The Middle East is getting scarier with more   American bombings, this latest joined by the UK of Houthi rebels in Yemen .  They're the ones attacking ships in the Red Sea shipping lanes.  So far, Iran has been untouched.    Republicans in Congress  criticized President Joe Biden for his anemic response, and   some went to far as to condemn him   for not striking Iran.    Trump said   Biden is to blame for the U.S. deaths. I've been posting too much about Donald Trump, on  29January 2023  and  30January2024 , and a more recent one a couple of days ago  comparing him with Barack Obama .  I had one more difference which I did not include, and on reflection, so horrified me, that I thought I'd share this startling revelation. So to continue, Barack Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 and Donald Trump has a sexual abuse conviction where he had to pay off his victim $5 million, which was recently upped to a total of $88.3 million. Then, of course. All that aside, what dismays

Today is the first anniversary of the Ukraine War.  I was planning to have a long review today, but decided to skip that because all the news channels have special programs.  Instead, let me only mention that  China has become the peacemaker , calling for a cease-fire and open talks as part of a 12-point proposal to end the conflict. The plan issued Friday morning by the Foreign Ministry also urges the end of Western sanctions imposed on Russia, measures to ensure nuclear facilities, the establishment of humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and steps to ensure the export of grain, after disruptions caused global food prices to spike .  (To the left, China's foreign policy chief Wan Yi with Vladimir Putin.) I wasn't planning to have a three-part hydrogen series, but I yesterday gave a travel talk at 15 Craigside on our Regent Seven Seas cruise from Dubai to Singapore, and remember well another talk I gave in Japan in the 1990's, which was a disaster, but wi

Our planet is heating up.  How hot?  Says   Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy , if talks with Russia fail, it could lead to World War 3.  So, with 100 Hiroshima-size bombs, the   atmospheric temperature would fall around 2F.   Huh?  Yup, carbon particles will be tossed into the upper troposphere to reduce sunlight, and our weather will cool. 100 Little Boys ( fell on Hiroshima ) actually are almost nothing today.  That one 1961  Tsar Hydrogen Bomba  thermonuclear explosion of the Soviet Union imparted the energy of 1570 times those Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs combined.  Keep in mind, though, that this was only 25% the yield of the 1883 Indonesia Krakatoa eruption.  So nature can be worse. Scarily enough, nine countries have  13,400 nuclear weapons,  all more powerful than Little Boy.  1800 of those weapons are held in high alert.  That was old news, for the latest this year is that number is now  12,700, 90% owned by the U.S. and Russia.   The U.S., China and Russia are act