I think every President stands on their own accomplishments. President George H. W. Bush was an incredible diplomatic leader.

This chronicle of President Bush's final journey is from New Zealand. He made a rather incredible impact on the global community which he liked to call, "The Family of Nations." He held that idea as a way of stating every country could have the same opportunities for it's people as the USA. He never gave up on the hope someday peace would also bring an economic advantage to every country welcoming it. I think I know what he would be saying about some of today's global events.


3 December 2018

Former US President George H.W. Bush looks out of the cab of Union Pacific locomotive 4141 at its 2005 unveiling in College Station, Texas. 

...Bush's body (click here) will be transported by a motorcade Monday morning from a Houston funeral home to Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, a Texas Air National Guard base. The casket will be loaded onto a plane during a departure ceremony and flown to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Relatives accompanying the casket will include his sons, former President George W. Bush and Neil Bush, with members of their immediate families. The rest of the Bush family is expected to be at Joint Base Andrews when the body arrives.

In Washington, Bush will lie in state in the rotunda of the US Capitol tomorrow and Wednesday. His casket will be transported by motorcade on Thursday to the National Cathedral, where a state funeral will be held at 5am NZT.

US President Donald Trump has indicated that he and first lady Melania Trump will attend the state funeral. Trump has said he plans to designate Thursday as a national day of mourning....

The extremists.

I've seen protests in France and most of the time for excellent reasons, but, this is pure destruction for the sake of destruction.

3 December 2018
By John Lichfield

...On Saturday, the gilets jaunes (click here) – or a large, violent fringe of the wider, peaceful “yellow vest” movement – took evident joy in smashing up the grandest and wealthiest parts of the French capital. Appeals on social media, where the movement began a month ago, are calling for another assault on Paris this weekend.

How can a movement that began a month ago with broadly peaceful protests against high fuel prices have generated such vicious enmity towards not just President Macron but the entire French political system? Some French commentators have suggested that the yellow vests should be rebranded “yellow shirts” – a fascist rabble. This is dangerous and misleading talk, for now....

They want to overthrow the government. They aren't interested in protests for change to make life better. They want the French government to end. Who is behind all this?

24 November 2018
By Kim Willsher

Police have used teargas (click here) and water cannon against fuel tax protesters in Paris after violent clashes erupted on the Champs Élysées.

Thousands of demonstrators from all over France massed on the famous boulevard on Saturday to express their anger at the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his government. But what was supposed to be a peaceful protest by the gilets jaunes (yellow jackets) movement degenerated rapidly.

On one side, protesters reportedly infiltrated by far-right extremists and casseurs (rioters and hooligans) tore up paving stones and hurled them and other missiles at police before building barricades that they set alight. On the other, police used teargas, pepper spray, water cannon and bulldozers to clear the road....

We live in increasingly strange times when jumping to conclusions only powers the extremists and anarchists. The way I see it, the extremists saw a chance to take a moral issue and enslave it for their own purposes.

It is called deregulation.

November 23, 2018

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The State Land Office has set a record for its monthly oil and gas lease sale, generating more than $43 million for public schools and other trust land beneficiaries as the oil boom continues in New Mexico.

The November sale represents the highest single-month yield in the agency’s history. The previous record of just over $30 million was set in July 2017.

Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn said in a statement issued Tuesday that he was expecting a good month but was surprised by the outcome. He said it will help with the goal of generating $1 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.

The State Land Office, one of the most powerful agencies in New Mexico, oversees oil and gas drilling, renewable energy projects and other development on millions of acres of state trust land. Revenues from the monthly oil and gas lease sales and other activities help to fund public schools, higher education, hospitals, the state penitentiary and infrastructure projects.

In all, 35 tracts covering more than 12 square miles (32 square kilometers) were up for bid this month in Lea, Chaves and McKinley counties. All but one tract was leased and another ended up being withdrawn....

Allocation by New Mexico for educational materials - $10,385,518.00 (click here)

How does a state have a $40.3 million as a budget gap with an income of $43 million in sales of oil leases?

March 14, 2018
By Sylvia Ulloa

New Mexico school districts (click here) that had hoped to put a little more cushion in their budgets managed to persuade a sympathetic Legislature, but couldn’t get it past the governor’s veto pen.

When she signed the 2018-2019 budget on March 7, Gov. Susana Martinez struck a line through $5 million state lawmakers had set aside to repay some school districts whose cash accounts had been swept by $40. 3 million to help fill a large budget gap in 2017.

Martinez had called the cash accounts of school districts “slush funds.” State superintendents — who drove to the capital en masse during the session to lobby lawmakers for repayment — call them reserve accounts that are used to make large payments like annual insurance, as well as extras like giving teachers stipends to take students to science camp.

School leaders said during testimony in Santa Fe that taking the cash out of their accounts had hurt their ability to deal with unexpected expenses....

Lessons in Bipartisanship: the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments

EPA administrator William Reilly watches President George H.W. Bush sign the Clean Air Act amendments in 1990. 

Wednesday, November 15, 2017
By Travis Madsen
Director, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Campaign

Twenty-seven years ago today (November 15, 1990), President George H.W. Bush, backed by a supermajority of Congress, improved the Clean Air Act. The new law was one of the most significant steps the nation has ever taken to protect public health and the environment. Looking back on it today, we can clearly see that when our leaders work together across party lines to cut pollution and protect public health, we all win.

The 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act were designed to curb four major threats to both the environment and the health of millions of Americans: acid rain, urban smog, toxic air pollution and the hole in the Earth’s ozone layer. 27 years later, we have made massive progress on all four fronts...

....And we are facing an even more serious air pollution problem — climate change. Not only is climate change making air pollution worse (Exhibit A: this summer’s terrible fire season and heat waves), but it poses its own far-reaching threats to our health and well-being and the future of communities across the nation. Already, global warming pollution is acidifying the ocean, driving extreme storms, fueling drought and floods and causing the oceans to rise. These changes pose serious threats to our safety, our homes and businesses, our food and water supplies, and the natural ecosystems upon which we depend....

...Pres. George H.W. Bush negotiated the landmark climate treaty that underpins the Paris Climate Agreement — the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — in 1992. The president said at the time that the United States “fully intends to be the world’s preeminent leader in protecting the global environment.” The Senate then ratified the treaty, which. Sen. McConnell called “a fine agreement,” according to The Hill....

Richard Nixon passed landmark legislation e National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA),  created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), The Clean Air Act amendments of 1970, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act amendments and The Clean Act. President Geoge H. W. Bush continued that legacy and recognized the difficult mission facing the country in regard to the Climate Crisis. 

I wish his family solace. May he rest in peace.

The blog will continue with Slovakia next Sunday.

December 1, 2018

Dubai - Iran’s navy on Saturday launched a domestically made destroyer, which state media said has radar-evading stealth properties, as tensions rise with arch-enemy, the United States.

In a ceremony carried live on state television, the Sahand destroyer — which can sustain voyages lasting five months without resupply — joined Iran’s regular navy at a base in Bandar Abbas on the Gulf.

The Sahand has a flight deck for helicopters, torpedo launchers, anti-aircraft and anti-ship guns, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles and electronic warfare capabilities, state television reported....

...Iran launched its first locally made destroyer in 2010 as part of a program to revamp its navy equipment which dates from before the 1979 Islamic revolution and is mostly U.S.-made.

Iran has developed a large domestic arms industry in the face of international sanctions and embargoes that have barred it from importing many weapons.

Separately, a naval commander said Sahand may be among warships that Iran plans to send on a mission to Venezuela soon.

“Among our plans in the near future is to send two or three vessels with special helicopters to Venezuela in South America on a mission that could last five months,” Iran’s deputy navy commander, Rear-Admiral Touraj Hassani Moqaddam, told the semi-official news agency Mehr....

There is no such thing as playing fair anymore. Russia is intent on destroying the civilized world. Russia and Cuba has filed an alliance under the new President. Either hold the President of Cuba and Putin responsible for human rights violations AND MEAN IT or suffer the consequences.

The technology they use to permanently damage diplomats and who knows who else, generals and congress persons next, is indiscriminate in it's use. The technology harms all forms of life. I think it is microwave.

The USA has sound technology, but, rarely deploys it because of it's unknown consequences that may be permanent. But, there is no reason to not give the Chinese, Russians and Cubans a taste of their own medicine. That means the USA and Canada will deploy the technology within the USA and Canadian borders against diplomats that are supposed to be immune to such tactics.

Get real or visit the Hague and start dragging these people before the tribunals.

November 29, 2018
By Anna Mehler Paperny

Toronto - Canada’s government (click here) is reviewing its diplomatic presence in Cuba, officials said on Thursday, after another staff member developed the same mysterious health problems that first began affecting diplomats last year.

Canadian and U.S. diplomats in Havana first began complaining of dizziness, headaches and nausea in the spring of 2017. The United States reduced embassy staffing in Cuba from more than 50 to a maximum of 18, after more than two dozen personnel developed unusual illnesses.

Another Canadian diplomat showed symptoms over the summer, government officials said in a telephone briefing. Tests confirmed the person suffered from the same health issues that had affected a dozen other Canadian staff, spouses and their children, officials said....

Not that I am interested in victimizing doctors, but, this is ridiculous. Their country deploys technology to permanently injure diplomats while they cry "slavery" to the USA Courts. If the settlement is achieved from Brazil, the monies should be forwarded to the USA and Canadian treasuries to pay for the doctor bills of those effected by Cuban war technology.

The USA and Canada need to file sanctions against Cuba and then proceed to collect any monies available to pay for the permanent physical damage Cuba and Russia has caused to their diplomatic corps.

Russia doesn't want the USA and Canada in Cuba because it wants to build military bases there now that there is a new president.

November 29, 2018
By Andres Oppenheimer

The scandal surrounding the 15,000 Cuban doctors (click here) who have been working as virtual slaves in Brazil is growing: Some of them filed a lawsuit in Miami against the Washington-based Pan American Health Organization (PAHO.)

The lawsuit, filed Friday, claims that the regional health organization not only supervised the program, but pocketed $75 million of its funds. Meanwhile, the doctors were receiving less than 10 percent of their salaries.

Sam Dubbin, a Miami attorney representing at least four Cuban doctors who defected in Brazil, told me that the lawsuit alleges that PAHO, an agency of the U.N. World Health Organization, supervised and profited from an illegal scheme under which the Cuban doctors had to work in conditions that violate U.S. and international forced labor laws....

November 28, 2018
By Mac Margolis

When the Cuban government (click here) gave the word earlier this month to recall the more than 8,000 physicians it deployed in Brazil, the media, physicians and public health wonks were alarmed. What would become of the patients the expatriate doctors had been tending in parts of the country where public services were already precarious at best and the only folks in white were Pentecostal pastors.

That the exodus was triggered by yet another outburst by intemperate right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro only aggravated the worries. Bolsonaro not only offended Cuba by accusing it of promoting slave labor — keeping some 70 percent of the contracted doctor’s fees while barring their families from joining them in Brazil — he also had no fallback plan for the services they rendered. Millions of poor patients would be left unassisted, it was said, so inviting a public health disaster. “This is a sad day for Brazilian health and foreign policy,” former health minister Alexandre Padilha lamented....

...As it happened, Cuba was taking bows with a tip of someone else’s beret. For decades, the governments of Fidel and Raul Castro could deliver medical services pro bono thanks largely to life-support from Havana’s erstwhile foreign sponsor, the Soviet Union....

There is plenty of money floating around between Russia and Cuba to pay for the doctor bills for all the diplomats and their families and pets for the rest of their lives, while curtailing the ability of Cuba to grow into a military threat to the USA.

...Cuba’s medical internationalism raked in some $9.6 billion on average annually from 2011 to 2016, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) estimated last year. According to Vidal, better than three-quarters of that bounty came from just two markets: Brazil and Venezuela....

...Dubbin cited several documents, including an audit of the Mais Medicos program by Brazil’s Supreme Accountability Office, a congressional agency similar to the General Accounting Office in the United States, as showing that over the past five years, Brazil paid about $1.5 billion to PAHO for the program. Of that money, PAHO paid $1.3 billion to Cuba, and kept $75 million for itself. Cuba, in turn, paid the Cuban doctors in Brazil about $125 million, Dubbin said....

The country pauses at the loss of the Late President George H. W. Bush.

Sincerest of sympathies to the Bush family. I am sure he will be dearly missed.

I think history will treat the forty-first President well. He was a war hero. There were many reasons to endear George H. W. Bush to a distinguished place in history.

The presidency is only aspect of this great American. I always believed him to be a kind man. He was once a diplomat and that showed through in his public life. He knew his stuff.

November 30, 2018
By Scott Horsley

George H.W. Bush (click here) was the definition of establishment success: Yale graduate. Prosperous business career. Forty-first president of the United States.

But to one admittedly biased observer, the elder Bush has always been shortchanged.

"As a result of him being a one-term president, historians hadn't paid much attention to him," George W. Bush told NPR in a 2014 interview. He called his father "one of the greatest one-term presidents in the nation's history."

George Herbert Walker Bush died Friday at the age of 94....

Saudi Arabia and Russia have agreed on many issues, including investment. That is why Putin is so excited. (click here for news article - thank you)

...While some world leaders distanced themselves from the Saudi crown prince accused of ordering the assassination of a journalist, and from Russian President Vladimir Putin. But those two men appeared happy to see each other at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Putin clasped each other's hands and smiled widely as they greeted each other Friday. The greeting quickly gained traction on Twitter....

................................

Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid Al-Falih (click here) will meet with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak during the summit to discuss an oil output in 2019, the Russian news agency RIA reported. Novak also said that Russia's 2019 oil output is expected to be at the same level as this year but could be adjusted, depending on a deal between OPEC and non-OPEC members. Producer group OPEC and its allies are meeting in Vienna next week to discuss oil production.

Tuesday, November 27, 2018 (click here)

Saudi Arabia pushes for “quiet cut.” A few weeks ago, rumors floated of a potential aggressive production cut at the upcoming OPEC+ meeting, perhaps as large as 1.4 million barrels per day. However, that now looks unlikely, as President Trump has simultaneously protected Saudi Arabia from international outrage over the Khashoggi murder, at the same time that he has pressured them into keeping oil prices low. Russia is also not keen on a large production cut. That leaves Saudi Arabia looking for a “quiet cut,” which would mean taking production back down to previously agreed upon production limit – around 10 mb/d, down from the current 11 mb/d.

They also share an interest in a space (click here) and nuclear (click here) programs. The Crowned Prince has promised to bring money to Russia. They are probably the only two countries that actually have admiration for the other.

US Senator Tester is a really great man. I am glad he is a Democrat from Montana because he brings a lot with him. He would make a great President. I would remind him about President Teddy Roosevelt. He was not nearly as tall as Senator Tester, he came in at 5 feet, 9 inches and weighed 220 pounds. We did lose him ten years after his presidency at the age of 61. Teddy Roosevelt was loved by the American people. Regardless of whether he is President or not we want Senator Tester around for a long time. So, he can take all that as he wishes.

But, entertain this. Tariffs take a heavy toll on USA agriculture sometime in the near future. Unless land has a dedicated use by some sort of set aside as in NJ Green Acres Program, what do farm families do with the land if they go out of business?

They sell it. But, to who? Developers.

What if Donald Trump doesn’t really care if farmers lose their land? What kind of policies would he care about when it comes to agriculture if he simply does not care about farming, farmers or feeding the world?

I think the USA is in far more trouble with Trump in the White House that it can imagine right now. Trump is very capable of doing the unthinkable.

I swear the State of Michigan is trying to put Flint back into enormous fiscal deficits.

November 29, 2018
By Zahra Ahmad

...Had (click here) the city agreed to the terms outlined in a Nov. 1 letter from the Attorney General's office, its $4 million disbursement request, along with any requests for work done prior to Nov.1, would be reimbursed to Flint....

The State of Michigan simply will not do what is right and best for Flint, Michigan.

Nov. 5
...The state will not reimburse the city of Flint (click here) for its service line replacements until what the state claims are violations of a $97 million dollar settlement are resolved.

According to a letter from the state Attorney General's office dated Thursday, Nov. 1, the city is violating the settlement by its current excavation method and its failure to look for lead and galvanized water pipes.

Flint city officials could not be reached immediately for comment.

In 2017, a $97 million fund was set up by the state in a settlement to reimburse the city after social groups demanded enough funding to replace the estimated 18,000 hazardous lead and galvanized steel pipes in Flint.

The price of digging up and burying a copper pipe increased from $77 to $1,800 after contractors were directed to dig 8- to 10-foot holes without a hydrovac, according to the attorney generals' office letter.

The letter states this, along with the city's current method of finding lead, is in violation of the settlement's agreement and could leave hundreds of hazardous pipes underground and in use.

According to the letter, from 2016-17 the city used available information and a predictive model to find lead or galvanized pipes which resulted in a 71 percent hit rate for finding hazardous pipes. The city's current plan has dropped that hit rate to 20 percent this year....

I think Mayor Weaver is going to have to meet with the new Governor as soon as she takes office and has office hours to discuss this and get rid of the old agreement and redistribute the monies FOR RESPONSIBLE PIPES for Flint residents. This is ridiculous. These people get no piece of mind and they will stop drinking the water again. 

August 15, 2018
By Ron Fonger

...The mayor has said (click here) hydro excavation resulted in some lead and galvanized pipe having been missed and instead has required contractors dig a minimum of 4 feet on both sides of the curb stop, exposing much more of the service line.

"The mayor is correct that canceling the hydrovac contract was done to protect the health and safety of Flint residents," Joe Parks, project manager for Goyette, said in an email to MLive-The Flint Journal....

...Last week, Weaver visited service line replacement crews on the job, vowing to continue to use only traditional excavation tools like backhoes and shovels.

In addition to missing lead and galvanized lines that have been spliced with other material, city officials have said they risk breaking utility lines with high-pressure water and vacuum.

"We're going to ... take our time and do it right," the mayor said during a Facebook broadcast. "I think people's lives are worth it."...

Butina's contacts were not babes in the woods, including one tied to Michael Cohen.

August 9, 2018
By Betsy Woodruff, Allison Quinn and Anna Nemtova

...When the accused infiltrator of the NRA needed cash, (click here) she turned to Igor Pisarsky, two sources familiar with her activities tell The Daily Beast....

...Pisarsky was Butina’s point of contact for the Nikolaev money, according to these sources—the face of the financing. According to one of the sources, he essentially acted like he was distributing grant money....

Konstantine Nikolaev - Banker 

Igor Pisarsky - Middleman for banker and Butina, that has worked for two banks that faced USA sanctions, including the Bank of Moscow. Also, Pisarsky's firm's website: ...also says R.I.M. Porter Novelli has represented Skolkovo, an innovation center in Moscow run by a foundation connected to Putin ally Viktor Vekselberg, a sanctioned Russian billionaire linked to longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen. The FBI warned back in 2014 that Skolkovo, which has cooperated with MIT and other American organizations, could be a hotbed for Russian spies looking to worm their way into U.S. companies, as The Boston Globe reported....Pisarsky has also worked with Alfa Capital, a unit of Alfa Bank...One of the bank’s co-founders, billionaire German Khan, is the father-in-law of Alexander van der Zwaan, who spent several weeks in prison after pleading guilty to lying to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team about work his law firm did alongside Paul Manafort for the Ukrainian government.

Paul Erickson - USA Republican

Alexander Torshin - Kremlin contact

I don't know that there has been a USA President as lousy as this one. His deregulation is killing Americans.

The Trump deregulation directly attacks the USA quality of life. Sonny Purdue, the Secretary of Agriculture should be up in arms at deregulation that kills Americans. Oh, wait. Sonny Purdue is the one allowing deregulation.

I might point out the deregulation Trump is overseeing hits California hardest. Is there a reason to bring hardship to California by Trump? Everything he does is due to politics and cronies.

The April outbreak of E. coli came from Yuma, Arizona (click here) Americans died then, too (click here)

November 11, 2017

Agriculture, Food Systems, Local, Sustainability, Urban Farming (click here)

That broccoli you and your family had for dinner last night, any chance you know where it was grown? Unless you bought it at a Farmer’s Market, chances are it was grown and shipped from California. Many people recognize California for Hollywood, scenic beaches, coastal cities, and it’s delicious wines. But California also grows nearly half of the produce consumed in the United States and it’s almost the sole source for some domestically grown fruits and vegetables.

To name a few, California grows:

99% of Artichokes
97% of Plums
95% of Celery
95% of Garlic
94% of Broccoli
89% of Cauliflower
69% of Carrots

You get the idea. California has some of the most ideal growing conditions for fruits and vegetables, in terms of climate and soil. It is even potentially one of the most productive places in the world. Which is quite the notable achievement for us as a nation....

 

NATO needs to prepare. If Russia is allowed to run roughshod over Ukraine, there will be plenty of refugees in Europe AND Russia won't stop at Ukraine.

Russia's crimes begin with the invasion of Crimean in 2014.

19 March 2014
By John Simpson

The annexation of Crimea (click here) was the smoothest invasion of modern times. It was over before the outside world realised it had even started.

And until Tuesday 18 March, when a group of pro-Russian gunmen attacked a small Ukrainian army base in Simferopol, killing one officer and injuring another, it was entirely bloodless.

For much of February, thousands of extra soldiers were quietly sent in to the bases which Russia was permitted by treaty to own in Crimea. Civilian "volunteers" moved in too. The plan was carried out secretly and with complete success.

The first obvious sign that Crimea was being taken over was on Friday 28 February, when checkpoints were established at Armyansk and Chongar - the two main road crossings from mainland Ukraine to the Crimean peninsula....

Long before Russia began to destroy Ukraine with the invasion in 2014 there were issues of great concern to the world in general.

After the disintegration of the USSR, (click here) Ukraine found itself in possession of the world's third largest nuclear arsenal. There were 176 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers with some 1,240 warheads on Ukrainian territory. This force consisted of 130 SS-19s, each capable of delivering six nuclear weapons, and 46 SS-24s, each armed with ten nuclear weapons. An additional 14 SS-24 missiles were present in Ukraine, but not operationally deployed with warheads. Several dozen bombers with strategic nuclear capabilities were armed with some 600 air-launched missiles, along with gravity bombs. In addition, as many as 3,000 tactical nuclear weapons rounded out an arsenal totaling approximately 5,000 strategic and tactical weapons. Today, Ukraine’s remaining nuclear activities are entirely civilian in nature, and Ukraine is a member of all major nonproliferation treaties and regimes....

This reality was not strange when the Soviet Union disintegrated. As a matter of fact there were three Soviet astronauts circling the Earth for three months before anyone bothered to bring them back. That's right. Three cosmonauts were left in space unattended for three months before Russia got their act together to bring them back to Earth.

February 28, 2014
By Ron Synovitz

...The "Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances" (click here) is a diplomatic memorandum that was signed in December 1994 by Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

It is not a formal treaty, but rather, a diplomatic document under which signatories made promises to each other as part of the denuclearization of former Soviet republics after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Under the memorandum, Ukraine promised to remove all Soviet-era nuclear weapons from its territory, send them to disarmament facilities in Russia, and sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Ukraine kept these promises.

In return, Russia and the Western signatory countries essentially consecrated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine as an independent state. They did so by applying the principles of territorial integrity and nonintervention in 1975 Helsinki Final Act -- a Cold War-era treaty signed by 35 states including the Soviet Union -- to an independent post-Soviet Ukraine....

Ukrainian leaders realizing the proximity of the country to Russia gave up their weapons IN EXCHANGE FOR PEACE. Russia could not leave it alone and with the help of Paul Manafort put Viktor Yanukovych into the Presidency of Ukraine. Manafort, Putin and Yanukovych were buddies and made sure the leadership of Ukraine returned to Russia. It is well established Yanukovych was Putin's henchman.

Yanukovych disarmed the national military and instead placed militias under the control of oligarchs in cities around the country. Yanukovych made it completely impossible for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia. 

Before Yanukovych was elected, Russia attempted to kill another Ukraine leader, Viktor Yushchenko by poisoning him. He narrowly survived.

The crimes of Russia is significant and it was at a time Russia was lead by Vladimir Putin. 

Putin's politics embrasses the idea Russia is leading a return of the Soviet Union. Putin is ruthless and instituted nationalism in the country in the face of profound poverty with many of it's poeple, including those near the Olympic grounds in Sochi. For the wealth of the oil it sells, that wealth never translate into a better quality of life for the Russian people, while the elite of Russia and Putin accumulate incredible wealth.

March 20, 2014
By Mark Landler, Annie Lowrey and Steven Lee Myers

Washington — President Obama (click here for video thank you) expanded sanctions against Russia on Thursday, blacklisting a bank and several wealthy businessmen with close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin, as the United States struggled to forestall further Russian incursions into Ukraine.

Among those targeted were Sergei B. Ivanov, the president’s chief of staff; Gennady N. Timchenko, a billionaire investor with links to Mr. Putin; and Yuri V. Kovalchuk, whom the administration described as the personal banker for Russian leaders, including the president.

Mr. Obama also opened the door to more sweeping measures against core parts of the Russian economy, including the oil and natural gas industries, which account for much of Russia’s exports. He said the actions could disrupt the global economy, but might be necessary because of what he described as menacing movements by the Russian military near eastern and southern Ukraine....

Since the sanctions by President Obama because Russia continues to break international laws and invade and kill Ukraine, there have been additional sanctions on Russia by Congress as well. This was not a single act by a President, it was also backed by the USA Congress, too.

Enter stage right, Donald Trump, engaged in negotiations with Russia for a Trump Tower Moscow. He was securing a great deal of money from a bank sanctioned by the Russian government.

November 29, 2018
By David E. Sanger

...March 2016 (click here) was also when Mr. Trump brought into his campaign Paul Manafort, the longtime Republican lobbyist and strategist who had made millions of dollars advising and lobbying on behalf of the pro-Russia leader of Ukraine, Viktor F. Yanukovych. Mr. Manafort became the campaign’s chairman several months later.

The annexation of Crimea hardened anti-Putin sentiment among most Republicans. But from the start of his campaign in mid-2015, several months before prosecutors say his company began considering a deal in Russia, Mr. Trump departed from the normal Republican hard line about Russia, attacking President Barack Obama’s approach because it alienated a potential partner.

“I believe I would get along very nicely with Putin,” Mr. Trump said soon after announcing his run for the presidency. “I don’t think you’d need the sanctions.”

It was an unusual argument for a Republican candidate; the party had been instinctively anti-Soviet during the Cold War and deeply suspicious of Mr. Putin thereafter. So Mr. Trump’s position that sanctions were counterproductive — and harmed American interests — stood out from the start of the campaign, prompting many to question whether his interest in selling properties to rich Russians seeking to park their assets in the United States, or his efforts to build the tower in Moscow, explained his position....

That was Trump's position as a candidate and as the president. Trump UNDERSTOOD Putin better than anyone else in the world.

NO ONE NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND A LEADER OF A COUNTRY ON A PERSONAL LEVEL.

All the President of the USA needs to understand is the international laws broken and the role of the USA in enforcing protections of the international status of democracy INCLUDING the democracy, freedom and USA Constitution and it's Amendments and subsequent laws.

The USA institutes the "Rule of Law" within it's borders and "Rule of International Law" outside it's borders.

President Trump seems to be stuck in thinking the only issue before the country, due to his manner of conducting business, is that he didn't build the tower.

"W"rong!

Trump INVITED Russia to unleash it's power on the USA elections of 2016. And it did. THAT is the issue. The fact that he was negotiating with Russia for building a luxury tower in Moscow is very interesting, because, it was when the USA government had significant sanctions against Russia. And what a relief it must have been to have a USA billionaire wheeling and dealing to bring dearly needed business to Moscow in complete conflict of the role of the USA.

Trump has no respect for the role of the USA in the world and he still doesn't. 

He is complaining the Mueller investigation is getting in the way of any relationship between Russia and the USA.

I BET IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The dates of his lies are interesting. He was actively negotiating with Russia through his attorneys until July 2016. He never denied it before those dates.

The Hawaiian hot spot is still moving and contributing to the seismic activity of the Ring if Fire. There is some real damage to Anchorage. They are going to need some help. The roads alone are an issue.

The Pacific Plate has been very active.

November 30, 2018
By Rachel D'oro

In this image (click here) courtesy of Dr. Holy A. Bell, books and ceiling tiles litter the floor at the The Mat-Su College library in Anchorage, Alaska

...Cracks could be seen (click here) in a two-story downtown Anchorage building. It was unclear whether there were injuries....

...People went back inside buildings after the first earthquake struck, but the 5.8 aftershock about five minutes later sent them running back into the streets....

In many ways, Alaska is a frontier and there can be people in the surrounding area that may have been affected. USGS would like to hear from people that FELT the quake so long as they can respond.

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake (click here) struck north of Anchorage, Alaska on November 30, 2018 at 8:29 a.m. local time (17:29:28 UTC).

Visit the USGS event page for more information. For estimates of casualties and damage, visit the USGS Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) website.

If you felt this earthquake, report your experience on the “USGS Did You Feel It?” website for this event.

For information about tsunami watches, warnings or advisories, visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tsunami website.

The USGS operates a 24/7 National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado that can be reached for more information at 303-273-8500.

It is amazing the USA has this level of information almost instantly. The USGS does a really great job. The Big Lake Quake goes to Cook Inlet and all the way north to the Alaskan Range (mountains). There are some seismic activity that goes beyond the mountains.

2018-11-30 20:26:54 (UTC)

• 61.369°N 150.044°W

24.0 km (16.78 miles) depth
M 5.2 - 17km SSW of Big Lake, Alaska (click here)

Seismic activity surrounding Anchorage (click here)

There are a couple of volcanos in that region. Mount Redoubt is one of them. Mount Spurr is there, too. With a 7.0 quake followed by significant other quakes like the one at Big Lake requires an assessment of those mountains with a potential to eruption. AIRPLANE SAFETY. Just a brief look without an extensive assessment. Be careful. 

I would suggest if there is even evidence of steam from those volcanos the airline paths need to be averted.