Phil1111

"Pope Francis delivered another criticism of some members of his own Church on Thursday, suggesting it is better to be an atheist than one of "many" Catholics who he said lead a hypocritical double life. In improvised comments in the sermon of his private morning Mass in his residence, he said: "It is a scandal to say one thing and do another. That is a double life." "There are those who say 'I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this and that association'," the head of the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic Church said, according to a Vatican Radio transcript. He said that some of these people should also say "'my life is not Christian, I don't pay my employees proper salaries, I exploit people, I do dirty business, I launder money, (I lead) a double life'." "There are many Catholics who are like this and they cause scandal," he said. "How many times have we all heard people say 'if that person is a Catholic, it is better to be an atheist'." Since his election in 2013, Francis has often told Catholics, both priests and lay people, to practice what their religion preaches. In his often impromptu sermons, he has condemned sexual abuse of children by priests as being tantamount to a "Satanic Mass", said Catholics in the mafia excommunicate themselves, and told his own cardinals to not act as if they were "princes"." http://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-atheists-idUSKBN1621I3 The Lord certainly works in mysterious ways eh Ron?

How about a new tax code. An independent organization will determine if a statement made by a politician is a lie. If so, asses a fine that arises to the political party for the lie. It will depend on the degree and if it was a innocent mistake or a "pants on fire whopper". The proceeds to fund a new Obamacare, and national defense.

Beginning this summer, travelers will be able to fly on the low-cost air carrier’s Irish-based subsidiary, Norwegian Air International, to Ireland and Scotland for an introductory fare of $65 one-way including taxes. The flights will go up to $99 after the sale period is over.... Critics say the company is attempting to skirt more stringent Norwegian labor and tax laws by establishing itself in Ireland, and claim the airline is undermining competition by hiring pilots contracted through Asia, where labor costs are lower. ... But Norwegian, which has agreed not to use any Asian-based cabin crew on its transatlantic flights, will be predominately using U.S.-based crew and American-made planes for the new flight routes.... White House press secretary Sean Spicer expressed support for the air carrier in a recent press conference, saying there’s “huge economic interest” in the deal. “We are doing exactly what the Trump administration has asked: buy American and hire American,” Sande said. http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/320752-norwegian-launches-cheapest-ever-transatlantic-flights-after-long

About 15 years ago a friend comes by with a 928 with just over 180,000 miles. So after some talk we go for a drive. We are going down a road with a limit of 50 mph. Listening to the stereo while he relates to me the problems he is having trying to get cheap parts for the A/C which was inop. After a bit I check the speedometer and I about crap my pants. Its indicating 110 and I thought I might be going 60. Nice cars, quiet, strong engine.

Like the old saying goes. You can pay me now or you can pay me later. Gitmo Inmates Settlement: Why Britain Decided to Pay By Nick Assinder / London Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010 There is always a price to be paid for keeping secret intelligence secret. On Tuesday, the British government paid it by agreeing on a compensation settlement with 16 Guantánamo Bay detainees — all but one who are now free — who claim they were tortured during their time in captivity. And according to speculation by the British media, that price — which is confidential — is anywhere between £5 million ($8 million) and £10 million ($15 million), with at least one of the alleged victims set to be made a millionaire as a result. But that hefty sum also buys the U.K. the guarantee of confidentiality in its controversial dealings with Guantánamo prisoners — and may even have avoided a rift with U.S. Intelligence agencies. Few were surprised by the news of the payment. After the previous Labour government's failed attempts to stop sensitive intelligence from U.K. and U.S. agencies being disclosed in court during cases brought by the detainees, it was likely that the current coalition would go for a settlement instead — Prime Minister David Cameron announced in July that there would be a full inquiry into the allegations, probably to start by the end of the year, once all legal proceedings had ended. In February, an appeals court ordered the release of CIA information held by MI5 and MI6 relating to one detainee, Binyam Mohamed, who claims he was tortured before being flown to Guantánamo Bay. (See pictures of Guantanamo's last days.) Mohamed, a British resident held at the prison from 2004 until last year, was first arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and handed over to the U.S. before being moved to Morocco and then Afghanistan on his way to Guantánamo. He claims he was abused in Pakistan under the supervision of U.S. agents and tortured after being "rendered" to Morocco, where he also alleges Britain's MI5 fed questions to his Moroccan interrogators via the CIA. Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke told parliament on Tuesday: "The alternative to any payments made would have been protracted and extremely expensive litigation in an uncertain legal environment in which the government could not be certain that it would be able to defend security and intelligence agencies without compromising national security." He added that no admission of culpability had been made. Whitehall sources have estimated the cost to the government of continuing to fight the court cases — which were launched in 2008 — could have amounted to some £30 million ($50 million). In the short term, the alleged potential damage to the security services' operational secrecy and reputation posed by the release of thousands of secret documents has been averted. Labour's former Foreign Secretary David Miliband stressed at the time of the original court appeal in February that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had warned that security cooperation between the two countries would be harmed if the information provided to Britain in secret were made public by the court. In the longer term, ministers now plan to introduce a law ensuring such information will in future only be seen in secret hearings and not shown to interested parties and their lawyers. And the settlement has cleared one of the last obstacles to a full judicial inquiry into the torture allegations and Britain's role in the extraordinary rendition of suspects — with some alleging that the U.K. sometimes acted as a refueling stopover for U.S. security services moving suspects to other countries for torture. But Britain's move has also strengthened demands for the U.S. to allow judicial scrutiny of torture allegations against its own intelligence services. So far, the U.S. courts have rejected all attempts on the grounds that government agencies and officials have immunity from such civil lawsuits, as well as on national security grounds. "The Obama Administration continues to shield Bush-era torturers from accountability in civil proceedings by blocking judicial review of their illegal behavior," said Steven Watt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, in a statement on Tuesday. "To date, not a single victim of the Bush Administration's torture program has had his day in a U.S. court. The U.S. can no longer stand silently by as other nations reckon with their own agents' complicity in the torture program." In the U.K. there was some consternation over the payouts, with Labour MP Ian Austin complaining in parliament that the detainees are getting "more money than victims of terrorism here in London." Compensation for victims of the July 7, 2005 bombings — which so far has reached £11 million ($18 million) — is capped at a maximum of £500,000 ($800,000) per person. But others, including many in the opposition Labour party, seemed resigned to the fact that the decision had followed a hard-headed and realistic assessment of the relative damage that would be caused by the two available courses of action: fight through open court or execute a tactical retreat. "No one likes this outcome but it was probably the lesser of two evils and the government did what it had to," says one senior Labour backbencher, who asked not to be named. Having paid a heavy price, ministers will now be hoping that the majority will agree and a line can finally be drawn over this most damaging of affairs. " http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2032004,00.html

I'm 62, and on my 3rd car. Two new, and one nearly new. I've spent well under 2% of my income buying cars. I'm about to try to get my FAA medical back (post heart surgery) and get back to flying. If I do that, I'll likely keep my 2001 Passat for another few years. If I can't get the medical, I may buy a car that costs more than the rest I've ever owned, even adjusted for inflation. I could buy both the plane and the nice car (I have basically lived on half what I earned my entire career), but my inherent frugality won't let me. I get the bug for a flashy car once in a while, but I'd rather work less, spend more on wine, or do a hundred other things than have a more expensive car. It is also nice not to carry collision insurance, and know that I could re-buy the same car I am driving about 1000 times, if need be, without severely cramping my style. Remarkable when you consider the cost of those that have lease after lease. Below are the costs of your style of ownership over long terms. https://assetbuilder.com/knowledge-center/articles/leasing-cars-instead-of-buying-used-could-be-a-$1-million-decision

That is a naive view of politics and what government is all about.

Inflation since Putin(2008) http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/inflation-cpi Ruble/US dollar since Putin http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=RUB&to=USD&view=10Y GDP since Putin http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/gdp-growth-annual Life Expectancy since Putin Life expectancy at birth Russia Uranium production since Putin https://gailtheactuary.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/uranium-production-by-country.png Debt Since Putin [/url]https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Russias-debt-to-GDP-ratio-so-low Above doesn't show how Russian state debt is being shifted to regional governments. Although it shows how Putin robs corporations to pay for his cronies offshore accounts. This shows the transfer of debt to the regions. [url]http://www.marketwatch.com/story/russia-is-a-mess-the-poverty-rate-is-soaring-and-only-10-of-85-regions-are-financially-stable-2017-01-31 Above doesn't show how Russian state debt is being shifted to regional governments. Although it shows how Putin robs corporations to pay for his cronies offshore accounts. This shows the transfer of debt to the regions. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/russia-is-a-mess-the-poverty-rate-is-soaring-and-only-10-of-85-regions-are-financially-stable-2017-01-31 This shows how Russian citizens are saving less and less just to get by. http://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Russia/Savings/ This shows how Russian manufacturing is tanking because of Putin's leadership. http://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Russia/Share_of_manufacturing/ While the US cut defense spending in the 2011-14 time span Putin increased it by over 30% http://dailysignal.com/2016/04/11/russia-and-china-increase-defense-spending-while-us-continues-cutting/ So Roy is RIGHT, Russian under Putin is strong. But under trump....trump... all will be good. Just start a trade war.

In the end Crimea will be returned to the Ukraine and will get a free bridge out of the whole affair. Unfortunately because of Putin's insistence of speed above all. Because of the corruption of his cronies building it. It will not be built to what is sometimes "Russian T-34 standards". http://www.newsweek.com/putin-bridge-crimea-doomed-collapse-541578

trump is the first president to bring habitual lying to mainstream politics.

Yikes Hi Roy #4 Russia has always had the view that only a strongman can keep a republic together with so many different cultural groups. Thats a partial reason why Putin maintains such support, over 80% depending on the poll. There is a view that may not be wrong that for countries without a real democracy. That a dictator is better than anarchy. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/why-keeping-a-dictator-is-often-better-than-instability-a-996101.html There is certain merit in that view. There is the issue with Obama drawing a line in the sand in Syria. Then walking back from it. There was the opportunity to work a deal with Turkey about two years after the start of the Syrian civil war. When a US-Turkey alliance to create a safe zone, a no fly zone. Next to the Turkish border could have prevented the entire Syrian refugee disaster. But Obama made a mistake. He wanted to avoid US further involvement in the area all together. The right looks at that as a sign of weakness. But trump wants nothing to do with the whole affair. He makes all kinds of statement about IS and how to deal with them. About Iran. None with either nuance or intelligent thought behind those views. Further reading on Russian propaganda, Putin, alt -right. https://zlj13051967.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/vladimir-putin-the-greatest-leader-of-our-time/ "Balkan Chronicle is independent, quality Internet-only publication that reports and examines political, economic, cultural issues related to the wider region of the Balkans. We look at these issues from a Balkan Muslim perspective." from facebook The facebook statement is B.S. of course. The entire article is a pandering Putin publication. The FSB vettes all Imans for any teaching of the "correct version of the Koran". Within the Russian sphere of influence.

You assume innocence. I make no such assumption. You do realize that presumption of innocence until guilt is proven is one of the basic rights in the BOR, right? You do realize that the detainees were put in Gitmo (on Cuban soil) to deliberately evade the idea that the rights laid out in the BOR would apply to them, as would happen if they were on US soil, right? IMO not EVERYONE in Gitmo or who has been released from there is innocent. BUT this is a classic example of how the setting aside of basic human rights. Combined with politicians avoiding responsibilities, avoiding actions that might "cost them their political careers". Could create a monster, a criminal, where none existed before. The US Supreme court was absent in its duty to rule on this matter. When the entire process of US law, the constitution, basic human rights, were tossed out the door. Buy using the whole "not on US soil" Gitmo process. All for political expediency. Bush, Obama, the US military high command for looking the other way, the US Supreme court for looking the other way. All have responsibility. Ronald Fiddler aka, Jamal Udeen al-Harith aka, Abu-Zakariya al-Britani received compensation for what he went through. He could have stayed in the UK and lived comfortably. There is a picture of him in the link below, presumably in his suicide car. Its easy to brand him as getting what he deserved in the end. But that absolves all those who shepherded him through the pens of the slaughterhouse to his death. Those who prodded him with the cattle prods on his journey by avoiding responsibility, avoiding actions that protects human rights. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-britain-militant-idUSKBN1611A8 Lots of blame all around. IMO IS, Boko-Haram and Al-Qaeda members past present and future should be tried, fairly, timely and if found to be a member. They should never be freed. "Islamic State militant Amar Hussein says he reads the Koran all day in his tiny jail cell to become a better person. He also says he raped more than 200 women from Iraqi minorities, and shows few regrets. Kurdish intelligence authorities gave Reuters rare access to Hussein and another Islamic State militant who were both captured during an assault on the city of Kirkuk in October that killed 99 civilians and members of the security forces. Sixty-three Islamic State militants died." http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-mosul-prisoners-idUSKBN15W1N0 Oh and without derailing this thread too much. But along the same lines of "Bush, Obama, the US SENATE & House for looking the other way, the US Supreme court for looking the other way. All have responsibility. " aforementioned. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/mexican-man-kills-deported-time-article-1.2979233 SAD all around.

Cute. Your team is getting more adorable all the time. Meeting for a jump sounds fun. Back to the tread. "whiney little fuckwit " and alternatively "You come across as more intelligent than that. ". Bullying and bluster combined with false praise... sounds like trump! Then you combine it with three different posters on the same account, this is challenging. Certainly there is the technical ability of Russian FSB to have intelligent social media bots to spread misinformation. Four years ago I had to repeat a number three or four times and b.s. about for twenty minutes in order to claim rewards an a credit card. Now you can't tell if you are talking to a person or a computer when you phone a business.So certainly written language would be a easy possibility.For a Roy-bot so to speak. But what is really puzzling for me is the whole Soros idea. How it relates to the alt-right, Putin, Russia and of course the main actor, trump. Its clear why Putin has it in for Soros. President Putin likes the general idea of appealing to Russian speaking minorities in the republics that surround Russian. Not necessarily to recreate a reincarnate Soviet empire, or even a Putin-Russian empire. Although that could be a long term goal. But to play to his base and generate some more fertile ground for cronie self enrichment. Posters here have commented "IMO, Satan's power is manifest in G. Soros. ", and Roy himself has stated "Soros is a fucking psychopath... And he has many people in a trance, including many of you here. His philanthropy is a cover for his scam. He destroys countries for fun and money" Subsequent to the FSB killing Boris Abramovich Berezovsky in England on Putin's orders. Soros has become the public enemy of Putin and Russia. But the point that's troubling is why has this become the enemy of the alt-right in the US? Has the FSB been so successful that its enemies are adopted by the alt-right. That being Breitbart and all the other conspiracy sites. Or is Soros a enemy to unite Fascists, the alt-right and all those that oppose Putin? I suggest this because there are elections forthcoming in France. A female version of trump is in the lead there. "Marine Le Pen is France's most controversial politician. Over the past five years, she has taken far-right party Front National (FN) — which was founded by her father — from a marginalised voice to one of the most important forces in French politics. Le Pen officially launched her election campaign on February 5 and the latest polls show she is set to win the first round of the presidential election in April.... A notable outburst came in 2010, when she linked public Muslim prayers in the streets with World War II and said it was "an occupation of sections of the territory." French NGOs lodged complaints against her following the comments but she was acquitted of "inciting hatred," because her statement did not "target all of the Muslim community" and was protected by freedom of expression. During that incident and throughout her interviews in general, Marine Le Pen and her entourage — much like US President Donald Trump — constantly blame the media for misrepresenting her party, herself and her family. She also accuses the government of trying to discredit her... Le Pen's slogan for her 2017 presidential campaign translates to "in the name of the people," and she presents herself as exactly that, the saviour of the French public, French culture, French language. She launched her campaign and presented 144 promises she would turn into reality if elected president. The most important ones include taking France out of the eurozone and a return to the French franc. She also promises a referendum on France's membership of the European Union. Other main measures include banishing from France any immigrant convicted of a crime, boosting the police force and creating 40,000 additional prison places. She also wants all religious signs to be banished from the public space. Although the Front National has had trouble raising money for the campaign (Le Pen had to borrow money from her estranged father) and she has also been ordered to pay back over £250,000 to the EU parliament over fake EU parliamentary assistant jobs — none of this seems to have an influence on the determination of her supporters... In the past our adversaries have always been able to say that there is 'no alternative' but now we have had Brexit, and then Trump. "A whole psychological framework is breaking down. I think 2017 is going to be the year of the grand return of the nation-state, the control of borders and currencies." After years of cleaning up her party's name and trying desperately to distance it from her father's racist and antisemitic outbursts, it seems that Le Pen believes she has now found the perfect sweet spot between being mainstream enough to get votes, but also being seen as enough of an outsider to bring about change." http://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-marine-le-pen-2017-1/#-11 In Germany Angela Merkel's party has seen a similar trump right party. "Five days after Donald Trump became the next president of the United States, the South Munich chapter of Germany’s far-right party, Alternative for Deutschland, held its first meeting since the U.S. election. In a traditional Bavarian tavern on a quiet residential street, 50-some party members and supporters drank beer and celebrated the victory that they felt was, in many ways, their own. The theme of the meeting was supposed to be the local elections in May, when the AfD is expected to pick up seats in several of Germany’s state parliaments. (The party currently holds seats in 10 of Germany’s 16 state parliaments, up from five one year ago.) But instead of local elections, talk that night centered almost exclusively on Donald Trump... The AfD’s platform is a collection of right-wing themes: EU reform, closed borders and a return to the Germany of yesteryear, before what many of its members and supporters refer to as the “Islamization” of Europe. The party seeks to ban large minarets and the call to prayer, and require Muslim preachers to undergo government vetting. “Islam does not belong in Germany,” the platform states... “What they are managing right now is to make a very radical brand of right wing politics not exactly fashionable, but acceptable in Germany, and that’s new,” says Kai Arzheimer, a professor of politics at the University of Mainz. “They should be taken very seriously, insofar as I think they will do pretty well in the upcoming election. Sixteen percent on the national level is a very strong showing by German standards.”... In fact, much of the so-called Islamization of German society that is feared by AfD supporters is largely overstated, says Kai Arzheimer, the professor of politics at the University of Mainz. Muslims account for about 5 percent of the German population, he noted, adding that many of them are not religiously observant. But for many German voters, statistics matter less than what they see in their cities and streets; and they, like many Trump supporters, blame immigrants for many of the changes they don’t like.' http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/germanys-far-right-rises-again-214543 The common theme is democracy is dead. Tolerance is dead. Muslims should be sent home, banned, or at a minimum forced to convert to Christianity. For trump, bannon, Putin, Marine Le Pen and German AfD supporters. Peace, tolerance, democracy and all the other causes that Mr. Soros donates to. Certainly would make him the "Devil incarnate" as posters here and bannon, would like to believe.

I never joke. "A collaborative of Russian and Italian scientists has created a neural network based on polymeric memristors, devices that can potentially be used to build fundamentally new computers. According to the researchers, these developments have applications in systems for machine vision, hearing, and other sensory organs, and also intelligent control systems for various devices, including autonomous robots. The authors of the new study focused on a promising area in the field of memristive neural networks—polymer-based memristors—and discovered that creating even the simplest perceptron is not that easy. In fact, it is so difficult that up until the publication of their paper in the journal Organic Electronics, there were no reports of any successful experiments (using organic materials). The experiments reported demonstrate that it is possible to create very simple polyaniline-based neural networks. Furthermore, these networks are able to learn and perform specified logical operations. https://phys.org/news/2016-01-scientists-neural-network-plastic-memristors.html#jCp "April 11, 2014 Russia is said to be developing a home-grown supercomputer for military-industrial applications, according to a report in Prensa Latina. Ruselectronics CEO Andrei Zverev revealed that the state-sponsored electronics holdings company is coordinating with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to create a 1.2 petaflop computer to serve the needs of the Russian defense industry. “All of its processors and components will be designed in Russia,” the CEO said." Zverev emphasized that the chips and associated componentry will likely be manufactured in southeastern Asian nations, but clarified that the intellectual property will be Russian-owned." https://www.hpcwire.com/2014/04/11/russian-bred-supercomputer-works/ This section is from a Russian Site offering AI programming for experimenters, It goes down to the next link " Review The interest in artificial neural nets considerably increased in recent years. Internet contains a lot of materials about neural nets. They are various FAQs, books' ads, articles, etc. For example, FAQ of comp.ai.neural-nets newsgroup resides on ftp://ftp.sas.com/pub/neural/FAQ.html Unfortunately most information sources on neural nets lacks know-how on programming neural nets (NN) models. The PC Noon's materials consists of a few articles (in russian) on the basic theory of artificial neural nets and their implementation. Some articles (2, 3, and 4) contains C++ source codes for several NN models realized in class libraries. The programs have been compiled by Borland C++ 3.1. Windows-based application for NN modelling, named Synax, has been written on the basis of these libraries. This is alfa-version. The last two articles on the fast neural networks with kernel organization are kindly granted for PC Noon by Alexander Dorogov (dorv@lens.spb.ru). He also offers the ActiveX-element for neural nets modelling. Some NN-related links and software packages are exposed here as well. Articles All articles made up as MS Word 6.0 documents archived by ZIP. Listings are presented in appendixes. Neural Nets: the basics The basics of the neural nets theory described. Neural Nets: backpropagation algorithm Algorithm of supervised learning considered, C++ class library for backpropagation implementation described. Neural Nets: unsupervised learning Kohonen's neural nets described. C++ class library presented. Hopfield and Hamming Neural Nets Learning algorithms by Hopfield and Hamming considered. C++ class library for Hamming net presented. The structured models and topological design of the fast neural networks with kernel organization The structured and topological models of the multilayered fast neural networks are considered in this A.Dorogov's article. The algorithm for designing of the fast neural networks topology suggested. Neuro Office - the toolset for intellectual software designing A brief description for each program from Neuro Office software package is given. " http://www.orc.ru/~stasson/neuroe.html "Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of artificial intelligence startup DeepMind, later acquired by Google, said on Monday that has seen no evidence that advances in A.I. technologies are impacting the workforce. Nevertheless, it's something that people “should definitely pay attention to” as the technologies continue to mature. Suleyman predicated that humanity is still “many decades away from encountering that sort of labor replacement at scale.” Instead, the technology is best used to help humans with work-related tasks rather than replace them outright... DeepMind was created to help solve problems that involve too much data for humans to coherently grasp, he explained. Part of how it helps is through an artificial intelligence technique called deep learning. Deep learning is a branch of artificial intelligence technologies that involves feeding advanced software systems called neural networks enormous quantities of data. The software can then learn on its own to recognize patterns in the information. The advent of cloud computing, which lets organizations quickly gain access to computing power and storage on demand, has made it easier for researchers to advance deep learning and use it to teach computers how to understand text and speech and images in pictures. http://fortune.com/2016/10/10/google-artificial-intelligence-deepmind-jobs/ Yeah I was joking but three different users on a single pc/account is a little novel. I was having fun at your and your son's?? expense. Part of that is your deep support for President Putin. Clearly I'm not a fan of him. But I like Russian people generally.

I didn't want to start a new thread and after looking back 20-30 I thought that this would be as good as any.

A quick google of the law in question shows that there needs to be some form of recklessness, negligence, or threatening behaviour involved for the law to apply. I doubt any prosecutor or jury in Texas would think that a simple hunting accident qualifies without some serious aggravating factors. Lets face it, how ever stupid Cheney was for accidentally shooting that guy I'm going to bet there was a heck of a lot more going on when these morons shot each other. You would have to be a hunter to understand the nuances of the Cheney incident. But a shotgun was involved when a drive for small birds was going on. He was shooting at a bird, there was bush in the way, the victim was partially obscured. In his defense the victim was a lawyer. http://www.fieldandstream.com/node/1006033195 The funny part to that is that to this Day Dick Cheney has never apologized. He and trump must be friends as trump never apologizes either.

Perhaps trump was right. Even a quarter will land on its edge once every 10,000 tries. Of course this may not be enough to change the crime statistics in Sweden substantially. But here is some feed for the alt-right-white-bannon-trump,Royreader,Putin, et-al crowd. "STOCKHOLM — Residents in a northwestern suburb of Stockholm predominantly inhabited by immigrants clashed with police officers on Monday, two days after the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, unleashed a vague but pointed critique of Sweden’s migration policies. About 20 to 30 masked men threw stones and other objects at police officers in the suburb, Rinkeby, after the police arrested a man on suspicion of dealing drugs. A police officer fired a warning shot, but the disturbances continued for several more hours, stretching into early Tuesday morning. A photojournalist was injured in the disturbances. The episode drew scrutiny worldwide because of President Trump’s assertions — based on a Fox News segment — that Sweden had experienced a surge in crime and violence as a result of taking in large numbers of refugees. Swedish officials have criticized his statements as exaggerations. Preliminary statistics do not show a major increase in crime from 2015, when the country processed a record 163,000 asylum applications, to 2016. Riots like the one in Rinkeby, officials said, are not unprecedented but are infrequent. Nonetheless, the disturbances in Rinkeby were seized upon by some people online as evidence of Mr. Trump’s claim. Rinkeby, an area of around 16,000 people, is overwhelmingly populated by residents with immigrant backgrounds — in particular, Somali and Arab among them — and has been the site of previous clashes between residents and the police. Right-wing media in the United States and elsewhere have insisted that Sweden is covering up evidence of migrant-related crimes — a claim officials in this prosperous Scandinavian nation, which has a long humanitarian tradition, have rejected. Lars Bystrom, a police spokesman, said police were summoned at 8:18 p.m. on Monday to the transit station in Rinkeby, about 7.2 miles northwest of Stockholm’s City Hall, after officers made a drug-related arrest and then were set upon by local residents. A police officer fired a live round of ammunition as a warning shot. “No one was hit, but it had the intended effect of clearing the scene so that police could make an arrest,” Officer Bystrom said. The disturbances did not end; the rioting intensified, with up to 70 people throwing stones and objects, before police finally got the situation under control around 12:15 a.m., he said. Asked whether there was enough of a police presence in Rinkeby, Officer Bystrom cited the district police chief, Niklas Andersson, in describing police resources in the area as more plentiful than ever. But Officer Bystrom also said that officials would continue to bolster security. Morning Briefing: Europe What you need to know to start your day, delivered to your inbox. Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Patrik Derk, the district director for Rinkeby-Kista, the northernmost of the boroughs that make up the municipality of Stockholm, said it would be a mistake to see proof of Mr. Trump’s claims in the rioting. “This type of problem exists in most countries, even in the U.S.A.,” he said in a phone interview. “And we are managing these problems and will succeed with this. They’re complex problems.” Mr. Derk was hired in late 2015 to “make Rinkeby a better place to grow up and live in,” as he put it. He previously helped turn around the Hovsjo district of Sodertalje, a city southwest of Stockholm that, like Rinkeby, has a large population of low-income immigrants. “We created jobs through building development initiatives and training unemployed youth,” he said, adding that the efforts involved collaboration with the police and economic investments. “And that’s what we are trying to do here. Create a condition for the residents to live a good life in the area. I know it’s possible to change these things but it’s a long-term effort and these are difficult questions. We created a lot of jobs for youth. We built a new school. We worked with the criminals, and helped them to get away from that path.” Mr. Derk acknowledged that Rinkeby had big problems: “It is one of the more troubled areas in terms of school results, tight quarters, unemployment.” Benjamin Dousa, 24, an appointed member of a local board in Rinkeby that distributes public money for schools, social services, parks and recreation and elder care, offered a less sanguine view than Mr. Derk. Mr. Dousa, in an opinion essay for the newspaper Expressen, said that Mr. Trump’s critique had some merit. “A battered journalist, stones thrown at the police and stores that are being plundered, unfortunately, are not unusual occurrences where I live,” he said. “I hear the police helicopter every other day.” He said that in the neighborhood: “This type of criminality has become part of everyday life: On average, we have one outbreak of violence a month, a car fire every day and the most shootings with deadly outcomes in the country. Would this really be accepted where the prime minister lives?” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/world/europe/stockholm-sweden-riots-trump.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Nice thought, but go ahead and burn them if you want. The wood chips would decompose anyway and release their stored carbon. The real danger comes from releasing the long term stored carbon in coal, gas, and other non renewables. Trees are considered a renewable resource. Thats true. But there are a bunch of other variables. Slightly saline clay soil, low organic content already, alkaline, etc. Drawback is need to add nitrogen in order to keep soil in reasonable balance. I think its about 200lb /ac Plus the hassle and expense of shredding. Diesel and a match is certainly the tried and true method.

^^^^^^^^ An EO forcing the employer to be responsible for all expenses of deportation for any "Illegal" ....er undocumented worker in their employ. Would solve the problem of ICE, deportations, etc. tomorrow. But that would be met by howls from the US Chamber of Commerce, California farmers, etc. Best politically to play games and pander.

Thats kind of where the rubber meets the road with regards to all this. Who is going to pay when every Indian, Pakistani, Vietnamese,Indonesian and heaven forbid African, gets a car. Poor countries and industrial development can send pollution levels off the charts. In the end a long journey starts with one step. What should we do then? I read somewhere a while back that even if every fossil fueled vehicle in the US was taken off the roads it wouldn't have much of an effect. I personally just try to do my part without sweating the details. I was going to burn about a 1/2 acre bluff of trees but am going to chip the trees instead.

It was telling that the FBI gave closed door briefings to the Senate late last week. Then a day later the Senate instructs the WH to preserve all e-mails and information with regards to Russian contacts. There is the nuance where the FBI decided not to pursue charges against Flynn. http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/17/politics/comey-russia-senate/ Without sidetracking this tread too much: "A CIA analyst who had worked at the intelligence agency since 2006 has quit, citing an inability to serve President Donald Trump's administration "in good faith." "Despite working proudly for Republican and Democratic presidents, I reluctantly concluded that I cannot in good faith serve this administration as an intelligence professional," wrote Edward Price, a former spokesman for the National Security Council, in an op-ed published in The Washington Post on Monday. Price described his journey from being a dedicated CIA operative to the moment where he submitted his formal resignation as being driven by his growing unease with Trump's lack of respect and trust for U.S. intelligence agencies." http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/21/cia-analyst-quits-saying-he-cannot-serve-trump-administration-in-good-faith.html

That's an interesting ramble. Name calling, excuses, outright lies, outlandish predictions. Please, sign off for a while until the intelligent Royreader8812 comes back on shift. In the meantime, contemplate why Russia is descending into third world status. My feeling is that it is because it is being raped by Putin and his oligarch friends. But the Russian people are used to centuries of being mostly oppressed peasants. You are a strong people and you will survive on potatoes and vodka again as you have in the past. That is absolutely too funny as I was checking the posting times of the previous Roy post and it was almost an hour earlier. I was reading the post trying to figure if its #2 or #3. Roy #1 the more educated one: Feb 21, 2017, 8:47 AM Post #15 of 21 (68 views) New Roy #2 Feb 21, 2017, 8:57 AM Post #17 of 21 (52 views) I wonder if Roy is a Russian DeepMind Cloud of some sort?

Thats kind of where the rubber meets the road with regards to all this. Who is going to pay when every Indian, Pakistani, Vietnamese,Indonesian and heaven forbid African, gets a car. Poor countries and industrial development can send pollution levels off the charts. In the end a long journey starts with one step.

YET another lame attempt to excuse the ignorance of this so-called president who gets his "intelligence" from Fox and Tucker Carlson Nothing of note happened that night in Sweden. The Carlson interview was rubbish: www.factcheck.org/2017/02/trump-exaggerates-swedish-crime/ 3:24 PM (local time): A man set himself on fire at Sergels torg, a plaza in central Stockholm. He was taken to the hospital with severe burns. There is so far no information on his motives but the intelligence service is not part of the investigation. 6:42 PM: The famous singer Owe Thörnqvist had some technical problems during rehearsal for the singing competition ”Melodifestivalen”. (However, the 87 year old singer still managed to secure the victory the very next day.) 8:23 PM: A man died in hospital, after an accident in the workplace earlier that day in the city of Borås. 8:46 PM: Due to harsh weather in the northern parts of Sweden the road E10 was closed between Katterjåkk and Riksgränsen. Due to strong winds and snow in the region the Met office also issued an avalanche warning. 12:17 AM: Police officers initiated a chase for a fleeing Peugeot through central parts of the Swedish capital of Stockholm. The pursuit ended in police officers ramming the suspect at Engelbrektsgatan. The driver is now accused of driving under the influence, traffic violation and car theft. http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/Vn17J/in-english-this-happened-in-sweden-friday-night-mr-president%20 "IN LIGHTER NEWS: 11:23 AM: Ok, let’s not be fake news, this story took place in the autumn, but was reported Friday before lunch and we thought you would like it. A wooden moose got the attention of a lovesick moose bull. It all happened in 79 year old Ove Lindqvist’s garden in Byske outside Skellefteå, northern Sweden. ”I thought it was going to start a fight, instead it humped the wooden moose thrice”, he said." Oh the tremendous woes of Sweden caused by all those who have darker skin and on occasion go to a mosque. All thats newsworthy on a Swedish weekend. In one respect trump could twit, yes he is a twit, about increased Swedish defense spending. But thats in fact a direct response to Putin. http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/2015/04/17/sweden-raises-defense-budget-amid-russia-concerns/25951203/

On the issue of climate change I have come to the personal conclusion that Brent and I will just have to agree to disagree.The right doesn't want to recognize this for two main reasons. First there are vested interests in big oil. Viewing solar-conservation, etc. as liberal elitist nonsense. Secondly is the issue of compensation to other countries for the effects of global warming. "Some developing countries fall under the category of vulnerable to climate change. These countries involve small, sometimes isolated, island nations, low lying nations, nations who rely on drinking water from shrinking glaciers etc. These vulnerable countries see themselves as the victims of climate change and some have organized themselves under groups like the Climate Vulnerable Forum.( http://www.thecvf.org/These countries seek mitigation monies from the developed and the industrializing countries to help them adapt to the impending catastrophes that they see climate change will bring upon them.[13] For these countries climate change is seen as an existential threat and the politics of these countries is to seek reparation and adaptation monies from the developed world and some see it as their right." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_global_warming "The US and other wealthy countries are inching towards a deal with poorer nations on one of the most divisive issues in UN climate change talks: dealing with the damaging impacts of global warming. The question of how to help people displaced by the extreme weather that scientists say is likely to intensify as global temperatures rise has become a festering sticking point in UN climate negotiations over the past five years. Some poorer nations insist rich countries, whose carbon pollution initially caused the climate change problem, should compensate them for weather-related losses that have risen to well over $100bn a year, according to the World Bank.... With only three months left before nearly 200 countries are due to strike a new legally binding UN climate accord in Paris, developing countries at preparatory talks in Bonn this week abandoned calls for direct compensation. Instead, they want a “climate change displacement co-ordination facility” to be established under the Paris agreement. It would help relocate people and provide more reliable aid for countries most at risk from fierce storms and more gradual dangers such as rising sea levels. “We need a permanent process to deal with the long-term damage caused by these events because it is going to be a growing problem,” he told the Financial Times. Rich countries’ emergency relief was of no use to countries with economies flattened by weather disasters, added Lloyd Pascal, head of the delegation from the Caribbean island of Dominica, which was badly hit by torrential rains from Tropical Storm Erika last month. We need a permanent process to deal with the long-term damage caused by these events because it is going to be a growing problem. “They allow climate change to destroy you and then they provide you with tents and blankets,” he told the FT. But the idea of setting up a new body to handle displaced victims of climate change is being resisted by the US and the EU, which is struggling to deal with the worst refugee crisis since the end of the second world war. “Climate change poses an existential risk to many low-lying countries,” she said, adding the industries most responsible for climate loss and damage should pay for it." In the end the EU came on board, China was on the fence and the US was the sole objector to having to pay compensation. The idea that a quasi UN body would require the US to pay compensation to low lying countries for being wiped off the map by rising sea levels was a non starter. The fundamental right to have unlimited gas without a "carbon tax" is written in the US constitution. Then there is the current anti-science policy of the trump administration: "Yesterday, the official Twitter account of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology retweeted an interesting article to its 179,000 followers: “Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists.” The only problem is that global temperatures aren’t exactly plunging, according to an analysis of the underlying data by The Washington Post. The story, in Breitbart News, cribbed from an earlier Daily Mail story that reported Earth’s land temperatures had fallen at a record pace in 2016, and that human-caused climate change did not contribute to record-high temperatures from 2014–16. But both stories are based on incomplete data and flawed arguments, the Post reports. The relevant temperature records date back only to 1979, and they apply only to landmasses, not the world’s oceans. Add those in, and global temperatures did not drop. What’s more, the drop in land temperatures was expected, as the warm phase of the most recent El Niño weather event shifts to its colder twin, La Niña." http://www.sciencemag.org/news/sifter/just-where-did-breitbart-get-its-climate-data The above is bannon, not trump. Hopefully clears that up for you. https://www.ft.com/content/54528a78-52e0-11e5-b029-b9d50a74fd14