Speaking of presidents leaving office……Tomorrow is yet another changing of the imperial guard…..but Ike’s parting shot is a classic…..
I have long ranted against the ever expanding Military-Industrial Complex (M-IC)….and yet a GOP president, Eisenhower, was one of the first to warn the country about this phenom in his farewell speech to the nation.
I thought it would be a good way to end the day….the day before a new president is sworn in to the office of president.
Have a day my friends……
Tomorrow we welcome the new master of the universe and bid good-bye to the old one……the day will be filled with all sorts of things and spectacles and pomp and ceremony….everything that has NOTHING to do with the governance of this country….just theater of the absurd.
Me? I will leave the play by play and the color commentary of the day to others…especially those Trump supporters……but in case you will do the same as I do and avoid this thing with all passion and would like to have an idea of what to expect….I can help…at least a bit…..
As Donald Trump is officially sworn in as America’s 45th president, his vanquished rival will have an up close and personal view of the proceedings. Hillary Clinton, along with her husband, will stand only yards away from Trump during his inauguration, with cameras trained on her, in what the Guardian describes as “a special kind of torture” for the woman who hoped to be the first female US president. Other things to expect from the day:
- The Washington Post lays out the plan for what it calls “a relatively low-key affair” to be stretched over three days (President Obama’s inauguration lasted five). Trump will give a short speech, per CNN, to be followed by one of the shortest inauguration parades on record.
- The New York Times explores the cost of the whole shindig, including up to $100 million in security, and where the money will come from.
- Politico describes the order of Trump’s swearing-in ceremony, with performances by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and America’s Got Talent runner-up Jackie Evancho. Toby Keith, 3 Doors Down, Lee Greenwood, and the Rockettes will also perform at inauguration events.
- Few celebrities are expected to be among the 800,000 people to attend alongside Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush, but a Presidential Inaugural Committee rep tells the Daily Beast that “we have the biggest celebrity in the world.” No, he doesn’t mean Taylor Swift.
- USA Today names several Democrats who are boycotting the event, some of whom plan to attend the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday.
Former inaugural announcer Charlie Brotman won’t be there, either.
The first day of the rest of your life begins tomorrow……pray for your souls.
Out new prez has not even taking the office officially and he is looking at a couple of major situations…..I wrote about one of them this morning…Gambia and now it looks like their is more saber rattling coming from Pakistan over the region of Kashmir……
Pakistan’s Defence Minister has warned it will ‘eliminate India’ with nuclear weapons if the country ‘dares to impose war’.
His comments came as Pakistan blamed ‘cross-border fire’ from India for the death of two of its soldiers in the disputed region of Kashmir.
Fears are growing that the two old enemies may go to war again.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif reportedly told Pakistani TV channel SAMAA on September 26: ‘We will destroy India if it dares to impose war on us. Pakistan army is fully prepared to answer any misadventure of India.
‘We have not made an atomic device to display in a showcase. If a such a situation arises we will use it and eliminate India.’
We have been involved in the situation in Syria now for years and the way things look it may be even more years….
In the past we have held talks with this group or that….with this batch of rebels or that….and in all that time few have spoken with Syria’s Assad to see if there is any possibility of cooperation and a speedy end to the conflict.
The best we could muster was McCain and his entourage meeting with a few rebels here and there and few other elected officials meet with refugees…but nothing with the government of the country….
Well that may have changed.
I seems that a US rep Tulsi Gabbard has ventured to the capital of Syria……
Long opposed to US attempts to impose regime change in Syria, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D – HI) has made a trip to Syria this week, an unannounced visit which saw Gabbard spending considerable time in the capital city of Damascus “to promote and work for peace.”
Gabbard’s office, citing security, says a lot of the details of the trip are not going to be revealed until she has returned to the United States, and they declined to say if she had met directly with President Bashar al-Assad, though they did confirm she’d met with several government leaders while in Damascus.
(antiwar.com)
The big tah-do is the media asking who paid for the trip…..since she met with Trump a few weeks ago there is wild speculation about her possibly having a spot in the Trump cabinet……
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s office won’t say who is paying for the Hawaii Democrat’s controversial trip to Syria and Lebanon this week.
Gabbard spokeswoman Emily Latimer said the trip wasn’t funded using taxpayer dollars and was approved by the House Ethics Committee but wouldn’t provide further information when pressed by POLITICO. The lawmaker is currently on the trip, though it’s not clear exactly when she’ll be returning.
Source: Gabbard won’t disclose who’s paying for secret trip to Syria – POLITICO
This situation will fall by the wayside with all the hoopla over the inauguration….which is sad for this could be a monumental situation if the talks were productive….but for now we may never know….and this is a bright light in the web of international affairs…..
The continent of Africa is usually forgotten by most American admins that is until it is needed for one policy or another….
I know it is too early to tell just what the approach to Africa by the Trump boyz will be….but there has been a few articles written about what the possibilities could be…..
The President-elect of the United States has had precious little to say about U.S. policy toward Africa since his shock election victory in November 2016.
But a four-page list of questions on U.S. policy in Africa, submitted by Donald Trump’s transition team to the State Department, has indicated a possible skepticism about the country’s counter-terrorism policy in Africa, and also raises questions about the continuation of aid programs.
Source: What we’ve learned about Donald Trump’s Africa policy
Some Americans look at Africa as some sort of third world Hell hole….but some of the fastest growing economies are on the African continent….the US might profit from paying closer attention to the workings in Africa.
We will see just how the continent is approached by a new admin at the wheel of state.
His, Trump, first test may be the situation in Gambia…..as well as the army mutiny in Ivory Coast……war is brewing and the world will look to the US for some sort of leadership….
You are thinking “not a big deal”?
Keep in mind the US has troops stationed in the region and it is not like we are opposed to nation building…..
A situation to watch…….
AS the day approaches for our new prez to take his place among our other leaders…..I would like to address a campaign slogan of Trump’s…….
This is an op-ed that I recently wrote for Ace News Room……
During his rise to glory I thought that one of is, Trump’s, slogans, “America First” sounded a lot like isolationism from you near past….. But first let me explain isolation…
Source: Is “America First” Just Isolationism? | Ace News Room