FOX News can stop ranting about leaving Afghanistan. The problem is not Afghanistan, it is Russia.

An article appeared in the New York Times on September 15, 2004, that completely explains the dynamics in the area of Afghanistan that continually creates extremists that will fight any authority to the death.

The title of the article is: "The Chechen's Story: From Unrivaled Guerrilla Leader to Terror of Russia" (click here)

The story is about a man named Shamil Basayev. He was born to rebel parents that assisted in winning the Chechen highlands. That victory came with a reality most children don't have in that along with victories 40 of his relatives had died in exile. The first reaction is, "Of course, he would grow to be a rebel like his parents, so what is there to understand, the man is a terrorist." Not so.

Terrorists aren't born they are developed.

Mr. Basayev is responsible for organizing militias and carrying out both in leadership and participation, deadly attacks against Russia well known by the world. Included in those attacks were the Breslan School and the hostage-taking in a Russian theater. But, Mr. Basayev was not always such a terrorist, so much as an attempt at politics and leadership of Chechnya. He would have been better at leadership than the current president who is believed to be in Putin's back pocket.

The current president of Chechnya is Ramzan Kadyrov. He is in power because he has name recognition. His family and his family's name are well known to the Chechen people.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov (click here) is one of the most powerful and most feared men in Russia.

For more than a decade the Kremlin has relied on him to maintain order in Chechnya - the Russian North Caucasus republic he has ruled like a personal fiefdom.

Human rights groups have accused him of a string of abuses, including the forced disappearance of opponents, torture and the persecution of homosexuals.

Critics have linked Ramzan Kadyrov to several assassinations, some of them in Europe, but he denies involvement.

In 2015 he praised a Chechen security officer charged over the Moscow killing of Boris Nemtsov, who had been one of President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critics.

Mr Kadyrov said Zaur Dadayev, a Russian Interior Ministry officer, was "sincerely devoted to Russia, ready to give his life for the motherland". In 2017 Dadayev and four others were jailed for the murder.

A day after having praised Dadayev in 2015 Mr Kadyrov received a top award from President Putin....

The USA policy on Chechnya is so far afield we haven't separated it from Russia since 2002.

Steven Pifer, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs (click here)
Statement Before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Washington, DC
May 9, 2002

Chairman Nighthorse Campbell, Co-Chairman Smith and CSCE commissioners, thank you for the invitation to speak today on Chechnya. The Administration welcomes this opportunity to discuss U.S. policy on Chechnya and the events of the past several months.

As you all know, the current conflict in Chechnya in a few months will begin its third year. Coming on the heels of the first conflict in Chechnya from 1994-1996, this latest conflict has dragged on nearly twice as long but with a similarly tragic price in human lives, people’s homes, and Chechen society. The casualties mount every day -- for both sides, Chechen and Russian alike -- and the pain and suffering of innocent civilians resulting from the fighting see no end in sight. There are few places in the world that have borne such devastation as Chechnya. Continuation of the conflict not only constitutes a drain on Russian development and a living nightmare for innocent Chechens, but it poses a threat to the entire Caucasus region.

Sadly, this tragic situation shows no signs of ending soon. The fighting goes on. Russian forces conduct sweeps, sealing... towns and villages and searching house to house for fighters. Often these sweeps are subsequently followed by reports of the beatings and torture of civilians, of extortion, or the disappearances of young men. Russian convoys are ambushed daily by Chechen fighters using landmines, and Russian blockposts or administrative buildings are often attacked in hit-and-run raids. Pro-Moscow Chechen administrators are assassinated. The economy is in shambles. Housing and infrastructure are destroyed, especially in Grozny where thousands still live, struggling from day to day in the most difficult conditions....

May of 2002 was an interesting time. September 11, 2001, has occurred and we had soldiers in Afghanistan at that point as well as other places in the world where they act in the balance of power. At this time, little did we realize the Bush White House was planning a war campaign into Iraq, but, that would initiate in March of 2003. But, in that context, it is somewhat understandable that Chechnya was placed on the back burner and probably at the request of Vladimir Putin who was still a member of the G8. But, no focus has ever returned to Chechnya and it shows it. The leadership is brutal and it panders to Putin, even if in name only.

Russia was an ally to the USA following September 11, 2001. They set up the first field hospitals in Afghanistan so in case our troops arrived and were injured there would be personnel and supplies to take care of them immediately. Nearly every country on the world was traumatized by the attacks that day and those that weren't are angry with the world in general anyway.

So, we understand now how leadership can be made to choose allies that are unfavorable to the people at a time when many things are going wrong. The choice between a war with the Taliban and al Qaeda vs. favoring Chechnya's independence is a no-brainer. Russia is given a pass on the brutality leveraged in Chechnya. And history speaks for itself.

The reversal of any support, if you can call it that, by the USA was after September 11, 2001. But, the unrest and priorities of the people of Chechnya don't stop there. Remember the Boston Bombing on April 15, 2013. It was linked to domestic sympathizers to the struggle in Chechnya. Russia had warned the USA about the Tsarnaev brothers. But, the FBI came up short in being able to arrest, detain or exile them from the USA.

October 23, 2013
By Mark Memmott

Papers filed by prosecutors in Boston (click here) this week confirm that a friend of accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev told investigators that Tsarnaev took part in a 2011 triple murder in Massachusetts.

Tsarnaev had been linked to the murders before. We wrote on May 23 that:

- Ibragim Todashev, the 27-year-old man shot and killed after he allegedly attacked an FBI agent [on May 22] in Orlando, may have been involved with Boston bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a 2011 triple murder.

- As NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reported on All Things Considered, "it's still under investigation, but law enforcement authorities told us that this young man had been interviewed extensively" about the September 2011 killings of three men in Waltham, Mass., as well as his friendship with Tsarnaev....

So young men who were in the USA for all the right reasons, when they weren't necessarily successful in the way they wanted, turned to be fighters for the cause and the American people paid the price that day of perhaps wayward foreign policy with Chechnya. There is still a huge gap between the Chechen people and their leadership. This is how Chechen leadership appears to be amicable people that everyone can trust. After all, Chechnya is a difficult place to take control and no one wants more problems in the region after all. 

July 17, 2021

By Gojko

Bileca, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Ramzan Kadyrov loves a party. (click here)

The flamboyantly militant Chechen leader and his cronies famously clowned with a visiting Mike Tyson. He flew in former Brazilian soccer stars for a celebrity match against his own private team. And he hired Hollywood stars for his 35th birthday.

His critics and perceived opponents have had less reason to celebrate a regime marked by alleged political assassinations, kidnappings, and other systematic persecution.

Rights groups describe Kadyrov's 14-year tenure as ruthless and oppressive, petty and vindictive, and serially abusive of women and minorities.

But that hasn't deterred a local youth group in northern Bosnia-Herzegovina from adopting Kadyrov as the face of a summertime Chechnya Fest music festival that they say actually has nothing to do with Chechnya or its strongman.

They're using images of Kadyrov, in full military dress, in promotional materials on- and off-line to attract visitors to the festival in Bileca, in the Serb-dominated part of the country, on July 22....

In my opinion, it is a shame Shamil Basayev was never allowed in many ways to become a leader of significance to Chechnya, even though he had a time as Prime Minister. That is pure speculation, but, at the same time, was Russia attempting to make a martyr out of Basayev? It sort of seems that way to me. They destroyed his life and what was left was a man that had no reason to be civil anymore. That is Russia and the demonization of a strong Chechen military leader. That is also not the entire story here.

All that said, the departure into Chechnya is somewhat of a backdrop to what I will write here. Now, back to the article I cited at the top of the page.

...During his long run as Russia's most wanted man, Mr. Basayev briefly shed the image of a terrorist in the mid-1990's to become a storied guerrilla commander, exuding tactical dexterity and sarcastic charm as he led fighters who chased the Russian Army from Chechen soil. Back then he rarely displayed the ascetic habits of the Islamic extremists he later embraced; in a break during a battle in 1995 he pointed to looted vodka and offered a journalist from The New York Times a drink....

...How did the separatist become the nihilist? What makes Shamil Basayev tick?...

..As a young man living in Moscow, he joined Boris Yeltsin at the barricades to resist the coup when the Soviet Union unraveled in 1991, a decision he described as a calculated move, telling the newspaper Moskovskaya Pravda several years later that if the hard-liners had succeeded, "you can kiss Chechnya's independence goodbye."...

...Many who have studied him claim that Russia's intelligence services trained him for the Abkhaz war, a version of history that casts him as a proxy who broke his leash -- the Kremlin's Frankenstein monster. The public evidence is unclear....

...Details of his next months are also contradictory. Mr. Ignatchenko said Mr. Basayev went to Afghanistan in 1994 to train in a terrorist camp. Mr. Basayev once told a New York Times correspondent that the charge was not true, but he has been quoted elsewhere confirming it.

Any mingling with terrorists will turn the USA policy to ice if found out.

..."From April through July 1994, myself and a group of 30, we were in Afghanistan, in the province of Khost," the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted him saying in 1996. "I sold some weapons and borrowed some money and we went."

War broke out in Chechnya in December 1994. Mr. Basayev organized Grozny's defenses and emerged as the resistance's most capable commander....

The terrorists they trained with were the Taliban. Training militants, especially those with a talent for battlefield successes was commerce to the Taliban.

...In May 1995, the Russians destroyed his family's homes. The attacks reportedly killed 11 of his relatives, including his wife, two daughters and a brother. "That could have propelled him, because he was not a born terrorist," Dr. Trenin said. "The annihilation of his clan may have pushed him in this direction."...

This was done for one reason and one reason only, and that was to propel Shamil Basayev into the worst demon in the world second only to perhaps Osama bin Laden. That is Russia. There was absolutely no reason to kill those people. They never carried weapons against Russia, yet they were the ones to pay the price of being born to a man that Russia wanted to destroy. These are the tactics of Russian intelligence with their leaders. They kill because people pose a threat to the power of the communists. So, if they can't kill the person causing the problem, why not all his relatives? Why not? They must have bad blood or something and Shamil Basayev's children could be worse than him and we can't stop him and he was a child of a rebel family. So, kill them all and end the rebellion. Right? That act by Russia, in and of itself is genocide. There are a lot of people killed because of their bloodline. That is genocide. It is not on a large scale, but, it is the definition of genocide. Ending a genetic line of people is an act of genocide.

...Mr. Basayev relented, exchanging hostages for passage back to Chechnya, where in 1996 he commanded the assault that ousted the Russian Army from Grozny and led to de facto Chechen autonomy....

The Russian Army could not stop him on many occasions. They never could even with a bounty on his head.

...By then Mr. Basayev was the unrivaled guerrilla leader of Chechnya, a role he played with style. Unlike Osama bin Laden, with whom he is sometimes compared, Mr. Basayev lacked a list of global grievances and the blank messianic stare. He focused his rage against Russia, and, even after the deaths of his family members, often wisecracked....

...Those who have studied Mr. Basayev and his fighters say they appear to have made a marriage of convenience. Marginalized in politics, they joined with Islamists and found access to foreigners and cash....

..."My distinct feeling is that this was not a religious conversion," he said. "This was a means to an end, but a means that led him down this horrible path."...

...In early 2000, when the Russian Army was attacking Chechnya again, only one government recognized Chechnya's independence: the Taliban's in Afghanistan....

..."These are beasts, not people," said Aslan Aslakhanov, a Kremlin adviser on the Chechen war. "These animals have shown their true face."...

Others are tied to Mr. Basayev, whose core now calls itself the Riyadus-Salakhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs, which the State Department designated as a terrorist organization last year. During the siege at Beslan, a hostage taker spoke by telephone with The New York Times and said he was from that group....

..No matter the immediate fate of Mr. Basayev, the experts said, his legacy will almost certainly be much like the followers that Al Qaeda developed in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and will include continued terror acts.

"These guys are incredibly professional, to use the most morbid sense of the word," said Nick Pratt, director of the Program on Terrorism and Security at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany....

On January 10, 2016, Shamil Salmanovich Basayev died and is survived by two relatives still alive.

This entry to this blog is not about elevating a known terrorist to the status of hero, but, many do and probably for all the right reasons. But, Shamil Basayev is a clear demonstration of what occurs under oppression and a heavy hand by the government. The intention by Russia was to silence Shamil Basayev, which in turn, would bring peace to Chechnya. It didn't. It brought a brutal dictator that oppresses the Chechen people and provides a platform for Shamil Basayev with the right to be exalted by people that value him.

This entry is about the very wrong point of view taken by the extreme right-wing politics of the USA in the Republican camp and FOX News currently engaged in attempting to resurrect the USA's presence in Afghanistan.

President Biden is absolutely correct in leaving Afghanistan. There is no taming it to accommodate democracy. The Taliban nearly 20 years later, a generation's time, is still the most powerful force in the region. There are others, like the remnants of Deash, that call Afghanistan their home for the sake of remaining terrorists to try again sometime in the future to bring back the Islamic State.

There is absolutely nothing the USA can do in Afghanistan that will change anything. The Taliban will exist as long as they are making money in their terrorist training camps and selling poppies to the world. For any Republican or FOX News to advocate returning to Afghanistan is nothing but propaganda and very dangerous propaganda. 

The American people tried in Afghanistan. We threw troops and military hardware and money at the country and it has changed little in a lasting way. The Taliban love roadblocks called checkpoints to facilitate their power over the people. The religion of the day is a foreign understanding of the Muslim faith. The killing they do and the brutality they practice have no basis within the Muslim faith.

The American people did the best they could and lost many of our bravest men and women there. Some soldiers returning with severed limbs, brain injury, and permanently disabled requiring intense and lengthy rehabilitation. We, as a country, are lucky to hang on to them because they and their peers from Iraq are all too willing to end their PTSD in their own killing.

There is no further story in Afghanistan and right-wing propaganda has to be viewed by the FCC to determine if this is more deception of the American public and is it bordering on treason and instilling fear into voters to cause them to shift their ballots to expose themselves to further war.

Afghanistan is a very dangerous place. It is in a hellish part of the world with mountains that do not forgive mistakes and kill through exposure people who thought all they needed to get through any mountain pass was a sturdy donkey. The country will have problems forever. It is now returning to an unstable government where the people will eke out a living and will live once again under the thumb of the Taliban.

The USA doesn't have a role there anymore. There is no reason for American contractors to visit in hopes of making millions. The Taliban are back and in a backhanded way, they will police Afghanistan and bring about some degree of control and order. Yes, women will lose whatever they gained but only because the men don't value their women for talent so much as leisurely recreation. 

It is my hope that President Biden's administration will bring about a method to recognize the underbelly of a country to elevate the people involved in movements to change their lives and make them happier. "Free Russia" which has a de facto leader in Mr. Navany is a good example. The Chechens have to be a part of the international dialog along with many unsettled people in Africa that struggle to maintain a life without starvation and with hopes of educating their children.

It is morally wrong to classify people as part of a sovereign country when they do not believe they are and there is a strong history of resistence.

AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE GAMING OF WAR AT FOX NEWS, please.

Hi, I appreciate every person that reads this blog. Without exception I appreciate everyone.

This Sunday Night presentation is going to be less rigid, or a better word is structured, in its content from time to time than it was before. I have been working on an issue a sometime today and I want to place it here. It is important. At least I consider it important because it will demonstrate how far afield we have become in a little more than a decade. So, please check back because I hope to finish it within the hour and post it here. Thank you.

There is a lot that bothers me about US Senator John Thune's speech.

Senator Thune is playing politics on the US Senate floor with the issue of defunding the police. He along with many of his colleagues of the Republican Party is investing a lot of political rhetoric on two topics, police defunding and inflation. The defunding of the police rhetoric also is accompanied by support for the gun lobby by saying that guns have nothing to do with the increased violence in our cities so much the lack of police presence as it existed before.

To begin there is no reason for me to address a financial issue here, but, the inflation Republicans hold dear as a spending problem is not that at all, it is a savings problem. During the time Americans were quarantined at home they received income to support themselves and their families. They saved money, and who wouldn't given the surprise attack of a virus by a president that was unqualified to protect them. But, to conclude, when the economy opened up people began to spend those monies they were saving and it was on big-ticket items, such as cars and homes. As a result, the higher demand which was counter to the demand only a short time ago by quarantine, resulted in supply chain shortages as cutbacks occurred during the virus shut down. I think most Americans can discern the inability of capitalism to maintain REASONABLE prices when demand skyrockets vs an otherwise poor economy with high-interest rates that normally drive inflation.

As to Mr. Thune, he is a very inflammatory figure in his rhetorical speech on the US Senate floor chamber. I will place evidence here that dispels his rhetoric. But, what bothers me more is the fact he has now labeled himself as a person that believes in spending plenty on the country's police. He will not back away from that rhetoric and it is wrongful rhetoric. However, Mr. Thune will never apologize for the rhetoric and instead will double down on it and demand legislative resolves to his nonsensical politics. 

There has been an uptick in violence in major cities around the country. 

August 16, 2021

By Josh Campbell

...From May to June 2020, (click here) homicides in 20 major US cities increased by 37%, led by Chicago, Philadelphia and Milwaukee, according to new data from the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) think tank. Aggravated assaults jumped by 35% over the same period of time, while other types of crime were down....

Those are the facts, but, they are not all the facts. Gun sales escalated beyond any expectations during the same period of time. Before I get into the very significant gun issue, there was a decrease in other crimes, too.

Crime Rates and COVID-19 (click here) : A Review of Data from 27 American Cities

You can read it for yourself, but, all the crime rates were down after the shutdown was instituted. Less of everything from purse snatching to drug crimes that normally occur "on the street."

Property and drug crime rates fell significantly during the spring and early summer of 2020, coinciding with stay-at-home mandates and business closings. Residential burglary dropped by 20% between February and June 2020. Larceny and drug offenses decreased by 17% and 57%, respectively, between March and June. These declines reflect quarantines (people staying home resulting in reduced opportunities for residential burglary), business closings (reduced opportunities for shoplifting), and reduced police and street activity (fewer open-air drug transactions)....

Below are graphs below regarding the sales of guns in the USA comes from a group by the name of "The Trace (click here)." The Trace's front page is interesting as well. They go beyond awareness to advocacy such as this article.

If adopted, (click here) the rule would require brace owners to apply to the NFA Division, which has long been understaffed and routinely misses its own performance benchmarks.

The very agencies and offices within the federal government required to do the policing have been stripped of their capacity to keep up with their responsibilities. They are understaffed. So much for safeguards.

But as to The Trace gun sales recordkeeping (click here). The graphs look confusing, but, the color difference displays separate types of guns. The blue are handguns and the more orange or peach color are long guns (rifles and shotguns).

The pandemic sales are especially enlightening. The sales of long guns even went through the roof, but, the sales of handguns are incredibly high. Now, what do gun sales have to do with homicides? For real? Mr. Thune isn't aware of the spike in gun sales. To me, the record-setting gun sales have directly contributed to homicides in our larger cities.

I sat in on a recent meeting that provided the necessary 8-hour exposure to guns and their laws in order to get a concealed carry permit, a story was told of two men who were arguing over their mobile phones while driving down a highway with their families were in the car. The argument became so heated the two men pulled off the highway and walked to the back and front of their cars and killed each other with concealed carry permitted handguns in their cars. Right there in front of their families. Two dead providers, to the well-being of their families killed each by the side of the road because they could not hold their anger, and the guns, were handy.

That is the real cost of having so many guns on the street, it creates solutions to social arguments that didn't exist before.

But, certainly, Mr. Thune knew about these statistics alongside that of his rant about defunding police. During the protest marches police were also used differently. Rather than patrolling, they were downtown with riot gear on to confront protesters.

The pandemic caused economic hardship which increases stress resulting in violence and in the USA where guns flow like water, the violence is met with a new answer, the power of a pistol.

"The Trace" goes beyond these graphs to drop-down menus that show gun sales over time and state by state. It seems like an excellent resource that has done it's homework.

If there are more guns on the street it is guaranteed there will be more homicides. The power of the final solution to any hate, greed or anger is too tempting to many people.

So, why is the increase in homicides in USA cities happening; economic strife, anxiety with the pandemic, the death of George Floyd and the continual trials to find justice for his heinous death, a social movement to defund police, the demoralization of police who do their best to do a good job, and the change in assignment of police from neighborhood policing to confronting protesters. Heavy within this dynamic was and is racism that was palpable. 

So, while Mr. Thune tries to villanize the Democratic Party as those that allow violence and even propagate it while hating police, he is dead wrong. He is exploiting a SINGLE dynamic of these very upsetting and sad statistics in order to play his particular type of politics. The explosion of homicides in our cities is complicated and isn't solved by ONLY placing police on the street. That is how we got here in the first place.

  

The human cost of violence is present with the Capitol Police.

This resulted because of Republican politics. The day of January 6, 2021 was supposed to be a great day for the USA that their democracy actually works as it was designed. Instead, a crowd of violent participants stormed the USA Capitol building with no reverence for the greatness of the country they wanted to disrupt.

Some of the violence came from legitimate militiamen who actually wanted to do away with the government. Others were there to spawn a consumer base for their homegrown company, at least that is what some have said. But, the majority of those that violated civil law and marched into the Capitol to conduct vandalism, the mayhem of the proceedings, and even capture legislators to be hung in a gallows that was built on the grounds were political activists for the right-wing Republicans.

This is their politics. They are violent and do not believe in government so much as anarchy. As a result valuable people taking care of the US Capitol and it's legislators now have permanent scars. PTDS does not go away and interrupts people's lives without notice.

These brave people that care for our most cherished buildings and people of government need to be recognized for the infliction of the pain resulting from the events of January 6, 2021. They should be provided the benefits they need permanently, regardless, of their personal choices to continue to work for the government or to leave. There should be a fund to provide any needed services. We do this for our 911 heroes and we certainly can do this for these magnificent police.

July 24, 2021
By Peter Hermann

Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, a Capitol Police officer, is suffering from physical and psychological injuries stemming from the Jan. 6 insurrection

More than six months after Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell (click here) battled the mob that stormed the Capitol, he remains hobbled, a hand scarred, a shoulder aching, recovering from surgery to an injured foot that swelled so large it no longer fit his shoe.

The 42-year-old Capitol Police officer and Army reservist is also seeing a therapist to help with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), first diagnosed after he served in the war in Iraq.

He said bouts of anxiety returned after his battle on American soil in the Jan. 6 riot.

“I can be fine now and see or hear something and next thing I get tears and get emotional,” said Gonell, who was hurt when rioters tried to yank away his ballistic shield, threw a speaker at him, struck him in the face with a pole and sprayed him with chemical irritants.

“I tried to be strong,” he said of the months following the riot. “I tried not to show my emotion.” But once, he said, he retreated to a quiet space at his home in Virginia, away from his wife and 9-year-old son: “I completely broke down.”....

The News Media has been the best record keeper of the poisoning of the water in Flint, Michigan.

"The Intercept" has printed an article listing the vast level of corruption that has surrounded the poisoning of a city. It is a considerable issue to consider. The evidence is incomplete, therefore the prosecutions are incomplete. Powerful people can literally get away with murder. That is not the way of the Rule of Law of this country, but, it is occurring and Flint, Michigan is a prime example.

July 21, 2021

By Jordan Chariton, Jenn Dize

...Investigators (click here) also discovered that phone data belonging to a key official close to Snyder was completely erased shortly before the Flint criminal investigation was launched.

Sara Wurfel, Snyder’s press secretary during the water crisis in 2014 through fall 2015, told Flood her phone was “wiped” when she left her job at the end of November 2015, after a civil suit was filed against the Snyder administration and a month before the launch of the Flint water criminal investigation.

“Do you have text messages from 2015 currently [on your phone]?” Flood asked Wurfel in a confidential interview obtained by The Intercept.

“No. So when I left the governor’s office, everything got wiped. I mean, when — I turned in my phone, it got wiped,” Wurfel told Flood. Wurfel, who kept her state cellphone number when she left her government job, said she didn’t recall if she had been asked to hand in her phone at any other time in 2015 prior to leaving her job in November. She also said she didn’t think that she had used iCloud to back up her phone data....

Where does corruption begin and why?

These are the stables of Glenn Youngkin.. Mr. Youngkin was able to get a 95 percent tax reduction because it is recently declared as an agricultural assessment.

Below is Glenn Youngkin and his wife, Suzanne. He is a newly minted GOP candidate for Governor in Virginia. There are a lot of horse farms in Virginia. Hm?

July 23, 2021
By Patrick Wilson

GOP gubernatorial nominee (click here) Glenn Youngkin and his wife last year successfully petitioned Fairfax County to designate their horse farm as an agricultural district, which led to a 95% reduction in the taxes they pay on the 31.5-acre property in Great Falls that surrounds their home.

The agricultural district reduced the Youngkins’ real estate tax bill on the farm by a total of $151,844.90 in 2020 and 2021 combined, according to public information that the Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration provided to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said in a statement that the couple sought the agricultural designation as part of a commitment to environmental stewardship and conservation.

“The Youngkins made their home in Fairfax County in order to meaningfully enjoy and care for the unique land and habitat of the area,” the statement said. “The Youngkins are wholly committed to keeping the land protected and preserved, and remain in full compliance with all local, state and federal laws, regulations, tax codes and ordinances.”...

That all seems very noble and responsible and even a left-wingish Liberal Republican, except, environmental stewardship is not considered an agricultural designation in Virginia's agricultural assessment.

...Title 58.1-3230 of the Code of Virginia (click here) states that, “a county, city, or town may adopt an an ordinance that provides for use-value assessment under four categories: real estate devoted to agricultural use, horticultural use, forest use and open space use. Land used in agricultural and forestal production in an agricultural district, a forestal district, or an agricultural/forestal district is eligible for use value assessment in the absence of a local ordinance.” The State Land Use Advisory Council (SLEAC) was created in 1973 to estimate the use value of qualifying land for every locality participating in a use-value program. As of now, 64 counties and 13 cities in Virginia including Albemarle County participate in a use-value program. There are some people, like Martha Moore of the Virginia Farm Bureau who see land use assessment as an effective (if temporary) method to halt excessive land development. Moore says, “Without land use assessment, the tax burden would increase so rapidly that the land would not be able to be used for agriculture or forestry operations. There would be development at a rapid pace rather than at a planned pace.”...

The only assessment that remotely applies to the Youngkin's estate is "Open Space Use." I stress USE in that designation because accordingly, this is a private residence and not open to the use of the public. If the Youngkins are going to say their estate is Open Space Use, then every backyard in the State of Virginia should receive the same agricultural designation.

It is a sham. As a result of a corrupt president the USA has the most extremist Supreme Court in history.

I was a good boy, went to the finest schools, was an ordinary drinking bastard that sexually assaulted whatever women could be trapped, worked within the system to achieve a station of power to remove the rights of citizens and replace them with religious dogma. And why? Because it was what my parents and the power structure that accepted by wayward credentials wanted.

July 22, 2021
By Kate Kelly

Nearly three years after Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s (click here) tumultuous confirmation to the Supreme Court, the F.B.I. has disclosed more details about its efforts to review the justice’s background, leading a group of Senate Democrats to question the thoroughness of the vetting and conclude that it was shaped largely by the Trump White House.

In a letter dated June 30 to two Democratic senators, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Chris Coons of Delaware, an F.B.I. assistant director, Jill C. Tyson, said that the most “relevant” of the 4,500 tips the agency received during an investigation into Mr. Kavanaugh’s past were referred to White House lawyers in the Trump administration, whose handling of them remains unclear.

The letter left uncertain whether the F.B.I. itself followed up on the most compelling leads. The agency was conducting a background check rather than a criminal investigation, meaning that “the authorities, policies, and procedures used to investigate criminal matters did not apply,” the letter said.

Ms. Tyson’s letter was a response to a 2019 letter from Mr. Whitehouse and Mr. Coons to the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, posing questions about how the F.B.I.’s review of Mr. Kavanaugh was handled....

Based on this reality, the Senate Democrats will draft a bill to demand all records be sent to the confirmation committee to expose wrongdoing and ethical violation. That bill will die when McConnell demands a filibuster and the people of the USA will be trapped in a corrupt judiciary at the highest levels of the court. It will happen because ONE MAN CAN STOP VITAL LEGISLATION TO KEEP THIS DEMOCRACY ALIVE AND TRUE TO IT'S RULE OF LAW.

The reason this occurred is that the FBI falls under the authority of the Executive Branch no more than Homeland Security and the Border Guards. One person in the White House with the power the USA can muster to protect itself and bestow to the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED KING can undo every democratic norm to ensure a theocracy that violates the rights of every citizen that falls outside the Christian dogma.

That is why this occurred. It wasn't the FBI, it's practices, or the ability of it's agents, but, the power over that agency by the president. It is wrong and the confirmation committee should have the right to receive all reports about a nominee and to openly question that nominee to guarantee the American judiciary is free of any form of corruption, including theocratic dogma.

What Trump did here was unethical as was the four years of his presidency, yet, no one seemed to be able to remove him from the very highest office in this country, while Senate Republicans pretended to be able to control his corrupt demands upon this democracy. Kavanaugh is one of them!

This is a particulate map of the United States.

Fire and Smoke Map (click here)

The spots can be clicked on to show the level of particulates in the air caused by the fires in the country. I guarantee you there are emergency rooms full of people with lung conditions today. Add to that the fact the pandemic numbers are increasing and the hospitals have their hands full.

It is primarily the national forests that are on fire in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Canada.

Current Large Incidents (click here) It is going to be very difficult to fight those fires due to their close proximity. The firefighters won't know if the one they are fighting is being contained or not because as one fire might be diminished another is burning right behind it making visibility impossible.

Depending on where the fires and smoke are dangerous (click here), camping is out of the question.

I am proud of her. She is protecting the US Constitution and refuses to allow Republicans a political stage.

Speaker Pelosi has passed some incredibly wonderful legislation that directly benefits this country, with the Child Tax Credit as one. And have to face an extremist agenda from the Minority leader McCarthy is profound disrespect for her, for the country, and the USA Constitution. McCarthy is a political minion for Trump and has no regard for the country. 

No one is supposed to be playing politics with the USA Constitution. It is not a toy to bantered around. The two House members she banned from a bipartisan committee were going to make a circus out of a very serious insurrection they don't even believe was an insurrection, so much as party politics.

PEOPLE DIED ON JANUARY 6, 2021. A Capitol Police Officer gave his life to protect the election process and the future of the USA Constitution. There is no room for Republicans to treat the US Constitution as political fodder. This is not a game!

Those two House Republicans were picked by Trump, not McCarthy. McCarthy was just to visit Trump in Maralago and the choice for the Republicans on the committee was solicited by Trump. Just that simple. 

In the meantime, there are people being indicted in New York (click here), there is an off duty DEA agent that was at the Capitol on January 6th with his gun (click here), and there is the first prison sentence for a participant that day (click here).

Kevin McCarthy should be putting restrictions on the members of his party in the US House unfit to back to represent their constituents because they back Trump's Big Lie (click here). They are not competent to serve. Jordan is still wanted for questioning from his former coaching position that exploited young men for sex (click here). McCarthy should not be pandering to right-wing extremists. They just had CPAC so they are all hyped. CPAC is not the GOP although they would like to think they are and their money is used to back political sellouts that vote for their cronies' demands and not their constituents.

I take it US Rep. Elizabeth Cheney was the farthest from McCarthy's mind when the committee selection took place.

Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats are doing a magnificent job for the country and it is a national shame the Republicans causing such problems in the USA Senate. The obstruction has gone on too long.

July 21, 2021

By Marianna Sotomayor, Jacqueline Alemany, and Karoun Demirjian

Plans for a bipartisan committee (click here) to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection fell apart Wednesday after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) moved to block two controversial Republicans appointed by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from sitting on the panel — paving the way for two separate and largely partisan investigations of the violent attack on the Capitol.

Pelosi called on McCarthy to name two new Republicans to the committee after refusing to appoint conservative Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a privilege she has as speaker. As staunch backers of former president Donald Trump, both members voted against his impeachment and pushed to overturn the election results certifying Joe Biden as president.

“With respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these Members, I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee,” Pelosi said in a statement. “The unprecedented nature of January 6th demands this unprecedented decision.”....

I don't speak Polish. I think we get the picture. I believe Poland is a NATO country as well.

This is Głogoczów, Poland on July, 2021.

   

Oh dear, what a shame. Blame the Republicans. They are the ones with the old wives tales about bleach and the NO MASK MANDATE.

July 19, 2021
By Paul R. LaMonica

New York (CNN Business)Investors are getting spooked by the rising numbers of Covid-19 cases as the Delta variant spreads across the globe.

The Dow fell about 725 points Monday, a drop of 2.1%. The S&P 500 ended the day down 1.6% and the Nasdaq was 1.1% lower.

This was the worst day for the Dow since a 943-point drop in late October, and it was the biggest decline this year. But the blue chip market barometer has had several even bigger point plunges since the start of 2020 due to concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Dow plummeted more than 1,000 points six times last year, with five of those market meltdowns taking place in March at the start of the pandemic in America. The Dow suffered its biggest point slide ever on March 16, 2020, dropping nearly 3,000 points — a 13% freefall....

If Wall Street thinks this is bad, wait to see what happens when the Republicans actually hold an insurrection and it turns the country into opposing warring parties rather than political parties. Isn't that what the generals are REALly afraid of?

The Delta virus is real and dangerous. It will kill. It will do a lot of damage to unvaccinated people. The "Long Haulers" will create a disability class of people that every country will have to cope with. And why all this tragedy? Because the Republicans played a game with the electorate. They actually gave themselves permission to play politics with one of the most deadly viruses on Earth.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson suddenly came out with "Freedom Day." It is the idea that everyone with vaccinations don't have a thing to worry about, but, be cautious when you need to. I think it is obvious what "Freedom Day" was for and it wasn't to celebrate the end of the pandemic, it was to give false hope to Wall Street. The UK will have a "COVID PASSPORT" for everyone vaccinated with two JABS. They use the word JABS instead of injection. The COVID PASSPORT is to recognize the people with complete immunity for nightclubs. Boris is excited about the vaccine for children age 12 to 15.

I was sitting outside Panera Bread in the USA the other day waiting for my curbside pick-up when a mother with two children walked into the shop. She was not wearing a mask, obviously vaccinated, and her two children about the ages of 5 and 7 were wearing their masks to try to protect from any virus in the air.

Delta is real and it is serious. The authorities are saying the vaccine helps PREVENT hospitalizations. The severe symptoms of the disease is far lower and the infection rate is lower. That is all good news. The infection rate is dropping compared to other escalations of the infected. The admission to hospitals is slower and less than any other exposure. We are doing something right.

I read a report that the INCENTIVIZED programs that award a million dollar to the lucky winner of the vaccine drawing; don't work. It did not spur all the unvaccinated to the vaccination sites to get their first JAB and a ticket to being a lucky winner besides being a winner in being vaccinated and IMMUNE to prevent serious disease.

Warning. 

There is another virus variant on the rise and it is not fully understood by scientists. They say this variant has different mutations than any other. There is some worry, although unspoken, as to this might be the level three virus we cannot stop.

July 14, 2021
By Sanjay Mishra

A coronavirus variant known as Lambda, (click here) which has largely slid under the radar for the past nine months, is now causing almost all new infections in Peru.

Lambda (also known as C.37) was first detected in Peru in August 2020 and has spread to 29 countries, many in Latin America. And, since January 20, 2021, 668 Lambda infections have been reported in the United States. In Peru, Lambda is now responsible for more than 90 percent of new COVID-19 cases, a steep rise from less than 0.5 percent in December. The country has already suffered the world’s worst mortality due to COVID-19; the disease has killed about 0.54 percent of the population.

...Peru has revised its official death toll (click here) in the covid-19 pandemic from 69 342 to 185 380, after a scientific review of medical records ordered by the government. The new figure means that Peru has had 5551 covid deaths per million population, proportionally the worst official toll in the world. Hungary, which before this week had the world’s highest official toll per capita, now stands a distant second at 3094 deaths per million....

...Many Peruvian households lack a fridge, necessitating daily trips to crowded food markets. In one acknowledged mis-step Peru became one of the first countries to issue relief cheques to compensate for lost income, but because only 38% of Peruvians have bank accounts they had to crowd into banks to collect cash....

Peruvians need an infrastructure of green energy in wind mills and solar panels to accommodate refrigerators. They also need ONLINE BANKING for those that do not have traditional bank accounts. Let's hope they have Wifi access, too.

The Lambda variant likely caused the high number of infections during the second wave between the end of March and April, Peruvian Minister of Health Óscar Ugarte said in a news conference. In neighboring Chile, where the primary vaccine is China’s CoronaVac, Lambda accounts for 31 percent of sequenced cases in the last 60 days. The high case numbers are occurring even though 58.6 percent of Chile’s population is fully vaccinated and another 10 percent has received a single dose. The poor efficacy of the vaccine maybe partly to blame. A study by the University of Chile found that a single dose of the CoronaVac vaccine was only 3 percent effective, but that rose to 56.5 percent after both doses....

The scientists up to now have not had difficulty deciphering the genetic code of the variants to classify and understand them. Lamda is an outliar. It is not standard virus genetics. Lamda is a worry. If this turns into a level three virus, we are all in a lot of trouble.

STOP THE SPREAD OF THESE VIRUSES. The more OPPORTUNITY they have to sample human DNA, the more of a mutation will occur, and it will over come our immune system.

The Republicans MUST end their politics of virual hubris. This is ridiculous and borders on inhumane and genocidal.

I usually put a rooster at the top of the blog but something serious has happened to a celebrated journalist. This picture was the way Albert Einstein's office looked the day he died.

David Siddiqui is celebrated in India (click here).

July 16, 2021

Danish Siddiqui, (click here) the Reuters journalist killed in crossfire on Friday covering the war in Afghanistan, was a largely self-taught photographer who scaled the heights of his profession while documenting wars, riots and human suffering.

A native of New Delhi, Siddiqui, 38, is survived by his wife Rike and two young children.

He was part of a team that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 2018 for documenting Myanmar's Rohingya refugee crisis, a series described by the judging committee as "shocking photographs that exposed the world to the violence Rohingya refugees faced in fleeing Myanmar."

Friends and colleagues described a man who cared deeply about the stories he covered, carrying out meticulous research before embarking on assignments and always focusing on the people caught up in the news....

"Good Night, Moon"

The waxing gibbous

9.2 days old

69.2 percent lit

Didn't I say to leave the moon alone. No digging, no transporting moon rock back to Earth that will result in a change in Earth's mass vs. that of the Moon. The Earth and it's moon have a delicate balance. Disturb that balance in a major way and we will all be sorry for being "just that stupid." I don't want to think about what will happen in Europe with the moon and Earth out of balance.

The reason Europe is devastated by floods is that a NORMAL jet stream is not at work anymore. It is there, but, diminished in it's ability to move air due to the heat that expands the air mass. The air mass of Earth now moving by two transport systems, "heat transport systems" that bring flooding rain and the Coriolis effect. The jet stream has little influence to the air masses of Earth compared to the past. The stalled air mass over Europe is what caused those enormous floods. People have to wait for the Coriolis effect of Earth to move the storming clouds away from those flooded areas.

July 16, 2021
By Dan Fastenberg

U.S. coastlines (click here) will face increasing flooding in the mid-2030s thanks to a regular lunar cycle that will magnify rising sea levels caused by climate change, according to research led by NASA scientists.

A key factor identified by the scientists is a regular "wobble" in the moon's orbit - first identified in the 18th century - that takes 18.6 years to complete. The moon's gravitational pull helps drive Earth's tides.

In half of this lunar cycle, Earth's regular daily tides are diminished, with high tides lower than usual and low tides higher than usual. In the cycle's other half, the situation is reversed, with high tides higher and low tides lower.

The expected flooding will result from the combination of the continuing sea level rise associated with climate change and the arrival of an amplification part of the lunar cycle in the mid-2030s, the researchers said....

One has to ask since the stratosphere is shrinking where is it going when it shrinks?

The only progress made regarding health care was by Democrats. They accomplished the Affordable Care Act and Patient Protection Plan on their own without any Republican support while FOX News gamed the legislation for ratings using the old "Hillary Strategy," from the time Gingrich was serving in the USA House.

The issue of the climate has never been addressed by the USA, except to corruptly let Big Oil dictate energy policy in the USA. Basically, the USA Congress has royally failed the entire world when it comes to the Climate Crisis.

This failure cannot continue. It cannot continue on racism, income inequality, healthcare, and the climate crisis. These huge issues change the way Americans live and their quality of life. The actions regarding climate will change the way Americans live today, but, also the way they may survive into the future.

The evidence is in, Earth itself in the way it maintains the upper layers of the atmosphere is in jeopardy. No one can ignore the findings of this past winter in that the MIXING of the troposphere and stratosphere has become more severe and is damaging the stratosphere, as it shrinks due to the mixing.

One has to ask if the stratosphere is shrinking where is it going when it shrinks?

We know all matter is stable. If two air masses interact in a mixing of the two where did the mixed atmosphere go because the stratosphere that is shrinking is giving up it's content to the mixing? Follow that?

The shrinkage of the stratosphere is not normal. It is occurring because it was impacted by the troposphere. The mixing has REMOVED a portion of the stratosphere and those molecules are in the troposphere thinning the amount of oxygen and at the same time, increasing the oxygenation of the ozone layer.

Got that?

The MIXING of the gaseous troposphere and stratosphere is redistributing the gases in those two layers. The oxygen content of the stratosphere is going up while the displaced gases of the mixing are going into the troposphere to think out that layer of Earth's atmosphere.

If the mixing creates an imbalance in the support of the two layers of air as they are today or were at the turn of the century in 1900 before the industrial revolution, there is absolutely nothing to stop the collapse of the troposphere to completely mix with the stratosphere and then what is supporting the rest of the layers of Earth's atmospheres directly into space?

The pollution of every greenhouse gas on Earth must stop now. When the dinosaurs died, they rotted into the oil. That was their burial and it should have been respected and left undisturbed.

As far as Greta's statement about beef and dairy, she is correct in that there is an emission of methane from those sources, however, it is less than 2 percent of actual and anticipated methane emissions on Earth. Americans are already making changes to their choice of milk. I am sure those choices are occurring all over the world, except, Brazil where they burn down lush rainforest to graze beef cattle.

In the USA there is a mission in those industries, beef and dairy, to look to adjust the type of feeds these farm animals are given to reduce the methane emitted. I consider that a serious attitude in those industries and they are taking their small contribution seriously. The petroleum industry should take its disastrous emissions as seriously as the beef and dairy industry does.

On all other counts, as stated by Greta Thurnberg, I have no criticism. She is amazing in her resolve. She is highly moral in her statements. "The money" that the US Supreme Court stated has equal rights with people, doesn't breath, and only exists to be used as a currency. We all know how currency is shaping up these days.

But, the climate crisis is a highly moral issue whereby all the people of Earth are equal in their right to a CLIMATE SAFE life; generation after generation after generation.

I wish the climate crisis solutions were fast-tracked in the way the Alzheimer's drug for profit has been handled. There is a profit to moving quickly on climate. The profit is the repurchase of the future. The bargain of all bargains, we get to keep Earth intact for generations to come. If we do this correctly, Earth will be around and habitable until Sol supernovas.

The time to act on all these issues is now and not two decades from now when there is another reason for war to take precedent of our very existence.