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real Cannabis calm

real Cannabis calm's Journal
real Cannabis calm's Journal
August 24, 2019

Bears Ears: A Story of Native American Homelands

“Rising from the center of the southeastern Utah landscape and visible from every direction are twin buttes so distinctive that in each of the native languages of the region their name is the same: Hoon'Naqvut, Shash Jáa, Kwiyagatu Nukavachi, Ansh An Lashokdiwe, or ‘Bears Ears.’”
– Barack Obama

For native peoples of the Colorado Plateau, the Bears Ears region is home. For hundreds of generations, their ancestors lived, raised their children, and buried their elders here. Their artists carved figures and left handprints on the rock walls. Clues about their daily lives—baskets, pottery, tools, and weapons—still remain (to be pillaged under a new Trump fiasco).
https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/bears-ears-story-homelands

Plan allows drilling, grazing near national monument in Utah
ByBRADY MCCOMBS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY — Aug 23, 2019, 6:30 PM ET

A new U.S. government management plan unveiled Friday clears the way for coal mining and oil and gas drilling on land that used to be off limits as part of a sprawling national monument in Utah before President Donald Trump downsized the protected area two years ago.

The plan released by the Bureau of Land Management would also open more lands to cattle grazing and recreation and acknowledges there could be "adverse effects" on land and resources in the monument.

But while allowing more activities, the plan would also add a few safeguards...

Among them are opening fewer acres to ATVs and cancelling a plan that would have allowed people to collect some non-dinosaur fossils (including Native American religious relics) in certain areas.

The monument has seen a 63% increase in visitors over the past decade, hosting 1.1 million people from October 2017 through September 2018, according to U.S. government figures.

Conservation and paleontology groups have filed ongoing lawsuits to stop the downsizing.
https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wireStory/apnewsbreak-us-government-issues-final-utah-monument-plan-65141619




August 23, 2019

Developing news about FBI "Deep State" & "Men In Black"

Former officials deny ex-CEO's claim FBI asked him to pursue Maria Butina
By David Shortell and Caroline Kelly, CNN

Washington (CNN)Two former top FBI officials deny former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne's claim that the FBI directed him in the summer before the 2016 election to pursue a "romantic relationship with Maria Butina," the Russian woman who was accused of seeking to win influence in powerful Republican circles at the behest of her country's government.

The claim was made in a live, 30-minute -- and at times bizarre -- interview on CNN Thursday, the same day that Byrne resigned from his company. He quit days after issuing a press release invoking claims of a "deep state," ​which prompted a steep stock market fall. News of his resignation saw a rebound.

It has not been verified by the agencies, and spokespeople for the Justice Department and FBI declined to comment. Reached Thursday evening by CNN, Comey called Byrne's claim "ridiculous."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/23/politics/patrick-byrne-maria-butina-fbi-relationship-cnntv/index.html?utm_source=CNN+Five+Things&utm_campaign=f3b08a9daf-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_08_23_08_39&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6da287d761-f3b08a9daf-104928233


Overstock CEO Resigns After Unusual Message About 'Deep State'

Byrne drew attention last week after releasing a statement claiming he was part of federal investigations related to the 2016 election. In the press release titled “Overstock.com CEO Comments on Deep State,” Byrne referred to federal investigators as “the Men in Black” in referencing investigations relating to political espionage and the rule of law.
https://time.com/5659045/overstock-ceo-resigns-deep-state/


This story is just beginning...
August 23, 2019

Do you want to compare reports by Robert Mueller (R) and Ken Starr?

Here are some specifics on the Starr Report. Readers at D.U. can compare these facts to the redacted Mueller Report and make pertinent comments.

The Starr Report, officially the Referral from Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr in Conformity with the Requirement of Title 28, United States Code, Section 595(c), is a United States federal government report on the investigation of President Bill Clinton. Delivered uredacted to the United States Congress on September 9, 1998, allegations in the report led to the impeachment of Clinton and the five-year suspension of his law license.

(The Independent Counsel was an independent prosecutor—distinct from the Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice—who provided reports to the United States Congress under 28 U.S.C. § 595.)

The law conferred broad investigative powers on Starr and the other independent counsels named to investigate the administration, including the right to subpoena nearly anyone who might have information relevant to the particular investigation, including US Secret Service Agents. Starr would later receive authority to conduct a wide variety of additional investigations. (aka a "witch-hunt&quot

At the time it was released, the Starr report was criticized for making accusations irrelevant to the investigation. The report claimed "the details are crucial to an informed evaluation of the testimony, the credibility of witnesses, and the reliability of other evidence. Many of the details reveal highly personal information; many are sexually explicit. This is unfortunate, but it is essential." Because Starr's office leaked portions to press about sexual details that were mentioned in his report, he was criticized for using the scandal as a political maneuver.
(aka media circus)
August 22, 2019

As a Tyrant (aka Trump) deifies himself take heed

TRUMP DECLARES HIMSELF “KING OF ISRAEL,” THE “SECOND COMING OF GOD”
The president is sick of “disloyal” American Jews, who apparently don’t know what’s good for them. But “Jewish people in Israel love him,” according to the crazed conspiracy theorist Trump quoted on Twitter.

It’s been an eventful 18 hours in the fevered mind of Donald Trump. Yesterday, the president unleashed an anti-Semitic rant in the Oval Office in which he declared that Jews who vote for Democrats are either uneducated or disloyal. Unfortunately, with about 70% of Americans Jews being registered Democrats, that’s a lot of disloyalty. So Trump looked elsewhere for answers, and lo, he found an unhinged supporter who says Israelis (the real Jews!) love Trump like the “King of Israel” and “the second coming of God.” Then he cited him on Twitter:

It’s probably self-evident that anyone claiming Trump is the Messiah is not right in the head, but just so it’s on the record, Wayne Allyn Root—a self-described “Jew turned evangelical Christian”—is an unhinged conspiracy theorist who believes the 2017 Las Vegas shooting was a “coordinated Muslim terror attack” by ISIS and that George Soros paid actors to stage the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville that included Nazi chants like “Jews will not replace us.”

Trump, incredibly, seems to believe that he’s going to win over Jewish voters by telling them they don’t know what’s good for them (“They don’t even know what they’re doing or saying anymore!”). Or perhaps he’s just given up on American Jews, and is looking to the Likudniks for narcissistic supply. Insulting Americans for being disloyal to Israel, where the second coming is going to take place—led by Trump in the role of Jesus—seems like an odd pitch to anyone who knows literally anything about Judaism, but that’s probably beside the point. Stay tuned for tomorrow, when Trump cites the teachings of Mel Gibson as reason for this particular constituency to get on board.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/08/donald-trump-king-of-israel


Here’s why Trump wants to buy Greenland
PUBLISHED WED, AUG 21 2019 5:44 PM EDTUPDATED THU, AUG 22 2019 7:44 AM EDT

President Donald Trump has floated the idea of buying Greenland multiple times. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has called the notion “absurd.”

Greenland’s strategic value is linked tightly to new North Atlantic shipping lanes opening up due to melting polar ice caps. The new lanes have dramatically decreased maritime trade travel times, which generally includes traveling through the Panama or Suez canals to circumnavigate the world.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/21/heres-why-trump-wants-to-buy-greenland.html
August 16, 2019

BREAKING HONG KONG NEWS: Blessed are the peacemakers.

'French Spiderman' scales Hong Kong skyscraper with 'peace banner'
Agence France-Presse
Posted Aug 16 2019 11:21 AM

HONG KONG, China - Daredevil Alain Robert -- dubbed the 'French Spiderman' -- climbed a Hong Kong skyscraper on Friday and unfurled a "peace banner" as the financial hub is rocked by historic political unrest.

The 57-year-old adventurer, who specializes in unsanctioned ascents of tall buildings, shimmied up the 68-storey Cheung Kong Center in Hong Kong's main business district in hot and humid conditions on Friday morning.

During the climb he attached a banner featuring the Hong Kong and Chinese flags, as well as two hands shaking.



Prior to the ascent Robert put out a statement saying the message of his climb was to make "an urgent appeal for peace and consultation between Hong Kong people and their government".

"Perhaps what I do can lower the temperature and maybe raise a smile. That's my hope anyway," Robert said in his media statement. https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/08/16/19/french-spiderman-scales-hong-kong-skyscraper-with-peace-banner
August 16, 2019

300,000 homes worth $117.5 Billion will be lost within 30 years.

Scientists struggle to find reasons behind gray whale deaths

Some researchers think the whales are starving, but the cause of death may be far more complicated.
Helen Santoro NEWS Aug. 15, 2019

On July 2, around a thousand feet above the Chukchi Sea, Megan Ferguson sat with two scientists in the back of a small propeller plane. Bounded on the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, and on the west by Wrangle Island, north of Russia, the Chukchi serves as the summer feeding ground for hundreds of gray whales. This year, a disconcerting number of them are not completing their journey north. Along the West Coast of Mexico, the United States and Canada, at least 193 dead animals have washed ashore — the most in two decades.

Teams of scientists are investigating what the casualties mean for the gray whale population as a whole. But some also fear that the deaths could be part of a larger trend as animals struggle to adapt to climate change. Said Ferguson: The “gray whales are just one piece” to the environmental puzzle.

Today, many of the whales washing up along the coast in California, Oregon and Washington look malnourished with blubber that lacks a healthy, oily shine. That was true of a dead whale on the rocky coast of Port Hadlock, Washington, whose stomach was filled with eelgrass. The presence of eelgrass, which grows on muddy ocean bottoms where whales typically suck up amphipods — microscopic ocean critters that may be struggling due to changing ocean conditions — suggests that the whales may have been desperately trying to eat but not finding the foods they typically rely on.

The gray whale deaths also reflect a larger issue — the impact of climate change on the ocean. Arctic animals in particular are struggling to adapt to warming waters. For example, Alaskan salmon have been suffering from heart attacks caused by rising water temperatures, with some areas reaching all-time highs. Additionally, amphipods, one of the gray whales’ main food sources, may be at risk from a loss of oxygen in warmer Arctic waters. Since the mid-1900s, ocean oxygen levels have decreased on average by two to five percent. “This is a broader story,” Moore said. “I think something big is going on.” https://www.hcn.org/articles/scientific-research-scientists-struggle-to-find-reasons-behind-gray-whale-deaths


NOAA opens investigation: Gray whale deaths could reach record levels this year.

At least 81 gray whale corpses have washed ashore in California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska since Jan. 1. If tallies from Mexico and Canada are added, the number of stranded gray whales reaches about 160 and counting, said Michael Milstein, spokesman for NOAA Fisheries.
Polluted oceans: Turns out there's more plastic pollution in the deep ocean than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

These American cities will soon be under water
Michael B. Sauter and Thomas C. Frohlich

The steady rise in global surface temperatures is largely attributed to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. With rising temperatures, the world’s ice has been melting and sea levels have been rising. As a result, barring major interventions, sooner or later thousands of coastal communities around the world will become uninhabitable.

With the ice in Greenland and Antarctica melting at record rates, scientists currently estimate sea levels could rise 2-7 feet by the end of the century, with some estimates even higher. Antarctica has about 90% of all ice in the world, enough to raise global sea levels by 200 feet, in theory. This kind of catastrophic sea level rise is just one of many potential disaster scenarios caused by climate change.

We reviewed the coastal communities in which at least 10% of habitable land is expected to experience chronic flooding by 2060. Places are ranked by the number of residents that live in parts of the community expected to be regularly flooded by 2060. In many of these communities, more than one-third of the current population lives in areas expected to be regularly flooded by 2060.

Across U.S. coastal cities, more than 300,000 homes worth a combined $117.5 billion are likely to be at risk of chronic tidal flooding within 30 years, according to UCS analysis and projections. By the end of the century, that total could rise to 2.4 million homes and more than $1 trillion in property damage – and those estimates are based only on existing homes. The regular inundation these cities face in the near future could make the worst floods in American history seem tame by comparison. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/06/18/climate-change-american-cities-that-will-soon-be-under-water/39533119/
August 15, 2019

Newly elected House member of NM request impeachment inquiry.

Haaland asks for House to start impeachment inquiry
By Matthew Reichbach

U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland announced Wednesday that she supports an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.

When announcing her support for the impeachment inquiry, the first-term Democratic congresswoman said, “the President is not above the law” and that “there is growing evidence of impeachable offenses.”

Support for beginning the process of impeaching Trump has grown among Democrats in the House; Haaland is the 122nd House Democrat to support such an inquiry according to the Washington Post’s count. Then-Republican congressman Justin Amash of Michigan announced his support for impeachment earlier this year. He has since left the Republican Party.

So far, Haaland is the only member of the House from New Mexico to support impeachment.
https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2019/08/14/haaland-asks-for-house-to-start-impeachment-inquiry/
August 15, 2019

I'm guilty.

Like media and many members at D.U. I got caught up in the Epstein death, instead of introducing, recommending and discussing real issues.

Meanwhile, right-wing pundits are focusing on hordes of illegal immigrants, invading the USA, instead of the thriving(?) economy, complete with new US jobs, which was to be the cornerstone of reelection of a lying racist.

Epstein eclipsed media coverage of expensive, overcrowded FOR PROFIT detention camps, where not only illegal immigrants, who once held jobs, where they were underpaid but also their US born children - who are US citizens without rights, are detained.

Let's not dare discuss the long-term criminal history of Trump and reasons he should be imprisoned instead of impeached.

While it is obvious that Trump- tweets indicate that is now shopping for Chinese hackers to help him steal the election, let's continue to focus on Russia, who will also assist, but to a lesser degree, because of publicity on previous US election rigging.

For that matter, as long as Barr is in power, Trump can hire his own hackers; but let's not focus on installing electronically bullet-proof election machines, where voters actually mark ballots - in ink - to facilitate reliable recounts.

August 13, 2019

Trump Plans to Destroy Endangered Species Act

U.S. Significantly Weakens Endangered Species Act
By Lisa Friedman
Aug 12, 2019


WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would change the way the Endangered Species Act is applied, significantly weakening the nation’s bedrock conservation law and making it harder to protect wildlife from the multiple threats posed by climate change.



A bald eagle, one of the Endangered Species Act’s success stories, near Castle Dale, Utah.
photograph by Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

The new rules would make it easier to remove a species from the endangered list and weaken protections for threatened species, the classification one step below endangered. And, for the first time, regulators would be allowed to conduct economic assessments — for instance, estimating lost revenue from a prohibition on logging in a critical habitat — when deciding whether a species warrants protection.

Critically, the changes would also make it more difficult for regulators to factor in the effects of climate change on wildlife when making those decisions because those threats tend to be decades away, not immediate.

Critically, the changes would also make it more difficult for regulators to factor in the effects of climate change on wildlife when making those decisions because those threats tend to be decades away, not immediate.

Over all, the revised rules appear very likely to clear the way for new mining, oil and gas drilling, and development in areas where protected species live. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/climate/endangered-species-act-changes.html?te=1&nl=morning-briefing&emc=edit_NN_p_20190813

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