The Sun: America's Next Space Odyssey

About 14 months from today America will embark on a historic space mission. A probe jam-packed with scientific instruments will rocket nearly 90 million miles through space for a close-up view of the sun. The craft's journey through searing heat and dangerous radiation will take seven years.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced the spacecraft will provide scientists with the closet-ever observations of the sun, one of more than an estimated 100 billion stars in the Milky Way.  The probe will orbit within 3.9 million miles of the sun's surface.

NASA has scheduled the launch window for the Delta IV rocket for July 31-August 19, 2018. Once the rocket roars off the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it will jettison the probe into the atmosphere, propelling it through space at a blistering speed of 430,000 miles per hour.

NASA has dubbed the spacecraft, the Parker Solar Probe, in honor of astrophysicist Eugene Parker, whose groundbreaking work forms much of what we know today about our nearest star, a 864,000-mile-wide caldron of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, carbon, neon, nitrogen, magnesium, iron and silicon.

The sun, about 109 times larger than the Earth's diameter, generates heat and light for our planet.  The visible part of the sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, while temperatures at its core are a scorching 27 million degrees.  That makes the epic mission a daunting challenge for scientists.

The probe and its instruments will be sheathed in a thick carbon-composite shell designed to withstand temperatures that likely will reach 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit even at its relatively 'safe' 3.9 million mile distance from the surface.  The craft's payload will remain at near room temperature.

The main goals for the ambitious mission are to determine how energy and heat move through the solar corona, the upper most region of the sun.  The area reaches scalding temperatures from 900,000 to 10.8 million degrees Fahrenheit.  Matter from the corona spews into space as solar wind.

This ferocious wind whooshes past our planet at speeds of more than one million miles per hour. Disturbances in the solar wind shake the Earth's magnetic field and scatter energy into the radiation belts near our planet.  Scientists want to investigate how these winds impact space weather.

Parker Solar Project Scientist Nicola Fox of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has high hopes for the mission. "It's a spacecraft loaded with technological breakthroughs that will solve many of the largest mysteries about our star, including finding out why the sun's corona is so much hotter than its surface," Fox says.

Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland is managing the mission for NASA.  The laboratory will also be responsible for designing and building the spacecraft.  Once the Parker Solar Probe is launched into space, the lab's scientists will operate the craft from Earth.

The sun was born about 4.6 billion years ago.  Now scientists soon will get their best view ever of Earth's nearest star.  The data from the scientific instruments should help us better understand our solar system and learn how the sun effects the environment on Earth and beyond.

Knowledge gained from the mission also will help solve practical issues back on our planet.  For instance, the data about the sun will improve satellite communications, provide insight into power grid interruptions and measure the amount of radiation exposure on airline flights.

And perhaps the exciting prospect of the historic space mission will unite all Americans to support this bold adventure.  That alone would justify the multi-million dollar price tag for the groundbreaking space quest.

Hatred: The Democrats Political Weapon Of Choice

Never in modern American political history has there been such a vortex of numbing hatred against a president.  The unceasing geyser of inflammatory rhetoric, demented hostility and personal animosity directed at Mr. Trump has scaled a dangerous precipice that threatens American democracy.

Democrats, their allies in the fake fairness media and liberal-funded radical groups have banded together with one goal in mind:  Remove Mr. Trump from office by any means.  Overturn the election results. Create cynicism about honest elections.  Make anarchy a viable resistance.

Democrats declared political war on Mr. Trump only days after his election, many defiantly refusing to attend his inauguration.  From that opening salvo,  Democrats lapsed into Trump Derangement Syndrome, a pathological hatred for the president, his family and associates.  

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer posted a video on social media mocking the president. Representative Maxine Waters called the president a 'pathological liar.' House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has raised the specter of impeachment and often refused to refer to him as President Trump.

For its part, the media has whipped up Trump resentment.  In particular, MSNBC and CNN are in a race to see which network can outdo the other in gutter name-calling.  The New York Times and The Washington Post have junked journalism to print scurrilous anonymous sourced fabrications.

Stoked by the Democrats' serial hysteria, those who loathe the president have been emboldened to preach assassination. A faux comedian showcases the severed bloody head of the president.  A play performed in Central Park features the stabbing death of a Trump-like Julius Caesar.

A Dallas teacher acts out the shooting of the president in his classroom. Scumbag musical artist Snoop Dogg aims a handgun at the skull of a clown dressed as President Trump in a rap video. Another rapper swoons about murdering Mr. Trump.  Democrats' silence is a tacit endorsement.

Openly advocating the killing of a U.S. president should be a one-way ticket to jail.  But not in today's America, where political animus justifies the unhinged behavior.  But the events of last week show the bilge of hatred from Democrats and the media have created a toxic atmosphere for violence.

The targeted shooting of the Republican House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and four others at a baseball field in Virginia serves as a warning that America may soon descend into the same deadly cycle that grips third world countries, where politicians are murdered instead of voted out of office.

In the wake of the shooting, several Republicans reported receiving threatening calls and emails. Many contained haunting references to killing the president.  One caller growled: "Trump is next." To claim this is normal political thuggery is to ignore the looming threat of more heinous acts.

The Virginia shooter made no secret of his detest for Mr. Trump.  His venom on social media ranted about getting rid of the president.  This was an Illinois man who carried a crumpled list of GOP targets.  His barrage of gunfire was political terrorism, although the media won't call it that.

Embarrassed by the murderer's support for their party, Democrats shed crocodile tears over the rampage. They spoke about unity on the same day 200 Democrats in the House and Senate filed suit against the president over allegations of foreign money invested in Trump businesses.

There are Democrats who will contend the onslaught of anti-Trump outrage is justified.  Hillary Clinton should be president.  The Russians stole the election.  Every Democrat fantasizes this. Therefore it must be true. Facts don't matter when you are driven by unrestrained malice.

It is time for Americans to demand an end to the mob mentality.  No more hate speech.  No more jokes about assassination.  No more mutinous demonstrations.  No more attempts to overturn the will of the electorate.  Enough is enough.  Distraught Democrats can extract revenge in the voting booth.

That is the place where American political arguments should be settled. Not at the end of the barrel of a gun.

Comey: Tall Lawman, But Short on Integrity

James Comey's testimony revealed more about the six-foot-eight former FBI director than it did about President Trump.  By words and body language, Comey was at times vengeful, self-serving, evasive and spiteful.  Only a psychiatrist would have found his performance enlightening.

Comey's long-anticipated appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week exposed his failure to recognize his own ineptness in the handling of FBI investigations.  Democrats had been on their knees, praying Comey would detonate bombshells that would blow up the Trump presidency.

In the end, Comey only succeeded in calling into question his integrity and that of the previous administration.  His halting, sometimes pouting conduct, left the impression of a man desperate to salvage his reputation after being the target of savage attacks by both Republicans and Democrats.

For the record, Comey acknowledged the president was not the target of an investigation of Russian collusion.  He confirmed the Mr. Trump did not order him to drop the probe of Russian interference in the election.  The president never explicitly directed him to bury the Michael Flynn investigation.

After the hearings, constitutional law authority and former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz pointed out that the president of the United States has the authority to decide who to investigate, which probes to halt and even determine when to prosecute.

"'The president is the head of the unified branch of government, and the Justice Department and the FBI work under him and he may order them to do what he wishes," Dershowitz wrote in an opinion piece.  In other words, Mr. Trump had every legal write to order Comey to end an investigation.

By ignoring the president's legal authority, the erudite Dershowitz called out the Democrats and media for "endangering our civil liberties and constitutional rights."  In case you need reminding, Dershowitz is a leading advocate of civil liberties and often supports Democrat causes.

With no evidence to offer, Comey spent most of his soap opera on Capitol Hill lobbing innuendos designed to smear the president.  The former director confessed he felt "awkward, strange and uneasy" about his discussions with his boss President Trump.  He called Mr. Trump a "liar."

There was no evidential support submitted for his conclusions, just squishy feelings he had during his encounters with the president. Comey is no novice, having served three American presidents in senior positions.  He knows none of his armchair psychiatry amounts to evidence in a court of law.

As expected the mainstream media, lapped up Comey's psychoanalysis of Mr. Trump.  "Trump A Liar" many headlines screamed. But there were many potentially ethical and possibly criminal revelations aired by Comey that were naturally ignored by the fake news media.

For example, Comey explained that he lost faith in former Attorney General Loretta Lynch's ability to handle the Hillary Clinton email probe because he was asked to refer to the investigation as a "matter."  This suggests interference by the attorney general in a criminal investigation.

It was this same James Comey who launched an investigation last July into Russian meddling in the election and broadened the scope to include collusion with the Trump campaign. Before the presidential election, Comey's FBI illegally leaked information about the probe to the media.

And no one will ever forget Comey's inept handling of the investigation into the Clinton email scandal.  Democrats howled about the former FBI chief's disclosures about her conduct even as he revealed he would not recommend prosecution, a decision that was the province of Ms. Lynch.

A review of Comey's testimony reveals that he allowed his unbridled anger at being fired to influence his words under oath.  If Comey believes he injured the president, he is wrong.  He showed the world how a once revered lawman had stooped to the role of a disgruntled former government employee.

Russian Collusion Exposed

Mainstream media's hysteria over Russian collusion has been slim on facts but hefty with speculation. Alleged anonymous sources have supplied the majority of the grist for the conspiracy that rages inside the Washington beltway.  However, shadowy informants and unnamed tattletales aren't needed.

There are public facts that the Russians have colluded with American businesses and politicians. There is nothing secretive about the information.  It is readily available, so why has the American mainstream media ignored it and chosen to engage in rumors and conjecture? Good question.

Here are some real examples of Russian alliances with politicians and major U.S. firms.

In 2013, a Canadian firm (Uranium One) acquired by Russian-state owned energy firm Rosatom was green lighted by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to scoop up valuable American uranium assets.  The company now controls one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the U.S.

It was certainly no coincidence that the chairman of Uranium One shelled out $2.35 million to the Clinton Foundation prior to the approval. Although Ms. Clinton had promised President Obama to disclose any foreign contributions to the foundation, the gift was not publicly revealed.

In 2012, President Obama was hosting Russian President Dimitri Medvedev in a public session with the news media.  Thinking his microphone had been muted, Mr. Obama raised the subject of missile defense, a sensitive national security issue between the two countries.

In hushed tones, Mr. Obama leaned over to the Russian president and confided, "After the election, I have more flexibility."  It was a clear signal that Mr. Obama would be more receptive to Russian terms, but preferred to keep the matter a secret from his American audience.

The chairman of Ms. Clinton's presidential campaign John Podesta failed to disclose his role on the board of a small Massachusetts-based energy company that received $35 million in funds from Rusano, a Kremlin-backed investment fund whose officers are appointed by Vladimir Putin.

The non-partisan Government Accountability Institute pointed out that Podesta was required under "federal laws on financial disclosure" to publicly reveal his membership on the board.  Chummy Russian business leaders served with Podesta on the board of the firm, Joule Unlimited.

President Trump has taken flack for Russian investment in his real estate ventures.  But American companies and their CEO's have been cozy with Russian oligarchs for years.  The media had no interest in investigating the linkages, despite a number of problematic business entanglements.

For example, U.S. defense contractor Boeing announced in 2012 plans to invest $27 billion over the next 30 years in Russian titanium manufacturer VSMPO-Avisma Corporation.  The firm supplies titanium and other alloys for the defense and aerospace industries both in Russia and globally.

Lukoil, a Russian leader in exploration, production, refining and marketing of petroleum products, entered the U.S. market in 2000 when it purchased New York-based Getty Petroleum Marketing. The firm operates 286 service stations in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Last year Forbes Magazine described Russian President Putin as "influential in the inner workings" of Lukoil, a firm with global aspirations which controls the largest chunk of the oil supply in its home country. In fact, Mr. Putin's fingerprints can be found on most large Russian owned business firms.

In recent months, Congressional lawmakers raised alarm bells over the prospect of Russia's state-owned oil company Rosneft grabbing control of Houston-based energy firm Citgo.  Although it wouldn't qualify as a direct takeover, Rosneft could use a financial back door to assume ownership.

Russian nuclear fuel company TVEL is partnering with General Electric in a joint venture with Hitachi and Toshiba to introduce Russian-designed water reactor fuel into American nuclear plants. Given the concern over nuclear energy safety, the arrangement should be scrutinized.  

Russia also has substantial financial interests in the U.S.  They invested $5.2 billion in this country in 2016. Last year, the Russian government increased its holdings of U.S. Treasuries to $90.9 billion. It also exported $16.6 billion in goods to America.  Moscow is the 16th largest holder of U.S. debt.

If the media and Democrats have problems with Russian involvement in America's affairs, it is a little late to sound the sirens.   This whole conspiracy canard is nothing more than a naked ploy to undermine the president and give Democrats an excuse for groundless investigations.

For the record, there is not a scintilla of evidence offered by anyone that the Russians colluded with any American during the presidential election.  There are rumors.  There are nameless sources.  There are alleged leaks.  There are uncorroborated whispers.  But there are no facts.

If the media, Democrats and special prosecutor Robert Mueller want to get to the bottom of Russian collusion, they can start with the actual examples cited above.  That would be a better use of American taxpayer dollars than chasing media fabrications.