Friday, August 04, 2017

This should be on a newsreel.

I don't know where to start. On July 28, 2017 a federal appeals court ruled that the people of Flint, Michigan can sue the State of Michigan for allowing lead contamination in their water supply. On August 1, the federal EPA forgave the $20 million indebtedness of Flint, Michigan. OnAigust 2, 2017 there was 4 inches of rain in Flint causing the sewers to back up with rain water runoff into the streets. Also on August 2, 2017, US District Judge David Lawson ordered Troy based attorney Paul 
Manicotti to facilitate an agreement between Flint and the State of Michigan regarding the future sources of Flint's water. Universal EMS has closed in Flint. When I was a kid there were volunteer ambulance and fire personnel. And lastly the Democratic candidates for Hovernor will debate in Flint.

 

The time is now. No more doubting or politics. The loss of the corals was a "mass extinction event."

"Smithsonian Earth" (click here)

We need far, far more programming like this.

From the Climate Change Synthesis Report:

...Ocean warming (click here) dominates the increase in energy stored in the climate system, accounting for more than 90% of the energy
accumulated between 1971 and 2010 (high confidence), with only about 1% stored in the atmosphere. On a global scale,
the ocean warming is largest near the surface, and the upper 75 m warmed by 0.11 [0.09 to 0.13] °C per decade over the
period 1971 to 2010. It is virtually certain that the upper ocean (0−700 m) warmed from 1971 to 2010, and it likely warmed

between the 1870s and 1971. {1.1.2, Figure 1.2}...

Sixty percent of Earth's atmospheric oxygen comes from the single celled creatures that live in the oceans. Corals are more complex than a single cell but are known to be climate producers. 

This is serious and all oars need to be in the water.

Did Mueller subpoena anyone from the Secret Service?

August 3, 2017
By Carol D. Leonnig, David A. Fahrenthold and Jonathan O'Connell

The Secret Service (click here) has vacated its command post inside Trump Tower in Manhattan following a dispute between the government and President Trump’s company over the terms of a lease for the space, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Previously, the Secret Service had stationed its command post — which houses supervisors and backup agents on standby in case of an emergency — in a Trump Tower unit one floor below the president’s apartment.

But in early July, the post was relocated to a trailer on the sidewalk, more than 50 floors below, a distance that some security experts worry could hamper the agency that protects the president’s home and family.

The command post appears unlikely to move anytime soon back inside Trump Tower, where the president and his family have rarely gone since moving to the White House.

On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization said the government should seek space in another location....

Didn't Trump volunteer some space for the FBI so that it wouldn't cost the government money in the budget to protect the President? I am sure Reagan provided space for the agents on his California ranch when needed. What is it costing to protect the President anyway?

Yet again.

August 4, 2017

A fire (click here) ripped through one of the world's tallest residential towers in Dubai on Friday, the latest in a series of fires in tall structures in the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf's tourism and business hub, over the past three years.

Flames shot up the sides of the Torch tower in the second blaze to hit the high-rise since 2015, forcing hundreds of occupants to flee as burning debris showered down the sides of the 1,105 foot (337 meter)-tall, 79-story structure.

"We were sleeping and we woke up to the fire alarm and people screaming. We ran down the stairs and it took us about 10 minutes to reach from the 50th floor," a resident who gave his name as George told Reuters.

"It was very bad. The fire was very strong at that time, about 1 a.m. Then it started calming down over the next two hours," he added.

The tower was evacuated, no injuries were reported, and there was no immediate word on the cause of the blaze.

But the incident may revive questions about the safety of materials used on the exteriors of tall buildings across the wealthy Gulf region and beyond.

An investigation by the management of the Torch after its 2015 fire found that most of the damage was to the cladding, exterior paneling used for decoration or insulation....

That didn't take long.

Grand Juries tend to focus the liars in the case of the dysfunctional DC Insiders. It was Karl Rove with the record number of times before a Grand Jury as he kept mitigating his previous set of lies. As long as a person corrects the record there is no perjury charge. It is a matter of what a person thinks they can get away with. So, I would imagine as the Grand Jury proceeds it will bring out more facts and far less rhetoric. Basically, the Grand Jury can be a tool as well as a place where charges coalesce.

August 3, 2017
By Leon Neyfakh

Special Counsel Robert Mueller (click here) has impaneled a federal grand jury in Washington as part of his investigation into the Trump campaign’s role in Russia's interference in the 2016 election, reports the Wall Street Journal. The development confirms what was already quite clear from the hiring spree Mueller has been on since being appointed in May: this thing is serious, and it’s not going away any time soon. That said, as tempting as it might be to assume that the formation of a grand jury means Mueller is definitely trying to indict someone, the truth is it’s hard to extrapolate all that much from it. As one former federal prosecutor told me, “All it means is that he's investigating, not that charges are forthcoming.”...

Mueller's team is ready to hunt bear. He didn't mess around in his choices. He is ready to defend the country and not play party politics.

And then there is the man who knew too much. Would he or would he not defect?


October 28, 2016
By Laura Wagner

Nearly a year after former Russian press minister (click here) and Kremlin insider Mikhail Lesin was found dead in a downtown hotel in Washington, D.C., U.S. authorities have ruled his death an accident and closed the case.

The finding comes after a lengthy investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, the city's Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI.

Initially, Russian media reports citing information from Lesin's family members attributed his death last November to a heart attack, as The Two-Way reported. Then in March, the chief medical examiner's office in Washington said Lesin died as a result of "blunt force injuries of the head." It listed the manner of death as "undetermined."

Now, that has been changed.

"As a result of the almost year-long investigation, the Chief Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia has amended Mr. Lesin's manner of death from 'undetermined' to 'accident' with acute ethanol intoxication as a contributory cause of death," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement Friday. "The investigation has now been closed."...

I hope Russia retrieved the tapes. It would seem Mr. Putin's taste in women run in the same direction as Mr. Lesin, young.


March 15, 2017
By Marnie O’Neill

...Nicknamed “The Bulldozer”, (click here) Mr Lesin oversaw a devastating crackdown on the Russian media that resulted in most newspapers and TV stations becoming state-run propaganda machines. He served as Putin’s press minister from 1999 to 2004 and presidential media adviser from 2004 to 2009.
He founded government-funded television network Russia Today (now RT) in 2005 and was a senior executive at Russia’s largest media holding company, Gazprom-Media....

...Weeks after Mr Lesin’s death, it was discovered that his $50 million superyacht Serenity had been left to languish at the Rivergate Marina & Shipyard in Queensland, where it had undergone a refit.
Records show that the six cabin, four deck vessel, made by the world renowned boat builders Dutch Heesen, arrived in Brisbane from Cairns on September 14. An article in the Cairns Post named the Serenity as one of six superyachts that descended on the harbour in July last year.
The Super Yacht Group Great Barrier Reef held a dock party for the captains and crews of the Serenity, Serenity J, Aquamarina and luxury game fishing boat Norby.

A spokesperson for the Super Yacht Group told news.com.au that the company could not discuss Serenity and its owner because, like anyone and everyone involved in the rarefied world of superyachts, they were bound by nondisclosure contracts....