US Army Retired

US Army Retired

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

The News You Won't Easily Find for April 18,. 2018



Scientists investigating a plastic-eating microbe accidentally improved it

This could be a huge discovery. It could help recycle and remove plastics from the environment. With the invention of better plastic harvesting technology, this could mean the removal of vast areas of waste plastics in the oceans.

Some rare good news in the fight against plastic pollution: Scientists working with a plastic-eating microbe discovered in Japan two years ago accidentally created a mutant enzyme that sounds like an environmentalist's dream, the Guardian reports.

The enzyme breaks down the PET—polyethylene terephthalate—used in plastic bottles even more efficiently than the original microbe, which had evolved to eat the waste it encountered around an Osaka recycling plant.



K9s for Warriors



I don't know the specifics of their operation, but this appears to be an awesome program. Information on the organization and ways to donate/help can be found @ https://www.k9sforwarriors.org/

The impact that a service animal can have goes beyond one single person. For Michelle, getting connected with her dog Leia in July 2016 helped her connect with the rest of her family as well. "I want to be able to go to my daughter's functions, show her support and be the outgoing parent to her that I once was," she said. "This training with my new service dog partner gives me that support, help and hope that I've been needing to continue on with life. K9s for Warriors is truly a life-changing program!"



What Responsibility Do Hondurans Have for Their Own Plight?

What a great question. If they're able to organize to flee their failed country, what did they do to organize resistance to the movements of the crisis of 2009 or the outcome of the election of 2017? So, instead of standing up for themselves, they are running to the USA where they claim they have "the right oi asylum?"

Where the hell do they get that?

Because the events of 2009 and 2017 took Honduras from its former position as an island of political and economic stability in a turbulent Central America to its current status as yet another failed Latin American state.

What good are we doing other countries by letting their citizens into the USA? Why can't these mostly able-bodied men stay home and fight for their own freedoms?



The Korean War May Finally Come to an End!

How many know that the war never ended? There was only an "end of hostilities" in 1953. There has never been a peace treaty!

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the South’s president, Moon Jae-in, are scheduled to meet at a rare inter-Korean summit on April 27. A local media report indicated that the date could put an end to more than half a century of confrontation.

Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in are to meet in the demilitarized zone in the village of Panmunjom, 53km north of Seoul. It will be the third event of its kind in the history of the two nations. Two previous meetings in 2000 and 2007 focused on political and economic issues.

Delegations from the North and the South have been holding meetings prior to the high-level talks to discuss a joint statement. The document may lead to “the end of confrontation,” newspaper Munhwa Ilbo reported Tuesday, citing a government official.

Do you think that maybe President Trump's sanctions and tough stand may be working?


‘A little bit short of highest level’: Trump says he spoke with North Korea’s Kim almost ‘directly’ @ https://www.rt.com/usa/424431-trump-kim-direct-communication/

Trump Says US and N. Korea Have Talked at 'Very High Levels,' Gives His 'Blessing' to End Korean War @ https://ijr.com/2018/04/1086125-trump-abe-north-korea/ We now knowit was Mike Pompeo.


Will Korea gambit change Senate minds on Pompeo?

If it doesn't, it will show how deeply buried these Inside the Beltway hacks are in doing everything they can to thwart President Trump. He is doing something no other president has been able to do in decades and The Establishment can't allow that. It will make them look ineffective.

Having succeeded so far at an extraordinary diplomatic assignment, can Democrats on the fence justify blocking his advancement on the bases offered by Democrats thus far? Are they willing to damage this delicate diplomatic moment just to score a few hobby-horse political points?



Trump’s Syria withdrawal plan: Arab occupational force and Arabs will pay for it

Why the hell not? It's their damned problem, not ours.

The WSJ says John Bolton, Trump’s new national security adviser, called Abbas Kamel, Egypt’s acting intelligence chief, to see if the Arab nation with the largest standing army was willing to contribute to the planned changing of guard. Washington also asked Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to contribute billions of dollars into a buildup in northern Syria and asked to send troops as well.

Snip

The WSJ also points out that cost reduction expected by the replacement may not be as big as the Trump administration hopes. The Arab expeditionary force would still require air support, logistical supply and possibly at least some presence of US troops among their ranks.


[I thought the LSM makes Bolton out to be a warmonger, not a peacemaker.]



Trump administration to unveil new sales policy to make it easier for allies to buy arms

The Peaceniks are going to scream that the USA is exporting war around the world. The rest of us will realize this is a move to increase the Made in America promises of our president. More foreign military sales means more jobs in the military/industrial complex, along with the amazing number of jobs created to support all those new wage earners.

US President Donald Trump will roll out a new weapons sales policy which will make it easier for America’s allies to buy weapons from the country’s biggest arms manufacturers, a new report says.

The administration is expected to provide a set of guidelines which will “speed up the approval of arms exports” to certain allies, Reuters has reported. Those allies are thought to include NATO member states, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, as well as Japan and South Korea.

The initiative will also call for members of Trump’s White House cabinet to act as “closers” to seal major arms deals, sources said. Top government officials will also be sent to promote American weapons at international air shows and arms expos.

The plan is expected to loosen export rules on a range of military equipment, including warships, fighter jets, drones and artillery. The ‘Buy American’ initiative is part of Trump’s personal effort to make the US even more dominant in the global sale of weapons — an area where the US is already one of the most dominant players.

White House sources told Reuters that the main goal of the new policy will be to help American companies compete more effectively against Russian and Chinese manufacturers, as well as to create more jobs in weapons manufacturing domestically.



The Environmentalists are Killing Eagles



Horrifying numbers of these elegant creatures are being slaughtered by the blades of wind turbines traveling up to 179mph. They're in places where the birds normally use wind currents while seeking their prey.

Michael Hutchins, the director of the Bird Smart Wind Energy Campaign, was quoted: "[a]lternative energy is not 'green' if it is killing hundreds or thousands or millions of birds annually. Our wildlife should not be collateral damage in our effort to combat climate change, nor does it have to be. Improved regulation and science leading to proper sighting, effective mitigation, and compensation would go a long way to address this conflict."

And this doesn't include myriads of other wild creatures who've lost their natural habitats to spreading acres of solar panels.

But that doesn't mean a thing to eco-freaks.



Why Justice Gorsuch Sided With the Court's Liberals

I felt slightly upset when I read that he agrees to turn over a law calling for the immediate deportation of illegal felons. How could he do that?

Well, this article from the CATO Institute answers the question and makes it crystal clear to me that Justice Gorsuch is doing what he was appointed to – upholding the constitution.

His concurrence argues that courts must review and strike down unconstitutionally vague statutes, not just to ensure fair notice to potential defendants, but also to enforce the separation of powers between the branches of government:

Snip

On the whole, Justice Gorsuch’s opinion in this case is an encouraging sign that he’s aware of and attuned to this set of concerns. Hopefully the newest member of the Court will continue to apply this level of exacting review to vague and arbitrary statutes across the board.


Gorsuch's Immigration Vote Wasn't About Partisan Values — It Was About America's Foundation @ https://ijr.com/2018/04/1085964-neil-gorsuch-immigration/


More than 90 Muslims, nearly all Democrats, running for public office across the U.S.

This should be a warning to all Americans. They must remember that Islam is not a religion, it is a political movement to dominate everything around it.

More than 90 American Muslims, nearly all of them Democrats, are running for public office across the country this year. Many are young and politically inexperienced, and most are long shots. But they represent a collective gamble: that voters are so disgusted by America’s least popular president on record that they’re willing to elect members of America’s least popular religious minority group.

Although their number seems small, the candidacies mark an unprecedented rise for the nation’s diverse Muslim community that typically has been underrepresented in American politics.

One only has to look at what elected Muslims have done in the UK.



How Long is the U.S. Coastline?



Uh, I guess I really don't know. As the article points out, do we include every single cove big or small or just draw a line across them?

In fact, no one could give you the right answer, and if you look around, you’ll find a number of estimations that differ by seemingly improbable amounts. One government report lists the number as 12,383 miles. The same report admits that a different government agency says the figure is actually 88,612 miles. That’s an almost eight-fold disparity for a fact that seems simple to obtain. We all know how to use a ruler, right?



Organs from overdose victims may save thousands on transplant waiting list

Lots of good from tragedies.

The researchers noted that in 2016 there were 3,533 transplants involving overdose-related donors, compared to 149 conducted in 2000. The increase can be attributed to the rise in overall opioid-related deaths, which now account for 13 percent of the nation’s deceased organ donors. They also found that overdose-related organs were more likely to be considered at “increased risk” of infectious diseases such as HIV or hepatitis C, but said with improved testing the overall risk for transplant candidates is low.

I'm torn about donating organs. How does one know the one receiving one is not to blame for the condition requiring the donation? Is this actually nothing but a massive money-making machine for medical facilities? I personally believe that, when it's my time to go, let me go.



Senate Budget chair: What’s the point of my committee?

The committee had nothing to do with creating the Omnibus Bill. It was worked out by the leadership of both parties in both houses. So, it appears they need to do away with the budget committees of both the House and Senate.

How does this get fixed, though? Neither party seems willing to work on a consensus basis for budget appropriations, or for that matter with any sense of budgetary discipline. Instead, they take turns running up the deficit as the majority and scolding the other side when in the minority, while eventually agreeing on ever-escalating spending. If Congress doesn’t want budget discipline, then they don’t need Budget Committees in either chamber, either. All they need are appropriators.



Get ready to feel the power of our fully functional Congressional Review Act

It's a bit complicated but GOP Senators have found a way to roll back rules and regulations going all the way back to the Clinton administration. A simple 51 majority vote will allow them to send bills to the president to overturn onerous regulations.

While Republicans in the Trump era have already taken advantage of the 1996 law to remove more than a dozen recently issued rules, this would be the first time that Congress will have used it to kill a regulatory policy that is several years old.

Now, actions going back to President Bill Clinton’s administration could be in play under the procedure GOP lawmakers are undertaking, forcing numerous agencies to reconsider how they roll out new regulations.

“It’s a hugely important precedent,” Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), the architect of the effort, said in an interview. “It’s potentially a big, big opening.”



Posted by Dale Day at 10:43 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)