US Army Retired

US Army Retired

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Syria Withdrawal not Immediate, 2019 a Dark Year, and More News and Stuff for January 2, 2019


The Left Will Make 2019 a Dark Year
I watched all the New Year’s celebrations and shrugged off the gaiety. As someone deeply interested in the news and politics, I know what’s coming for the next two years. Threats. Investigations. Negativity. Increased divisiveness and violence. I am certainly not looking forward to it.
It will be a dark year in America.
Thanks to the Left’s control of the House of Representatives and the news media, Americans will be kept in a fevered state throughout 2019—with innumerable hearings, exposés, criminal investigations and possible indictments of those around the president and the president himself. Truth will not be the point. Defamation will. Anything that might muddy the president, no matter how spurious, no matter how thin the evidence, will be pursued with gusto. The media will drop “bombshell” after “bombshell.” If lives and careers are ruined, so much the better; no one should be associating with this president anyway, as far as the Left is concerned. The Robert Mueller investigation into alleged “collusion” between the Trump campaign and the Russian government—which has led to guilty pleas and imprisonment of people around President Trump for offenses having nothing to do with such collusion—is a preview of what lies ahead.

Democrat-controlled House faces question: what not to investigate?
Does anyone beside me feel that Mueller is holding off his report findings until after the Dims take over the House on January 3?
Among the avenues Democrats plan to pursue are potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice; Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns; hush money paid by the president’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen to women who alleged they had affairs with Trump; and the misuse of taxpayer dollars by members of the Trump cabinet.
There are also the president’s business dealings and efforts by foreign countries to influence his administration, as well as the increasingly blurred lines between Trump’s family business and the public office he now holds.
We’re going to see 2 years of few or no productive laws passing the House and nothing but committees vying for TV air time to cover their ridiculous hearings.

Nancy Pelosi at Luxury Hawaiian Resort During Government Shutdown
Thousands of government workers looking for a paycheck and our millionaire future Speaker enjoys the fair winds and waves.
The president stays in the White House instead of going to Mar-a-Lago.

Guests are 'treated to luxury amenities,' including a 'spa without walls'

Pelosi Announces Plans For House ‘Climate Change Crisis Committee’ After Flying Thousands of Miles to Posh Hawaiian Resort @ https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/12/pelosi-announces-plans-for-house-climate-change-crisis-committee-after-flying-thousands-of-miles-to-posh-hawaiian-resort/
Hypocrisy, thy name is Pelosi

California Becomes First State to Ban Retail Sale of Dogs, Cats and Rabbits
The Loony Left has really lost it!
Retail pet stores will only be able to sell kittens, rabbits, and puppies if they come from a rescue organization after a new state law goes into effect Tuesday.
With AB 485, California becomes the first state to implement such strict new rules on pet stores. Retailers are banned from selling live dogs, cats or rabbits unless the animal was obtained from a public animal control agency or shelter, humane society group, society for the prevention of cruelty to animals shelter or a rescue group that’s in a cooperative agreement with at least one private or public shelter.
Okay, I understand that some pet retailers use inhumane methods to breed their products, but to ban all retail sales? An expected radical Leftist tactic. Use a sledge hammer when a pair of tweezers will do the job.

Veteran Who Started GoFundMe To Build The Wall Says A Big Announcement Is Coming Next Week
$18 million and the Dims are making loud noises that he can’t use that money to build the border wall.
The problem is donating the money to the federal government. It will go into the General Fund unless a special fund is established for this.
It should be remembered that the Washington Monument was built with private funds.
And, what if the money is used to build barriers on private land with the owner’s permission?

Air Force Sets Media Straight on MAGA Hat Signings
Get it straight from the horse’s mouth!
STUTTGART, Germany— U.S. Air Forces Europe said troops holding “Make America Great Again” hats during President Donald Trump’s visit Thursday to Ramstein Air Base were not in violation of military rules that prohibit taking part in partisan activities while in uniform.
“There is no rule against Airmen bringing personal items to be signed by the president,” USAFE said in a statement.

Coasties Will Get Paid During Shutdown
It's a miracle! The federal government figured out a way not to screw some 42,000 Coast Guardsmen out of pay during the government shutdown. Sort of...
An updated memo released Dec. 27 notes that coasties can expect to get paid on Dec. 31 thanks to a "one-time action" that applies to "military members that served on active duty in the month of December and those reserve military members that drilled prior to the lapse in appropriation."
What’s awesome is how they showed up for duty when they thought they’d have to serve without pay for a while.
Trump Intervened Personally To Make Sure Coast Guard Got Paid During Government Shutdown @ https://americanlookout.com/report-trump-intervened-personally-to-make-sure-coast-guard-got-paid-during-government-shutdown/
At his urging, the Office of Management and Budget, DHS and the Coast Guard determined that the rules governing pay to Coast Guard forces requires it be made through the end of the year. To make it, the lawyers said that unused funding could be tapped for pay. The service had a bit more than the needed $75 million left over from its past continuing resolution appropriation, enough to make this month’s last payroll check.

U.S. Border Chief unveils plans for border wall funding
Phooey on Chuckie and Nancy. He says they’ve got the $5 billion to build defenses along our southern border.
“What we’re talking about is not just a dumb barrier,” he said. “We’re talking about sensors, cameras, lighting, access roads for our agents, a system that helps us secure that area of the border. That’s what we were asking Congress.”
Commissioner McAleenan said border security will take a multi-faceted approach, including new technology, to stop the flow of illegal immigration and drugs from entering the U.S.
“When you’re talking about 60,000 people flowing across the border, when you’re talking about drug smuggling increasing between ports of entry, hard narcotics, synthetic opioids, methamphetamine coming — 25 percent increase the — last year. We’ve seen it increase again the first three months of this year. We need a barrier to help us stop that,” he said.
Commissioner McAleenan also confirmed officials have completed construction of 35 miles of the wall, with 300 million dollars from the 2017 fiscal budget.
He doesn’t say where it’s coming from but I wouldn’t surprise me to learn the funding is somewhere in the federal slush pile.

Battle for the Border Wall
I love this opening paragraph!
Walls work. The Democrats wouldn't have walls around their homes if they didn't. In truth, the Democrats are not against the border wall because they truly believe it won't work, but because they fear it will.
Obama, Schumer, Pelosi, all have walls around their homes. Why is that if their claim that wall don’t work is valid?
As America moves in the right direction, the people opposed to Trump and his GOP allies are becoming more and more bitter, angry, hateful and negative toward our president. Is it because they are jealous? Do they fear he is hurting them politically?
NO.
They are angry because Trump's policies, including a border wall, hurts them in the pocketbook.
If government is running right, and transparency is reigning supreme, the Democrats can't do their backroom deals, and they can't perform their underhanded, behind the scenes (and often illegal) dealings which probably includes foreign money, drug money, and hidden servers in high ranking political bathrooms.
And let's not just blame the Democrats. There are an awful lot of Republicans doing similar things.
Why did we go into Afghanistan, and stay forever? Why not go in, blast the bad guys, and leave? Could it have been so that we could keep an eye on the poppy fields?

Dave Barry's 2018 in Review

No, it doesn’t count.  I don’t care.  It’s not; and even if it was, Dave Barry would be grandfathered in.  I’m not giving up this annual pleasure.
I’ve always thought Barry to be one of the funniest guys around. I remember when he was syndicated nationally and wish it would happen again.
We can summarize 2018 in two words:
It boofed.
We’re not 100 percent sure what “boofing” is, despite the fact that this very issue was discussed in a hearing of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee. All we know for certain about boofing is that it is distasteful and stupid.
As was 2018.
In spades.
From there, he goes on a month-by-month journey of his thoughts about 2018 and it is hilarious.
Here are a couple of snippets:
In entertainment news, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, seeking to atone for the 2017 envelope fiasco, return to the Academy Awards stage and triumphantly announce that the winner of the Oscar for Best Picture is “Gone With the Wind.” Fortunately by then nobody is watching.
Responding to alleged Russian infiltration of Facebook and massive breaches of user data, the Senate Committee of Aging Senators Who Cannot Operate Their Own Cellphhones Without the Assistance of Minions holds a hearing intended to answer such probing questions as:
• What IS Facebook, anyway?
• Where does it go when you turn off the computer?
• Is there a print version?
And
… Washington is a-tingle as the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee holds two hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. The nation watches, riveted, for more than seven hours as Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, deliver emotional testimony, at the end of which the nation has learned the following facts:
1. The senators have no idea what, if anything, actually happened.
2. Nor do they care.
3. The truth is utterly irrelevant to them.
4. Brett Kavanaugh really likes beer.

Syria Withdrawal May Not be Immediate
The Left will jump all over this as another “Trump Lie.” I don’t care what it is. The president is determined to get us out of stupid military interventions around the world and it appears he wants to do it in a sensible and orderly fashion.
President Donald Trump has slowed the pace of the troop pullout, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Sunday.
  • Graham, who met with Trump on Sunday after previously blasting his about-face in the anti-ISIS campaign in Syria, announced that Trump "will make sure any withdrawal from Syria will be done in a fashion to ensure: 1) ISIS is permanently destroyed, 2) Iran doesn't fill in the back end, and 3) our Kurdish allies are protected."
  • "I think we're in a pause situation where we are re-evaluating what's the best way to achieve the president's objective of having people pay more and do more," Graham told The New York Times on Sunday.
  • "He promised to destroy ISIS. He's going to keep that promise," Graham added. "We're not there yet, but as I said today, we're inside the 10-yard line and the president understands the need to finish the job."
  • What "pause situation" actually means, we have no idea. Trump, who declared on Dec. 19 that ISIS was "defeated" in Syria, reversed course 24 hours later after declaring on Twitter that with the U.S. withdrawal, other regional players like Turkey, Russia and Iran "now they will have to fight ISIS and others."
  • According to Pentagon data released as part of an August inspector general report for Operation Inherent Resolve and Operation Pacific Eagle–Philippines, ISIS has an estimated 15,500 to 17,100 fighters in Iraq, as well as 14,000 fighters in Syria; indeed, a Dec. 26 analysis in Jane's Intelligence Review found that ISIS is "exploiting the chaotic and unresolved security situation" in Iraq to reconstitute itself.
  • Also on Sunday, The Los Angeles Times reported that Syrian army units had reportedly entered the key city of Manbij "at the request of Kurdish militias, who were concerned about the imminent threat of attack by Turkey" following Trump's withdrawal order.
To me, the most important factor is getting out without letting either Turkey or Iran from moving in.

Taliban dismiss Afghanistan’s peace talks offer
Why would they want peace? With Pakistan’s support, they’re grabbing up large areas from the central government’s control. With all of our 14,000 advisers, the Afghan military and government is loaded with graft and corruption.
KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – The Taliban have rejected Kabul’s offer of talks next month in Saudi Arabia where the militants, fighting to restore strict Islamic law in Afghanistan, will meet U.S. officials to further peace efforts, a Taliban leader said on Sunday.
“We will meet the U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia in January next year and we will start our talks that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi,” a member of the Taliban’s decision-making Leadership Council told Reuters. “However, we have made it clear to all the stakeholders that we will not talk to the Afghan government.”

Iran Has Held Talks With The Afghan Taliban, State Media Claims
So they won’t talk to US forces but the Pakistani puppets will talk to Iran. Just one more reason why we’ve got to get our forces out of that swamp. Now!
Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, made the announcement during a visit to Kabul on December 26, according to the Fars and Tasnim news agencies.
According to IRNA, Shamkhani said the talks between Iran and the Taliban were held "to help curb the security problems in Afghanistan."
"The Afghan government has been informed of the communications and talks carried out with the Taliban, and this process will continue," Shamkhani added.
The reports provided no details on where and when the meetings took place.

Two Koreas hold groundbreaking ceremony for railways, roads
A very under reported big deal. How many decades?
An aside. I’ve read where the two have been separated for so long that young people from both sides are having problems understanding one another.
South and North Korea held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday to highlight the significance of their goal of modernising and reconnecting cross-border railways and roads, amid the Seoul government’s efforts to improve inter-Korean relations despite stalled denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
Another positive achievement of President Trump the media doesn’t want to report.

Farmers in Bangladesh survive the monsoon by building floating farms

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-46634600/farmers-in-bangladesh-survive-the-monsoon-by-building-floating-farms

Every once in awhile, BBC surprises me with some good stories. This video is a bit over 3 minutes long [and segues to another about Vietnam at the end] and is quite interesting. Check it out.

Van ploughs into Tokyo pedestrians headed for New Year's prayers
Nowhere in the story do they claim the act as terrorism. And they simply cite the perpetrator’s name without any supposed affiliation.
Where in the world can innocents feel safe today.
A small van has ploughed into pedestrians celebrating the new year on one of Tokyo's most famous streets.
The man driving the car fled the scene but was later arrested by police for attempted murder.
Nine people were injured, one seriously, by the attacker who struck in the Harajuku fashion district shortly after midnight.

16-year-old to Get High School Diploma and BA From Harvard in May
So the kid’s smart and works hard to get an education.
Braxton is on track to graduate from the Bachelor of Liberal Arts program, with a major in government and a minor in English, said Harry Pierre, associate director of communications for Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education.
He said he hopes to attend Harvard Law School next.
“Politics is end game for me,” he said, though he’s still too young to vote.
But what the hell is he going to know about the real world?
What has he done in life beside going to school? He even spent his summers at Harvard.
I’m sorry but, while I admire the kid’s achieving his goals, the last thing we need in governing this country is someone else who’s never met a payroll or worked at a real job.

The 10 most intriguing inventions of 2018
All of these seem to be in the very first stages without provable results.
Artificial synapses
Anti-aging medicines
Electric planes with no moving parts
Now this I find hard to believe.

DNA computing for programmable pills

Group brain-to-brain communication

Seeing through walls using Wi-Fi

Secure quantum communications via satellite

Phones that shoot a million frames per second

Edible electronics

Electricity-generating boots


The breakthroughs that could save our lives
And here comes the medical stuff.

First gene-edited babies, probably.

This really bothers me. Men playing God?

From paralysis to walking

90 billion cancer-killers

New womb, new baby

Sight restored

Growing human eggs

Another case of playing God

A test for all cancer?

Microbes are the hidden half of our bodies

The artificial intelligence will see you now

Thinking robots on the way?
With more and explanations @ https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46597605

Posted by Dale Day at 3:29 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)