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A Major Surge in Atmospheric Warming Is Probably Coming in the Next Five Years
With the killing of a homeless man outside a Los Angeles homeless shelter, it seems that wearing a badge gives someone a license to kill. After looking over a video shot by a bystander of the incident, it's not a bias against the police to ask, "Is there something wrong with this picture?" No, it's just common sense to see that what happened on the southern California sidewalk was most likely murder in broad daylight.
The big unknown is whether the Democratic nominee will also take on the moneyed interests -- the large Wall Street banks, big corporations, and richest Americans -- which have been responsible for the largest upward redistribution of income and wealth in modern American history. Failure to take on the moneyed interests sacrifices the potential enthusiasm of millions of voters.
By Robert Weiner
Virginia Gun Bill Shootdowns Shows Little Learned From Virginia Tech In a state that witnessed one of the largest massacres in the country only eight years ago, Virginia Republicans in the legislature are now blocking all gun control regulation -- and instead are passing legislation that may actually weaken defenses against massacres.
Germany & France oppose the US sending lethal weapons to the Ukraine gov't. Germany's Merkel & France's Hollande met in Moscow w/ Pres. Putin desperately seeking an end to the Ukraine crisis. A new ceasefire was brokered in Minsk but may not hold. New weapons to Kiev could be the red line Putin will not accept. Germany must follow its own nat'l interests, defy US as they are the linchpin to prevent a new war in Europe.
The Silver Rule says: Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you. But our economic and political systems allow fossil-fuel corporation to violate all 10 of what can be called the Ten Climate Commandments. This essay discusses the first five commandments.
These are five leading issues drawing healthcare deeper into political debates.
By Rev. Dan Vojir
Q: Why Can't Right-Wing Christians Police Their (Embarrassing) Own? A: Because They're Policing Everyone Else! 
Just who are the REAL criminals against Christianity? How about the ones embarrassing the hell out of it?
It is important that the public be paying attention to the Fed's interest rate policies and let them know how they feel about raising interest rates to kill jobs. The Center for Popular Democracy has organized an impressive grassroots campaign around the Fed's interest rate policies. Those who don't want to see the government deliberately trying to kill jobs might want to join in.
U.S.-Russian tensions keep escalating -- now surrounding the murder of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov -- yet almost no one on the American side seems to worry about the possibility that the tough-guy rhetoric and proxy war in Ukraine might risk a nuclear conflagration, writes Robert Parry.
It's one of those enduring Zen koans of science that we've all grown up with: Light behaves as both a particle and a wave--at the same time. Einstein taught us that, so we're all generally on board, but to actually understand what it means would require several Ph.D.s and a thorough understanding of quantum physics. What's more, scientists have never been able to devise an experiment that documents light behaving as both a wave and a particle simultaneously. Until now. That's the contention of researchers who say they've succeeded in capturing the first-ever snapshot of light's dual behavior. Using an advanced electron microscope in Switzerland, the team has generated a kind of quantum photograph of light behaving as both a particle and a wave. "This experiment demonstrates that, for the first time ever, we can film quantum mechanics -- and its paradoxical nature -- directly."
Astronomers have spotted a galaxy so distant that we can observe it as it was near the dawn of time. But instead of looking like other infant systems, the galaxy is surprisingly far along in its star production. This could mean that galaxies evolve more quickly than previously assumed. Because it's so distant, the traces of it that reach us today show the galaxy as it was just 700 million years after the birth of the universe; when the cosmos was a mere 5% of its current age. The galaxy has a ratio of something called cosmic dust that astronomers would only expect to see in a much older galaxy. "Although the exact origin of galactic dust remains obscure, our findings indicate that its production occurs very rapidly, within only 500 million years of the beginning of star formation in the Universe -- a very short cosmological time frame, given that most star for billions of years."
By Burl Hall
The Incarnate Sophia of God: Is Christ Separate from Us? For the sake of religion, we need to dump our current understanding of religion. In its epistemological roots, the term means to bind together or connect. This is more than just joining a church, synagog or temple. Religion in its essence is the love of Life. All else, all theories, theologies, etc are just words. And words are nothing less than vibrations emerging from one's mouth that someone else interprets.
By John Nichols
Mr. Spock Was a McGovernite: Remembering Leonard Nimoy's "Live Long and Prosper" Politics 
Nimoy did not mind trading on his "Star Trek" celebrity to appeal for McGovern. He even joked at campaign stops that, "I'm at a disadvantage. I've spent most of my previous life on Vulcan, so I don't know too much about the people in this country." But, of course, he did know a lot about the country and its politics.
By Neal Herrick
Sen. Warner needs to hear from us. Can you write Sen. Warner refuting any of his opinions?
The future of Obamacare again falls on the shoulders of John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy.
This article describes the folly of the Netanyahu speech before the US Congress, and illustrates the desire of Netanyahu to sabotage the nuclear talks with Iran, possibly insuring the next step in a US war with Iran.
Fox News has admitted, in answer to questions from the Washington Post, that host Bill O'Reilly did not witness any bombings in Northern Ireland or murders in El Salvador. The network said he saw only photographs of such atrocities.
By Daniel Penisten
Third American Constitution - Direct Democracy - Installment 4 Article 1 - Section 2 -- Items Three, Four and Five 
The Fourth Installment of a Third American Constitution Project.
One of the most remarkable things about the 2011 Wisconsin uprising was how a protest so massive and so sustained managed to be entirely peaceful. Thousands of people occupied the capital building, around the clock, for two weeks straight, without incident. For months, as many as 100,000 people at a time marched around the statehouse, and exercised their right to free speech and assembly--without arrests or violence. There was a spirit of camaraderie during those heady times. Young children held handmade signs supporting their teachers, and handed out home-baked cookies to protesters. Grandmothers, teachers, nurses, veterans, and students bundled up against the cold Wisconsin winter and raised their voices against anti-union legislation and cuts to education. Supporters from around the world phoned-in orders to Ian's Pizza to feed hungry protesters. So when Wisconsin Governor Scott Walke
Who killed Boris Nemtsov? The answer is: we don't know, at least not at this point, and one can only marvel at the investigative prowess of talking heads who "solved" this crime from a distance of several thousand miles, hours after it occurred. The mythology built up around Nemtsov and his death will certainly eclipse the truth, at least here in the West -- where "narrative" trumps truth in every instance.
By Press Release
Bipartisan Group of Senators Launches Whistleblower Protection Caucus "To raise awareness of the need for adequate protections against retaliation for private sector and government employees who call attention to wrongdoing, a bipartisan group of senators today launched the Whistleblower Protection Caucus. The caucus will foster bipartisan discussion on legislative issues affecting the treatment of whistleblowers
Here's a Jeopardy!-style question for you: "Eight different species of whales can be seen in these two American seas." Unless you're an Iñupiaq, a marine biologist, or an Arctic enthusiast like me, it's a pretty good guess that you can't tell me what those seas are or what those whales are either.
Dominicans publicly beating a Haitian bound to a street pole, cars go by. No one helps. This sort of community barbarity is why Haiti had a revolution to abolish slavery. The savagery against Haitians is led by the United Nations and US-Euro. 10,000 Haitians protest DR mistreatment and lynching. militaries occupying Haiti by force for over 11-years. They embolden these depravities. They embolden these depravities.
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Yes, Israel the tail, continues to try to wag America, the Big Dog. Some things never change. Here we have the leader of a tiny sliver of a country preparing to come swaggering into America and attempt to dictate what the U.S. government must do. The audacity and arrogance of this man is absolutely astounding. Talk about an unwelcome guest!
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The term "Middle East," is void of any geographical, linguistic, or cultural validity. The correct term to use is West Asia. We hope companies, organizations, media, and anybody else to start using West Asia and refuse the term Middle East which is a proper geographic term. In addition, the term "Middle Eastern looking people" is not a correct term to use.
Teacher to Parents: How to Stop the Test Mania; by Diane Ravitch
Ravitch posts this absolutely true and relevant parent comment which everyone should read: "I am a 4th grade teacher in NYS. There is absolutely no consequence for students if they opt out. It does not impact report card grades. It does not impact advancement to next grade. (FYI public schools do not want to retain students -- it costs money!). In our district this would not even impact whether a student got into an accelerated program because that is based on a different test altogether (not a state test)! There is no student consequence. The only way this madness is going to end if parents in droves refuse the tests. They won't listen to teachers. But parents have a voice. Let's get back to teaching and doing great projects in schools. We must end the testing insanity!"
I thank God every day that Facebook and Twitter, instagram, vine, Youtube, all of it, did not exist when I went to High School. I can't imagine the dumb stuff I'd have been caught saying and doing. If you are a dad this is something you well know already, if you are a dad with a daughter this is likely to get your blood going. If you are a boy, or young man, or husband, and you haven't experienced children yet, or haven't had a daughter, it's next to impossible for you to understand.
Police in America are shooting and killing people at an outrageously alarming rate. While the United Kingdom averages less than one fatal police shooting per year, the United States averages three per day, and small towns like Pasco, Washington, with just 59,000 residents, outpace the police shootings of nations with 60 million people, causing publications like The Economist to just flat out call American police "trigger happy."
It is not unreasonable to expect the "Leader of the Free World" to be a pretty smart cookie. After all, as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, with codes to fire nuclear armaments, the ability to make life-and-death decisions, policy making, and just general 24/7 responsibility for the lives of 300 million American citizens, certain things like intelligence should be something we can take for granted. Right? Yet, just like the general population, there is big a disparity of intelligence among the elite group of men who have held the office of President. Some were brilliant, some were very dim bulbs. If we were to judge by the size of their vocabulary alone, it would seem that our Presidents are getting dumber as the centuries roll by. An interesting study by the Guardian newspaper graded presidential speeches by education level using the commonly-used Flesch-Kincaid readability test. Some presidents weren't firing on all cylinders.
The murder of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov gave the US media the opportunity to blame Russian President Putin. Nemtsov opposes Putin but only polls at about 1% support. He was hardly a threat. now, evidence emerges that points to the Ukrainian secret service as the perpetrator. The death, meaningless in Russia, is a huge opportunity to smear Putin in the never ending campaign of malicious fantasy.
Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials' correspondence be retained as part of the agency's record. Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act.
Speaker Boehner's position is to completely ignore reality by blaming President Obama for everything. It was John Boehner who came up with the plan to trying to use Homeland Security funding to force the president to overturn his own executive orders. It was Boehner who caved to the radicals in the House Republican caucus by moving forward with the plan even after he was told by Senate Republicans that it was a bad idea. The best way to understand the depth of John Boehner's troubles is to realize that he played the blame Obama card. Boehner didn't try to confront the president. He didn't announce any plan to win the Homeland Security funding dispute. The Speaker of the House put his tail between his legs and blamed the President Of The United States for the mess that he has gotten himself into.
Israel reportedly bypassed the White House and asked the US Congress for an extra $317 million to be added to President Barack Obama's budget for the next fiscal year in order to fund Israeli missile defense programs, Bloomberg reported. The requested funds would be in addition to the $158 million already proposed by the Pentagon for Israel's security needs for the fiscal year that will begin on October 1. The new allocation will allegedly finance the 'David's Sling' and 'Arrow-3"- programs -- designed to intercept medium- to long-range missiles -- as well as provide an anti-ballistic missile system. The US already provides Israel with $3.1 billion a year as "foreign military financing," which excludes other missile defense funds, according to the report.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the Maryland Democrat who is the longest-serving woman in congressional history, announced Monday that she will leave the Senate next year at the end of her fifth term. Mikulski, 78 and in good health, departs the way she came in -- with a sharp tongue, an unabashed liberalism, and a reputation for straight talk. She won all ten of her elections to the House and then the Senate with support from more than 60 percent of voters. Often dubbed the Senate's meanest member, she was regularly described as "prickly" by friends and foes alike. Yet she became a role model for generations of women in politics -- in both parties.
A few days ago Walmart, America's largest employer, announced that it will raise wages for half a million workers. For many of those workers the gains will be small, but the announcement is nonetheless a very big deal, for two reasons. First, there will be spillovers: Walmart is so big that its action will probably lead to raises for millions of workers employed by other companies. Second, and arguably far more important, is what Walmart's move tells us -- namely, that low wages are a political choice, and we can and should choose differently. The point is that extreme inequality and the falling fortunes of America's workers are a choice, not a destiny imposed by the gods of the market. And we can change that choice if we want to.
The courageous 'Tea Party' leader and former County Sheriff who hid behind the women on the 'front lines of freedom' at the Bundy Ranch last year, is now asking the public to pay for much needed health care for both himself and his wife. The former sheriff and his wife do not have health insurance and started a GoFundMe campaign to solicit donations from family and friends to cover the costs of their medical care. Mack is the guy who, during the wingnut uprising in support of scofflaw Nevada rancher/bigot Cliven Bundy last year, discussed the Tea Partiers' courageous plan to use their wives as human shields.
CURMUDGUCATION: What Duncan Got Wrong About Testing; by Peter Greene
Diane Ravitch says, "Peter Greene read Arne Duncan's speech carefully on the future of NCLB and boils down his vision of the federal role in education to one word: testing!" Despite the universal failure of Duncan's test-based teacher evaluation, despite its debunking by the Anerican Statistical Association, Duncan stubbornly clings to it. Greene has metaphor: ""Testing is Chef Duncan's can opener... ""It's like someone who describes the awesome heights and sensations of a gourmet dinner, teasing you with visions of tastes and textures, savory combinations and a palate immersed in gustatorial ecstasy and then, after all that description and anticipation, at the moment of the Big Reveal, draws back the curtain on--- a can opener." "Duncan makes much noise about the need to supply quality education to the poor, to minorities, to students anywhere in the country who are not getting the full benefit of public education. He hears the cries for education and equity and justice and having heard them, he is sending... standardized tests (well, and charter schools, for some of those students, anyway).
Methane-Explosion Craters Could Be Latest Indicators of a Warming Planet
Numerous newly discovered massive craters across Siberia--believed to have been formed by methane gas exploding through a thawing permafrost--may be the latest visible signs that climate change is here, and it's changing the very contours of the earth's surface. A 100-foot crater was first spotted last summer in Yamal peninsula, a freezing cold land 2,000 miles north of Moscow, and two other funnels were discovered soon after.
After five years in power, the man described as the "world's most humble president" has stepped down from office in Uruguay. In a ceremony yesterday, Jose "Pepe" Mujica, who leaves with approval ratings of nearly 70% handed over his presidential sash to Tabare Vazquez. Here are eight reasons why he'll be missed: 1. He donated 90 per cent of his salary to charity 2. He lives on a farm 5. He legalized marijuana
Tennessee: "Achievement School District" In Search of High-Performing Students; BY DIANE RAVITCH
THIS post is IMPORTANT because it shows the HYPE and the SCAM used to undo public schools. READ as Diane Ravitch explains how it is done. The following post was written by a parent in Tennessee. The state's Achievement School District was created by former Commissioner Krvin Huffman with the intent of taking control of the state's lowest-performing public schools and handing them over to charter operators. The goal, promised ASD leader Chris Barbic was that the lowest 5% would be in the top 25% within five years. The clock is ticking. But this week Barbic is pushing legislation that would allow Barbic to recruit students from high-performing schools INTO schools the state has identified as "failing." Barbic told Tennessee legislators on Wednesday that parents are beating down his door to get into ASD charter schools that are some of the worst performing schools in the state, according to the state's highly touted accountability measures. However, Barbic FAILED TO MENTION hat parents have submitted a petition with 78 pages of signatures to the Memphis school board asking them to remove their school from Barbic's expanding charter school empire. Parents aren't "voting with their feet" to attend charter schools after all.
A private, conservative man who made his nest egg in the banking industry, now finds himself playing the role of David against a modern day Goliath in a battle fraught with Kafkaesque moments. In 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that Range Resource's drilling activities at a nearby fracking project had contaminated Steve Lipsky's well. The water coming out of his well can be ignited. After what looked at first like an open and shut case of industrial negligence turned into a lengthy legal battle, he must either fight or accept financial ruin.
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