Monday, January 30, 2017

President "H.W." is on his way home to First Lady Barbara. Good news!

30 January 2017

Former US president George H.W. Bush (click here) was released from the hospital on Monday after spending approximately two weeks recovering from pneumonia, including a stint in intensive care, his spokesman said.
The 41st president, age 92, was taken to Houston Methodist Hospital on January 14 suffering from bacterial pneumonia.
His 91-year-old wife Barbara, who had viral bronchitis, was also admitted to the same health facility but released just several days later....

To begin WHAT EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBER? Secondly...

...that is an effective vetting process and it may have come to President Obama's attention too late to stop it other than an executive order if such an order exists. Thirdly, that was two Iraqis, not entire masses of people! Someone has to say this? Really?


January 30, 2017

Former president Barack Obama (click here) rejected the idea Monday that President Donald Trump had based his immigration executive order on a policy adopted by his own administration, and endorsed the protests that have been taking place across the country in response to the new restrictions.

Trump has said that his move to ban the entry of migrants from seven Muslim-majority countries into the U.S., and to suspend temporarily the admission of refugees, was based in part by a decision in 2011 by then-President Obama to ban the admission of Iraqis to the U.S. after evidence surfaced that two Iraqis seeking resettlement had been linked to terrorist activity in their home country. Former Obama administration officials have denied that there was ever a halt to the awarding of visas to Iraqis, though the processing of these applications slowed after they were subject to more intense scrutiny....        

The issues in the USA are complicated and domestic.

I have stated this once before. The domestic attacks in the USA have been carried out more often due to issues with Palestine.

I firmly believe the youngest adult generation of immigrants from the Middle East have problems completely relating to the USA and it's foreign policies regarding Muslim countries and more often than not it is due to Palestine.

It is more than picking up guns. When I listen to the young women they are distraught when they discuss Muslims in the Middle East and particularly Palestine. C-Span is a wealth of testimony/interviews of young Muslims in the USA that came here as young children.

Stop to think about it. I have strong Irish identities in my family. Lots of us are here, but, love Ireland. The feelings stated often enough by my Uncles and my Grandparents were angry and full of hate of "The Queen." My Grandparents came to the USA as young children. They had strong feelings as a young married couple about the tragedy of Northern Ireland. My Grandparents and most of my Uncles have passed away. They all lived to a ripe old age.

I think many young Palestinians and other Muslims in this country are upset, frustrated and feeling helpless about the plight of others in the Middle East.

I think it is the Muslim young people with dual citizenship that have difficult times separating their feelings and priorities. They become radicalized.

AND.

There are too many guns on the street. What are we teaching our children

January 28, 2017
By Christina Cleveland

Police said a shooting (click here) that occurred at South Aiken High School after a crowded basketball game Friday night was prompted by a fight outside and the three people shot, the youngest being 13 years old, all appear to have non-life threatening injuries.

The suspect was still unknown as of press time.

The shooting occurred at around 9:05 p.m. after a basketball game where South Aiken was hosting Aiken High School, the Aiken Department of Public Safety said in a news release. South Aiken is located on East Pine Log Road....

This may have something to do with Bannon's sudden appointment to the NSC.

Trump has major control issues about removing sanctions from Russia. It is not political, it is wealth. ExxonMobile will not be the sovereign authority in the Arctic.

January 26, 2017

Washington - US Defense Secretary James Mattis (click here) will travel to Japan and South Korea next week for his first overseas visit since taking office, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

Departing on Feb 1, Mattis will begin his trip in South Korea, where he will meet with his South Korean counterpart Han Min Koo and other senior officials. On Feb 3, Mattis will travel to Tokyo to meet with his Japanese counterpart Tomomi Inada.

"The trip will underscore the commitment of the United States to our enduring alliances with Japan and the Republic of Korea, and further strengthen US-Japan-Republic of Korea security cooperation," the Pentagon said in a statement.

On Friday, Mattis was confirmed by the US Senate as the new Pentagon chief in an overwhelming vote.

At the hearing earlier this month, Mattis took a clear anti-Russia stance, describing Moscow as a "principle threat" to US security, a position notably different from Trump.

The United States should also check Russia's growing influence in the Arctic region, Mattis said.

Mattis also chose to distance from Trump on other key issues, including the role of NATO, which Trump said should shrink, and on the Iranian nuclear agreement, which Trump threatened to scrap.

Reince looks like he is having fun. After all, Trump will never fire him. It is all just one big fun bash everyday.

January 30, 2017
By Taylor Link

Facing mounting criticism (click here) for omitting a reference to Jews and anti-semitism in a statement honoring Holocaust Remembrance Day, Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, doubled down on the language over the weekend.

“I don’t regret the words,” Priebus said Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

“I mean, everyone’s suffering in the Holocaust including, obviously, all of the Jewish people affected and miserable genocide that occurs — it’s something that we consider to be extraordinarily sad,” Priebus said. “If we could wipe it off of the history books, we would. But we can’t.”

The White House saw swift condemnation for the 117-word statement. Even Jewish groups that backed Trump during his presidential campaign expressed disappointment....

Talking? Really? Well, let's get China to end it's invasion into natural and manmade islands, shall we?

February 1, 2017
By Jing Shuiyu Zhong Nan

China, US can solve any disputes by talking, Commerce Ministry says (click here)

China and the United States can resolve any trade disputes through talks, since bilateral trade and economic cooperation have made the two countries inseparable, the Ministry of Commerce said ahead of US president-elect Donald Trump's taking office on Friday.

Even though there are voices in the United States calling for protectionist trade measures or having a trade war with China, the two sides can work out new solutions, and bilateral ties won't be shaken by such opinions, said Ministry of Commerce spokesman Sun Jiwen.

Bilateral trade volume amounted to $519.6 billion in 2016 — 211 times higher than in 1979. Two-way investment also notably surged, exceeding $170 billion by the end of last year, data from the ministry shows.

"The Chinese government is willing to work with the new US administration to generate more benefits for businesses and consumers on both sides," said Sun....

6 August 2016

Japan says China (click here) has sailed a fleet of 230 vessels near Japanese-controlled waters in the East China Sea.

The fleet included fishing boats and coastguard ships, Japan says, and three vessels appeared to be armed. Officials have protested to Chinese diplomats.

The reported incident occurred near the Japan-controlled disputed islands, known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China.

Beijing has been increasingly assertive about waters it believes are Chinese.

In a separate incident on Saturday, Chinese state media said fighter jets and bombers had completed a patrol of airspace above islands in the South China Sea, as part of combat training.

These islands are also disputed, but last month an international tribunal dismissed most of Beijing's claims in that sea.

China said it would ignore the decision....

And then there is this from the "Junior Varsity" in the Republican Party.

January 31, 2017

The Queen (click here) will be hoping a petition to prevent Donald Trump's state visit to the UK will persuade parliament, after a tweet from the new President emerged that embarrasses Kate Middleton.
Back in 2012 Mr Trump took to Twitter to discuss a story at the time where the Duchess of Cambridge was papped sunbathing topless.
The images were published in France, but not the UK. But that didn't stop the now President encouraging paparazzi photographers from making a bit of extra cash....

The immigration ban is isolationism based in irrational fear with political backing.

Osama bin Laden is dead. The attacks within in the USA have been from radicalized homeland terrorism. There is nothing the ban is going to stop. The ban is a very clever political decision to shift concern about the number of radically violent guns on the USA street. The ban backs up the Republican cronies.

January 30, 2017
By Farhad Manjoo

The presidency of Donald J. Trump (click here)) has been noteworthy for its speed. In his first week in office, as the president’s aides won’t tire of reminding us, Mr. Trump has already put in motion plans to do much of what he promised to do while campaigning.

But it’s not just the politician who is moving fast. It’s the population, too.

In a matter of hours on Saturday, thousands rushed to the nation’s airports, beckoned by tweets. The flash protests in response to Mr. Trump’s immigration ban, which continued to grow in many cities on Sunday, were as organized as they were instantaneous. Dispatched online, the protesters knew where to go, and they knew what to do once they arrived: to command the story by making a scene.

Mr. Trump feeds off media attention. Throughout the campaign, the bigger a spectacle he created, the larger he loomed in the public consciousness. What has been remarkable during the last two weekends is how thoroughly Mr. Trump’s own media personage was blotted out by scenes of protesters....

The ban is stating what the USA has done to date doesn't work and compromises national security. DONALD TRUMP is compromising national security for the homeland and for our allies.

Since the radical Ultra White has taken control of the Executive Branch:

January 30, 2017
By Emily Shaprio


Five people are in critical condition at a Quebec hospital (click here) this morning from a shooting at a mosque that killed six and injured eight others, according to hospital officials.
All of the victims from the Sunday night shooting at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre were men between the ages of 39 and 60, police said. One victim was Khaled Belkacemi, a professor at the University of Laval in Quebec, according to the university.

Police had said two suspects were in custody, but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said later today that only one person detained is considered to be a suspect, and the second individual is now considered to be a witness....
As with every other terrorist incident in the West this is a domestic radicalized terrorist. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IMMIGRATION!

January 31, 2017
By Nelson Groom


New Zealand's most notorious gang (click here) the Mongrel Mob is on a violent collision course with Australian outlaw bikie clubs after invading the Northern Territory.
NT police are monitoring a newly established chapter of the gang, who have been pictured partying and wearing the gang's patches in Darwin nightclubs....

In Australia:

January 22, 2017
By Andrew Koubaridis, Debbie Schipp, Matt Young and Emma Reynolds


The man police (click here) believe is responsible for yesterday’s atrocity is Dimitrious “Jimmy” Gargasoulas, who was shot in the arm by officers after a 12-hour rampage and is being treated in hospital.
He will be charged with multiple homicides after four people were confirmed dead and 15 injured, with several of them still in a critical condition. The deceased include a man and woman in their 30s and a 10-year-old child.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said the incident was not terror-related but was linked to a stabbing that took place in Windsor early Friday morning involving parties known to one another.
Gargasoulas is accused of stabbing his brother Angelo outside their mother’s public housing apartment in Windsor at 2am on Friday, before going on an erratic journey across town and back with a stolen car.
It is alleged he took a woman, who is known to him, hostage in the Holden Commodore. She managed to escape on the Bolte Bridge. Attempts to pull the car over on the bridge had to be aborted because police felt the driving was too erratic...

January 28, 2017
By Rachel Olding

A radicalised white supremacist (click here) who was stockpiling homemade guns and weapons across Sydney had expressed an intention to commit a mass shooting at a popular Westfield shopping centre.

The disturbing case, uncovered by the Sun Herald, has highlighted the evolving threat posed by violent, right-wing extremism in Australia with experts warning against public complacency....

"Heil, Donald Trump!"

27 January 2017
By Alex Lantier

On January 21, (click here) the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated as US president in Washington, a coalition of European far-right parties met in the German city of Koblenz to hail Trump’s installation in the White House.

Attendees included Marine Le Pen of France’s National Front (FN), Frauke Petry of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Geert Wilders of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), Harald Vilimsky of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), and Matteo Salvini of Italy’s Northern League. They all treated the coming to power of a violently nationalist and protectionist regime in Washington as support for their own political aspirations in Europe.

The Trump administration has made clear that the cultivation of neo-fascists in Europe is a priority of its foreign policy. Trump has selected as his top adviser the white supremacist Stephen Bannon, who praised the FN during the presidential election campaign, and whose Breitbart News web site refers to the French New Right—the ideological basis of the FN—as a source of “inspiration.” He also hailed Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, Marine’s niece, as a “rising star.”...

Ah, yes. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I am sure the UK is trying to sort out the degree it keeps Trump close.

The United Kingdom can expect to be greeted with every terrorist attack in history and how many were sustained by the UK. It will probably include the centuries of unrest with Northern Ireland.

Look, Trump is looking to defame the allies and provide the IMAGE of being weak on "terror." We have heard this before from a previous Republican administration. This time it will be a more flamboyant media driven approach. I am sure Russia will receive a positive review to the allies and maybe even some intimidation.

This is from RT (Russian Television).

30 January 2017

The latest targets (click here) of US President Donald Trump’s ire are fellow Republican Senators John McCain & Lindsey Graham, who Trump says should focus on important issues “instead of always looking to start World War III.”...

Graham and McCain are brothers separated at birth. They aren't going anywhere. Their electorate has forgotten there are primaries before elections. Arguing or trying to change the image of these two men is useless. I know for a fact John McCain has experience being a target and he lived through it.

NATO has to remember Russia was an ally in WWII, not so much in WWIII. I look at it this way, the "Axis Powers" lost.

January 30, 2017
By the AP

London — A state visit to Britain (click here) by President Donald Trump later this year will go ahead, the British prime minister's office said Monday, despite increasing calls for it to be canceled over his temporary ban on residents of seven majority-Muslim countries entering the U.S.

"An invitation has been extended and accepted," Prime Minister Theresa May's Downing St. office said.

No date has been announced for the state visit, which involves lavish pomp and ceremony, often with a stay at Buckingham Palace hosted by Queen Elizabeth II.

The visit was announced by May during her visit to meet Trump in Washington on Friday, and hailed by government officials as a sign of the close trans-Atlantic relationship....
"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

In case the breed of this rooster is not obvious; it is the "Freedom Ranger." It first came to the USA from France.

Confucius say, "Sex is like Chinese food, always better the next day."

"Good Night, Moon"

The waxing crescent

1.9 day old moon

4.1 percent lit

"Who ever said the moon was the end goal?"

January 27, 2017
By Paul D. Spudis
...Still, (click here) new journeys beyond ISS and low Earth orbit (LEO) were always in the agency’s crosshairs. The idea that Mars should be the next goal came out of Wernher von Braun’s original vision, or rather, a misunderstanding of that vision. Von Braun advocated a systematic, incremental approach to human spaceflight—Earth-to-orbit, space station, Moon tug, and then a Mars spacecraft. But that incremental approach was abandoned with Apollo. Our journey to the Moon was conducted in an emergency mode due to national priorities and security concerns that dictated operations. Thus, technical problems were not systematically studied and considered—they were just bludgeoned into compliance with cash.
Attempts to resurrect an Apollo mode of operation for Mars is inappropriate and has actually hindered our advancement in spacefaring activities for decades. The current NASA budget is about 0.5 percent of the annual federal budget, less than 10 percent of the peak funding level available during Apollo. Given our mounting federal debt and pressing national needs, it’s almost certain there will be no significant budget increases for space in the foreseeable future.
The idea that we can go to Mars using the same template that we used to go to the Moon 50 years ago is ridiculous. It is simply not possible to load up a single rocket, launch and go, discarding pieces along the way. A human Mars mission requires hundreds of tons of equipment and fuel in space, all delivered, assembled and timed to be ready for use at the precise moment every 26 months when a departure window to the red planet opens. The NASA architecture for a human mission to Mars was made in 2009 and has not been revised; it uses several pieces that are unlikely to materialize, to say the least (e.g., a nuclear thermal rocket departure stage). And we still do not know how to land there with a reasonable level of safety. In contrast, several feasible and affordable plans already exist for a return to the Moon using existing technology....