Since Governor Snyder is connected to the collapse of the water quality of Flint, Michigan; there are questions to the accuracy of the findings.

That is a proud and happy sign over Flint's water plant and facilities. It was not Flint's fault this outcome occurred. That sign can still be a point of pride for Flint. A sign and a city cannot hurt people. It is the policies imposed on the city that hurt people.

Flint has always loved it's people. Flint's power to protect it's people was interrupted. That interruption is the issue.

February 5, 2018
By Francie Diep

The 2016 water crisis in Flint, Michigan, (click here) was a story of failure: the failure of bureaucrats, whose malfeasance may have cost human lives; the failure of our aging infrastructure; the failure of austerity, which led to the prioritization of money over lives. And it was a failure that had enormous public-health consequences.

In 2014 through 2015, Genesee County, where Flint is located, had the nation's third-largest recorded outbreak of Legionnaire's disease, a severe form of pneumonia that people catch by inhaling microscopic droplets of water contaminated with legionella bacteria. Eighty-seven Genesee County residents fell ill; 12 of them died.

Scientists and officials are now asking whether the outbreak is indeed connected to officials' neglect of the Flint water system. Nick Lyon, the head of Michigan's health department, is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors say he knew about the rash of disease cases around Flint, but failed to act. Meanwhile, the state has argued that the outbreak was caused by the hospital where many people were treated. Now, a new study offers fresh evidence that the water was, for the most part, to blame....

Below is the online notation of the article published by the National Academy of Sciences. Kindly take note of the "Footnotes" at the link. The article can be ordered through the NAS.

The issue was the shifting levels of "free chlorine" that provided the OPPORTUNITY for the bacteria to increase enough to be a menace. A constant level of free chlorine in the water maintained an environment where the bacteria could not flourish.

This is what public health is all about. It is about knowing the dangers to people and treating the environment, including the water, so any threat is eliminated. The science of public health is precise. There are no questions. What works is known to work. The physical world, including chemistry of that physical world, is known to scientists. Research and continuing data collection over centuries in the USA has provided by far enough information to allow policies to be in place that work for a community.

It is when those policies are ignored and considered a nuisance by government due to fiscal policy that peril to the people becomes obvious. Don't think for one minute that what worked before the crisis in Flint was wrong. The water was safe before the crisis because of policies that worked. There is no question, what occurred was dangerous and the results show that.

Risk is not public policy. Safety is public policy.

"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America," (click here)
February 5,2018, 
Sammy Zahran, Shawn P. McElmurry, Paul E. Kilgore, David Mushinski,
Jack Press, Nancy G. Love, Richard C. Sadler and Michele S. Swanson

Significance

Unresolved is the etiology of the 2014–2015 Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Genesee County, MI. Flint is the most populous city in Genesee County, and the outbreak coincided with damaged water infrastructure and the subsequent Flint water crisis. The unprecedented disturbance in water quality within Flint’s drinking water distribution system allowed the evaluation of the statistical relationship between free chlorine residual and Legionnaires’ disease risk within a full-scale drinking water system. Through the integration of multiple datasets, results from numerous causal inference tests implicate changes in water quality, as reflected by changes in free chlorine residual, in the City of Flint as responsible for the outbreak. These findings provide public health professionals and engineers unparalleled scientific evidence to reduce waterborne disease.

Abstract

The 2014–2015 Legionnaires’ disease (LD) outbreak in Genesee County, MI, and the outbreak resolution in 2016 coincided with changes in the source of drinking water to Flint’s municipal water system. Following the switch in water supply from Detroit to Flint River water, the odds of a Flint resident presenting with LD increased 6.3-fold (95% CI: 2.5, 14.0). This risk subsided following boil water advisories, likely due to residents avoiding water, and returned to historically normal levels with the switch back in water supply. During the crisis, as the concentration of free chlorine in water delivered to Flint residents decreased, their risk of acquiring LD increased. When the average weekly chlorine level in a census tract was <0.5 mg/L or <0.2 mg/L, the odds of an LD case presenting from a Flint neighborhood increased by a factor of 2.9 (95% CI: 1.4, 6.3) or 3.9 (95% CI: 1.8, 8.7), respectively. During the switch, the risk of a Flint neighborhood having a case of LD increased by 80% per 1 mg/L decrease in free chlorine, as calculated from the extensive variation in chlorine observed. In communities adjacent to Flint, the probability of LD occurring increased with the flow of commuters into Flint. Together, the results support the hypothesis that a system-wide proliferation of legionellae was responsible for the LD outbreak in Genesee County, MI.

Just to add a little color to the Washington, DC dynamics. It is understandable why all those Chinese oligarchs are interested in coming to the USA, huh?

The USA is so much more corrupt than China is becoming, right?

You know the oligarchs, the ones that went to that closed meeting with the Kushner real estate folks. Yeah, those oligarchs.

August 31, 2017
By David Kocieniewski

Jared Kushner, (click here) Donald Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser, wakes up each morning to a growing problem that will not go away. His family’s real estate business, Kushner Cos., owes hundreds of millions of dollars on a 41-story office building on Fifth Avenue. It has failed to secure foreign investors, despite an extensive search, and its resources are more limited than generally understood. As a result, the company faces significant challenges.

Over the past two years, executives and family members have sought substantial overseas investment from previously undisclosed places: South Korea’s sovereign-wealth fund, France’s richest man, Israeli banks and insurance companies, and exploratory talks with a Saudi developer, according to former and current executives. These were in addition to previously reported attempts to raise money in China and Qatar.

The family, once one of the largest landlords on the East Coast, sold thousands of apartments to finance its purchase of the tower in 2007 and has borrowed extensively for other purchases. They are walking away from a Brooklyn hotel once considered central to their plans for an office hub. From other properties, they are extracting cash, including tens of millions in borrowed funds from the recently acquired former New York Times building. What’s more, their partner in the Fifth Avenue building, Vornado Realty Trust, headed by Steve Roth, has stood aside, allowing the Kushners to pursue financing on their own....

How much of the bank did Kushner own when they restructured his debt on 666 Fifth Avenue?

...While 666 Fifth Avenue has been a drain, Kushner Cos. has continued to make big moves across New York City, and company officials say those assets insulate the business. It has expanded its footprint by $1 billion, including the Times building and properties formerly owned by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, according to data firm Real Capital Analytics. Morali, sitting in a conference room below a painting of the company’s founders—Jared Kushner’s grandparents—says even a worst-case scenario at 666 Fifth would do minor damage to the company, because “it’s just one small piece of the portfolio.”...

I congratulate President Xi Jinping for being the people's president. What good is a middle class if it can't survive the financial sector?

It took the USA a long time (from the Great Depression) to establish a Middle Class. One would think the investment in a vast economic engine such as that would mean something. But, low and behold, Glass - Steagall in 1999 was repealed by a Republican majority in the USA Legislature and seven years later, the Middle Class was under attack. It hasn't recovered since.

As much as I wish it was the USA protecting and providing for the Middle Class here, I am pleased to see China is not undervaluing it's people. There is every reason to believe the Chinese Middle Class is becoming a great economic engine, too. That is what USA foreign policy is supposed to be about. It is suppose to lift up other people's so fair trade can exist in a world that values quality of life and longevity for all peoples.

It is nice to realize China is carry through with commitments to rid itself of corruption and danger to it's economy and people. We did the right thing by coming to China a long time ago. It has taken a few decades, but, it's leadership is showing it is everything we hoped it would be for the Chinese people.

February 22, 2018

China’s government (click here) seized temporary control of Anbang Insurance Group Co. and will prosecute founder Wu Xiaohui for alleged fraud, cementing the downfall of a politically connected dealmaker whose aggressive global expansion came to symbolize the financial overreach of China’s debt-laden conglomerates.

The surprise move furthers President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption and de-leveraging campaigns while providing a government backstop for the high-yield investment products that Anbang sold to hordes of Chinese citizens. It suggests that after months of clamping down on acquisitive tycoons, China is increasingly focused on insulating the economy from their shaky finances.

It’s a remarkable turn for Anbang, which burst onto the global scene in 2014 with the purchase of New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel and only a year ago was in talks to invest in a company owned by the family of Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser. With 2 trillion yuan ($315 billion) of assets, Anbang represents China’s largest-ever takeover of a privately owned company.

“This is another step in China Inc.’s great unwinding,” Brock Silvers, managing director at Kaiyuan Capital, a Shanghai-based multi-asset advisory firm, said in an email....

Now, those crazy fluctuations of the DOW wasn't about China nationalizing Angang? Was it?

That is an interesting picture of our former Secretary of the Treasury. I don't recall the moment, but, it looks interesting.

February 21, 2018
By Milton Ezrati

Though the financial crisis of 2008-09 happened a decade ago, (click here) serious questions remain, especially about how Washington handled the crisis. Answers might profitably inform policy going forward.  Two points in particular stand out: the decision to rescue troubled firms and the ad hoc, almost chaotic way the authorities went about things. Washington claimed at the time that it had little choice, that the financial system was on the verge of collapse. Even so, alternatives existed that Washington seemed not even to have considered. In retrospect, the chosen policies probably exacerbated the panic that seized markets at the time.

Issues of blame go beyond the remit of this blog, but not the financial efficacy of what was done. Top question on this list is whether rescues were the most effective response. They were clearly the first choice of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who, with the blessing of President George W. Bush, pushed for a huge $700 billion relief package for the country’s largest financial institutions, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). That is big money even by Washington’s standards. At the time, the government advanced the argument that it had to save these institutions to keep the financial system functioning. Congress bought in but only on the second try. The first time, the nation’s representatives voted TARP down. Financial people, of course, embraced the idea enthusiastically....

...Nor would an alternative with bankruptcies have brought down financial markets, as some have claimed. After all, bankruptcy does not stop the functions of the firm involved. It would have put board members out of a job as well as the senior executives, the opposite of TARP. Bankruptcy might have halted some of the more aggressive behavior of these firms, which might not have been so bad. Otherwise these firms would have remained in operation. Brokers would still have executed and cleared trades. Investment banks would still have floated new issues, not has actively as the year before, of course, but then that happened anyway. Banks would have cleared checks and advanced loans, if less actively than in prior years, which was the case anyway. The system would have functioned....

This is Wall Street. Take a good long look. Wealthy, arrogant, privileged and removing the rights of the American public to access land.

Ants. Bugs. The American public are now a new species of vermin.

February 23, 2018
By Melanie Ehrenkranz

When you’re having a picnic, (click here) the last thing you want is ants, and when you’re a billionaire venture capitalist, it’s equally irksome to have plebeians accessing the beach next to your 89 acres of land. On Thursday, Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla filed a 151-page petition with the Supreme Court in order to fight to keep the public off the shoreline near his property.

Khosla purchased the property in 2008 for $32.5 million, which stretches along Martins Beach in San Mateo County, according to SFGate. He reportedly padlocked the gate to the shoreline in September 2010, barring access to the beach the previous owners had allowed since the 1920s.

Khosla’s appeal with the Supreme Court argues that he shouldn’t have to get a permit to lock the public access gates, claiming the California Coastal Act is a violation of his constitutional rights. The California Coastal Act (click here) was enacted in 1976 to ensure the public had access to the California shoreline....

This is a very viable law because it was enacted by the public through a process widely recognized in California as the right by the people.

Over forty years ago, (click here) voters concerned about coastal development and its impact on public access and coastal resources worked for Proposition 20, the California Coastal Conservation Initiative. This Initiative, passed in 1972, created the Coastal Commission...

These processes of "people power" in California has not changed for a very long time and I don't expect that to be regarded lightly by any court. Obviously that is the case otherwise Mr. "Jerk" Sun Microsystems Khosla would not be petitioning the Supreme Court. 

Every interested group should be joining the public case if not already engaged. This is the same high handed attitudes we are seeing at the federal level with public lands and national parks. It is outrageous.

Canada should be appalled and quite frankly worried at the security breach surrounding their Prime Minister.

February 21, 2018
By Maura Forrest

Sophie Trudeau and Jaspal Atwal pictured in Mumbai Feb. 20. The Trudeaus attended a business and cultural event in the city that evening celebrating Indian cinema.

...But Jaspal Atwal, (click here) who was photographed with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau and Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi at an event in Mumbai on Tuesday, already had something of a history of inserting himself into Canadian Liberal politics before he was invited to the event on Thursday by MP Randeep Sarai. 

Here’s what we know about Atwal, including his criminal history and his ties to federal and provincial politics. 

Atwal was once a member of the International Sikh Youth Federation, an extremist group aiming to establish an independent Khalistan that was banned in Canada as a terrorist group in 2003. He was one of four men who shot and wounded an Indian cabinet minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986, and was convicted of attempted murder for his part in the attack. He served jail time and was later paroled.

Atwal was also charged with a 1985 attack on former B.C. premier and Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, a vocal opponent of the Sikh separatist movement, but was later acquitted.... 

No one believes a man that has already served his time for previous wrong doing should have his freedom infringed upon more than necessary, but, this was a surprise to the Canadian delegation and that is more than a concern.

Mr. Atwal's previous affiliations seem to still be his interest.

Jaspal Atwal, (click here) who was active in banned International Sikh Youth Federation, posed with Canadian PM's wife at event in Mumbai.

A former agent for a then terrorist organization cannot simply show up for tea and crumpets. Mr. Atwal needs to denounce his previous affiliations and show real reason to be considered a person of interest to an international dialogue.

Khalistān is supposed to be in the Punjab region of South Asia. The territorial definition of the proposed country Khalistan ranges from the Punjab, including Lahore, to parts of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Rajasthan.

Only a couple of weeks ago there was renewed fighting in this region that extends since November of last year. How can anyone still affiliated with such unrest be part of an international delegation that isn't engaged in any peace initiative?

December 25, 2017

Minister of State (click here) for Home Hansraj Ahir has said Pakistan has violated the ceasefire along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir 771 times till December 10, and 110 times along the IB till November-end.

Like, ahh, I don't think so.

A fresh initiative to bring in peace in restive Jammu and Kashmir, tightening the noose on “erring” NGOs and cross-border firing-related incidents kept the Union Home Ministry busy in 2017. Violence perpetrated by Maoists, prolonged agitation in Darjeeling demanding a separate Gorkhaland state and providing help to states to maintain law and order were some of the other issues that the ministry had to deal with over the year....

Do NOT. DO NOT EVER....recruit children to carry out the responsibility of government.

...Based on his recommendation, the Jammu and Kashmir government has already taken an initiative to withdraw cases against around 5,000 youths who were accused of pelting security forces with stones and identified as “first time offenders”....

How is India to move forward to ALL THE PEOPLE when this level of hatred continues to exist. It is unconscionable to believe someone like Jaspar Atwal would be included in any international effort to expand trade relations in hopes of moving forward with a peaceful India?

Mr. Atwal needs to denounce his previous activities and ask for forgiveness in ever thinking those levels of discord and violence could ever be a part of an international community that recognizes a better way with peace than continued civil unrest with potential war and continued instability in the region.

Mr. Atwal has a role in the region and that is to bring an end to the hatred and divisions he once caused.

Trump speaks out of both sides of his mouth.

February 12, 2018
By Lee Min-hyung

North Korea has praised its highest-ranking Olympics delegation (click here) for its recent visit to South Korea where it built momentum for peace on the Korean Peninsula.

"The North Korean delegation helped improve relations between the two Koreas, paving the way for establishing a peaceful environment on the peninsula," the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said Monday.

This came a day after the delegation - led by Kim Yong-nam, the ceremonial head of the regime - returned to Pyongyang after ending its three-day visit to Seoul and PyeongChang on the sidelines of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

This is the first time since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took office in 2011 that the regime has expressed a strong willingness to enhance bilateral ties with the South through sports diplomacy.

The state-run news agency noted that a group of highest-ranking South Korean officials enjoyed music performances by the regime's 140-member Samjiyon Orchestra.

"President Moon Jae-in and the first lady watched the performance by our art troupe on Sunday, and the concert won explosive applause from the audience," it added.

Kim Yo-jong, younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, also watched the performance with the South Korea dignitaries, the KCNA reported. They included Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon....

February 13, 2018

Washington — The Trump administration, (click here) scrambling to avoid a rift with an ally, has told South Korea it is open to holding preliminary talks with North Korea, according to two senior administration officials and a spokesman for the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in.

The decision, which came after Vice President Mike Pence attended the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and met with Mr. Moon, reflects how thoroughly the diplomatic channel between the North and South has upended the administration’s calculations.

For months, the White House has rejected the idea of meeting with North Korea unless it took measurable steps toward giving up its nuclear stockpile and curbing its provocative behavior. Now, though, with Mr. Moon determined to engage with the North, these officials said the administration has decided on a course correction.

The decision was a victory for South Korea. “The United States, too, looks positively at South-North Korean dialogue and has expressed its willingness to start dialogue with the North,” Mr. Moon said on Tuesday, according to his spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom....

Conservative, White America simply cannot stand for the idea of peace on the Korean Peninsula. Trump and his unilateral political game playing is proving to be an unreliable peace partner. 

February 28, 2018
By Steve Holland, Christine Kim

Washington/Seoul (Reuters) - The United States (click here) said on Friday it was imposing its largest package of sanctions against North Korea, intensifying pressure on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons and missile programmes....

...“We imposed today the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country before,” Trump said in an address to a conservative activist group in Washington. “And ... hopefully something positive can happen, we will see.”...

...Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the conservative Center for the National Interest, said, “Cumulatively speaking, the sanctions imposed on North Korea in total since 2017 are some of the biggest ever imposed on a nation state.”

Tougher sanctions may jeopardise the latest detente between the two Koreas, illustrated by the North’s participation in the Winter Olympics in the South, amid preparations for talks about a possible summit between North Korea’s Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in....

By jeopardizing the peace process on the Koran Peninsula, it creates artificial pressure on allies that should be involved jointly in the process. Peace on the Korean Peninsula has to include the region, which means Japan has a stake in the outcome as well.

February 21, 2018
By Tom O'Connor

North Korea (click here) has urged South Korea to join forces in rejecting Japan’s claims to a tiny set of disputed islets in the Sea of Japan, called the East Sea by the Koreas.

Both Koreas consider the two islands and their surrounding rocks—known collectively as Dokdo in Korean, Takeshima in Japanese and the Liancourt Rocks in the U.S.—as part of the Korean Peninsula’s territory, while Japan claims them as their own. The islets are administered by South Korea, but the dispute once again made local headlines when the Olympic International Committee omitted a tiny blue dot signifying the islets from the Korean Unification Flag jointly held by the North and South Korea teams at the ongoing 2018 Winter Olympics.

North Korea quickly blamed “Japanese reactionaries” attempting to discredit Korean claims to the islets. On Wednesday, official North Korean Cabinet newspaper Minju Joson published a commentary calling on South Korea to stand up to fellow U.S. ally Japan on one of the very few issues the Korean Peninsula foes agree on.

“The south side should come to its senses, raise its voice for defending the sovereignty and dignity of the nation and categorically reject the foreign forces’ imprudent interference in the above-said issue,” the article said, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency....

All these issues should be part of a peace process that would bring regional peace and stability; and not cause greater tensions between countries in the region. Trump is neglecting his responsibility to allies engaged with North Korea and quite possibly China to bring about peace, rather than divided loyalties. I don't believe Mnuchin's sanctions will do anything, quite frankly. There are larger stakes today than before.

What kind of business model exists that provides for a soft landing for the business owner? Why is Trump wealthy and his contractors in debt? I didn't know "slick" was a business model in the USA provided under law.

February 21, 2018
By Tom Winter, Hallie Jackson and Kenzi Abou-Sabe

...Maloni told NBC News (click here) last year that the loan was repaid in December.

Manafort's LLC, Summerbreeze, then took out a new $9.5 million loan in December using the Hamptons property and house in Alexandria, Virginia, as part of the collateral. The lender was Federal Savings Bank of Chicago, whose chief executive, Calk, was an economic adviser to the Trump campaign.

In January 2017 Federal Savings Bank also lent Manafort and his wife mortgage loans in the amount of $5.3 million and $1.2 million for a separate property located at 377 Union Street in Brooklyn, New York.

The loans for the 377 Union property totaled 6.5 million and were for a property that Manafort initially bought for less than $3 million.

Between the Hamptons property and the Brooklyn property the Federal Savings Bank loaned Manafort $16 million or 5 percent of all of the bank's loans, according to records kept by the FDIC....

Am I understanding that right? All the loans made by "Federal Savings Bank" amounted to $320 million for those two years, 2016 and 2017. Manafort received 5 percent of that $320 in the way of $16 million. Five percent. Five percent puts him in a position that Trump always enjoyed in that he indirectly owned the bank if he was to declare bankruptcy without refinancing to keep the bank open.

5 percent of the value of all the loans for two years. That is amazing. These guys are real operators, aren't they?

That is what bothers me about Trump and his properties, like the gold hotel in Las Vegas. Trump embarks on these investments with abandon and then declares bankruptcy under Chapter 11 to keep the property and rid himself of debt in order to save the banks. It is not an occasional business model that goes bad without warning, these are pre-meditated bankruptcies.

No one can build a gold covered hotel and pay for it's construction. That simply isn't possible. Trump brings contractors into his properties believing they are going to see significant profits to their contract, but, eventually these contractors loss considerable assets and quite possibly go bankrupt themselves due to Trump's plans.

Now, Manafort is doing the exact same thing. While I am sure it is nice to own extravagant homes, they provide a venue for loans that are extraordinary. I doubt if Paul Manafort and his wife ever intended to pay back those loans in completion. Just like Trump. Isn't that fraud?

There has to be a way to discern sincere business contracts with the idea of paying them in earnest when something goes awry and bankruptcy is the only way out. There was either a good investment in the beginning and something went wrong in the market place, like the bottom fell out of the tourism economy into Las Vegas and the ability to pay contracts simply dried up. That as opposed with Trump properties time and again. No business model is that bad all the time to allow wealth to be accumulated by a family that owed so much to so many others. It all seems rather questionable to me.

I realize this is quid pro quo. It raises other questions. 

Three tornadoes touched down in Texas night before last. Now, just flooding.

February 21, 2018
2230.38z
UNISYS (partically impaired because of pandering to Russia) water vapor satellite of the north and west hemisphere (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)

February 21, 2018
By Max Golembo

A stalled frontal boundary (click here) continues to bring flooding rain, severe storms, freezing rain and snow from Texas to Michigan. More than 5 inches of rain has been reported in parts of Midwest over the last 24 hours sending many rivers into major flooding....

There were at least 30 homes damaged.

February 20, 2018
10:35 p.m.

A motorist stops to clear ice from his wipers along I-70 near Lawrence, Kan., 
Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018. The area is under a winter weather advisory. 

The National Weather Service (click here) now says it was three tornadoes that hit North Texas.

It says two of the twisters struck early Tuesday in a rural area near Joshua, destroying at least two mobile homes and severely damaging several others. A mother and her disabled daughter were injured when one tornado demolished their mobile home.

The third tornado struck a short time later in the Dallas suburb of DeSoto. No injuries were reported there.

The weather service says all three tornadoes were weak EF0 ones with winds ranging from 65 to 85 mph (105 to 137 kph).

After the tornadoes came the rain. Up to 4? inches of it fell in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by 8 p.m. Tuesday, causing some flooding....

It won't work.It is an added danger to children in the classroom and it takes time to unlock them.

There is nothing to stop an attack from outside either. The shooters can come with body armor, too.

That is the biggest problem with Republican leaders and legislators, they shoot from the hip with ideas that are populous, but, have no real effect.

February 22, 2018

US President Donald Trump (click here) has said arming teachers could prevent school shootings like that which left 17 people dead last week in Florida.

A staff member with a gun could end an attack "very quickly", he said.

Mr Trump floated the proposal - long-championed by the powerful NRA gun lobby - as emotional survivors of the 14 February massacre urged him to take measures to stop similar attacks.

The US leader called for improved background checks on gun buyers.

"It's not going to be talk like it's been in the past," he said....

There will be fatal incidents in the classroom because there was a gun present. Guns are turned against the owner, too. There is no answer besides gun control.

April 28, 2016

6/19/2017 - Guns (click here) are responsible for the death or injury of over 7,000 children in America each year. And child gun injuries and deaths may be even more prevalent in the United States than we realized.

Fatal incidents (click here) involving toddlers and guns, including a deadly shooting this week in Milwaukee, are far more common than you might think.

The latest victim was Patrice Price, a 26-year-old Milwaukee mother, who was killed when her 2-year-old son fired a handgun he’d found in the backseat of a car. Officials say the .40-caliber gun apparently slid out from underneath the driver’s seat as Price drove her boyfriend’s car, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The toddler then picked up the gun and fired it, hitting his mother in the back.

The boy was the 77th child to fire a gun accidentally and harm someone in the U.S. so far this year, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group. That number includes children age 17 and younger....

There is something very wrong here and it isn't porn.

"Unfortunately, just five days after 17 people were gunned down at a Florida school, the Florida House just passed a bill that declares pornography a 'public health risk,'" state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D, told the Independent. "Basically, what they have determined is that these are the Republican priorities in 2018: Wasting our time with debate and legislation that declares porn as a health threat, meanwhile we can't even get a single debate, vote, or hearing on anything related to assault weapons."

Best I can tell the CDC is still focused on saving lives from the flu.

February 20, 2018
By Kristi L. Nelson

At least 10 Tennessee children (click here) have died of flu this season, the Tennessee Department of Health said Tuesday.

The state health department confirmed two more children had died of flu-related complications, for a total of four children in East Tennessee and six in Middle Tennessee. A pregnant woman in Middle Tennessee also has died from flu complications this season.

The state does not track adult deaths related to flu, but it and the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention track flu-related deaths of children and pregnant women. Nationally, as of Feb. 16, child deaths totaled at least 84 for this season.

Only 26 percent of those children eligible to have the flu shot had it this season before they got sick, the CDC said Friday....

There is no scientific basis for declaring porn a health habit. What there seems to be is ridiculous articles claiming all kinds of reasons why it is a health issue. This article (click here) pretends to be scientific by listing numbers after words, sentences or paragraphs, but, there are no references at the end of anywhere else for that matter linked to the numbers. It is all populous nonsense.

February 2, 2018
By Ryan Hughes

Tallahassee, Fla. (WFLA) – Flu activity (click here) in Florida was at higher levels than the highest points in previous flu seasons, according to this week’s flu report from the Florida Department of Health.

The report says flu activity is high and increased sharply for the third week in a row from Jan. 21 to 27, 2018.

The flu is blamed for the deaths of two children from Jan. 21 to 27, raising the total number of pediatric deaths to five this flu season.

The report said 317 pneumonia and influenza-related deaths were reported from Jan. 14 to 20, 2018. The number of deaths for the week of Jan. 21 to 28 were not included in the report.

The state health department said deaths due to pneumonia and influenza were higher than expected and are expected to increase over the coming weeks. Most deaths occurred in people aged 65 years and older. The majority of deaths in people aged 64 years and younger occurred in people with underlying health conditions (74%)....

The only way lawmakers will listen to students under 18 is if they can vote or spend money for gunmakers.

Blue indicates a state that allows 17-year olds who will turn 18 on or before election day to vote in caucuses or primaries.

(Red) States that allow 17-year-olds to participate in presidential caucuses, but may not vote in primary elections for other offices.

People are very confused about what gun control is and what it is not. The young people applauding actually want to carry assault weapons into school. They believe they can react quick enough to stop an attack on them. That is not possible. The gunman in the Florida school took all of 12 seconds to gun down many people, including staff.

The Second Amendment is not about gunning down people that may or may not want to kill an array of students and faculty. The way the Gun Rights folks put it is that assault weapons are necessary in our society to protect from DANGEROUS GOVERNMENT. Does anyone believe assault weapons are to be strapped on a person daily to protect from mass murderers such as the one in Florida? That is not realistic and there will be unnecessary deaths if such allowances are provided.

Gun control is about PREVENTING unnecessary deaths, not interrupting attempts to carry them out. There is no way, under current law, the Las Vegas mass murderer can be stopped. The problem and difference between assault weapons and hand guns is the problem with mass deaths. Hand guns are for personal protection and assault weapons are about mass deaths.

There is a huge difference between gun rights regarding personal safety and that of allowing mass murder. Everyone allows the exploitation of Americans for profits when it comes to assault weapons. There is no place for them in today's society. Lawmakers point to the sentences for murder AFTER the fact as a means of preventing such incidents. There is no law regarding mass murder that prevents the crime. The people arming themselves and carrying out these crimes are convinced they are going to survive the attack and carry out either more such attacks or will go back to their own lives. These people are not rational. They don't care about a death penalty, they believe they are bringing their own justice to others.

The Las Vegas murderer positioned himself in the hotel to survive any attack from the ground and/or an approach from the hallway. He was armed to kill every human being that would have any effect on his ability to kill others. He PLANNED to not only "kill for the thrill" at the hotel in Las Vegas, but, then to go on to continue to kill in other places. These are not rational people.

The idea the deaths in Florida could have been averted if 18 year olds could purchase weapons is playing on false ideas. How many 18 year olds are in the Florida school where the deaths occurred? The propaganda surrounding assault weapons is thick and plays on fear. One needs to ask, would Cruz be able to carry out his crime if assault weapons were not available? THAT is the question and the solution, not providing access to assault weapons by 18 year olds.

PROPAGANDA about assault weapons is as dangerous as the weapons themselves. If the USA government turned against the people, that is a problem for the people, NOT THE PERSON. Solutions to evil government is not about having organized militias at the ready, it is about "the people" in a democracy to organize allies and themselves to end what would be a civil war. If the USA engaged in a civil war, the people would have more armaments against a miniacle  government than we could ever imagine. There are plenty of people in power in other countries that would want to end such events. I am not worried about a federal government gone bad that acts violently against the people.

The Revolutionary War was won with allies to the colonists, not the British being outnumbered. I don't lose sleep over the USA military storming the city.

Where is Joe Biden when you need him? If anyone can talk to young people about such issues, it is he.

February 21, 2018
By Brendan Farrington, Josh Replogle and Tamara Lush

Survivors of the Florida school shooting (click here) descended on the state's Capitol on Wednesday and had one overarching message: It's time for action.

The kids split into several groups to talk with lawmakers and other state leaders about gun control, the legislative process, and mental health issues. Some tearfully asked why civilians should be allowed to have weapons such as the AR-15, which was used in the attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School exactly one week ago.

When Florida's Senate President Joe Negron heard the question, he didn't directly answer: "That's an issue that we're reviewing." When another lawmaker said he supported raising the age to buy assault-style weapons to 21 from 18, the students broke into applause.

The Florida Senate opened its session by showing pictures of all 17 victims in the attack....