The Chinese did this for a reason. It wasn't a benign interest. We have a right to defend our country.

President Biden and the USA military did the right thing. Passivity of such insults to our national security is not the direction to take. If this has been going on for some time, the question is why? A blind spot is one thing, but, any deliberate order to look the other way to keep the peace is something entirely different.

Why would China use a spy balloon when it has satellites? (click here)

China is Russia's ally. What else is there to know?

February 12, 2023

By Allison Pecorin

The downing of a third high-altitude object (click here) -- this one over Canada, on Saturday -- only increases the urgency for Congress to get to the bottom of what appears to be a previously unknown surveillance program by the Chinese, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday.

In an exclusive interview, Schumer told ABC "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos that "the bottom line is, until a few months ago, we didn't know of these balloons."

The suspected Chinese reconnaissance program also existed during the Trump administration but was only recently discovered by the U.S. intelligence and military communities, according to Schumer.

"It's wild we didn't know, isn't it?" Stephanopoulos said.

"It is wild that we didn't know, absolutely," Schumer said, adding, "Now they are learning a lot more."...

Twitter

Daryl G Kimball (click here)

@DarylGKimball

Octagonal, eh? The Chinese have a long history flying octagonal objects with a low radar profile. These objects have also been sighted over Bermuda.

Kelly O'Donnell

@KellyO

·

3h

Officials say this time the airborne object was at 20k feet and octagonal in shape. Radar detected something over Montana and Wisconsin and Michigan. Unknown if it had surveillance capability. Pres Biden ordered this 4th object shot down.

China is monitoring the world because it believes he has a right to do so considering they have port cranes in every country on Earth. China does not have a right to monitor the world. It is a blatant disregard of a country's sovereignty.

February 12, 2023

'Octagonal' object shot down by military aircraft over Lake Huron, US officials confirm (click here)

Another high-altitude object was shot down Sunday, this time over Lake Huron, three U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News. According to one of the officials, the object was shot down by a U.S. military aircraft.

This is a developing story and will be updated

At 2:45 p.m., a U.S. Air Force F-16 fired a sidewinder missile at the objects, the Pentagon said in a statement Sunday.

"Its path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could be a hazard to civil aviation. The location chosen for this shoot down afforded us the opportunity to avoid impact to people on the ground while improving chances for debris recovery. There are no indications of any civilians hurt or otherwise affected," North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement.

A senior administration official told ABC News that President Biden directed Sunday's object be shot down "out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of military leaders."...

This is exactly what I have been writing about, racism in the emergency manager asset sale.

Flint, Michigan (click here) is the most important city in the history of the Middle Class that ever existed. It is a great city with a great heritage that every American should treasure.

A city or town has value. It comes in many forms. The value of the land, the assets of the city, the investments in community interests like education. When Snyder sent Emergency Managers into Michigan cities they simply saw the balance sheet and not the long term goal of a better future for the city and it's people. The assets were viciously taken from the ownership of the cities and sold to pay off debts. Following the Emergency Managers there was far less value to the city.

There is no favorable bond rating for Flint, Michigan. There is nothing to assure anyone purchasing municipal bonds that Flint would be able to provide a reasonable return on investment.

Hurley Medical Center is probably the largest public corporation near Flint and it only carries a "BBB" rating (click here).

There were simply no long term plan for Flint. All the sales were punitive and without investment that would improve the value of Flint and it's future.

February 3, 2023
By Ron Fonger

Flint - A new study shows (click here) the value of Flint’s housing stock dropped following the city’s water crisis and says the stigma of the man-made disaster persisted with “no evidence of recovery.”

The study, “Economic Effects of Environmental Crises: Evidence from Flint, Michigan,” was published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. It compared Flint’s housing prices to other distressed cities that were once industrial centers with declining incomes and populations since the 1970s as well as other Michigan cities that were also run by state-appointed emergency managers....

Sure, Wall Street loves fire sales, but, it left Flint empty of value. It is called corruption. The year long corruption cover up only to be exposed by media and explained away while children were brain damaged, women experienced miscarriages and people died.

June 2022

Flint’s financial challenges (click here) are long-term and structural. Flint is a city built for 200,000 mostly middleclass auto workers, but the decline of the auto industry and white flight have left Flint with a population just over 80,000, significantly poorer and blacker than the rest of the state, to pay the bills. Running a city that is over half empty is unsustainable without structural changes.

 
State-appointed receivers made temporary improvements to balance budgets and improve short-term liquidity, but failed or were simply unable to address the structural causes of Flint’s fiscal distress. The focus of Michigan’s takeover policy has been eliminating deficits, which has been primarily achieved through spending cuts. Other than cutting retiree benefits, policies imposed under receivership largely failed to have any measurable effect on Flint’s long-term solvency. In fact, it is likely that some problems like deferred infrastructure maintenance, which does not show up on basic financial statements, worsened as a result of budget cuts.

 
Absent state-level policy changes, particularly around revenue sharing, Flint will likely continue to struggle. Over the past several decades, Flint’s tax base has been hollowed out, as most of its wealth fled to surrounding suburbs, while its debt remained in place. But as a result of restrictive state policies, the City has very little autonomy to adjust its tax policies and is dependent on an underfunded State revenue sharing program. While the State could use the statutory portion of its revenue sharing program to recognize and remedy historical inequities, the program is chronically underfunded....

The people of Flint focused on clean, safe drinking water. Ironically, they have suffered a near week of having to boil water because of a water main break recently. But, the people cared about themselves and rightfully so, no one else even attempted to change their plight. They weren't able to solve their own problems because of their financial state. The people were low income and "just one more thing" was simply their reality.

In response to Flint's inability to improve it's financial state, there is now a website for investors.

February 8, 2023

The City of Flint, Michigan (Flint), (click here) today announced the rollout of its new investor transparency initiative to attract more investors to its municipal bond offerings. The City of Flint launched a new investor relations website, CityofFlintInvestors.com, to centralize the latest news, project updates, reports, and more related to Flint's bond programs.

"We're excited about launching this new investor relations program alongside BondLink. Technology like this enables us to be more transparent and tell our story about how we're making critical investments in public infrastructure, public health, environmental projects, and more throughout the City of Flint," said Robert J.F. Widigan, chief financial officer of the City. "We're proud of our work to improve our financial positions; we continue to focus our efforts toward addressing the unfunded pension liability, quickly deploying one-time ARPA dollars into our community wisely and equitably, and increasing transparency and better governance in how we report financial data."...

Normally municipal bonds are viewed as some of the best and most stable for investors. What Snyder did was corrupt, racist and cruel. There is no doubt as far as I am concerned. The Michigan Emergency Manager Law under Snyder (I remind how the voter referendum was to terminate the law) was destructive. It was never written or carried out to rescue Flint and set it on a solid path. The assets were sold to the highest bidder and Flint was abandoned to continue to flounder in providing a solid footing for education and city services.

Antakya, Turkey has a population of about 200,000 people.

February 11, 2023

By Adam Samson and Ayla Jean Yackley

A stone sculpture (click here) in Antakya, which rivalled Alexandria as a major centre of early Christianity

Turkish authorities (click here) have launched a crackdown on developers connected to buildings that were toppled by this week’s devastating earthquake as president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan faces growing discontent over the quality of construction in the stricken region.

The justice ministry has authorised almost 150 local prosecutors’ offices to set up earthquake investigation units to probe contractors, surveyors and other experts with links to destroyed buildings and ensure they do not flee or destroy evidence, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported late on Saturday.

In an indication that these legal processes are already underway, a contractor for a building of luxury flats in the hard-hit Hatay province in Turkey’s south was detained on Friday at Istanbul airport on his way to Montenegro, Anadolu reported. Prosecutors in Istanbul ordered the arrest after finding his flight plans, the agency said....

The earthquake struck at cities.

Hatay Province in Syria was a coastal city near Allepo. If I am not mistaken that was where many Alawites lived. It is the northern reach of their homeland with something like a million people living there.

 

This is just to instill some doubt in warming weather.

I have read a few articles today in newspapers that address what they see as relief from the elements in a warming trend. That is inaccurate. The weather on Earth has become erratic. When a week of warming is followed by a cold record, that is not normal. It is also repeating itself and is not just a one time occurrence.

People and industry need to pay attention. There should also be hyper-vigilance with any travel industry, especially airlines. There is a lot of turbulence described in this article. NOAA and/or NASA needs to provide more details to the airline industry of episodes of erratic weather. 

It is too early to declare Spring has arrived and all is well with the world. It ain't. People that have been struggling through horrible storms should not let their guard down. Not at all. The northern hemisphere is still in for trouble. Yes, this is trouble.

Stratospheric Polar Vortex during Sudden Stratospheric Warming (click here)

February 6, 2023
By Mark Torregrossa

The top of our atmosphere (click here) is about to warm dramatically. The warm-up usually sends a cold blob of air eventually into the eastern half of the U.S. and the Great Lakes region.

The stratosphere is the second layer in our atmosphere and lies about 50,000 feet above Earth. Years ago, researchers discovered what we now call a “Sudden Stratospheric Warming” or SSW for short.

When the stratosphere warms dramatically over the course of a few days, it ripples an influence down into the weather atmosphere, called the troposphere. Think of it as someone jumping on an old school waterbed - the older beds without the baffles. You jumped on the bed and waves traveled across the bed.

The same thing occurs when the stratosphere warms quickly and expands in thickness. The corresponding effect on the lower atmosphere is somewhat predictable.

Judah Cohen, director of Seasonal Forecasting at Verisk Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), studies the effects of these Sudden Stratospheric Warmings. He says immediately after a SSW, a cold blob of air moves off the polar region and heads toward Siberia. While this shift of the cold blob is occurring on the other side of the globe, our part of the U.S. usually turns unusually warm. This scenario is indeed upon us with a mild to warm period coming over the next two weeks....

The State of the Union 2023 is about quality of life and who has a right to it. Not all Americans are afforded quality of life. Impoverishment is out and equality is in.

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....