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.

Challenge: Design A Grocery Store For Men

Grocery stores discriminate against men.  If you doubt that, you obviously are a woman.  No man would design a store with cramped aisles, indecipherable organization and illogical product placement. Grocery big wigs have rigged the system to favor the way women shop.

Before men of the world join together in a class action lawsuit, your author has a solution.  Let a man design the store layout, organize products into meaningful categories and place items in strategic locations to make shopping intuitive.  Are you listening HEB, Kroger, Whole Foods?

In this man's vision of the ideal grocery store, products would be organized by meals.  For example, there would be a Breakfast Bar in the store, where eggs, cereal, bacon, yogurt and bread would be displayed. Today's designs force men to walk the entire store just to choose food for breakfast.

Push the cart to the meat section for bacon.  Then trudge another five city blocks to the cereal aisle. Next stop is yogurt hidden next to butter and milk.  Bread is crammed into a lower shelf in another zip code.  By this time your average male is filled with rage and bereft of patience.

And you haven't even thought about food items for lunch.  Bread, lunch meat, fruit, mustard, mayonnaise, pickles, potato chips and paper plates ought to be in one section.  There should be a dinner aisle, too. Toilet paper should be at the store entrance in case you are in a hurry.

Another male complaint involves the tiny aisles built for small children under the age of 10.  Two people with grocery carts cannot pass each other in the aisle without risking injury.  And God help you if someone in one of those motorized carts in ahead of you.  Plan on skipping dinner.

While we are imagining a new concept, how about redesigning the aisles with striped, divided lanes like a freeway?  You stay on your side and I will remain out of your way.  Nothing irks a man more than to wait while some person straddles the aisle aimlessly sniffing for a bargain on coconut chips.

There should also be Store Cops patrolling each aisle, shooing along slow customers.  Minimum speed limits should be posted in each aisle.  The candy aisle might by 5 miles an hour, while the craft beer aisle would have no posted limit.  If you crave candy, it shouldn't take long to make a decision.

Signage at the front of each aisle would be changed to be more descriptive.  Too many stores use generic terms like "Dried Fruit."  When searching for prunes, you don't want to waste too many brain cells to decide if a prune is a dried fruit.  Just erect a sign that reads:  Old People, Prunes Ahead.

We haven't even discussed product placement.  Beer and wine should be at the cash register up front. If you rush into the grocery store to pick up an adult beverage for dinner, why should you have to walk right past the check out lane and then retrace your steps?  It's a time waster.

Next to the beer and wine, there should be a display marked: Last Minute Items We Anticipated You Would Need. There you would find shoelaces, feminine products, razor blades, boxed dinners, lipstick and adult diapers.  Think of the time shoppers would save.

Without sounding sexist, women don't seem to have as many issues with grocery stores. Many, but not all, appear to like the idea of casually sauntering down each aisle casually checking out every product.  We men get that. Women are from Venus and Men are from Hurry The Hell Up.

Grocery store brass reading this are giggling to themselves. They secretly delight in torturing men. There goal is too discourage men from setting foot in their stores.  They know the typical male vaults through the store and spends less money.  That's bad for business.

Perhaps, this diatribe will encourage some young entrepreneur to start a new grocery chain called For Men Only.  Sure, it sounds like the name of a gentleman's club.  All the more reason it will entice males to spend more time in a grocery store.  That might be good for business.

Who Is Seth Rich And Why Was He Murdered?

From all appearances, Seth Conrad Rich had landed his dream job.  The 27-year-old had toiled in the vineyards of Democrat Party politics for a few years, hoping for a high-profile job.  He got his opportunity when the Democratic National Committee (DNC) called with an job offer.

Rich, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, joined the DNC where he worked two years (from 2014-2016) assisting in the development of a computer program to make it easier for voters to locate polling places on election day.  He played a role in the presidential primary and general election campaign.

The Creighton University graduate's promising political career was cut short on July 10, 2016.  He was brutally murdered at 4:20 a.m. in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C.  Rich was shot twice in the back.  Although robbery was listed as the motive, nothing was stolen.

In fact, police found his wallet, credit cards, keys, watch and necklace at the crime scene.  If robbery was the intent, how do police explain the criminal(s) took nothing?  And why kill an unarmed man? Those questions are just a few of many that remain unanswered.

After the murder, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz attended a vigil for Rich and Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton inserted his name into a speech about gun control.  Rich was not some flunky laboring in the bowels of the DNC.  He was a top staffer with extraordinary access.

Meanwhile, the investigation by District police has languished for 10 months.  During that time, there have been no arrests. There are no suspects. Despite rewards totaling more than $100,000, not a single person has come forward with information that might shed light on the killing or the motive.

The Seth Rich murder was all but forgotten until last week.  That's when FOX News reported that federal law enforcement investigators uncovered 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments that were sent by Rich to Gavin MacFayden, a Wikileaks director based in London.

(In a strange twist of fate, MacFayden died a few months after Rich. The cause of death for the 76-year old reporter was listed officially as lung disease.  There is no indication of foul play.)

Fox's source was Rod Wheeler, a former D.C. homicide detective hired by the Rich family to investigate the murder.  Wheeler told the network that his "investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and Wikileaks."

Wheeler added, "I do believe that the answers to who murdered Seth Rich sits on his computer on a shelf at the D.C. police or FBI headquarters."  That prompted the Rich family to cry foul, claiming the private investigator was "contractually barred" from disclosing details publicly.

After the news report aired, denials pored in from police and intelligence officials.  They dismissed the account as groundless theories hatched by some vast right wing conspiracy. The D.C.  Police Department issued a statement saying Rich's death was "not connected to his employment."

However, the police have not explained how they reached that conclusion.  This is curious in light of the fact they have no witnesses and no suspect.  Wheeler has suggested that the D.C. police are not actively continuing a probe of the Rich's death, adding weight to a conspiracy theory.  

Even the family joined in the pooh-pooh chorus.  They blasted the private detective and remained adamant their son had no connection to Wikileaks. But at this point there has been no evidence offered publicly to disprove Wheeler's findings.  Zero.

While this entire episode may truly be a robbery that ended in the tragic death of a young DNC staffer, it seems odd that no mainstream media have pursued the story.  Even The Washington Post, has ignored the story in its own backyard on grounds there is nothing to investigate.

Ironically, the newspaper has run several stories using anonymous sources to spread the conspiracy of collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign. The newspaper's latest anonymously sourced article recounted classified information passed by the president to Russian officials.

Perhaps, this is the larger conspiracy even bigger than Rich's death: Why has The Washington Post lost interest in this unsolved murder and has unearthed no anonymous sources to provide some details about why a DNC staffer was killed in cold blood?  Your turn Washington Post.

America's Political Puppet Master

His ranks one of the world's richest people.  He spreads money around like manure in American political campaigns. He backs social causes ranging from legalization of marijuana to open borders and euthanasia. He views himself as a messianic figure who wants to reshape America in his image.

The mystery multi-billionaire is George Soros, born 86-years ago in Budapest, Hungary.  He immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 and has amassed a personal fortune estimated this year to have eclipsed $25 billion.  He heads up a large hedge fund and has an unsavory business reputation.

He made his fortune by shorting the British currency in 1992, earning him the title of the Man Who Broke the Bank of England.  In 1997, Soros was called a "villain" by the Malaysian prime minister after he nearly destroyed the nation's economy through currency manipulation.

His financial entanglements usually end up damaging others.  An activist in Thailand once labelled Soros a "kind of Dracula.  He sucks the blood from people."  He was convicted of insider trading in France and was fined $2.9 million by his native Hungary for illegal market manipulation.

This month an Israeli resources company filed a $10 billion lawsuit against Soros in New York Federal Court, accusing him of meddling in politics in the West African country of Guinea in order to prevent the firm from obtaining a lucrative contract.

This is the man who now pulls the strings in the Democratic Party.  He funneled $21 million to Democrat candidates during the 2016 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets, a non-profit that tracks political donations.  Over the years, he has spent close to $100 million to support Democrats.

He also is among the top bundlers, rich fund raisers who solicit donations from their pals and collect the money for the candidate.  In the period from 1990 to 2016, he bundled $28 million in campaign contributions for the coffers of Democrat candidates, calculates Open.Secrets.

In 2008, Soros forked over a stunning $5 billion to the Democratic National Committee.  A man can buy a lot of influence with dollar signs that add up to billions.  It was no coincidence that 2008 was the year that Barrack Obama won the Democratic nomination, upsetting favored Hillary Clinton.

His political largess extends to 187 organizations in the country that support liberal causes, giving him enormous power and leverage.  He has plowed millions into groups such as Media Matters for America, an organization that aims to silence Fox News and conservative radio talk radio.

Soros has pored millions more into Moveon.org, which has been at the forefront of organizing protests against then-candidate and now President Trump.  The recent Women's March in Washington had ties to at least 50 organizations that are financially connected to Soros.

He prefers to operate out of public view, using his financial muscle and the web of philanthropic and liberal groups he supports to do his bidding.  No Democrat could raise sufficient funding for a national campaign without the political and financial backing of the Godfather, George Soros.

But Soros has ambitions that extend beyond controlling the Democrat Party. He has branched out into media, building a large share holding in Time Warner, which owns CNN.  Soros also has direct ties to 30 mainstream media organizations, reports Media Research Center.

High-level executives from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, ABC and the Associated Press serve on Soros-funded organizations, the Media Research Center has documented. Soros wants increased clout with news outlets that peddle propaganda to Americans.

The man's power and influence are unparalleled. It begs the question: Should any one American be allowed to monopolize America's political landscape?  The country's founders would have shouted "absolutely not."  Now Americans must decide if that want one-man rule.