Missile development and enrichment capacity in Iran is President Trump's accomplishment.

June 4, 2018
By Robert Windrem and Courtney Kube

Iran's supreme leader (click here) said Monday that Iran will not relent to U.S. pressures on its nuclear program, ordering Iranian scientists to get ready to increase uranium enrichment capabilities if necessary and vowing that Iran won't give up its missile program. 

 In a speech and series of tweets marking the 29th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said "the Iranian nation and government will not stand being under both sanctions and nuclear restrictions. … The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran must immediately make the preparations for achieving [increased enrichment.)" 

But Khamenei, speaking at Khomenei's tomb in South Tehran, was careful to note the proposed increase in enrichment capabilities would still fall within the limits specified in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and that Iran plans to stay in the deal.

Via Twitter, Khamenei called for the atomic energy organization to begin preparations "tomorrow."..

Peaceful use of nuclear power is allowed under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. But, Iran wasn't interested in even that much of a wrinkle to the agreement. Iran wanted to be a good partner.

Donald Trump returned Iran to nuclear enrichment.

DON'T FORGET IT!

25 May 2018

According to AirFleets website, Dena Airways operates only one aircraft, an Airbus A340-300.

The United States has imposed new sanctions (click here) against an airline company, which routinely transports Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

In a statement on Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury said Dena Airways is being designated for sanctions based on a 2001 presidential order designed "to impede terrorist funding".  

Dena Airways handles flights for the government of Iran. In November 2017, a previously US-sanctioned airline, Meraj Air, transferred its "VIP flight operations" to Dena Airways, the US statement said.

According to Trita Parsi, executive director of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), Dena Airways operates only one aircraft, which is being used by President Rouhani.

"So what's Trump's aim? Humiliate Iran's moderates and strengthen its hardliners," Parsi wrote on social media....

My answer to that would be, "Yes." It is easier to find fault to enter war with hardliners rather than moderate peace makers. The sanctions go back on and this is what happens. Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier.

Is the picture becoming more clear?

Iran needs to work with the P4+1 and not play into the hands of hardliners and war mongers from the USA and Israel. Iran must avoid the temptation to move backwards rather than forward. President Rouhani is Iran's future, not Ahmadinejad.

June 1, 2018

Iran’s former hardline President Mahmud Ahmadinejad (click here) says it was his “agile foreign policy” that led the Obama administration to begin negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program.

Speaking in Tabriz in Eastern Azarbaijan province on Thursday, May 31, Ahmadinejad repeated a recent remark, saying that he had warned Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that “it was not the right time for negotiations,” reported a Telegram channel Dolat-e Bahar, close to Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad delivered his speech despite warnings from the vigilante group Ansar-e Hezbollah not to go to Tabriz; and state officials told him that he cannot deliver a speech as he did not apply to the Interior Ministry to get a permit for the gathering.

Nevertheless, Ahmadinejad spoke to a few hundred of his supporters at a hotel in Tabriz.

In a shift from his tactics during the past year when his harsh criticism mainly targeted Khamenei, in this speech Ahmadinejad pointed his criticism at President Hassan Rouhani, although he did not spare his usual political rivals Majles Speaker Ali Larijani and Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani....

I would rather the unions address this problem. The American worker is not earning enough. Just that simple.

Unions put people to work in a safe work environment with pay that sustains not just the employee, but, their family and THE COUNTRY'S TREASURY.

State legislators should be making their economic climate "Safe for Unions." I don't see that cookie cutter legislation coming out of ALEC (click here). Alec will put guns in the hands of anyone that wants one, but, not food in people's stomach or homeownership.

The Supreme Court decision regarding lawsuits demands unions protect workers. They can right such measures into their contracts and provide for higher worker respect and safety. 

Everyone wants a pleasant work environment as well as a safe one and unions have lead the way for workplace safety for nearly a century. There is no reason to believe the aesthetics of the work environment can't be handled within a union contract.

Senator Brown is right and tired of hearing the rhetoric and quite frankly the lack of moral content in large family run corporations such as the Kochs and the Waltons of Walmart. Never did I think I would hear Walmart has a corporate office that directs it's workers to seek food stamps and Medicaid. That is shameful and the billionaires simply don't have any shame.

Take the Trump Company and the fact it's President, also now President of the USA, has declared bankruptcy on a regular basis which cheats the contractors and subcontractors of income that will provide for their employees. This is America? Wow. Not the one I know.

When food stamps, Medicaid and bankruptcies become a way of life for family run corporations, it is time to look at the real issue. If legislation will correct the course of the country, then so be it.

May 18, 2018
By Dylan Scott

Sen. Sherrod Brown (click here) has a plan to tax corporations that don’t pay their workers enough.

Republicans in Congress just failed to pass a bill that would impose harsher work requirements for federal food stamps as part of the so-called farm bill, but there’s no sign they’re giving up on the idea anytime soon. Their argument is that, particularly with the Great Recession behind us, poorer Americans could and should be doing more to get into the workforce and off federal assistance.

The GOP’s plan raises all sorts of bigger questions, but an alternative plan by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) asks a pretty straightforward one: Is the problem that people aren’t working enough? Or is it that they don’t receive a high enough wage or generous enough benefits from their employer?

Brown thinks the latter is the real problem, and wants to charge corporations a “freeloader” fee if their employees depend on government aid like food stamps.

His proposal implies that a big overarching problem in America isn’t that poor people aren’t working hard enough; it’s that their wages aren’t high enough, their jobs and hours can be unpredictable, and their employers don’t provide robust enough benefits for them to live without support.

The bill has no chance of becoming law anytime soon. But it still underscores the divide between Democrats and Republicans over the real purpose of social welfare programs. Republicans see a workforce that could be doing more; Democrats see a system where the free market hasn’t done enough to lift up people who have the least....

Forty-two of Louisiana households earn less than $48,000 per year.

That is just plain shameful.

May 31, 2018

By Mark Ballard

...Working families (click here) that bring in less than $50,000 a year – about half the state – pay about 10 percent of their income in local and state taxes, which is roughly double the percentage paid by more well-off families, said Susan East Nelson, executive director of Louisiana Partnership for Children and Families.

For the constituents of the Ways & Means committee members, increasing the state’s earned income tax credit would put an average $141 – about $43 more than the $98 received now -- into the pockets of the 97,333 taxpayers taking advantage of the credit on their annual tax returns, said Jan Moller, director of the Louisiana Budget Project, which advocates on behalf of those with low and moderate incomes.

That extra money will be spent, mostly in the representatives’ districts, on necessities like clothing and car repairs, said Rob Tasman, executive director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops....               

Legislators in every state need to examine the percentages of residents that achieve the American Dream and if not, why not.

The American worker is not receiving the wages they deserve and when legislators look at the information and honest assessment of the cost of living in the USA, they will find the wage labor needs to be strengthen. No American wants to live on subsidies, they want their hard earned paycheck to mean something.

May 21, 2018
By Nicole Leonard

...“It is morally unacceptable and economically unsustainable for our country to have so many hardworking families living paycheck to paycheck,” John Franklin, president of the project and CEO of United Way of Northern New Jersey, said in a statement. “We are all paying a price when ALICE families can’t pay the bills.”...

More state residents (click here) struggle to afford basic expenses such as housing, food, transportation and health care, according to new national data, indicating life in New Jersey is becoming less affordable for many people.

United Way’s ALICE Project, a grassroots initiative that collects and analyzes data to study the magnitude of financial hardship in America, released new data Thursday showing more than 1.3 million households in New Jersey in 2016 lived below the ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained Employed — threshold, including those under the federal poverty level....

...While New Jersey’s rate of households below the poverty line and ALICE thresholds — 41 percent of all state households, up from 37 percent in 2014 — falls in the middle of all states, rates vary greatly among counties....

New Jersey in 2018 has counties with good incomes and some with poor performance for household income. This state is a clear illustration why ALICE is provided on a county and municipal breakdown.

...Nearly two-thirds of all households in Cumberland County live below either the federal poverty level or the ALICE threshold, which was calculated to be about $64,000 for a family of four in 2014. It was the highest rate in the state in 2016, data show.

Meanwhile, only 27 percent of households were below poverty or ALICE income ranges in Hunterdon County.

Project analysts said ALICE households often contain working residents whose income is above the federal poverty level — and therefore they do not qualify for many federal and state assistance programs — but they do not make enough money to afford basic needs out of pocket....

Unions must fight "Time Poverty" and return the 40 hour week with increased jobs that pay well.

"Take Back Your Time" (click here for free content from Google)

Time Poverty is the plague of the Working Poor in the USA. Families lose children to social workers because parents are not available to be parents.

...Poverty (click here) is determined by the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds. These thresholds, updated annually, determine how much income a household requires to meet basic needs, such as food and shelter. In 2016 in a household of two adults, a single full-time worker at minimum wage will earn only 94 percent of their poverty threshold of $16,070. A single parent with one child will earn 91 percent of their poverty threshold.

This means that in order to have earnings above their poverty threshold, a single parent with one child, for example, would have to earn at least $7.95 per hour working full-time. At the current federal minimum wage of $7.25, this single parent would have to work at least 2,282 hours during the year, or an average of about 43.8 hours each week....

There is an article  by Tim Neville (click here), a Colorado Repuglican state senator who actually believes the tax cuts will help the working poor. He is also Vice President of Neville Insurance Associates.

ALICE (click here) is a United Way acronym that stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.

This ALICE website has information taken within the paradigm of the global economic collapse of 2008. The surveys were conducted in 2007 (as the collapse began) and 2010. There is also a 2017 survey that has as high as 40% of households failing when it comes to a livable wage and accumulating assets to achieve the American Dream.

The 2017 reports are mostly published according to state without a comprehensive federal assessment. The United Way wants to encourage change and their approach this time is to focus on states, counties and municipalities. Evidently, Mr. Neville has seen a country wide assessment and I have not.

June 1, 2018

In the United States today, (click here) essentially anyone who wants a job can get one. Friday's jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the unemployment rate is at a historic low of 3.8 percent and there are a record 6.6 million available jobs. Things are even better in Colorado, where the unemployment rate is a mere 2.9 percent....

...Yet a new survey by United Way suggests that nearly half of households in the country still can't afford basics like rent and food. It finds that nearly 51 million households don't earn enough to afford a monthly budget that includes housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a cell phone....

Number of households in the U.S. from 1960 to 2017 (in millions) (click here) There are approximately 126.22 million households in the USA. According to Mr. Neville there is about 51 million households suffering under the USA economy. That means of all the households in the USA there is more than 41% failing the promise of America. 

More than 41 percent of American households are failing to achieve the promise the USA has made to them as there birthright.

But was does the United Way know, right?

...Recently passed tax cuts are giving these hard-working Americans some relief. An ordinary household earning $75,000 a year will see more than $2,000 in tax savings as a result of tax reform. This is as a result of breaks such as the doubling the standard deduction, and eliminating the 15 percent tax rate in favor of a vastly expanded 12 percent one....

Ordinary American households do make $75,000 per year.

September 12, 2017

...America's middle class is booming. (click here)

Between 2015 and 2016, US median household income rose 3.2% from $57,230 to $59,039, according to a new report released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday.

It's now the highest income year on record, beating the previous high of $58,655 in 1999 (all numbers are adjusted for inflation)....

These are the 2018 federal taxes due on $55,000 in income. This comes from a tax calculator site (click here).

This tax can be effected by tax credits such as the child tax credit. The child tax credit is supposed to double for 2018, however, there are eligibility requirements and depending on income all of the credit may not apply.

While the income in a Child Tax Credit can return up to $2000 per child to the household budget, that doesn't mean this is such a help it removes the Working Poor from their plight. The tax home pay of a couple earning $55,000 per year is about $43,000 to $46,000 per year depending on state taxation. When adding $2000 to that take home pay there isn't a whole lot of improvement to monthly cash flow for that family. Even at $4000 per year, that is a monthly increase of about $333. That can improve the chances of accomplishing what in the years to come? A better rental? A chance at a new car? Paying for braces? 

The point is while Colorado Repuglican Neville touts appreciation for the tax changes for 2018, it isn't all that. And, unless a couple has children there isn't anything that radically improves the tax structure from 2016, 2017 or 2018.

THE DAMN WAGES ARE TOO LOW and the American worker in more than 41 percent of the households hasn't got a chance at a House, two cars, a secure retirement and college for the kids.

The unions of the USA have to improve their penetration into the numbers of working Americans. The Working Poor is unacceptable and has been unacceptable. The country needs real change not TRICKLING change. 

Americans are losing and there is every indication according to The United Way, more than 41 percent of Americans have lost their quality of life. They need good wages, JOB SECURITY, the best health care the country can provide and a future for their children. They need vacations and holidays full of joy. 

The American Dream has been compromised and the tax changes by the Repuglicans are not going to return it. Americans need to understand who the backbone of this American economy is and it is them. When a backbone breaks crippling follows and that is where Americans in more than 41 percent of the households are, they are crippled and have a very poor outlook for their future.

The unions have to give back good pay AND time home with family and friends, especially those children. Children need their parents and they don't get it when a parent is working 43.8 per week to simply stay above the poverty line.

America also needs it's brain trust back and that only happens when parents spend time with their children and have the money to send them onto higher education. It's time the USA stand up and demand what is rightfully theirs.

Neville plays Americans for fools when it rants on and on about companies that have increased wages. Those companies are in the minority and ARE FINALLY PAYING THE WAGES AMERICANS SHOULD HAVE BEEN GETTING FOR DECADES!

The demonstrations in Jordan have very little to do with any Palestinian issue.

It is about austerity. The Prime Minister has resigned over the riots. The riots never received retaliation the way Israel hands it out.

January 15, 2018
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi 

June 4, 2018 - Police clash (click here) with protesters near the prime minister's office in Amman.

Amman (Reuters) - Jordan’s cabinet announced (click here) on Monday a major package of IMF-guided tax hikes it says are crucial to gradually lower record public debt needed to get the economy hit by regional conflict growing again.

The package announced on state media includes removing exemptions on general sales tax and unifying low 4 to 8 percent rates on a large number of items at 10 percent while leaving it at 16 percent ceiling for others, alongside raising special taxes on tobacco, premium gasoline and streamlining customs duties.

Prime Minister Hani al-Mulki said the delay in implementing the much needed reforms to generate at least 540 million dinars ($761 million) in extra revenues would increase the already high financing needs and threatens to hit the country’s finances.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved in 2016 a three-year extended ambitious program of long delayed structural reforms to cut public debt to 77 percent of GDP from a record 96 percent by 2021.

The debt is at least in part due to successive governments adopting an expansionist fiscal policy characterized by job creation in the bloated public sector, and by lavish subsidies for bread and other staple goods....

...Debt service would peak in 2019-2020 at about 6.5 percent of GDP with Eurobonds that will be due.

The government has said it will mitigate the impact on the poor by exempting sales taxes on basic food products and medicines.

But economists reckon subsidy cuts are bound to worsen the plight of poorer Jordanians, a majority of the country’s population, and removing subsidies has triggered civil unrest in the past....

What is the proposed tax?

• The new law - which still must be approved by Parliament - will increase the percentage of citizens who will be taxed from 4.5 to 10 percent.
• It will lower the taxable income for a family from $34,000 to $22,500 and for an individual from $17,000 to $11,200. 
• The law proposes raising tax rates for banks from 35 to 40 percent.
• It will increase government revenue to between $350m and $430m by 2020-2021, according to Mousa al-Tarawneh, spokesman for the income and sales tax department.
• The law will combat tax evasion across all sectors which, according to government figures, amounts to about $800m a year.
• The law will also reclassify tax evasion from a criminal misdemeanour to a felony.
• The government asserts that 90 percent of Jordanian citizens will not pay taxes because of their poverty rate and family exemptions.
• It also maintains the increase is needed for the annual interest of about $1.5bn it pays to service its nearly $40bn debt, according to economic journalist Salameh Derrawi Jordan.
• The government has been borrowing more expensive loans to pay for older loans.
• Because parliament is not in session, King Abdullah II must call Parliament to convene an exceptional session to discuss the law.

When Prime Minster Netanyahu is entertained in Europe regarding the Iran Agreement, the European leaders need to take notice of the treatment of Palestinians in Jordan.

The contrast is startling. Jordan has never turned away Palestinian refugees and now they are receiving their own medical facility and more schools are being built.

UNRWA (click here)

June 5, 2018

Amman — “UNRWA is moving ahead (click here) on the assumption that we are here to stay and we will continue to improve our services regardless of the financial crisis,” UNRWA's director of operations in Jordan, Roger Davies, said on Monday, stressing that “Jordan is now home to a total of 2.3 million Palestinian refugees and we have to keep on providing them with the services they need because it is their right”. 

His remarks came during a media briefing held at the UNRWA’s field office in Amman, where the official outlined the agency’s plans for the rest of the year following the turmoil of the past few months. 

New operations are expected to begin on June 12 at Zarqa refugee camp, where four schools are set to be rehabilitated and upgraded with the funding provided by the Saudi Fund for Development.

A brand new clinic will also be built in Zarqa within the next two years, while the two existing health centres in the area will be merged together in order to provide “faster and better services”.

“The areas of Irbid and Jerash are currently suffering from continuous power cuts, which is especially critical considering that the clinics have fully turned into the electronic health system,” Davies continued, explaining that “in order to fix this situation, UNRWA is planning to install solar panels aimed at generating backup electricity to keep the system running during the power cuts”. 

Regarding UNRWA’s financial situation, Davies noted that the agency has been able to raise $210 million since the beginning of the crisis: a total of $100 million were pledged at the extraordinary ministerial meeting to mobilise support for Palestine refugees co-chaired by Jordan, Egypt and Sweden while a subsequent meeting in Saudi Arabia resulted in a $50 million pledge by the host country and another $50 million from the UAE. A recent $10 million donation was further announced by Turkey....

The relationship with Palestine that Israel practices is based in punitive measures in the name of punishing any violence. Demonstrators at the Gaza border paid with their lives and now Israel is stating there were arson attacks. Well, I guess when Israel leverages power rather than diplomacy there might be other measures by those desperate enough to carry them out. IF there were arson attacks it was not sponsored by the Palestinian government. This is the way Israel leverages power. The Palestinian government does not carry out attacks. 

June 4, 2018

The Palestinian government on Monday (click here) has warned Israel against plans to deduct funds from the Palestinian tax revenues to compensate Israelis living near the Gaza Strip for a wave of arson attacks.


Israel, which collects the Palestinian tax revenues on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, announced plans to compensate Israeli farmers in the Gaza area peripheries whose fields were burnt by Palestinian action.


The Palestine News Agency (WAFA) quoted Palestinian government spokesman Yousef Al-Mahmoud describing the Israeli plans as “an act of robbery and banditry.”

“The Israeli government is plotting to steal the revenues of the Palestinian people,” he said in a statement. “This is an act of aggression committed by thieves called Israeli officials.”

Palestinian protesters in Gaza have been flying flammable kites to set Israeli fields ablaze after Israeli troops responded with deadly force to weekly Friday protests on the border....

June 4, 2018

Esraa Albuti, an executive director at Ernst & Young, shows her driving license issued by the General Department of Traffic in Riyadh on Monday

Jeddah: History (click here) is in the making in Saudi Arabia as the General Directorate of Traffic issued first driver’s licenses to 10 women on Monday.

The Kingdom is all set to allow women driving in three weeks. An official statement said the 10 women who were issued licenses already held international licenses. They took a brief driving test and eye exam before being issued the licenses at the General Directorate of Traffic in Riyadh.

Following the issuance of licenses, a video showing a woman receiving here Saudi driving license went viral online. The social media was also abuzz with the news and excited Saudis took to Twitter to express their feelings on this historic day.

“Thousands of congratulations to the daughters of the homeland, being issued the first license in Saudi Arabia,” a tweet by @saudalzmanan read....

John Roberts leads one of the worst Supreme Courts ever to exist.

This is going to divide the country further and there will be a Gay and Straight bakery on every corner.

Amazing.

The really interesting aspect to this is that Straight Bakeries will be watched as to whom enters and leaves and the Gay Bakeries will be monitored as well. The thing is this, I find Gay couples just as loving as any other and I would purchase form the Gay Bakery out of principle alone. I am looking forward to the mess the Robert's Court has made today and the ridicule that will follow.

This is the most immoral decision and it will go down in history as same. There will be a profound divide in the country and it will carry over to all sorts of commercial ventures. This decision is pathetic.


June 4, 2018
By Pete Williams

Married couple David Mullins (L) and Charlie Craig pose for a photo in Denver on Nov. 28, 2017.

The U.S. Supreme Court (click here) gave a boost to advocates of religious freedom on Monday, ruling that a Colorado baker cannot be forced to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, in a case that involved marriage equality and protection from discrimination.

But the opinion was a narrow one, applying to the specific facts of this case only. It gave no hint as to how the court might decide future cases involving florists, bakers, photographers and other business owners who have cited religious and free-speech objections when refusing to serve gay and lesbian customers in the wake of the Supreme Court's 2015 same-sex marriage decision....

The Justices that created a divisive method among the people completely ignored the state law. That is more than disturbing. Ignoring the LAW Roberts is destroying "The Rule of Law." This is going to carry over into other decisions regarding state's anti-discrimination laws. This is going to have fallout the Justices are too myopic to see.

...Ginsburg, joined by Sotomayor, said that the actions of a few commission members did not obscure that Phillips had violated the Colorado Anti-discrimination Act....

(1) As used in this part 6, (click here) “place of public accommodation” means any place of business engaged in any sales to the public and any place offering services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations to the public, including but not limited to any business offering wholesale or retail sales to the public;  any place to eat, drink, sleep, or rest, or any combination thereof;  any sporting or recreational area and facility;  any public transportation facility;  a barber shop, bathhouse, swimming pool, bath, steam or massage parlor, gymnasium, or other establishment conducted to serve the health, appearance, or physical condition of a person;  a campsite or trailer camp;  a dispensary, clinic, hospital, convalescent home, or other institution for the sick, ailing, aged, or infirm;  a mortuary, undertaking parlor, or cemetery;  an educational institution;  or any public building, park, arena, theater, hall, auditorium, museum, library, exhibit, or public facility of any kind whether indoor or outdoor.  “Place of public accommodation” shall not include a church, synagogue, mosque, or other place that is principally used for religious purposes.

I don't care who it is, a bakery is not a place of worship or a place of religious practice. Kosher sells to the entire public and if anyone doubts that go into the local grocery and ask for Kosher anything and they will show the items and their shelves. The public can purchase Kosher products and do.

This is outrageous and pandering to right wing Caucasian extremists. The Roberts Court is hacking away at civil rights again.

The Colorado statue for against discrimination sets up the states agency of Civil Rights. This ruling is hideous and an offense to the democracy of the USA.

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke, so it is evening papers."

I have a story for you. There once was a man in New Zealand that painted penises wherever pot holes on the road existed. 

He did it so well, it got the attention of local authorities and they fixed the potholes without question. Well, the rest of the country empathized with him about potholes and wanted their potholes fixed. But, they were so embarrassed by the public display of disdain as Penis Art, they asked him to run for President.

The populous movement grew wildly and the people felt good to have 'one of their own' running as President. He was ultimately voted the "Populous Party" candidate and later won the general election.

When he got into office the first thing he did was sign an executive order mandating all potholes to be repaired as they happened and it was to stand for generations or until there were no more potholes due to modern technology. 

The people loved "Mr. Penis" and the people rejoiced. Then came the news there was a party of immigrants coming to their shore to seek a better life. "Mr. Penis" didn't know what to do so he turned to those that elected him and they were afraid of the immigrants. When the boats full of women and children, elderly and some men showed up on the shoreline, they were immediately escorted to Australia where they could live happily ever after in the Outback. 

As time wore on and "Mr. Penis" didn't know what to do time and time again, the people stated they loved the country's roads, but, not him and he was banished from the land forever in fear he would retaliate and paint penises all over the countryside. He was exiled to Australia where he now lives with the immigrants he once turned away.

"Good Night, Moon"

The waning gibbous

19.8 day old moon

74.2 percent lit

Okay, are there or are there not sterile neutrinos in the universe? What do you mean, MAYBE or SOMETIMES.

June 1, 2018

Scientists (click here) have produced the firmest evidence yet of so-called sterile neutrinos, mysterious particles that pass through matter without interacting with it at all.

The first hints these elusive particles turned up decades ago. But after years of dedicated searches, scientists have been unable to find any other evidence for them, with many experiments contradicting those old results. These new results now leave scientists with two robust experiments that seem to demonstrate the existence of sterile neutrinos, even as other experiments continue to suggest sterile neutrinos don't exist at all.

That means there's something strange happening in the universe that is making humanity's most cutting-edge physics experiments contradict one another....

How climate change, conflicts could wipe out humans by 2100.

I don't know how many times I have stated, stop polluting greenhouse gases, NOW! I don't know how many different words and approaches I have used, so now I will let someone else say it and maybe people will finally hear the message.

STOP POLLUTING GREENHOUSE GASES NOW!

This is not a new message. The USA military has been saying this for over a decade. It has sought every measure possible within it's jurisdiction to do so to scale back any military GHG pollution. However, the trash burning has to stop. That is a big offense and it is frequently an answer overseas. Enough. The military can do better.

*Phenomena drive hunger as millions of children at risk from malnutrition

*New UN report predicts famine in Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, others

If urgent steps were not taken (click here) to counter the threat, the human race could be wiped out, before 2100, by catastrophic climate change and rising cases of violent conflicts globally.

According to a study published Sunday in the journal PNAS and first reported by DailyMailUK Online, there is a one in 20 chance humans would be wiped out in the next 100 years as a result of “low-probability high-impact” events.

The researchers said an increase greater than 3°C could lead to “catastrophic” effects. However an increase of more than 5°C will ‘unknown’ consequences which could lead to the end of life as it is known....

Ireland has to stop the corruption of possibly adding egregious amounts of Greenhouse Gases.

Greenhouse gas emissions (click here) arise from many different activities.  The EPA has responsibility for the compilation of GHG emission figures for Ireland. The figures below show the breakdown of greenhouse gas emission per sector in Ireland for 2009. The most recent emissions figures compiled show that in Ireland agriculture is the single largest contributor to the overall emissions, at 29.2% of the national total, followed by energy (power generation & oil refining) at 21% and transport at 21%. The remainder is made up by the residential sector at 12%, industry and commercial at 14.8%, and waste at 2%.

Irish goals are golden, however, there are elements that circumvent the climate commitments to sell another company on coming to Ireland.

March 21, 2018
By Kevin O'Sullivan

The Government (click here) should set an ambitious target for Ireland of producing 70 per cent renewable electricity by 2030, which would help transform the energy sector and benefit consumers, according to the Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA).

The call by the IWEA, which represents the wind industry – including the majority of windfarm operators in Ireland – is based on the findings of a study it commissioned which shows such a target was technically possible and, if achieved, would be cost neutral for consumers.

The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment should set this 70 per cent challenge for the renewable energy industry, said newly-appointed IWEA chief executive Dr David Connolly.

Ireland had the required expertise built up over the past two decades “across academia, system operators, regulators, and the entire renewable industry to meet the target”, he told the IWEA spring conference in Dublin....

All that hard work and investment only to have some corrupt politician give it all away again and defeating the greenhouse emissions targets for Ireland. Stop them!

Every country's government and every company's leadership should be expecting demands for environmental studies to adhere to the publics' right for a safe and sane climate. This is crazy. Apple is simply walking into Ireland as if it is above the law. Well, there is one law that no one is above and that is the law of nature and the climates of Earth.

Wall Street needs to respect the planet. They should not moan and groan over environmental statements demanded by the people. Wall Street should be walking into investment opportunities with plans to improve the greenhouse gas emissions target for every country. Wall Street has the resources and now it is time to stop asking for handouts and giveaways, so much as presenting investment WITH pre-determined climate enhancements that far exceed government demands.

Enough of this immoral behavior by Wall Street because they have money to spend. Wall Street CANNOT AFFORD to seek concessions on Climate. Absolutely not. If Wall Street wants to invest in Ireland, it should be above speculation and ridicule by anyone else, in planning for climate actions within it's investment that exceed expectations of law. 

Get it done! Stop harassing governments to end their pledges to their people.

February 9, 2018
By Mary Carolon

An Bord Pleanála’s approval for the first phase (click here) of tech giant Apple’s planned €850 million data centre in Co Galway “turned European law on its head” and took no account of Ireland’s climate change obligations, the Supreme Court has been told.

A three-judge court has deferred its ruling on whether two objectors to the centre have met the necessary legal test to bring an appeal to the Supreme Court aimed at quashing the board’s approval.

Having heard arguments on the appeal application today, the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, sitting with Mr Justice John MacMenamin and Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne, said the court would publish a written decision in due course.

Before any appeal can be brought to the Supreme Court, it must find the case raises a legal issue of general public importance or an appeal is desirable in the interests of justice.

The leave application by Sinéad Fitzpatrick, who lives close to the planned development, and Allan Daly, of Athenry, is opposed by the board and Apple. The application follows the High Court’s rejection of their case last October.

Oisín Collins BL, for the objectors, said the board was legally obliged to carry out an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of Apple’s entire “masterplan” for eight data halls, which will increase total demand on the national grid by 6-8 per cent, and not an EIA of just one hall.

The overall grid connection planned at Athenry would have a footprint equal to Dundrum Town Centre but there was no national assessment and no strategic assessment concerning how data centres being built across the country would be supplied with energy, he said.

Something has “gone badly wrong” when the State’s planning board was contending the entire Apple development may not be built until the 2030s so it was therefore not appropriate for the court to look 20 years into the future, he said.