So, lets finish off the news-
Iran: Starts mass production of its Sa'eqeh Fighter-bomber. The "Thunderbolt" will satisfy the needs of Iran's Air Force. A single seat plane, its design is derived from the American Northrop F-5 Fighter, which has two vertical stabilizers instead of one. Iran already has a squadron of these new aircraft, which were updated from the 2005 test models in 2012.
North Korea: From Pyongyang, North Korea's Leader Kim Jong-Un has come up with yet another idea, supposedly a well-thought out war plan to complete an invasion of South Korea within a week, using asymmetric capabilities including nuclear weapons. ( Makes one wonder what might be left of the Korean Peninsula once nukes enter into the fray?")
- North Korea asks Washington to lift all "unreasonable sanctions" against them and urge Seoul to clarify its stance on improving inter-Korean relations.
- South Korea refuses to stop anti- North Korean-Communist Party oppression leaflet spread and refused to stop being involved in joint military exercises with the United States Military.
U.S.: To cut military bases in Britain and 14 other facilities in Europe and give them back to their host nations in a bid to save the U.S. Government $500 million annually.The restructuring will pull thousands of US military and Civilian Department of Defense employees out of Britain and Germany over several years. Britain will lose about 2,000 American troops. (Yes, this series of events, including military departures from Europe, will weaken NATO and effect the European Union. This event is shown to happen in my book, A Coming Storm, as one of the incites I was provided. The US Military was being brought home to deal with race rioting and declaration of Martial Law, but mine had much to do with the coming comet. I check with NASA every day and they continue to print nothing about Asteroid 2014 UR116. But through the Russian news service NASA scientist denied any possible harm coming from the asteroid, based on his investigation of numbers for a previous near miss in 2013. As I said earlier, Scientists know better than to base their work on one event. But I did notice how NASA has now set up 24-hour observation post of the Comet ISON, which was possibly headed for earth last year, but supposedly didn't survive its encounter with the sun. Photos taken from deep space showed part of the comet had survived but became lost in space. Maybe we have two space rocks to be concerned about in 2017- ISON and UR116. In any case, in my book, with the U.S. pull-out of Europe and Britain, NATO is now left too weak to stand-up against Russia's Western Army and the invasion is on. Now I'm not trying to sell a book here, at this moment, I'm trying to say that these base and facility closures could cause severe problems in Europe and provide anti-EU propaganda ammo. China and its 10 country alliance known at this point as ASEAN, may see this as a weakness on our part. They are once again making us kowtow to them, this time over the Taiwan of Flag being raised over their former embassy, which has China all upset. No, we need to be wary of those who we once called friend and then felt the hot blade of betrayal in our back, and be ready to stand tall beside those who we made sincere promises too and those who hold freedom and democracy up high. Based on what I have seen in the Department of Defense Budget problems and duplications of costs, I do not believe the savings of $500 million per year is an accurate figure.)
China: Now of a stronger interest, China is to receive over 1,400 "Dunkin' Donut" Outlets. Currently, the business only has 16 outlets in China and it appears the Chinese people love American-style doughnuts.
U.S.: Macy's to close 14 of their stores in the Spring. Number of employees being laid off was not very clear, but it appears they will try to transfer as many jobs to other stores.
Turkey: Top Muslim Religious Body has issued a "Fatwa", (sort of like a decree with teeth to it), urging Muslims to remove their tattoos and repent of getting them. ( In desert regions, where laser therapy is not easy to find, this will require men and women to use knives to cut the tattoo away, or a hot iron to scar over the artwork. In either case it will be sincerely painful. Now some hardline denominational Christians feel much the same way about tattoos, while younger, non-denominational Christians look to the heart of the man or woman, and not the artwork on their skin. In near countless exchanges, where young and middle-aged Christians bearing tattoos meet up with the unsaved, a door is suddenly open because of that skin artwork. It happened in the 60's with hair length and Christian worship teams playing guitars and drums. Only the Father can judge, but if we see our brother or sister in sin we should tell them. So, I've seen a lot of unsavory street tattoos altered out of reverence and love for their Savior by these new Christians. Imagine, in some Muslim states a woman wearing make-up can be caned or lashed. How frightening that might be for a visiting Muslim imam (holy man) to attend a University Social Night on Campus. Where's there enough facial make-up on the ladies an on the men, as well, to form a life-sized wax sculpture of the President. While living in Vietnam and Thailand I observed the cultural differences between the locals and us, represented by the U.S. Military. These citizens of Southeast Asia were mostly Buddhist and they often looked upon us as foolish aliens from another world, and wished we'd soon return to it. )
U.S.: Military Veterans were disappointed when President Obama drove right past the Phoenix VA Hospital to deliver a speech one mile away. He never did visit the VA Hospital to say a word to the men and women who had given much for their country, and might've been thrilled to have a couple seconds to say hello to their Commander and Chief, maybe a quick photo with ward groupings, but he didn't bother and this was reported to have hurt a lot of feeling from would vets. But again, they need to remember, this President never served in the military and has no understanding of helping out a fallen buddy.
U.S.: U.S. Department of State Officials still upset over Taiwans New Year's Days flag episode and have gone so far as to open formal discussions with Taiwan to KEEP CHINA HAPPY. This is certainly not one of our best George Washington moments. Let's see- China is communist, anti-democracy and known for numerous human rights violations, while Taiwan is pro-democratic, stands up to China and simply hoisted their country's flag over the former embassy, which was closed over three decades ago when the US decided to back down to China and only recognize the one Chinese country. Again, not one of our better moments.
U.S.: A widening rift between Moscow and the US over Russia's new nuclear cruise missiles and increasingly daring patrols by Russian submarines threatens to end an era of Arms Control and bring back a dangerous rivalry. U.S. Had threatened retaliation action over Russia's development of their new cruise missile. Washington alleges it violates one of the key arms controls treaties of the Cold War and raised prospects of returning America cruise missiles to Europe, which have been gone for 23-years.
Russia: Russian Prime Minister Medvedev has recently signed off on a decree that states transgender people and people with other sexual "disorders", to include Lesbian and gays, and bisexuals, plus others I will not list here, have been identified as a new threat to Russian roads and they are now disqualified from driving. Check out Russian Herald or St. Petersburg Russian Paper. Moscow Times did not carry the story yesterday, but may today.
That's all for tonight, folks. Pass this blog on to others, unless they work for the federal government. And let others know about my book and Alaska Dreams Publishing.
God Bless and remember, keep your brain in your hands, it's all too easy to lose. Then you start recalling all those ugly girls whom your mother paid to go out with you in Junior High.
BILL