The GOP has lost it's way on every moral issue of our time.

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE INVESTING? (click here)

Sustainable investing refers to a range of practices in which investors aim to achieve financial returns while promoting long-term environmental or social value. Combining traditional investment approaches with environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) insights has led to investors generating more comprehensive analyses and making better investment decisions.

Sustainable investing ensures firms aren’t judged solely on short-term financial gains but on a broader picture of what and how they contribute to society. Investors must think critically about investments’ potential impacts as they relate to environmental, political, and societal landscapes....

I thought the right wing political types were all about free enterprise. When the climate concerns grew and grew there were free enterprise solutions put in place. Now, because Republicans have no basis for any presence in government they are making up reasons to attack the free enterprise system because it doesn't worship oil anymore.

Will someone tell the GOP this is 2023 and not 1923. Please.

July 12, 2023
By Sharon Udasin and Saul Elbein

Members of the House Financial Services Committee (click here) sparred on Wednesday over climate disclosure rules, as the GOP-led body began the first of six hearings attacking sustainable investing.

The committee took aim at a rule proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that would make it easier for investors to judge the climate risk of the companies they invest in.

Over the past decade, there has been an increasing push from investment firms for greater disclosure of information around corporations’ impact on climate change, as well as their exposure to associated risks.

Committee Democrats criticized Republicans for what they characterized as attacks on the free market.

“For over 100 years, the followers of Leon Trotsky and the Socialist Workers Party have waged war against the capitalist model. Today, elements of the Republican Party join them in that effort,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said....

Members of the OUN took an active part in the Holocaust in Ukraine and Poland.

"The West" (click here) as it is known in so many places, was never about war, it was about peace. Always. The people of the USA desire peace and have sought it along with economic viability everywhere in the world. Without exception, the people of Europe and the USA look to peace and prosperity. There is no way there will be a world war again. Unlike Putin, the rest of the world learned a valuable and enduring lesson. The West's military might has always been about prevention of war and not propagation of it.

The world was once a very different place.

Genocide is a METHOD of war as well as hate. When Putin and Moscow states "special military operation" or whatever the verbiage is, it is obvious it is genocide. It is genocide for the reason of Russian expansion and control of land. There will be no real peace, Russia no matter the dialogue does not plan for it or want peace. Any negotiations or diplomatic talks of same is a Russian ruse. 

Right up to the Russian invasion and continued attacks, Ukraine was a self-declared neutrality. Recent Ukrainian constitutions and elections were all based in freedom and peace. The politics of Ukraine was about purging corruption and economic growth. There was nothing Ukraine was engaged in that warranted a confrontation with Russia. Ukraine wanted economic relationships with all countries. There is absolutely no justification for Putin's invasion into Ukraine to commit genocide.

I might add that 

...In October 1942 OUN-B (click here) established the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). In 1943–1944, in an effort to prevent Polish efforts to re-establish prewar borders, UPA units carried out massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia....

Review of recent history leading to exodus of millions of Ukrainians and displacement of millions of others to Russia (click here)

July 12, 2023

Monument to the victims of the Volyn massacre in Warsaw

On Tuesday, July 11, (click here) the Polish Sejm (the lower house of parliament) adopted a resolution to commemorate the victims of the Volhynia tragedy on its 80th anniversary.

The resolution received unanimous support, with a total of 440 Sejm deputies participating in the vote. The document refers to the events of July 11, 1943, in Volhynia, where, according to the resolution, “Bloody Sunday took place – the culminating moment” of the Volhynia tragedy, which Polish deputies describe as genocide.

The Volhynia Massacre has long been an impediment to fully developed Polish-Ukrainian friendship.

As the resolution highlights, on that day, “Ukrainian units of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), often supported by Ukrainian civilians, attacked 99 villages inhabited by Poles in the former Volhynia Voivodeship and killed a significant part of their population.”

According to the document, starting from 2016, July 11 has been designated as the National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide, during which “more than 100,000 Poles were killed – often in a very brutal way.”...

Russia has it wrong. This is about genocide, not NATO expansion.

July 12, 2023

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (L) attends a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 12, 2023.

...“We can never see a repeat of what has happened in Ukraine (click here) and this declaration reaffirms our commitment to ensure it is never left vulnerable to the kind of brutality Russia has inflicted on it again.”

The G7’s long-term plan

G7 nations on Wednesday pledged to offer "enduring" military support to Ukraine to help it fight Russia's invading forces and stop any repeat of the war once it ends.

"We will each work with Ukraine on specific, bilateral, long-term security commitments and arrangements towards ensuring a sustainable force capable of defending Ukraine now and deterring Russian aggression in the future," the G7 said in a statement....

...Russia marks day 2 with another drone attack

Ukraine said on Wednesday it had shot down 11 Russian drones overnight in a second consecutive night of attacks on the capital Kyiv, as NATO leaders prepared to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Vilnius.

“A total of 15 kamikaze drones were involved in the strike. Eleven of them were destroyed in the areas of responsibility of the Centre and East air commands,” Ukraine's air force said on social media....

...More angry Russian reaction

Top Russian officials have accused Kyiv and its allies of bringing humanity closer to World War 3 and prolonging the war in Ukraine in some eyebrow-raising reactions in response to the first day of the NATO summit in Vilnius.

While Zelensky expressed frustration that no firm timetable for his country joining the military alliance was laid out, his anger was dwarfed by that coming out of the Kremlin.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council, went into full-hyperbole mode, saying: “The completely crazy West could not come up with anything else... In fact, it’s a dead end. World War Three is getting closer.

“What does all this mean for us? Everything is obvious. The special military operation will continue with the same goals.”...

Russia is still attacking people that are not attacking Russia. The entire operation in Ukraine is based on defense of the country, it's rightful borders, and the people still living in the country. It would be best if Russia would stop it's nightmare politics by creating an unnecessary war just to kill Ukrainians. There is no world war in progress. It is simply Russian propaganda fear tactics.

This is about genocide. When Russian propaganda states world war three is coming, do they mean they want to genocide the entire world? That is what this is about. You'll excuse me, but, didn't Adolf Hitler want the same thing? It would seem the Nazis are in Moscow's Kremlin, not anywhere else.

Power playing is not about the US Constitution

What the country is witnessing within the corruption of the Supreme Court is power playing without regard to the US Constitution. The Christmas parties of Thomas is about containing an agenda before any proceedings are even begun. It is no different than fancy vacations, or financial favors. It is about a preconceived agenda that was and is the ground work for the political right wing and control of the country without regard to the US Constitution.

The right wing majority on the Supreme Court is corrupt and seek parts of the US Constitution to justify the agenda. That is not at all about constitutional interpretation of the law. Agendas are about power over the US Constitution and not about upholding it. The most resent decision regarding affirmative action is stark in proof of that agenda. 

Affirmative Action was legally legislated to solve a problem. The problem was legitimate and still exists today.

The USA has a shameful history of racism in slavery. The country fought a civil war to defeat it and bring the right to live a free life to all Americans. There were constitutional amendments made to bring those freedoms to the highest levels of law to enshrine the human toll of that war.

Yet, somehow, the current Supreme Court majority refuses to look at the country’s history, the long struggle for civil rights, the innumerable members of White Supremists in prison for acts of violence and murder (including members of the judiciary) and facts regarding racism and its injustice to simply carry out an agenda of self-righteousness hubris. 

Instead of upholding legitimate legislation that provides a measure to correct a racist past it CHOSE to find words that would negate the civil war, the deaths of that war, the constitutional amendments identifying the very reason for that horrible war and take a path not recognized by stare deciss. 

That is a Supreme Court grossly out of step with the US Constitution, the stark reality of the people of this country with an agenda for enormous cultural change to satisfy their benefactors that paved their path to their current wealth and job security. 

The Supreme Court majority is poison to the very freedom this country is built on.

Thick as thieves

Crooks and liars love Trump.

Go, Chris Christi, Go!

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4086715-nearly-a-quarter-of-republicans-say-classified-docs-charges-make-them-more-likely-to-support-trump-poll/amp/

I told ya so. Thick as thieves. 

One lies and the other ones swear to it.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4087798-investigation-finds-clarence-thomas-accepted-more-undisclosed-gifts-from-wealthy-friends-through-elite-association/amp/

Believe it or not…

 …there are former Republican political donors very worried about the direction of the country under the extremist leadership they are left with after Trump ran the party into the ground. 

Democrats should seek those former Republican donors to help fight for our democracy. But, listen to what they have to say. Their point of view is worthy of representation from Democrats if wr are to be a united people again.

"It's on us."

Preservation of African American Churches is vital to their legacy.

January 16, 2023

By Maria Elena Scott

...With the grant from Preserving Black Churches, Cory United Methodist Church will “hire its first director of preservation to lead the building's restoration efforts and continue its legacy as an active church and transformative community landmark.”...

The National Trust for Historic Preservation's African-American Cultural Heritage Action Fund (click here) is giving out $4 million in grants to 35 historic Black churches this year, and three are in Northeast Ohio.

Called Preserving Black Churches, the program will “help historic Black churches and congregations reimagine, redesign, and redeploy historic preservation to address the institutions’ needs and the cultural assets and stories they steward.”

Among the recipients: Cory United Methodist Church and Euclid Avenue Christian Church (East Mount Zion Baptist Church) in Cleveland and Wesley Temple African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Akron....

They aren't going to get away with it.

July 2, 2023
By Graig Graziosi

Members of the far-right organization, (click here) the Proud Boys, have been ordered to pay more than $1million damages for their role in destroying property at a predominantly Black church in 2020.

DC Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz approved the judgement on Friday against Proud Boys members Joseph Biggs, Enrique Tarrio, Jeremy Bertino, and John Turano, as well as the group's LLC.

Judge Kravitz described the incident as "hateful and overtly racist conduct," according to CNN.

The hate group tore down the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church's Black Lives Matter sign while rallying in Washington DC in 2020.

On 12 December, 2020, individuals dressed in Proud Boys clothing had "leaped over Metropolitan AME's fence, entered the church's property, and went directly to the Black Lives Matter sign," according to Judge Kravitz's order....

The new 99 percent. Money can't buy a normal planet.

NO, THIS IS NOT OKAY.

It is the alternative energies that are protecting the lives of Texans. Since the devastating 241 deaths of the winter storm of 2021, the growth of solar and wind in Texas has outpaced that of California.

...But during this historic heat wave, (click here) it’s been all these new, low-cost wind, solar and batteries that have kept the grid afloat and Texans cool – in many cases saving lives. Solar and wind provided 35% of statewide power last Tuesday and generated a record 31,500 MW Wednesday, which more than covered the 9,600 MW of electricity lost when extreme heat knocked several natural gas and coal plants offline. And just as solar power started falling in the evening, batteries kicked in immediately to get Texas through the most difficult part of the day when the sun was setting but the ACs were still cranking....

June 26, 2023
By Eric Ryan

Brace yourselves (click here) for a heatwave that will leave you reaching for the nearest ice cream cone and searching for shade like never before. In fact, some parts of Texas are set to be hotter than 99 percent of the entire planet this week. Can you handle the heat? Let's dive into this sizzling situation....

It was all told for decades, but, propaganda by the petroleum industry brought about disaster. There are a lot of reasons to police misinformation, this is the most important.

Highlights from Assessing the U.S. Climate Climate in July 2022 (click here) 

Independence doesn't exist for many of our youngest Americans.

July 3, 2023

By Silas Morgan

Growing up, Joaquin “Guac” Oliver (click here) was “always worried about community issues,” recalled his mother, Patricia Oliver.

“[He worried] about his friends, about immigration, about social issues,” she said. “… When Joaquin was 12 years old, he was able to write a project about [firearm purchase] background checks, when he just was 12 years old. He was posting on Twitter, he was tweeting about all that happened in Sandy Hook.”

In February 2018, Joaquin was one of the 17 people killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland. His parents, Patricia and her husband Manuel Oliver, have spent the years since the shooting raising awareness for gun violence prevention in honor of their son, following in his footsteps as an activist.

On Monday, they joined the families of other mass shooting victims and mass shooting survivors for a gun violence prevention rally at the Pulse Memorial....

Is it legal to scream "FIRE!" in a theater yet?

That is what this comes down to.

Dallas, Texas has a population of 1,304,379 citizens as of the 2020 Census. The number of deaths from COVID-19 as of today is 1,133,620. That virus wiped away lives in the USA without mercy and no one could stop the misinformation. The online misinformation was incredible with a President asking his advisor in public if injecting bleach was a method of ending the virus. What Doughty did in this case was to allow firestorms of information to cloud the judgement of Americans and because of it dying is okay.'

The "Misinformation Age" is alive and well in the USA and judges like Doughty simply don't care if we live or we die when the government knows how to save our lives and our democracy.

I hope there are independent organizations that are objective, love the law and the people of this country and are logging decisions by judges that amount to the classification of "dangerous."

There needs to be a clear understanding that "online" language/speech is definitely not the same as "offline" language/speech. There is no way conversation or "real" speech between people causes the level of concern on a societal basis. Online speech is completely different from offline speech. Online speech is more powerful and magnifies the intent of the words a million times than the same exact words between individuals. Online speech affects the thoughts of complete strangers around the world. It has to be treated differently.

Misinformation has to be policed.

July 4, 2023
By Steven Lee Myers and David McCabe

A federal court in Louisiana (click here) on Tuesday barred parts of the Biden administration from communicating with social media platforms about broad swaths of content online, a ruling that could curtail efforts to combat false and misleading narratives about the coronavirus pandemic and other issues.

In the ruling, Judge Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana said that parts of the government, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, could not talk to social media companies for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”

Judge Doughty said in granting a preliminary injunction that the agencies could not flag specific posts to the social media platforms or requests reports about their efforts to take down content. The ruling said that the government could still notify the platforms about posts detailing crimes, national security threats or foreign attempts to influence elections....

China. China cannot exist in the form it is now without USA innovation and information.

The spy balloon that was shot down was American technology in order to spy on us. 5G should have been reserved for military purposes only. 

July 4, 2023

By Julia Shappero

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham (click here) said Saturday that she saw former President Trump show classified documents to people at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

“I watched him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago on the dining room patio,” Grisham, who served as Trump’s chief spokesperson from July 2019 to April 2020, said in an interview on MSNBC. “So, he has no respect for classified information, never did.”...

National Cherry Festival

 The Thunderbirds are here to wow the crowd.

The Equal Protection Clauses

 The 4th and 14th Amendments to the USA Constitution are the Equal Protection Clauses. They are to be sure all citizens are treated the same under the law. But, what happens then if there are social prejudices that oppress some ethnicities and cast them into prison unjustly? 

What happens is that racism, bigotry, hate, bias, and discrimination run rampant. That has been the history in the USA. In the case of higher education, it is a matter of the trickle down of circumstances. If a child is raised in adverse circumstances and opportunities are limited or absent due to oppression, where does it stop? 

continued…

Supreme Court Deliberate Malpractice

All judicial decisions are supposed to be based on facts. The evidence in the case regarding web design and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community was manufactured. The only thing factual about the evidence is it’s falsehood. 

This is gross malpractice by the conservative majority of the court including Chief Justice Roberts. This is a new low for the Supreme Court and it is a glaring miscarriage of justice.

This wrongful decision is one of several that is ideological and sound. It would be best to examine the minority opinions. Op-eds would be welcome here.

The Affirmative Action decision promotes white supremacy as the timeline of racism, bigotry, discrimination and bias continue to be tolerated and evidently preferred by the Supreme Court. What is so astounding is that the Supreme Court finds the federal legislation unfit to be law. The Supreme Court likes to play politics with an ideology that is selective in separation of powers. Stare Decius be damned.

The decision regarding student loan debt was an economically sound decision by President Biden for a burdened population of people that would have expanded opportunity and growth.

This Supreme Court is grossly under qualified to service this democracy well, besides known corruption of at least half of the conservative justices, Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch. Kavanaugh is another issue of character and unethical written content to persuade him as a cinder choice.

US Senator Tommy Tuberville should be impeached.

He is a traitor seeking to weaken the USA military. He is a Putin ally.

Attorney General Garland…

 …is being set up to be the next Dr. Fauci. The Republicans need a scapegoat for all their lies and false narratives. His testimony to the House Judiciary Committee is to create a celebrity to hate because the committee is going to attempt to tie Hunter Biden’s plea agreement to a corrupt President Biden.

It is the only way to attempt to carry out a groundless impeachment. The Republicans plan to run on corruption if they can get it to stick to Democrats. Corruption in politics begins with an R not a D.

Republicans are the champions of a banana republic.

Persistence pays off.

The canopy of black spruce trees have never been so important. It is an incredible story of dedication. It is a great story of two species, one human and the other elusive. The Bog Elfin Butterfly now adds to the beauty of Vermont.

This is the reference to the Bog Elfin Butterfly from US Forest Service (click here). 

The butterfly is a pollinator.

June 26, 2023

By Billy Baker

The bog elfin (click here) had never been confirmed in Vermont, but Pfeiffer’s gut told him it was there. So the entomologist logged countless miles through isolated terrain swarming with mosquitos and black flies, armed with binoculars and a butterfly net and a determination his friends and colleagues marveled at. He was 44 when his search began; a heart attack and a knee replacement later, he found himself at age 65, wondering the sort of things people wonder as the years race by. “Every year I felt like my window was closing,” he said.

But the quest wasn’t just a challenge; it was about a legacy, not for him but for the butterfly. If he could prove the rare insect was in Vermont — he had initially begun his search as part of a team compiling the first-ever Vermont Butterfly Atlas — then it would be recorded forever as something Vermont must preserve. These things matter to Pfeiffer, who decades ago left a career in journalism to “go outside,” as he says.

Right is A black spruce bog in Lake County, MN (click here)

For the last several years, Pfeiffer’s search had focused on a single bog with plentiful black spruce trees, where bog elfin are known to lay their eggs. But on this fateful day, he decided to explore a new bog. There were two potentials he’d identified but never been to, and something told him to choose one over the other. He made the drive, and after he parked on a country road and started to suit up for the bushwhacking it would take to get to the bog, a bobcat sauntered past. “That had certainly never happened before,” he said....

Is it possible for an entire society to suffer from Stockholm Syndrome…

 …whereby death is ever present and possible if one steps outside prescribed public roles? Or is a society so dysfunctional and disordered that public order is the only aspect of life that is not bizarre and normal reactions and feelings cannot exist?

It is my belief that propaganda and not the truth is paramount to such societal maladies. I think dictators, emperors or whatever one wants to call the entity of control requires a societal order that is recognizable in order to act against it in defense of control. Propaganda is a requirement in such a paradigm. Normalcy or normal human emotional response is basically outlawed by the emperor’s propaganda to favor control.