural gas exports, both via pipeline to Mexico and to overseas markets via LNG tankers.
Currently, the US is a net importer of natural gas, and gross imports represented nearly 10% of total supply in 2015, based on data through November. The US imported 7.5 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas, mostly from Canada by pipeline, and exported 4.8 bcf/d, mostly to Mexico by pipeline.
In addition to the Sabine Pass terminal, four other LNG export terminals are currently under construction.
Several LNG import terminals were built in the 1970s, and a new wave of terminals was constructed in the mid- to late-200s. As domestic production increased, LNG imports declines, as many new terminals were barely used and the utilisation rates of older terminals declined.
The four export terminals currently under construction are Dominion Energy’s Cove Point LNG facility in Maryland, Cheniere’s Corpus Christi LNG project, Sempra Energy’s Cameron LNG terminal in Louisiana and Freeport LNG in Texas....

September 17, 2020

North America LNG Export Terminals (click here)

Now, in the year 2023 the Allies of the Free World needs energy as every relationship with Russia is not serving their best interest. The Free World does not support genocide.

The U.S. (click here) is about to become the global leader in exports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG. What does that mean for the climate? (page down to read the article and see the graphs)

But, this is not good news for the climate, now is it? Methane otherwise known as natural gas is a very heavy greenhouse gas that is at least 24 times more dangerous than carbon dioxide when released into the troposphere. The release into the troposphere happens everyday in the USA and for all the lavished funds given to the petroleum industry from the USA Congress, the industry simply doesn't care about it's incontrollable leaks of methane.

So. I guess that is simply the price of protecting our national security, right? Well, that is what the USA Republicans want everyone to believe. 

BUT. 

There is another way. 

If I may?

January 31, 2023
By John Ainger and Maria Tadeo

Australia Seeks to Boost Hydrogen Exports to EU as Part of Green Push (click here)

Australia wants to boost exports of green hydrogen to the European Union as the bloc seeks to cut emissions in its most energy-intensive sectors.

“Australia can be a renewable energy export superpower and Europe is energy hungry,” Chris Bowen, Australia’s climate and energy minister, told Bloomberg TV. “Australia is 100% all in with Europe in this transition.”

The EU has set itself ambitious goals to scale up output of hydrogen made using renewable technologies such as wind and solar — aiming to produce 10 million tons by 2030 — but will also need to import the same amount from abroad. The bloc has already struck agreements with nations like Egypt and Namibia to help supply some of it.

At the same time, Europe has been tapping alternative energy sources from around the world to make up for the shortfall in Russian pipeline gas since the invasion of Ukraine.

Bowen rejected suggestions that shipping hydrogen to the other side of the world would make it economically unviable, saying that the main costs are associated with producing the fuel and loading it on ships. He said Australia coal industry has proved that the country is capable of transporting energy over long distances.

“Transport costs of green hydrogen aren’t the problem,” Bowen said. “Once we’ve made the green hydrogen and got it on a ship, it doesn’t really make that much difference if we send it from Sydney to Auckland, or from Darwin to Rotterdam.”...

The minister on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Netherlands to promote green hydrogen supply chains. A deal was also signed with Germany to fund projects for the fuel.

Bowen also said that he had talked to EU officials about the bloc’s plans for a carbon border adjustment mechanism, a levy due to start later this year. He said he hoped to minimize its impact on Australia and that Europe’s trade dispute with the US over the Inflation Reduction Act can also be resolved. 

Australia’s free trade agreement meant it had received “significant concessions” from the US in battery and electric vehicle manufacturing, Bowen said.

It is a darn shame the Republicans are all about the petroleum industry, because, they caused the USA to miss the boat on the sale of alternative energies. Europe doesn't want petroleum, it wants the end of the climate crisis. The reason the USA missed the climate crisis alternative energy boat is because of REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION WITH THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY!!!!!!!!!

No party can PLAN to make history in the number of votes for Speaker. There has to be a real reason for the misdirection of morality.

I heard the Republicans want to make Groundhog Day a national holiday.

February 2, 2023

By Ben Werschkul

...America's two biggest entitlement programs (click here) —which make up about a third of the federal budget—are all but certain to remain at the center of the debate at least when Democrats are in front of microphones. McCarthy recently promised that these entitlement programs are "off the table." But Democrats say the math simply doesn't add up if the Speaker wants to achieve a balanced budget and raising taxes are also off the table.

And the pattern repeated on Wednesday night following the Oval Office meeting.

"The real issue is, do the Republicans have a plan and what is that plan?" outgoing White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said in an MSNBC interview. "Some Republicans say they’re going to cut Social Security and Medicare. Some say they aren’t."....

The Republicans continue to celebrate the same old rhetoric over and over, year after year.

The budget cuts the Republicans state they want to make cannot be taken seriously. It is the same old rhetoric for the sake of driving politics. The Republicans don't govern. They seek to maintain majorities to hold onto their own corruption of government.

We have had at least two years of Wall Street greed. Housing has gotten to be ridiculous as well as the cost of eggs. Well, the bird flu and the death of millions of birds in the USA had something to do with that, but, the cost of goods has gone up and there are two points of view. The Republicans state it is the cost of the supply chain and; oh, yeah, the cost of labor. The Democrats point to ridiculous profits by companies that sell things like petroleum vs. the bread and butter issues of the American family such as school supplies and medical costs.

February 2, 2023
By Simon Jack and Nick Edser

Shell reports highest profits in 115 years

Oil and gas giant Shell (click here) has reported record annual profits after energy prices surged last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Profits hit $39.9bn (£32.2bn) in 2022, double last year's total and the highest in its 115-year history.

Energy firms have seen record earnings since oil and gas prices jumped following the invasion of Ukraine.

It has heaped pressure on firms to pay more tax as households struggle with rising bills.

Opposition parties said Shell's profits were "outrageous" and the government was letting energy firms "off the hook". They also called for the planned increase in the energy price cap due in April to be scrapped....

Quite frankly, the folks screaming "It is nothing but pure Wall Street greed," have it right. Basically, it is about time labor got it's appropriate piece of the Wall Street greed pie. Shell was not charging exorbitant prices for their products. Quite the opposite. They were allowing their rewards cards to give 5 cents a gallon off to anyone who asks. So, in all honesty, most if not all Wall Street IPOs have racked in significant profits. GM is feeling very confident about its future, too.

So, the whining from the Republicans every time the Democrats raise the issue of increasing taxes, especially windfall amounts of taxes, it is only reassurances to their cronies to keep monies flowing into the party. It has nothing to do with governance. The Republicans rather let the Middle Class pay more and more year after Trump tax year, then do something MORAL like a Wall Street Transaction Tax.

LONG BEFORE McCarthy even thinks about touching Social Security or Medicare and Medicaid he needs to take a lesson in "Governance 101." He might be interested in realizing there is a path forward to end the log jam of the debt ceiling IF his party actually governs and stops allowing the exploitation of the American Middle Class' monthly budgets for corporate profits.

It is all about politics for McCarthy, not about statemanship.

Comments by Congresswoman Omar pale in compare to those of the Republicans McCarthy has moved into place on committees such as Marjorie Taylor Greene.

McCarthy isn't interested in building a consensus to move legislation forward, he relishes the politics and damns the country to bitterness for two years he is Speaker.

Ilhan Omar  
February 11, 2019 (click here)

February 2, 2023

By Karoun Demirjian

Washington - A bitterly divided House (click here) on Thursday ousted Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota from the Foreign Affairs Committee over past comments about Israel that were widely condemned as antisemitic, as Republicans moved to cater to the demands of right-wing members and mete out punishment to a Democrat their party has demonized for years.

The 218 to 211 party-line vote, with one member voting “present,” settled a partisan score that has been festering since 2021, when the House, then controlled by Democrats, stripped Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona of their committee assignments for social media posts in which they endorsed violence against Democrats....

China is pushing it's limits to test an act of war.

This is such a joke. Trump eliminated any and all surveillance of China and Russia. Now, they want to surveil the USA. It is an act of war. It is a direct attack on our sovereignty.

February 2, 2023
By Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee

The U.S. military (click here) has been monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northern U.S. for the past few days, and military and defense leaders have discussed shooting it out of the sky, according to two U.S. officials and a senior defense official.

“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told NBC News. “We continue to track and monitor it closely.”

“Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder said....

While Trump told Russia and China there would be no more surveillance of their countries, they increased their production of satellites.

April 13, 2022

By Frank Wolfe

Between 2019 and 2021, (click here) China doubled its number of satellites in orbit from some 250 to 499, while Russia increased its number of orbiting satellites from about 150 in 2019 to 169 last year after a slight dip in 2020, according to a new, unclassified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report, Challenges to Security in Space: Space Reliance in an Era of Competition and Expansion.

The DIA study is a follow-on to an agency study in 2019 of the same topic.

“Between 2019 and 2021 the combined operational space fleets of China and Russia have grown by approximately 70%,” per the report. “This recent and continuing expansion follows a period of growth (2015– 2018) where China and Russia had increased their combined satellite fleets by more than 200%. The drive to modernize and increase capabilities for both countries is reflected in nearly all major space categories — satellite communications, remote sensing, navigation-related, and science and technology demonstration.”

A chart in the report, based on quarterly updates to the Union of Concerned Scientists’ satellite database, indicates that the greatest increase in the number of Chinese and Russian satellites between 2019 and 2021 came in Chinese remote sensing satellites which increased in number by some 150 or more since 2019. The Chinese satellites also include several dozen military satellites in the BeiDou — “Big Dipper” — navigation constellation.

Of the 4,852 satellites by the end of last year, the U.S. had 2,944, while China was in second place with 499, and Russia third with 169....

DeSantis is a racist.

February is Black History Month. We may as well get started. In any culture, be it African American or Romani Gypsies, if they say there is pain in their lives due to others of majority, then it is so. They don't have to qualify their experience anymore than that. They are the ones aggrieved by the actions of others. They define the issue, not those that oppressed them and suppressed an expression of their adversely effected lives.

De Santis is wrong through and through. It is no different than Snyder deciding selling assets of African American cities in Michigan would solve problems. These Caucasian men do not solve problems, they exacerbate them.

February 1, 2023
By Annaliese Garcia and Andrea Toreres

Pierre Rutledge was chairing a Miami-Dade Black Affairs Advisory Board meeting (click here) on Wednesday and he applauded The College Board’s decision to review a controversial course’s curriculum.

After The Florida Department of Education announced that it would ban a new African American studies Advanced Placement course, the College Board responded Wednesday with a new 234-page framework.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said he had a legislative plan to block the state’s programs on Critical Race Theory, or CRT, which explores issues of systemic racism, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, also known as DEI.

“We can get into the weeds and try to define critical race theory and who diversity, equity, and inclusion affect,” Rutledge said. “I would say it affects everybody, Black, brown, other, gay, straight — it doesn’t matter; it affects everybody.”...

Ron DeSantis and men like him are not allowed to end these studies or fade them to a white standard. They are not qualified to pass judgement on African American studies. They did not live discrimination or hatred or racism or segregation or bussing or any other quality of life issue that Black Americans have experienced. He and men like him were never "The Help."

The only power government has in regard to any university studies program is investigate it for corruption or ethics violations. But, nowhere in the power of a governor can they shutdown a curriculum in favor of hatred.

Ron DeSantis and men like him don't trust African Americans and other people of color. They rather control the text, the lecture and the outcome to these programs. They are racist through and through and it is time to end it.

February 10, 2023

By Noliwe M. Rooks

In the late 1960s, (click here) black studies became a part of American higher education. By 1971 more than 500 programs, departments, and institutes had been founded on four-year college campuses; add in black-studies initiatives in those same years at high schools and community colleges, and the number jumps to more than 1,000. Today roughly 450 colleges and universities offer graduate programs, undergraduate programs, or both. To be sure, those numbers represent an occasion to celebrate. But jubilance may be premature. It is becoming increasingly clear that before the field can move confidently into the future we need to clear up some continuing confusion about why and how what we now call African-American studies began. Clarifying that has significant implications for how we think about not just a scholarly field, but about race relations in higher education and society....

Why did African American studies ONLY manifest in the 1960s in the USA? Why indeed. It was because it took a long time for African Americans to have graduated from colleges and universities to achieve Masters and PhDs in order to have their work taken seriously. From the end of the Civil War in 1865 African Americans have suffered methods of control by Caucasians.

It took a long time for slaves to enter school and learn higher academic skills. It wasn't automatically given to them that they were allowed an equal education. It took Black Colleges to bring their youth to the point of competition in the work place and they still had to overcome prejudice.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (click here) was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not, in fact, equal at all....

Brown vs. occurred because there was a black Justice on the Supreme Court.

...Growing up in Baltimore, (click here) Marshall experienced the racial discrimination that shaped his passion for civil rights early on. The city had a death rate for African-Americans that was twice that of Caucasians, and due to school segregation, Marshall was forced to go to an all-black grade school. Once, he was unable to use the bathroom because all public restrooms were reserved for whites. Despite the times, Marshall’s parents tried to shelter him from the reality of racism. They earned enough money to live in a nice area, and he was able to attend a first-rate high school. He was often mischievous and sent out of class to read the Constitution for misbehavior. When Marshall graduated high school in 1925, he knew the Constitution backwards and forwards....

Thurgood Marshall lived the reality that would compel his nomination to the court and his ultimate opinion to bring equality to the American education system. No one is allowed to pass judgement on any person of color. They don't get it.

In this country, it wasn't until President Biden placed a Native American (click here) in the Interior Department did a headwind of recognition and rights take shape. Secretary Haaland knows the issues and lived them. She is an authority of the strife that has faced Native Americans. And this is 2023 and we are finally getting around to facing the truth about the way Native Americans and their tribal lands are treated. Columbus landed in 1492 and the "Mayflower" made it's voyage until 1620, yet the role of the Native American was not recognized for rights of the people until 2021.

The struggle of minority peoples in the USA is epic. They lived oppression while trying to remove stigmas and find power to change their circumstances. Unless a person has lived it, they ain't nobody.

November 2021

By Rashawn Ray and Alexandra Gibbons

Fox News has mentioned “critical race theory” 1,300 times in less than four months. (click here) Why? Because critical race theory (CRT) has become a new bogeyman for people unwilling to acknowledge our country’s racist history and how it impacts the present.

To understand why CRT has become such a flash point in the culture, it is important to understand what it is and what it is not. Opponents fear that CRT admonishes all white people for being oppressors while classifying all Black people as hopelessly oppressed victims. These fears have spurred school boards and state legislatures from Tennessee to Idaho to ban teachings about racism in classrooms. However, there is a fundamental problem: these narratives about CRT are gross exaggerations of the theoretical framework. The broad brush that is being applied to CRT is puzzling to academics, including some of the scholars who coined and advanced the framework....

The only people qualified to right the wrongs of our minority populations are the minorities themselves. African Americans have come far enough now that they have their own scholars that can qualify programs and studies to reflect the truth. Ron DeSantis and his administration has no authority to erase an entire college curriculum without sound reason, except the politics is good.

...When Stowe (click here) visited Great Britain in 1853, invited by anti-slavery groups, she was rushed by excited crowds. During her five-month stay, she traveled the country. She attended numerous anti-slavery rallies and was presented with the Stafford House Address, a 26-volume leather bound petition signed by more than 563,000 British women asking their American sisters to work to abolish slavery.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the first major U.S. novel with a Black main character, and the first to use regional accents. It has been translated to over 70 languages.

Public response to Uncle Tom’s Cabin was not all positive. Moderates praised the book for exposing slavery’s harsh realities, but abolitionists felt it was not forceful enough. Others called out some of Stowe’s characters as stereotypes. Pro-slavery advocates argued that Stowe had written an unrealistic, one-sided image of slavery. These pro-slavery responses prompted at least 29 “Anti-Tom” or proslavery books before the Civil War....

When Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin," it was for an audience of Caucasians, not slaves. Slaves had no money to purchase books, yet alone the education to read them. Stowe was able to build around an understanding that Caucasians had about their understanding of slavery, but, she could not actually impart the experience of a real slave.

It is an interesting trip into an alternate reality when one thinks about slavery today. It still exists in the world in various manifestations, but, in the USA it simply is not tolerated in any way. It wasn't all that long ago that it was.

So, the sad reality of DeSantis and men like him is that he is crude in his understanding of governance and ignorant to what comprises a minority, their right to exist on their own terms and the necessity to bring forth painful history in order to be elevated to a standing of equality.

DeSantis in a populist. I don't care if he says he is Republican, that is simply where the money lies to run for office. Populists are gossipers. They like to ridicule and name call to achieve their success. The tabloid newspapers are their favorite stomping ground. We saw this with Trump and his name calling and ridicule of those running for office in 2016. This oppression by DeSantis of the curriculum the College Board finds more than acceptable is a from of name calling, but, the entity is invisible and generalized as a threat to society. There is no one person DeSantis is ridiculing, it is an entire race of people. 

...The College Board reported consulting with over 300 college professors for the course that for now is part of a pilot program at 60 schools nationwide. Robert J. Patterson, a professor of African American Studies at Georgetown University, helped to develop the course....

When DeSantis finds 300 college professors of 60 schools nationwide that will state the curriculum is full of lies and dangerous to the integrity of the USA, he might have the right to criticize. As of today, all DeSantis has is a bunch of disgruntled and misinformed voters and financial backers that embrace a strange idea of CRT.

He has no authority to carry on as he has and he certainly is not qualified to speak of an African American curriculum highly regarded by most academics. 

Got that?

DESANTIS IS NOT QUALIFIED. He has power, but, it is corrupted by his desire for more power. DESANTIS IS NOT QUALIFIED to pass judgement. It is just too bad he finds the issue so uncomfortable he has to banish it from American college bookshelves.

Tracker badges must be required for all those that enter the mountains.

January 24, 2023
By Kevin Koczwara

It was still dark when Emily Sotelo set out. (cilck here)

At 4:30 a.m. on November 20, Sotelo’s mother dropped her at the head of the Falling Waters Trail — named for its fairy-tale cascades. She was heading toward the Franconia Ridge Trail and the summit of Mount Lafayette, a 5,249-foot peak in the White Mountains with an alpine zone where only dwarf vegetation can survive.

But Sotelo, a trained EMT and a relatively experienced hiker for age 19, was on a mission that Sunday. She had climbed 40 of the 48 peaks that are over 4,000 feet in the White Mountains. She planned to finish Lafayette that day, and finish all of them by Wednesday, when she’d celebrate her accomplishment and her 20th birthday over dinner with her mother at the Omni Mount Washington Resort....

The greatest danger to even experienced hikers and climbers is the rapidly changing weather. Hiking alone is dangerous by the simple nature of it. It is impossible to ask every person interested in hiking or climbing this region to do so in pairs at the very least, that won't happen.

But, the government has a role in this in the deaths and injuries that have occurred among some of the most young citizens of adult age. Climbs should be planned. In that if hikers and climbers were required to file a plan ahead of the activity it would include potential challenges by weather.

None of these folks are interested in challenging the weather conditions, they are interested in challenging the mountain. There is nothing wrong with preparedness, including filing a plan and allowing society to know there may be a need for help. In that, society has an interest in knowing the call for help will not come because their citizens and visitors are well prepared and equally cautious.

The infrastructure already exists. There is nothing wrong with demanding safety standards. There will be people that will ignore any demands by society to control the sorrowful outcomes, but, that is a matter of enforcing the standards set with violations fines if necessary. That means anyone found to be on the trails or climbing paths without a location tracker is going to be fined whether there is a tragedy or not.

Wall Street is not welcome here. No one needs sales people with insurance plans. 

December 22, 2022

Spreading the word about severe weather in the White Mountains (click here) has become an increasingly high priority for groups aiming to improve hiker decision-making.

Rescue missions continue at a consistent annual pace, according to New Hampshire Fish and Game, and recent fatalities of under-prepared hikers who ventured alone into the mountains elevate the importance of safe hiking practices and public awareness about higher-elevation weather conditions.

On the prevention side of search and rescue, work by several organizations is yielding measurable results in the region’s growing backcountry community.

In 2022, one group of volunteers spoke with over 27,000 hikers at popular trailheads leading to the mountain range’s unique alpine tundra, which produces extreme cold, wind, and precipitation....

These mountains have been celebrated for a long time. 

July 18, 2013

By Stephen Jermanok

Like most of the trails in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, (click here) the Gale River Trail begins with forgiving dirt and mud but quickly changes to unforgiving rock. For most of the 4.6-mile climb up the trail, my wife, Lisa, and I were serenaded by the sound of rapids rushing down the nearby river and the ominous rumble of thunderstorms in the distance.

We crossed over the waterway countless times on rock and log bridges, smelling the fragrant pine, before we reached the last leg — a steep ascent on awkward slabs of rock. Exhausted, we made it to our oasis for the night: the Galehead Hut, where a sign outside the door read, “Built 1932, Elevation 3800 feet.”

We plopped down on the long bench outside the lodge, too tired to move, and admired the panorama of peaks before us. Ridge after ridge, a carpet of green tumbled down the flanks to the valley below. It was like peering at a Japanese silkscreen in Technicolor....

Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves (click here)

The Western States need to solve the problem they are experiencing with the Colorado River.

No one needs Wall Street involved. It is completely wrong to turn water rights into an IPO. The lives of people and the quality of their economies are at stake. States Rights will prevail in the Robert's Court.

New York investors know nothing about the West. Water is a public utility. There is also a very old pact between the states that line the Colorado River. It would be completely wrong to undo all that infrastructure now.

January 31, 2023
By Ben Tracy, Andy Bast and Chris Spinder

With the federal government (click here) poised to force Western states to change how they manage the alarming shortfall in Colorado River water, there is one constituency with a growing interest in the river's fate that's little known to some: Wall Street investors.

Private investment firms are showing a growing interest in an increasingly scarce natural resource in the American West: water in the Colorado River, a joint investigation by CBS News and The Weather Channel has found. For some of the farmers and cities that depend on the river as a lifeline, that interest is concerning.

"Our only source of water is the Colorado," says Joe Bernal, who raises cattle and grows crops on land across Colorado's Grand Valley, relying on water from the drought-depleted Colorado River.

"That's all we've got is that river," he says.

Bernal's family came to the Grand Valley nearly 100 years ago, and he has lived there his whole life....

California is ranked the fifth largest economy in the world. The people need to agree on water use. The only interest Wall Street has in this is whether or not the commodities produced in California will continue to flourish and to that end they need to leave the water rights to the farmers otherwise death may follow.

California's Top 10 Agricultural Commodities

California’s agricultural abundance (click here) includes more than 400 commodities. Over a third of the country’s vegetables and three-quarters of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California. California’s top 10 valued commodities for the 2021 crop year are:...

...In 2021 California’s farms and ranches received $51.1 billion in cash receipts for their output. This represents a 3.6 percent increase in cash receipts compared to the previous year....

I don't trust Wall Street as far as I can spit and I don't spit.

January 31, 2023

Sacramento - California released a plan Tuesday (click here) detailing how Western states reliant on the Colorado River should save more water. It came a day after the six other states in the river basin made a competing proposal.

In a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, California described how states could conserve between 1 million and nearly 2 million acre feet of water through new cuts based on the elevation of Lake Mead, a key reservoir....

This is not a political issue, it is a States Rights issue and always has been. This is not a political issue, it is a survival issue and always has been. This is not a political issue, it is about water, an aqueduct and the most productive farmland on the West Coast. There is no room for politics here. 

The Federal Government has an interest in the Colorado River. It is after all an interstate river. There are also federal lands along the river as well as indigenous peoples.

Any investigation to the way forward begins with history. The USGS is the best place to start. The geologists in that agency will have vast amount of information so long as Trump hasn't burned it.

The mighty Colorado River (click here) begins its journey from a trickle of water high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Before reaching its final destination, the Sea of Cortez in northwestern Mexico, it travels a distance of more than 1,400 miles. During its course, the river cuts through nearly 2 billion years of earth’s geologic history, representing three distinct geologic provinces (the Rocky Mountain, Colorado Plateau, and Basin and Range Provinces).

To understand the physical Colorado River of today we need to take a step back in geologic time and explore the events that set the stage for the formation of today’s Colorado River, and two of its main tributaries (the Green and San Juan Rivers). First a word or two about geologic time....

...This landscape encompasses (click here) portions of two prehistoric cultural areas: the Great Basin and the American Southwest. This area has been continuously occupied since Paleoindian times, with the Clovis culture hunting game as far back as 10,000 B.C. Some of the most well-known structures of the Colorado Plateau are the cliff dwellings found in Mesa Verde, in southwestern Colorado. Around 1150 to 1200 B.C. Ancestral Puebloans began occupying these large alcoves, building stunning dwellings with hundreds of rooms. Around late A.D. 1200 through A.D. 1300 there was a massive migration from the Colorado Plateau south towards the Hopi, Zuni, and the Rio Grande Valleys. It is generally believed that an environmental catastrophe and subsequent collapse of societal organization caused this huge migration. Today, about one third of the Colorado Plateau is Native American reservation land designated to 31 tribes. The tribes that currently occupy the plateau include: Ute Mountain Ute, Southern Ute, various Pueblo groups, Yavapai, Paiute, Apache, Havasupai, and others....

Upper Colorodo Basin Snowpack (click here)

All the governments involved have an interest. The food production of Southern California has a priority to the entire country. The people that live within those states have the right to take care of themselves. No outside interests have any business in this matter. None. This is something that has existed for a long time through all sorts of bargaining and bartering, but, it is the people of these states that have the greatest rights both morally, economically and within their lifestyles.

Bottled water was good enough for Flint and the socioeconomic conditions in that city are very, very different from the socioeconomic conditions in these Colorado states.

The States have the moral high ground, I strongly suggest they use it wisely and to the full extent they are allowed under law. But, if the infighting goes on and they move to court to solve their problems, the decisions will belong to people without a clue as to the dynamics of this river and its people over centuries.

The mutual hate exhibited by Israel and Palestine has begun a new chapter with Secretary Blinken.

January 30 2023
By Raffi Berg

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (click here) has called for Israel and the Palestinians to take "urgent steps" to restore calm amid escalating violence.

Speaking in Jerusalem, Mr Blinken reiterated US support for a two-state solution as "the best way" to bring security to the two sides.

Israel's new government opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.

The visit comes after two gun attacks by Palestinians in East Jerusalem at the weekend killed seven Israelis.

At a news conference following talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Mr Blinken expressed his condolences for what he called the "horrific terrorist attack"....

Interactive Map (click here) shows all the check points and guard stations in the West Bank. If the descriptions are accurate the check points are mostly open access. There isn't a lot of military in the West Bank. Movement seems possible in most areas.

The attacks by the Palestinians are mostly based on hate. The attacks give Israel the right to defend itself. It used to be the attacks were with knives, now there are guns. If movement within the West Bank is basically unimpeded then what is the issue already?

I think the Palestinians need to put their vision of Palestine forward so they can begin a dialogue. Israel won't move an inch if there isn't a productive dialogue. That is the biggest issue. There is no productive dialogue and Israel simply attacks when there is violence. Israel continues to build settlements because they see no reason not to push into the Palestinian territories. Settlements do serve to end the violence after a time.

January 29, 2023

Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (click here) on Saturday announced a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians, including plans to beef up Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, in response to a pair of shooting attacks that killed seven Israelis and wounded five others.

The announcement cast a cloud over a visit next week by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and threatened to further raise tensions following one of the bloodiest months in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in several years.

Netanyahu's Security Cabinet, which is filled by hard-line politicians aligned with the West Bank settlement movement, approved the measures in the wake of a pair of shootings that included an attack outside an east Jerusalem synagogue on Friday night in which seven people were killed.

Netanyahu's office said the Security Cabinet agreed to seal off the attacker's home immediately ahead of its demolition. It also plans to cancel social security benefits for the families of attackers, make it easier for Israelis to get gun licenses and step up efforts to collect illegal weapons....

This is how it rolls. The settlers and Palestinians confront each other. Violence is involved at some time, but, inevitably when the dust settles the Israelis have another settlement and the Knesset (click here) confirms the settlement as legal with rights.

This has been going on for generation after generation. Nothing seems to stop the settlements. The Knesset is moving to remove the issue of "Right to return." The more the violence the less the future looks optimistic for any talks or peace. It isn't as though there is no sympathy and/or effort to promote Palestinian land protections, but, it always falls apart with the advancement of the settlers.

February 12, 2022

Burin, West Bank - The Israeli settlers (click here) streamed down the hill toward Palestinian farmland, some waving sticks, some throwing stones, all masked.

They began beating a group of Palestinian villagers and Israeli rights activists, who had been planting olive trees on the edge of a Palestinian village. One settler threw a flammable liquid across an activist’s car and set it ablaze. At least seven people were injured.

The mob attack outside the village of Burin last month, captured on video by human rights advocates, was part of an escalation of civilian violence across the occupied West Bank in the past year. In 2021, the number of injurious attacks by settlers on Palestinians, and by Palestinians on settlers, reached their highest levels in at least five years, according to the United Nations....

Israel has no use for the UN. The genocide of Ukrainians only validated Israel's deepest concerns for it's own people. Who expected it? It wasn't as if there was a great deal of hatred and tension between Ukraine and Russia when the attack occurred. 

27 January 2023

By Luke Tress

United Nations - Israel’s ambassador to the UN, (click here) Gilad Erdan, lashed the world body for its disproportionate focus on Israel and for antisemitism in its ranks in a speech to the General Assembly on Friday marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“The UN was founded upon the ashes of the Holocaust. It was established to ensure such darkness never befell humanity again,” Erdan said. “It is a living monument to the horrors suffered by the Jewish people.”

“As such, it is the UN’s responsibility to lead the world in combating hatred, yet when it comes to fighting antisemitism, sadly, the UN ignores its purpose,” he said to an audience that included UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Holocaust survivors and Erdan’s parents, the children of survivors....

It is the constant plotting by the enemy while they smile at all the dialogue, negotiations and diplomatic signing of documents. Russia up to the invasion of Ukraine was still engaging in dialogue and signing agreements. The best anyone can assess is that all that effort to bring about peace, regardless of the cost, was simply a smoke screen. Now, we are going to ask Israel, of all countries, to once again dialogue with the Palestinians. 

Neither the Palestinians nor Israelis are remotely on the same page. The terms of peace are too high for Israel because they believe it will be an empty gesture that will only result in more hate and more violence.

If any example of peace should have occurred and productive dialogue extended it was best to have happened after the Late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon settled the disputes in Gaza by giving the Palestinians land. But, as soon as the land was relinquished nothing but expressions of hate manifested by burning down synagogues and destroying any sign of Israelis existence. The peace was never real, it was a smoke screen and the hate has continued.

The hate is real. In order to bring about peace it will require the leaders of Palestine to control their citizens (click here). That is not possible. They try. But, Hamas has control of Gaza and there is never an end to the hate or the violence. 

Secretary Blinken is correct in that the escalating violence must stop and calm to be established. Hamas won't have anything to do with it. This latest incident just before the arrival of Secretary Blinken began as an attack by Palestinians. Israel retaliates and the conflict is reaching a boiling point yet again. It is a chronic problem that never ends. After wishing and hoping for peace for decades, the idea it is possible is becoming a futile belief.