At the very least, dismissing the investigation as a witch hunt or fishing expedition? No longer operative, as Ron Ziegler might have said. There was a ton of Russia contact, and at the same time finance violations were done at the behest of the president.

Also THIS

The fact checkers are not kind to right wing columnists like Flo, who claimed that Obama got $150 billion to give to Iran and it's sad that Trump can't get $5 billion for his useless wall. The amount that was released to Iran was about a third of Flo's claim and it was Iran's money held in world banks, embargoed because of the Iran Nuke treaty to start with.

Nothing was appropriated by Congress! But why let facts get in the way of a good story? Here's some snips from the fact check:

"The past administration made a horrible deal giving $150 billion," Trump said April 26 on the Fox News morning show. "Giving $1.8 billion in cash — in actual cash carried out in barrels and in boxes from airplanes."

Of the two numbers he gave, $150 billion and $1.8 billion, the first is dodgy and the second is slightly exaggerated. And there’s no evidence that barrels and boxes were involved...

In July 2015, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told lawmakers Iran would gain access to $56 billion.

It’s important to know that little of that money was under the control of the United States or any U.S. bank. Most of it, Habibi said, was in central and commercial banks overseas. Furthermore, it was Iran’s money to begin with, not a payment from any government to buy Iran’s cooperation.

(link...)

“We are in trouble. We are in deep trouble with climate change,” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said this week at the opening of the 24th annual U.N. climate conference, where countries will wrestle with the ambitious goals they need to meet to sharply reduce carbon emissions in coming years.

“It is hard to overstate the urgency of our situation,” he added. “Even as we witness devastating climate impacts causing havoc across the world, we are still not doing enough, nor moving fast enough, to prevent irreversible and catastrophic climate disruption.”

(link...)

The Roane County Commission voted to “file suit as needed against Jacobs Engineering and/or TVA” during a special-called meeting at the courthouse Tuesday night.

“The primary complaint will be with Jacobs Engineering,” Commissioner Darryl Meadows said. “They were under contract under the oversight of TVA on this and there may be some culpability on TVA.”

This may be behind the paywall but here's the link:

(link...)

"Today, in a nation of more than 325 million and 37 additional states, not only is that structure antiquated, it’s downright dangerous. California has almost 40 million people, while the 20 smallest states have a combined population totaling less than that. Yet because of an 18th-century political deal, those 20 states have 40 senators, while California has just two. These sparsely populated, usually conservative states can block legislation supported by a majority of the American people. That’s just plain crazy."

Former Congressman John Dingell

(link...)

Tusks 11 feet long, 10 feet tall at the shoulder, This is a major ongoing story of Tennessee's fossil natural history. It ought to be big in our schools. The Gray fossil site is thought to be a Miocene watering/sink hole from 4.5 million to seven million years ago. There are several mastodons found in the same spot. The biggest one, Ernie, was originally calculated to weigh 16 tons. A modern African elephant weights 6 tons. Ernie was freakin' HUGE!

And Ernie is from Tennessee. I hereby propose Ernie the Mastodon officially be named the Tennessee State Elephant!

He’d been offering tantalising hints throughout his presentation: an ulna here; a large femur there; a calculated weight of 16 tons for this animal. But it wasn’t until he showed an image of the excavated jaw that some of us became really excited.

(link...)

(link...)

Because of the interference from follicle magnetism, researchers are using bald people to study magnetite in the brain and its possible relationship to Alzheimer's disease.

Amazing what we learn here at RoaneViews.com!

(link...)

Sorry folks. We'll reschedule Andrew Leahey as soon as we can.

(link...)

Key findings of the NCA4, Vol. II Communities:

Human health and safety, our quality of life, and the rate of economic growth in communities across the U.S. are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The cascading impacts of climate change threaten the natural, built and social systems we rely on, both within and beyond the nation's borders.

Societal efforts to respond to climate change have expanded in the last five years, but not at the scale needed to avoid substantial damages to the economy, environment, and human health over the coming decades.

Without substantial and sustained global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and regional initiatives to prepare for anticipated changes, climate change is expected to cause growing losses to American infrastructure and property and impede the rate of economic growth over this century.

(link...)

The United States already warmed on average 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century and will warm at least 3 more degrees by 2100 unless fossil fuel use is dramatically curtailed, scientists from more than a dozen federal agencies concluded in their latest in-depth assessment.

The 13-agency consensus found in the second volume of the Fourth National Climate Assessment makes it clear the world is barreling toward catastrophic―perhaps irreversible―climate change. The report concluded that warming “could increase by 9°F (5°C) or more by the end of this century” without significant emissions reductions.

(link...)

A big thank you to all the friends who watch over RoaneViews global headquarters while we venture off for Thanksgiving. So here...

(link...)

Do you think it's OK for Trump to let polluters get a free ride while we have our local economy ruined and our children get sick?

The Trump administration’s top environmental official for the Southeast was arrested Thursday on criminal ethics charges in Alabama reported to be related to a scheme to help a coal company avoid paying for a costly toxic waste cleanup...

“Trey Glenn should have never made it through any serious vetting process,” said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. “Scott Pruitt may be gone, but it’s clear the culture of corruption remains.”

So corruption stares us in the face and what does the GOP want to investigate? Hillary's emails! Idiots!

(link...)

“My kids lost everything. I voted for him – and now? He can kiss my red ass,” Ellsworth said. “What he said was ridiculous. It hurts my heart. A lot of us voted for him and he [talks] down to us?”

(link...)

This is all the more interesting since we are in just reelected Chuck Flieschmann's Congressional District.

(link...)

I guess the right wing opinionist for the Roane County News has her marching orders to tell us how wonderful Nationalists are. Let's just note the real definition of Nationalism as it has morphed over the years until the present day in which it is used by the American Nazi Party to describe themselves as patriots to downplay the inherent bigotry and racism.

The Nazi Party emerged from the German nationalist, racist and populist Freikorps paramilitary culture, which fought against the communist uprisings in post-World War I Germany.[6] The party was created as a means to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism.[7] Initially, Nazi political strategy focused on anti-big business, anti-bourgeois and anti-capitalist rhetoric, although such aspects were later downplayed in order to gain the support of industrial entities and in the 1930s the party's focus shifted to anti-Semitic and anti-Marxist themes.[8]

Pseudo-scientific racism theories were central to Nazism.

"Bredesen carried 10 biggest counties by cumulative 10 points. It didn’t matter."

(link...)

(link...)

Jury: Jacobs Engineering endangered Kingston disaster clean-up workers

The verdict means the workers now will get a chance to seek damages, including money to cover medical testing for all laborers who worked at the site and medical treatment for themselves and their families. Many of the workers’ family members also are believed to have been sickened by exposure to the coal ash the laborers brought home each night on their skin and clothing.

The workers were represented by a small group of attorneys - Jim Scott, Keith Stewart, John Dupree, J. Tyler Roper, Gary Davis and Jeff Friedman – and investigator Stephanie Johnson, all of whom are donating much of their time in the case so far.

(link...)

Dems won MORE VOTES and MORE SEATS tonight, in both the House and the Senate. The Senate represents states not people. It was formed as a platitude to the racist South and less populous states. Voters cast ten million more votes for Democrats in the Senate than Republicans. Minority government continues for now.

HOUSE:
Dems ~48 million votes, 230 seats
Rs ~45M votes, 205 seats

SENATE:
Dems ~42M votes, 22 seats
Rs ~32M votes, 13 seats

There were 35 Senate seats up for grabs. Dems won approx 22 of them, Rs won approx 13. Some of those 13 were previously held by Dems, so Rs had a net gain, but the fact is Dems actually had more victories.

Vote! Because it does!

When NASA finally retired the Kepler Space Telescope this week after it ran out of fuel, the mission had helped discover more than 2,600 exoplanets. Kepler even likely discovered a moon outside our solar system. Thanks to Kepler, we now know there are more planets than stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

(link...)

‘Let’s rock’: The last words of a double-murderer who chose the electric chair over lethal injection

He spent 34 years on death row, becoming a “model inmate,” according to his attorney, Kelley Henry, a federal public defender. She said he had once saved the life of a guard. The last time he was on death watch, other inmates pooled their resources for a pizza dinner in his honor, according to the Tennessean.

“Capital prisoners are not entitled to pleasant deaths under the Eighth Amendment, but they are entitled to humane deaths. The longer we stand silent amid growing evidence of inhumanity in execution methods like Tennessee’s, the longer we extend our own complicity in state-sponsored brutality.” Justice Sotamayor

(link...)

There is a growing list of long time Republicans who are now telling Americans to save their country and vote Democratic. "Captain Sully" is just one of many but he may be the most eloquent. "Cowardly" is the word he uses to describe Republicans in this crucial election.

Today, tragically, too many people in power are projecting the worst. Many are cowardly, complicit enablers, acting against the interests of the United States, our allies and democracy; encouraging extremists at home and emboldening our adversaries abroad; and threatening the livability of our planet....

For the first 85 percent of my adult life, I was a registered Republican. But I have always voted as an American. And this critical Election Day, I will do so by voting for leaders committed to rebuilding our common values and not pandering to our basest impulses.

(link...)

“I would vote early if it was me,” Roane County Administrator of Elections Charles Holiway said.

Mon-Thur 9AM-5PM

Kingston Community Center: 201 Patton Ferry Rd., Kingston

Harriman Community Center: 631 Clinch St., Harriman

Rockwood Community Center: 710 N. Chamberlain Ave., Rockwood

First Christian Church: 100 Gum Hollow Rd., Oak Ridge

Early Voting Ends this Thursday, November 1, 2018

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation recently gave out a list of issues it had with a proposed Department of Energy landfill in Oak Ridge, including groundwater, rain and mercury and its effects on fishing.

“Until the state’s concerns have been resolved, the State cannot approve the landfill as currently proposed,” a document from TDEC stated. TDEC gave out these documents summarizing its position at an open house meeting at its office in Oak Ridge.

(link...)

This is blowing me away.

“Spray down those monitors, that they were getting high readings and they wanted the monitors washed, and you sprayed just like that, like if it was raining down on them. You just shoot it directly at them. You would spray up in the air and let it arch over onto them.”

Jacobs Engineering ignored EPA worker safety directives, including providing showers and changing rooms for the laborers — without any backlash from the nation’s top environmental protection agency — and did nothing to investigate worker complaints that they were threatened with their jobs if they asked for respiratory protection.

Worker Michael McCarthy captured one of those threats on a secret video, testimony has shown.

(link...)

This is amazing stuff. Clovis points were "invented" in North America around 13,000 years ago. This pushes human occupancy back at least 2,500 years. I should say "Hunter" occupancy, because stone tools and implements have been found that are even older. Some sites are dating to 25,000 years ago.

The team found the numerous weapons – about 3-4 inches long – while digging at what has been termed the Debra L. Friedkin site, named for the family who owns the land about 40 miles northwest of Austin in Central Texas. The site has undergone extensive archaeological work for the past 12 years.

Spear points made of chert and other tools were discovered under several feet of sediment that dating revealed to be 15,500 years old, and pre-date Clovis, who for decades were believed to be the first people to enter the Americas.

(link...)

Here are some tidbits from a study by (link...)

34% of businesses in Tennessee cite broadband as a main driver in their decisions to locate to the state. They also attribute 43% of new jobs and 66% of revenues to broadband availability.(xv)

Between 2011 and 2015, the fiber infrastructure in Hamilton County generated significant economic and social benefits, accounting for $1.3 billion and 5,200 jobs.(xvi)
Among the 14.1% of Tennesseans who run businesses exclusively from their home, 66.8% would not be in business without the internet and 92.8% say broadband specifically is essential for their business.(xvii)

Large and Small Business Growth:

Broadband internet boosts local economic development through business attraction and job growth,and it helps families gain wealth and economic mobility by facilitating access to employment.
For every 1,000 new broadband users, 80 new jobs are created.(xviii)
In comparison to offline job searches, online searches decrease the time of unemployment by 25%.(xix)
Job Search and Employment:
Gaining 4 Mbps can increase household income by $2,100 per year on average.(xx)
20% of households in Tennessee report $5,000 in additional income per year from using the internet.(xxi)

The full study should be read by every elected official in Roane County!

(link...)

Via KnoxViews: Russians have hacked Tennessee Elections!

(link...)