Protect the Grid Now

Americans have discovered that Silicon Valley and much of the San Francisco Bay area literally dodged a bullet – or more precisely 110 of them – last April. The grace of God and quick thinking by control room operators narrowly averted disaster when a highly professional and disciplined attack on an electric substation outside San Jose might have inflicted a protracted blackout on millions of us and our economy.

Why Did The Met Office Forecast A Dry Winter?

For the December-January-February period as a whole there is a slight signal for below-average precipitation. –-Met Office forecast, 23 November 2014

Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations and the American Set of Principles

The effort by US Secretary of State Kerry to formulate a set of principles to enable Israel and the Palestinians to continue negotiations on a final status agreement even after the nine month period allotted to the negotiations ends in April 2014 presents both sides with a serious dilemma. On the one hand, each of them will be forced to bite the bullet, which will create political difficulties for them with their own political base of support and the public. On the other hand, whoever is perceived as responsible for the failure of the move could pay a heavy price with the international community. In the end, the two parties could find themselves forced to accept the set of principles - albeit with many reservations - because they cannot place the blame only on the other side.

The US should cut a deal with Israel and end the conflict

In 2002 as the US was preparing to invade Iraq, she began negotiations for the creation of a Palestinian state and the roadmap to get there.

In Republican Politics, O’Reilly’s Not A Factor

Bill O’Reilly spent some time attacking talk radio last week, for being the catalyst for John Boehner to whiff on amnesty.

Stuck in Congressional "Groundhog Day"

In the movie “Groundhog Day,” Bill Murray wakes up again and again to find that he is stuck in the same day. This happens multiple times a year now with Congress on the debt limit, which we just hit again on Saturday.

Iran Answers Appeasement with Warships

Despite the alleged "good faith" negotiations taking place between Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Secretary of State John Kerry, the world's foremost state sponsor of terror is now testing the United States' mettle. Iranian warships initially sent on their first trip to the Atlantic Ocean in January will now travel close to U.S. maritime borders. The move was revealed Saturday by a senior Iranian naval commander.

Pietro And Videlma

Benito Mussolini, the quintessential Fascist, viewed democracy with contempt, and insisted that all Italians bow to him in total subservience. If discovered, those who loved freedom would be rooted out and exterminated. Il Duce’s arrogance and addiction to unlimited power left my Italian grandparents no choice.

Senator Tom Harkin; Once Bitten Twice Duped

If Justin Beiber had returned from Cuba smitten with its healthcare and calling it “awesome!” most Americans would understand. But Iowa Senator and Obamacare champion Tom Harkin serves as chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He just returned from an official tour of Stalinist Cuba hailing its healthcare as “quite remarkable.”

Fox’s Pied Piper of Low information Voters

Incredible how Fox News Corp. talking head Bill O’Reilly--America’s biggest, television talking head who’s out there professing “Obama’s not a bad guy”--thinks he can get away with ‘pin-heading’ John Boehner for “pandering to radio talk show hosts” on amnesty.

Memo To Janet Yellen's Vice Chair Nominee Stanley Fischer: That Was Then. This Is Now

Dr. Janet Yellen now has taken over the chair of the Fed. And President Obama, to great acclaim, recently nominated Prof. Stanley Fischer as Vice Chairman. Prof. Fischer may be the most distinguished and beloved central banker at work within the world financial system today.

The Secular Religion of the Left

For most of human history, men and women have derived their moral dimension of life from the family and religion. Both of those are now dead or dying in the West under the influence of its new moral and ethical system. That system is one that we know in its various forms as the left.

Barack's Assault on Work Merely His Latest Stupid Insult Against Common Sense

The confounding statement by Obama's spokesman regarding whether Americans under ObamaCare will choose to work is nothing short of appalling and nonsensical. Certainly, of all the myriad attacks Obama has launched against Americans, this may be the most fundamental and perverse. For what kind of a person, let alone leader, tries to persuade others that work is an option?

It's not Republican in-fighting, it's a rescue attempt

America is in the early stages of a revolt. It's not a revolt of the right or the left, or something generated by a political organization. It's a revolt of the people - a passionate response to an attack on the human need to be free from despotism.

Palestine--Jordan Not Jumping For Joy

Jordan is becoming increasingly unhappy at the role US Secretary of State John Kerry might be planning for it in his eagerly anticipated framework agreement designed to end the 130 years old Jewish-Arab conflict.

Needing a real growth agenda in lieu of Fed monetary manipulation (and finding none)

Jay Pelosky, who serves as principal of J2Z Advisory LLC, a global asset-allocation and portfolio-strategy consultancy, wrote in Friday’s Wall Street Journal that the outlook for global growth in 2014 could be very troubling.

The ignorance and hypocrisy behind oil export bans

US oil and gas production was already declining, when the 1973 Arab oil embargo sent oil and gasoline prices skyrocketing and created block-long lines at gas stations. Increased domestic production could have eased the supply and price crunch, but the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill had resulted in congressional leasing and drilling moratoriums on federal offshore and onshore lands.

Election Day

It was the Holiday. The only holiday that still allowed the millions of men and women in the Great Circle of the Community from the farthest Alaskan towns across to the great sweep of the Upper Americas and the Atlantic Ocean to cities with familiar names like London and Paris and less familiar names like Armonia and Simetria through the empty industrial wastelands of Russia, to take a day off from work.

Catherine Engelbrecht’s Testimony at House of Representatives Hearing on IRS Targeting

Did The Environment Agency Deliberately Increase Flooding?

In a 250-page document on flood risk the Environment Agency set out how it plans to deliberately increase flooding in the areas now worst affected, and appears to prioritise animals above people. The 2008 agency document shows the objective for the Levels was to ‘take action to increase the frequency of flooding to deliver benefits locally or elsewhere’. The policy was revealed as agency director of operations David Jordan angered residents yesterday by calling the flood defences a ‘success story’. --David Rose, Mail on Sunday, 9 February 2014