One of the reasons people are so concerend about Deash is because the Ba'athists have capacity.

17 October 2014
Iraqi pilots (click here) who have joined the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) terrorist group operating in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets, the opposition UK-based Syrian Observatory said on Friday.
“It was the first time the militant group had taken to the air,” it added.
ISIL has been flying the planes over the captured al-Jarrah Syrian military airport east of Aleppo, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory, citing witnesses in Syria’s northern Aleppo province.
“They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein,” he said.
“People saw the flights, they went up many times from the airport and they are flying in the skies outside the airport and coming back.”...

I have absolutely no doubt Turkey is paying attention of who is within it's borders and who is attempting to cross the border shared with Syria. The government of Turkey should be concerned about it's borders. For a very long time Turkey should be concerned about it's borders. For a very long time Turkey wasn't intereted in that border except for PKK movements.

A lone American airman that was listed on the no fly list shows up within Turkey's borders and may have been moving toward Syria's border should expect to be approached by the Turkish government. If he thought he could just waltz into Turkey and move about with immunity he was very mistaken.

This was completely obvious that Mr. Long would be met with concern by the government of Turkey. 

The governments of the world are fully aware Daesh would like to obtain an air force and preferably one with nuclear capacity or to drop barrel bombs to match the capacity of the Syrian military.

There is someone in Turkey who would be more than willing to hear from Mr. Long.
   
Ambassador John R. Bass. John Bass (click here) was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 17, 2014 as the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey. A career Senior Foreign Service officer, he served as Executive Secretary from 2012 to 2014, and U.S. Ambassador to Georgia from 2009 to 2012.

It is not right to judge Justice Scalia on one statement during a hearing of the Court.

The only way anyone could criticize Justice Scalia of racism is to examine his writing and find consistency.

Grutter v. Bollinger (click here)

No. In a 5-4 opinion delivered by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the Court held that the Equal Protection Clause does not prohibit the Law School's narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body. The Court reasoned that, because the Law School conducts highly individualized review of each applicant, no acceptance or rejection is based automatically on a variable such as race and that this process ensures that all factors that may contribute to diversity are meaningfully considered alongside race. Justice O'Connor wrote, "in the context of its individualized inquiry into the possible diversity contributions of all applicants, the Law School's race-conscious admissions program does not unduly harm nonminority applicants."

In Grutter v. Bollinger, Justice Scalia voted with the minority of judges.

But in City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson, (click here) Justice Scalia voted with the majority.

I think it is important fairness is carried out in any claim of racism. If people believe racism has been a trend for him, then the words spoken recently validates that finding. However, if Justice Scalia is inconsistent in his writings then the disturbing statement only indicates a personality specialty of Justice Scalia to gain attention or wake the audience up in the courtroom.

The Congressional three day notification law is unconstitutional. It is overreaching into the Executive Branch and conflicts with separation of powers. There is no other reason for the three day notice except to define the Executive Branch as an untrustworthy/impugned branch of government. This overreaching is typical of the Republican majority in the House and Senate.

The reason President Obama have signed the legislation is because this Congress chronically practices brinkmanship.

Mudslides and landslides usually follow after rain soaks droughted soil. That is the case even after the sun comes out. The land is disrupted and will need to settle after the rain.

Washington state Governor Jay Inslee (click here) declared a drought emergency across three regions including key agricultural hubs of the U.S. Northwest State on Friday, citing near record low snowpack levels ahead of the spring runoff.

Watersheds on the Olympic Peninsula, east side of the central Cascade Mountains including Yakima and Wenatchee, and Walla Walla region, which are vital to apple and wine production, will be hit hardest with drought conditions, the governor’s office said.

April 17, 2015
Seattle - This is the first time in a decade (click here) Washington's governor has declared a drought. Friday he announced new drought areas, which means 44 percent of the state is now in drought. We have had plenty of rain this year, but, the Department of Ecology says that's not the problem; the issue is snowpack.

"This year we're at 100 percent rainfall but only 24 percent snowpack, and that makes a big difference," explains Maia Bellon, the director of the state Department of Ecology.

We decided to explore the issue at Olympia's farmers market, where produce is in abundance on a gorgeous Friday afternoon; that sounds like good news. The bad news is it will likely be short-lived. An abundantly warm and dry winter means crops are maturing early, so this feast will likely be followed by a critical famine.

We've calculated that we will have the lowest river flows in the state of Washington that we've had in the last 64 years," Bellon tell us....

December 10, 2015
Seattle - Gov. Jay Inslee (click here) declared a state of emergency in Washington on Wednesday after days of heavy rain caused rivers to rise, flooding and landslides across the west part of the state. Multiple river remained under a flood warning.
The heavy rain and flooding have claimed the lives of two people in Oregon. A 60 year old southeast Portland woman died early Wednesday morning after a tree fell onto her house. The woman was in bed sleeping when the 30 inch diameter tree fell and nearly sheared the house in two. The woman's husband and brother, who were also in the house, were not hurt.
One person drowned and another was rescued after they drove their car into high water near Clatskanie, Ore.
A man pulled himself out of the vehicle as it sand and called for help. A neighbor saw him standing on the car and flagged down officials, who were able to rescue him. A water rescue crew towed the vehicle, which was submerged in about 12 feet of water, out...

Below:

As Washington state and the Pacific Northwest are hit with heavy rain and flood risks, a surging Snoqualmie Falls is captured in aerial footage. VPC

The Republicans are synchronizing their politics on the House and Senate floors with media events

Bowe Bregdahl went missing June 30, 2009. He was the only American listed as an MIA in the Afghanistan war. The US Congress had years of notification, not just three days.

One might ask Congressmen what they want a live or dead American after three days when it was leaked?

Minority Leaders Reid and Pelosi can now add this to their complaints of ethical issues with Republicans. They are using media events to time their political agenda. A political agenda that has no basis in the facts.

Check the Congressional calendar and match it with media events. There are probably many more. The committee regarding Planned Parenthood was a media event for the Republicans. It was handled incompetently and there are dead and injured Americans to prove it. Republicans stop at nothing to have influence.

Don't take my word for it, NBC is reporting the same thing.

December 10, 2015
By Erik Ortiz
..."I'm going, 'Good grief, (click here) I'm in over my head,'" Bergdahl says in the premiere episode of "Serial's" second season, recounting how he walked away from his military base in June 2009.
"Suddenly, it really starts to sink in that I really did something bad. Or, not bad, but I really did something serious."...

This is again the difference between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats care about the people, while Republicans care about their wallets and wealthy political donors. 

December 10, 2015
By Steven Johnson 

U.S. Army (click here) Private Bowe Bergdahl watches as one of his captors displays his identity tag to the camera at an unknown location in Afghanistan, July 19, 2009. Photo by Reuters TV

Season up, servers down. (click here)
That appeared to be the case briefly Thursday morning when the first episode of the second season of the hit podcast “Serial” (click here) was posted without advance fanfare on the show’s website.
As has been widely speculated, the episode deals with the travails of former U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, charged with deserting the Army in Afghanistan in June 2009. For the first time in the media, Bergdahl tells his own story, a complicated tale that morphed from a missing persons case into a returning soldier story into a political lightning rod.
The episode, available at serialpodcast.org and through other channels, puts the Bergdahl story in context, including a quote from presidential candidate Donald Trump saying, “In the old days deserters were shot."

Attempts to access the episode on the show’s website in its first hours, across several devices, were at first rebuffed, suggesting massive interest. But that situation didn’t last and the website soon delivered the episode smoothly.
The episode begins with excerpts from Bergdahl’s 25 taped hours of conversation with screenwriter Mark Boal, one of the filmmakers behind “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty.” Their essence is that Bergdahl thinks of himself, first, as a whistleblower hoping to alert higher-ups to leadership he considered “dangerous."...

Generosity is spent well in this simple economic dynamic.

Rhode Island kids raise money for K.I.N.D. (click here)

These are not the Rhode Island heroes to the left, it is an African school.

This has been a great program that brings local economies to matter in Africa. 

The charity also provides for donations to a girl(s) tuition to complete school. 

Kindly consider the K.I.N.D. Fund (Kids In Need of Desks) as a means to buy a gift for a person that has everything. I have purchased desks for holiday gifts. UNICEF sends a message to the recipient of the gift to explain the rewards of such acts of compassion. Everyone loved the idea and were satisfied the gift they received went to a noble cause. 

Who would think simply supplying desks to children would make such a difference, but, it does.

This is an interesting triangle. The graphs are "Rig Counts."

The graph above is the International Rig Counts of Baker Hughes. Supposedly the more rigs in any count the more the company is worth.

More recent rig counts. (click here) The pages can be opened without copying them. The documents are Excel or Word. 

This is the Word Document of Baker Huges (click here) archived history of rig counts dating back to 1975.

Below are the statistics on rig counts from current activity. Call me crazy, but, this doesn't look good at all. If Halliburton thinks it is going to save itself from bankruptcy, it might want to reconsider such an idea. This seems a little desperate. Halliburton is attempting to own it's own operating rigs so it's service industry doesn't tank.

Halliburton wants to buy out Baker Hughes, but, it doesn't seem to have enough cash flow in the year 2015. But, also, in order for Halliburton to buy out Baker Hughes it has to comply with anti-trust provisions as well.

Above Graphs (click here).

So.

Along come GE.

This is a paragraph that explains Jeffery Immelt's plan for buying significant amounts of Halliburton assets. I don't blame him, the financial sector is somewhat unstable after China devalued it's currency.

September 11, 2015
By James Langford

..."Over time, (click here) there has been significant interest from premier investment firms in acquiring GE Asset Management, reflecting its reputation and attractiveness to others," Immelt said in a statement on Thursday. "As we continue to transform GE to focus on our industrial core, now is the right time to explore such a sale."
Selling most of GE Capital, which Immelt announced earlier this year, will allow the company to escape stricter regulatory requirements imposed when the Treasury designated the business as a non-bank systemically important financial institution.
The SIFI label is intended to provide additional safeguards against a financial crisis like the one in 2008 and 2009 when heightened risk at GE Capital cost the parent company its top credit rating and forced Immelt to cut GE's dividend.
The GE Asset Management unit manages portfolios for global clients, and the vast majority of its holdings are in publicly traded stocks and bonds in areas including the U.S., Europe, Canada and China. The remainder includes near-cash investments, hedge funds and private equities....

And also:

September 15, 2015
By James Passeri

GE, which Bloomberg reported on Tuesday (click here) is making a bid for the Halliburton assets, is likely to have competition from private equity firms and industrial rivals. Even at lower valuations, completing the deal would expand the company's reach in the Middle East and Africa, where Halliburton's brand is well established.
"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity," Hallead said in a phone interview. "It took Halliburton 50 years to build them, and you don't just walk into a Middle East or African country and hold up a shingle for them. You cannot replicate the deal you are getting with these assets."
The asset divestitures Halliburton must make include a drill bits business as well as directional drilling services. A cementing business -- which was included in the $7.5 billion revenue estimate -- has yet to come to the auction block, further reducing the potential value, Hallead said.
Now that GE has won approval for its acquisition of Alstom's energy businesses, valued at 12.5 billion euros or about $14 billion at current exchange rates, "it's highly probable that they're in talks for some of the Halliburton-Baker Hughes assets," Christopher Glynn, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co., said in a phone interview.


And there is this:

December 9, 2015
By Amanda Schiavo 

New York (The Street) -- Shares of Halliburton (HAL - Get Report) (click here) are rising by 5.16% to $38.14 on Wednesday afternoon, following a Bloomberg report suggesting the oilfield services company is in advanced talks with General Electric (GE) to sell the conglomerate its drill bits and drilling services divisions.
Halliburton is divesting as many assets as it can in order to win antitrust approval for its proposed $35 billion acquisition of Baker Hughes (BHI).
"We're making good progress with our divestitures with respect to the first tranche, which is our drilling services and drill bit assets," Halliburton CFO Christian Garcia said at an energy investor conference on Wednesday, Bloomberg noted....

The company that brought the American people the Iraq War, Dick Cheney and electrocution of American soldiers in Iraq as a new method of personal hygiene, is now making a list for Santa Clause. I've never witnessed such deal making in my life with the numbers that are here. If I were GE I'd wait for both Halliburton and Baker Hughes to go bankrupt and then purchase the assets of both for a song and a dance. 

If Imelt plays his cards right Halliburton and Baker Hughes will be paying GE to take their assets along with a check from Dick Cheney for playing with exotic financial interests and being over extended on his margin call.

These hearings are too sensitive to ever display them.

The hearing today regarding the man that killed many and injured many more at a Planned Parenthood clinic was very disturbing. He said something like this, "I will not take any psychotropic drugs and be hung over like the man at Aurora." It is my opinion he is interested in killing and does so with an understanding of what he will mimic to make it happen. Evidently he saw a redeeming quality and was sympathetic to the killer in Aurora. Unbelievable.

The lawyers for Planned Parenthood have to refuse any public committee venues/meeting. People will die when Congressmen put a woman on display to ridicule. That behavior to ridicule a woman is for the jerks just like that voter that is now a murderer.

Ms. Richards should never have to address the public or government again in a way that victimizes her personally. It is out of the question. Planned Parenthood needs to find a person that answers all questions through venues that are not open to the public, but, with occasional public statements to the media.

The person that has to handle Planned Parenthood's media contacts needs to be a significant male figure that can impress on the country how safe the clinics are due to the good work of the men within Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood's media contact has to hold the line on all ideas it is a weak infrastructure of greedy women. 

As to those videos; they should have been taken down as soon as they went up and held for evidence until they were investigated. If ever life is important to the Congress than prove it by protecting the lives of existing Americans.  

The display of controversial videos brought about a moralizing jerk that sees himself as a hero. "I saw what they were doing in that clinic." He isn't that crazy no matter what his defense is offering as a reason to state he is incompetent to stand trial. He knows exactly what he did and he knows that he is on trial and is capable of warping reality to fit his hatred. There is no reason he can't stand trial, but, next time put a gag in mouth or put him back in his cell.

He recognized the authority of the officer sitting behind him even if it were for a few minutes. He isn't crazy. He's murderer and he was simply looking for a reason. 

Republicans are a bad joke to US democracy, values and morals.

Senator Murkowski has her sportsman hat on to allow hunting, fishing and shooting on federal lands. And she is concerned LAZY bureaucrats are leaving public lands closed and ignoring the public. The so called lazy bureaucrats should speak very loudly  about her insults and attempt to control land use to it's best outcomes for wildlife as well as citizens.

This is a joke. These are the fees of all the public lands except in Utah and California.
There needs to be fees to insure processing of a filmmaker's intent is known. The application is as important as the fee. The application will spark an assessment to the land condition and whether or not the intended use will destroy or harm the public lands. This is ridiculous.

I guarantee you if this was private concerns receiving these monies they wouldn't be touch, but, because the USA Treasury is receiving it, it has to be destroyed and more than likely the application process. There are already cuts all out agencies have to absorb and this is still more to prevent law enforcement of our lands and wildlife.

Evidently, states have the right to ask for higher fees because of the maintenance of public lands. The public lands should not enter into a bargain between State and Federal governments. These are federal lands that benefit the public. The idea federal lands are to be granted to states because a state wants to drill where there is no drilling permitted now is outrageous.

This bill attacks the sovereign nature of existing laws such as Tribal rights. endangered species status and water rights including those provision of the Clean Water Act. This bill to provide the dispersal of federal lands to the states will seek to end opposition by the State Department in regard to the Keystone XL. It is amazing the degree Republicans will go to kiss the 'behind' of the petroleum industry.

Oh, you say that all nonsense. Let me provide an example.

The State of North Carolina has no threatened species of plants at all. NONE.  Yet a native tree recognized by NC, the Long Leaf Pine, is used as a symbol of NC. It is the state tree. There is an organization that deals with the scarcity of this pine tree and it is treasured by the entire southeast which is unique to that area of the country. If NC is given any federal land there will be clear cutting and forget about the protections of wild African Violets that are visited by college students regularly as a plant that instructs understandings that are important.

If federal lands fall into the ownership of the states, they will be ravaged for cronies.

Range: The historic range of the longleaf pine (click here) once extended from southeastern Virginia to Florida, west through Louisiana to east Texas. Today, the trees are only found within small patches of this range.

Long leaf pine forests where they do exist provides for an entirely unique ecosystem including the vitality of endangered species of flora and fauna. If the State of North Carolina is given control of federal lands, theses forests will disappear without a doubt because of course 'it will create jobs.' For the land that remains with these forests it might provide clear cutting for about a week and then those loggers will be looking for work all over again.

The America's Longleaf Restoration Initiative (ALRI) (click here) is a collaborative effort of multiple public and private sector partners that actively supports range-wide efforts to restore and conserve longleaf pine ecosystems. The vision of the partners involved in the ALRI is to have functional, viable longleaf pine ecosystems with the full spectrum of ecological, economic and social values inspired through the voluntary involvement of motivated organizations and individuals....

Republicans don't value life, they value Wall Street.

The management of water quality currently enjoyed because of federal workers will be lost of the lands fall into the hands such as the extremists in North Carolina. I am sure NC is salivating already.

This is the bill Cornyn is speaking about on the US Senate Floor.

"The student success Act" (click here) I am not going to read this, but, educators and interested parties certainly should.

Senator Inhofe is an ignoramus. He is an old world ignoramus.

He wished everyone in Paris a good time at their PARTY but reassured his constituents nothing would be binding in the USA.

When I say ignoramus, I mean ignoramus.

There are represented at the Climate Summit 200 leaders of countries. It is the largest meeting the UN has ever experienced to move the climate crisis along. I apologize to all at Paris for having such an ignoramus as US Senator Inhofe.

200 leaders of vitally important countries on Earth.

I guarantee you being in Paris these days is not a party. I thank all the participating countries for the dedication to this purpose in the face of heinous attacks against humanity.

December 9, 2015

By AFP

"Of course I'm surprised," (click here) told reporters outside his home in Bischheim, a suburb of the northeastern city Strasbourg.
Had he known his son was planning to take part in the jihadist rampage that killed 130 people in total, "I would have killed him myself beforehand," he said.
Mohamed-Aggad said he was aware his son had travelled to Syria in 2013 with a group of youths from the Strasbourg area, "but not that he had returned".
"The last time I saw him was two years ago when he left. I have no words, I only found out this morning. I have to pull myself together."
Foued Mohamed-Aggad was the last of the three Bataclan assailants to be identified, all of them French....

US Senator Inhofe's attitude is stupid and dangerous. Stating that is generous to my opinion of him. I can only insult Senator Inhofe because he is about as hideous a man that grows up in the USA.

Since I would never expect an apology from an ignoramus, I don't expect one from him. He thinks my insults are a compliment, but, he is so completely wrong about his lousy attitude it cannot be ignored.

The California Drought is entrenched. I thought it was receding, but, according to this assessment the drought is spreading east again.

This is December 1, 2015 assessment and there should be the assessment of December 8, 2015 published by December 10, 2015.

I would ask the climate scientists in California to assess the effectiveness in rationing water. I know people believe sacrificing their lawns to save water is a good idea. I know the cost of water is expensive these days. But, the climate scientists of California need to decide if dry and dead lawns actually adds to the negative feedback loop we are realizing with a warming climate. Lawns and trees help mitigate drought. The breathing of plants of CO2 and the water vapor released by those plants during its breathing process. Water vapor can be fruitless if it drifts to other levels of altitude. But, maintaining lawns and trees is a form of restoration of the biosphere. I think California needs one more look to it's best outcomes.

Stop criminalizing citizens of conscience.

The FBI's Comey states all Botnets are bad and should be taken down as they occur. Sounds right to me.

But, the interesting aspect of his testimony today is about encryption services. Some companies that have encryption services receive a judicial warrant for information and the company disables it's ability to comply. That is criminal content. When the FBI reduces it's moment to moment surveillance or meta data accumulation and instead uses the FISA Court or any other court to provide a lawful measure of obtaining information and the company changes it's encryption to sabotage the FBI, that is assisting a potential terrorist. That is criminal. 

I think the FBI has to pursue real life consequences already in place to those that seek to sabotage law enforcement. 

I don't understand why sabotage of FBI warrants is tolerated. Why is that even considered a valid business model? If the murders of San Bernardino could have been detected and stopped because cooperation and upholding privacy rights in the use of the FISA count is sabotaged, that is assisting terrorists and lone wolves. The FISA courts protect privacy rights. The USA has to have a method of validating dangerous individuals to support an arrest or subpoena. That is our justice system.

Dying in a mass killing has the potential for every American. It seems to me the FBI has the correct focus. 

I realize there is a parallel universe that speaks to government and it's overreaching, unlawful behavior and corruption. But, there needs to be a moral point where a benevolent parallel universe DECIDES it needs to be a moral part of the USA's justice system. I don't think sabotaging the FBI and the FISA Court is important to continue to advocate for the people of any country. I do so in the open as an example of the strength of the First Amendment of the USA. I state my thoughts in a heartbeat and am not concerned if that is insulting or otherwise.

Sabotaging a federal national security agency is unlawful. If a community is concerned about wrongful behavior of federal agencies and compromise of civil rights beyond the point of cooperation then there should be punitive measures. I don't want my telecom company to compromise my safety by sabotaging the FBI to obtain information lawfully. That is something every American should find as reprehensible conduct.

I haven't noticed the FBI carrying out mass killings, so I think they are on the right path and should be viewed as legitimate and lawful to make requests. You'll excuse me, but, sabotaging the FBI is hubris. No one should joyful the FBI has been undone by contributing to the ability of an idiot to carry out a mass killing.

Additionally, the FBI was embarrassed with the murders in San Bernardino when statements by the murderers were found in open chat rooms or message boards. The agencies aren't perfect, but, if cooperation increases the longevity of Americans I suggest it needs to be accommodated.

What I find compelling is the lack of concern for those that carry out their own research to head off the attack on civilians of any country. This Senate judicial panel has a singular concern in being sure everything is done within government agencies that can be done. But, the committee grossly neglects the methods of benevolent activities although considered illegal that people of conscience carry out at there own legal peril. Someone needs to correct that. I think the Senate judicial committee needs to be written to in their error of people of conscience or sued for the lack of opportunity this committee has extended to all parties involved in keeping citizens of any country safe. Basically, the FBI and CIA should be interested in allowing such segments of society to conduct their intelligence gathering.

The benevolent people involved in information gathering to stop violence of any country has to be recognized by the US government so they can continue their work without relinquishing their capacity to act. I think that is important and if the US government won't provide such platforms for what would be considered lay people, then they are unhelpful. Most of these individuals/groups conduct their information gathering anonymously. That capacity to be anonymous needs to be upheld when the US government recognizes their legitimate right to exist.

December 8, 2015
By Holly Ellyatt 
Activist hacking group Anonymous (click here) have declared this Friday, December 11, a "trolling day" against the so-called terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) as part of its cyber campaign against the militant Islamist group.
In an online message, Anonymous asked people to mock ISIS, or "Daesh" as it is also known in the West (a derogatory term for the group) online as part of its "Operation ISIS" campaign.
"We ask you to show your support and help against ISIS by joining us and trolling them // do not think you have to be part of Anonymous, anyone can do this and does not require special skills."
"We ask you to take part of this on Facebook // Twitter // Instagram // Youtube //In the "Real World," the post on file-sharing website Ghostbin added....

These people are benevolent to the best outcomes of innocent people. There is no reason to inhibit them, ridicule them or incarcerate them.