Month: August 2019

Afghanistan–Yes, We Have A Deal

The US and the Taleban in Afghanistan have been working on a peace deal that would see US troops out of the country…..it has been an up and down process from close no cigar to maybe to…….

It seems the news yesterday was good news indeed……

Sources within Doha say that the most recent round of talks between the US and Taliban have worked out a peace deal for Afghanistan. The plan is to announce it formally in a few days, giving the US time to inform the Afghan government on what’s been decided.

Details aren’t being made public so far, but US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is heading to Kabul to brief the government there, and will subsequently travel to Brussels to inform NATO about what is going on.

Despite the indications this is a done deal, President Trump is still being very coy, saying that as far as he is concerned there is “no timeline” for ending the Afghan War, and that he is “in no rush.”

Trump has been publicly of two minds on Afghanistan for a long time, however, conceding that the war is a waste and should be ended while at the same time saying he’s also perfectly fine with America’s longest war dragging on even longer.

(antiwar.com)

Announcement of pact will be made in a few days.

With the announcement the Taleban had one of their own…..

Taliban commanders anonymously quoted in the press are claiming that their reported peace deal with the US would not require them to stop carrying out attacks on he Afghan government, but would require the US to stop coming to the aid of the Ghani government.

If this was true, it would be very surprising, as all indications were that the peace deal was intended to be followed quickly with a ceasefire across Afghanistan while US troops are withdrawing, and power-sharing talks.

Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated the treated, says this is not true, and that the US would defend the Afghan forces even after any peace deal, and that the future would be decided in intra-Afghan negotiations.

(antiwar.com)

So we have a possible peace deal in Afghanistan between the Taleban and the US and nothing much would change….do I have this about right?

As a student of conflict resolution would someone explain to me how this is a success…..

Is this just a way to head off the antiwar rhetoric in the coming election?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Yemen–What Was The Point?

We all mostly know about the conflict raging between the Saudis and their allies and the Houthi minority in Yemen.  In other words it is basically a North versus South Yemen……and the that would return the nation to 1962.

The northern portion of Yemen was ruled by imams until a pro-Egyptian military coup took place in 1962. The junta proclaimed the Yemen Arab Republic, and after a civil war in which Egypt’s Nasser and the USSR supported the revolutionaries and King Saud of Saudi Arabia and King Hussein of Jordan supported the royalists, the royalists were finally defeated in mid-1969.

The southern port of Aden, strategically located at the opening of the Red Sea, was colonized by Britain in 1839, and by 1937, with an expansion of its territory, it was known as the Aden Protectorate. In the 1960s the Nationalist Liberation Front (NLF) fought against British rule, which led to the establishment of the People’s Republic of Southern Yemen on Nov. 30, 1967. In 1979, under strong Soviet influence, the country became the only Marxist state in the Arab world.

The Republic of Yemen was established on May 22, 1990, when pro-Western Yemen and the Marxist Yemen Arab Republic merged after 300 years of separation to form the new nation. The poverty and decline in Soviet economic support in the south was an important incentive for the merger. The new president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was elected by the parliaments of both countries.

And now it appears thanks to the involvement of the Saudis that the nation of Yemen may once again become two….the US backed conflict by the Saudis will once again divide Yemen into North and South Yemen…..back to the future?

Here we go again (shades of 1962)

Clashes in the port city of Aden between secessionists and loyalists of the internationally recognised president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, threaten to tip southern Yemen into a civil war within a civil war. Such a conflict would deepen what is already the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and make a national political settlement harder to achieve. In the past, half-measures helped de-escalate simmering tensions in the south; today’s circumstances require robust diplomatic intervention from the UN, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to avoid the worst and help forge a durable solution.

https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/gulf-and-arabian-peninsula/yemen/preventing-civil-war-within-civil-war-yemen

Image result for images of South Yemen

The Deeper Meaning in a Lost War

If Yemen splits (again) what was the last few decades all about?

Amazing no matter how much things change they stay the same.

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Trump Has A Challenger

Closing Thought–26Aug19

Not much news on the Right from the GOP other than what insults and one liners the president and the GOP can sling at the Dems……

The sad part is that the Dems are the biggest circus in town until the news came out the Trump would face a challenger in Rep. Joe Walsh….

Former congressman Joe Walsh wrote an op-ed in the New York Times saying President Trump should face a conservative challenger in the primary. Now, it appears, Walsh has found just the guy: himself. Both the Times and Politico report that Walsh, who calls Trump “absolutely unfit” for office, is poised to announce his candidacy as early as this weekend. Details and developments:

  • Who’s Walsh? He served one term in the House after being elected in Illinois as a Tea Party conservative in 2010. Walsh, who now hosts a radio show, initially supported Trump but now is a vocal critic.
  • His chances: Pretty much non-existent, with a caveat. Walsh has “virtually no chance” of beating Trump, per the Times, and Politico agrees he has “little chance of posing a genuine threat.” However, Walsh could expose Trump’s weaknesses on the right, which could hurt the president in a general election.
  • His rationale: Walsh calls Trump, among other things, a “racial arsonist,” in his op-ed. And he tells the Times, referring to Trump’s trip to Finland last year: “He lost me for good in Helsinki, when he stood in front of the world and said, ‘I believe Putin and I don’t believe my fellow Americans.'”
  • His own rhetoric: Axios notes that Walsh has no shortage of controversial comments on his own record and rounds up examples, including a tweet from 2016 in which he wrote, “I think Obama is Muslim. I think in his head and in his heart he has always been.” Walsh acknowledged as much in his op-ed, saying he regretted how he has “expressed hate” for his rivals. “We now see where this can lead.”
  • The problem: “Walsh’s history of divisive rhetoric and previous support for Trump won’t help distinguish him in the eyes of Never Trump Republicans who want to see the president ousted,” writes Ursula Perano of Axios. “And even if it did, Trump continues to maintain a near-90% approval rating within the GOP.”
  • Trump’s reaction: Nothing, yet. But campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh is succinct on Walsh’s expected run: “Certain failure.”
  • Prominent backer: Bill Kristol of the now-defunct conservative magazine the Weekly Standard is behind Walsh’s move and thinks he makes a “good David” in a David-and-Goliath way. At Breitbart, Joel Pollack see this as an “odd pairing” and also views Walsh’s past rhetoric as a liability in regard to being a Trump alternative. “Yet to Kristol, and the Times, who have struggled to understand the conservative movement and Trump’s political base, he seems good enough.”
  • No. 2: The Hill notes that Walsh would join former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld as the only other Republican to officially declare a primary challenge to Trump. Walsh is to the right of Weld, however, notes T.LaDuke of Red State, who nevertheless sees Walsh’s move as a “political suicide attempt or a vanity exercise.”

Cannot wait to see what verbal insults Trump throws at these people….what cutsey names he has or the lies he can spread….

If he hangs in there he could help lessen the support for Daddy Trump and help the Dems out……

Wishful thinking, huh?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

 

Under Order From Supreme Leader

First Trump orders American companies to find a way out of the China market…….https://lobotero.com/2019/08/26/a-state-controlled-economy/…now he is ordering you and me as well….

As part of his ever-escalating trade war with China, Donald Trump has ordered Americans to stop patronizing Chinese restaurants.

“If they think they can outsmart me, they better think again,” said the master negotiator. “I am hitting them where it hurts, in the stomach. This was always my nuclear option and I’m using it. No more family nights at the local Chinese restaurant … no more takeout.”

Following Trump’s latest directive, which he put out in a tweet, a few staff members gently tried to explain to Trump that the People’s Republic of China does not own any restaurants in the United States, let alone Chinese restaurants; that this boycotting of Chinese eateries will have no effect on our adversary.

“Maybe not,” said Trump, “but it will severely cut down on the food they export to our country. Where do you think all those Peking ducks come from? And those fortune cookies? And that special, secret sauce for General Tso’s chicken? … China.”

It remains to be seen if Americans will give up their love of Chinese food. Already several Jewish organizations, including the Jewish Federation of North America and the National Council of Jewish Woman, have come out strongly in opposition to the proposed ban.

(Yahoo News)

Does he know how incredibly STUPID he sounds?

I thought this might be an Onion post….but I could not find a Snark tag…..

Peking is a cooking method not a place.  Fortune cookies were invested in San Francisco I believe  as  well as General Tso’s Chicken….this man illustrates daily to me that he should not be allowed to do anything but some about Reality TV of which he is a bit of an expert.

Not Much New Under The Immigration Sun

When Donald Trump rode down the golden staircase from heaven and announced his candidacy for the presidency we were about to set sail on the “way back” machine.

In those dark days we learned just what his whole candidacy would be about…..immigration and the demonization of those people trying to enter into the US…these people are criminals, disease carriers, weak and imperfect…..in making these statements he is resurrecting a century’s old evil….that of Eugenics.

What the Hell is Eugenics anyway?

Eugenics is the philosophy and social movement that argues it is possible to improve the human race and society by encouraging reproduction by people or populations with “desirable” traits (termed “positive” eugenics) and discouraging reproduction by people with “undesirable” qualities (termed “negative” eugenics). The eugenics movement began in the United States in the early part of the 20th century; the United States was the first country to have a systematic program for performing sterilizations on individuals without their knowledge or against their will. It was supported and encouraged by a wide swath of people, including politicians, scientists, social reformers, prominent business leaders and other influential individuals who shared a goal of reducing the “burden” on society. The majority of people targeted for sterilization were deemed of inferior intelligence, particularly poor people and eventually people of color

Does that sound vaguely familiar?  Say the rhetoric of some madman in the 1930s Europe, perhaps.

Well the idea of eugenics was not some wrapped idea from the  mind of a dictator but rather the mind of learned men in the US….let’s right…the program that lead to genocide was an American innovation.

We Americans passed laws that made eugenics possible.

The eugenics movement began in the U.S. in the late 19th century. However, unlike in Britain, eugenicists in the U.S. focused on efforts to stop the transmission of negative or “undesirable” traits from generation to generation. In response to these ideas, some US leaders, private citizens, and corporations started funding eugenical studies.  This lead to the 1911 establishment of The Eugenics Records Office (ERO) in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. The ERO spent time tracking family histories and concluded that people deemed to be unfit more often came from families that were poor, low in social standing, immigrant, and/or minority. Further, ERO researchers “demonstrated” that the undesirable traits in these families, such as pauperism, were due to genetics, and not lack of resources.

Committees were convened to offer solutions to the problem of the growing number of “undesirables” in the U.S. population. Stricter immigration rules were enacted, but the most ominous resolution was a plan to sterilize “unfit” individuals to prevent them from passing on their negative traits. During the 20th century, a total of 33 states had sterilization programs in place. While at first sterilization efforts targeted mentally ill people exclusively, later the traits deemed serious enough to warrant sterilization included alcoholism, criminality chronic poverty, blindness, deafness, feeble-mindedness, and promiscuity. It was also not uncommon for African American women to be sterilized during other medical procedures without consent.  Most people subjected to these sterilizations had no choice, and because the program was run by the government, they had little chance of escaping the procedure.  It is thought that around 65,000 Americans were sterilized during this time period.

Introduction to Eugenics

Does the history of eugenics sound at all familiar?  I am guessing that if you are a screaming racist then the answer would be no….but to the rest of us it sounds all too familiar…..

“We cannot build a wall high enough to keep out the wrong sorts of humans”…..that was not Donald Trump but rather an American statesman in the early 1900s Charles Davenport.

Even a founder of the NAACP WEB DuBois thought that eugenics was a good idea with African-Americans….think not?

https://www.aaihs.org/colorism-as-racism-garvey-du-bois-and-the-other-color-line/

Or this……

https://www.blackagendareport.com/black_eugenics_sterilization_black_poor

And you thought we had a handle on the race thing……HA!

If you have thoughts then now is a good time……

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

A State Controlled Economy?

Do we still support free markets?

According to the president….HE controls our markets. He has gone so far as to “ORDER” American firms to find an alternate to China’s markets.

ORDERED is the key concept in his statement.

It’s another volatile day on Wall Street, with the Dow down about 500 points at midday. Renewed friction between the US and China is to blame, as President Trump unleashed a series of angry tweets on that subject as well as Fed chief Jerome “Jay” Powell. After Beijing said it would impose tariffs on an additional $75 billion worth of American goods, Trump tweeted that US companies are “hereby ordered” to immediately look for alternatives to China, including relocating operations, reports the Wall Street Journal. “We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far better off without them.” But Beijing was hardly Trump’s only target. After Powell failed to be assertive enough to Trump’s liking in a speech on cutting rates, Trump wrote: “As usual, the Fed did NOTHING!” But his next tweet drew the real attention: “My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?”

Trump’s reference to Xi as an “enemy” strikes CNBC as particularly bad news. It “suggests that the president’s personal relationship with Xi, which Trump has touted as the best route to completing a major trade deal uniting the world’s two largest economies, is at a low point,” writes Tucker Higgins. China’s decision to impose the new tariffs, which go into effect in phases on Sept. 1 and Dec. 15, are retaliation for new tariffs the US is imposing on China, notes the Journal. In another slam against Beijing, Trump wrote that he is ordering “all carriers, including Fed Ex, Amazon, UPS and the Post Office, to SEARCH FOR & REFUSE, all deliveries of Fentanyl from China” because he says the drug is killing Americans

Now if another president who shall remain un-named, had issued this statement the GOP would be having a stroke and going on aimlessly about socialism, communism and stuff like that.

Where are these voices today?

They are still there just aimed at rivals in the political arena…they do not have the inclination to see what their mindless leader is doing to the country and the world.

Let me help those DOLTS in the GOP that may not be aware of what a controlled economy may be…..

The short version……

A centrally planned economy is an economic system in which a single authority, such as a government, makes economic decisions regarding the manufacturing and the distribution of products. Centrally planned economies are the flip-side to market economies, in which such decisions are traditionally made by businesses and consumers, rather than by central authorities.

Is this Trumps “New Economic Policy”?

Do I need to explain this as well?  (it is late and I am tired…use Google)

Not to worry…the “Pussy” president is considering changing his mind on the trade war with China…….

President Donald Trump on Sunday signaled he might be having regrets about his deepening trade conflict with China, telling reporters less than 48 hours after he pledged to raise tariffs on Beijing that he has “second thoughts about everything.”

Asked during a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain whether he was second-guessing his posture on China, Trump said: “Yeah, sure why not. Might as well. Might as well.”

The comments marked the president’s first public signal of regret about how he was fighting China through escalating tariffs. They attracted immediate attention across U.S. media because of the unusual nature of Trump’s remarks, leading White House officials to seek clarity from him in between bilateral sit-downs on Sunday morning. The president told aides, “You know what I meant,” according to a person familiar with the conversation.

About five hours later, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said Trump’s answer to a question about whether he had second thoughts on his approach with China had been “greatly misinterpreted.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/25/donald-trump-china-trade-war-1474382

Sounds to me like he is scared of the markets and his re-election….so he pussied out.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

North Korea–Missiles And Other Stuff

For about a month now the North Koreans have rained missiles down into the Sea of Japan…..and yet our Supreme Leader tells us there is nothing to worry about or to see with these actions.

https://lobotero.com/2019/08/02/north-korea-a-missile-too-far/

https://lobotero.com/2019/08/13/north-korea-missiles-everywhere/

And yet again just a couple of days ago…..

The latest in a flurry of such test fires in recent months, both Japan and South Korea have reported that North Korea has fired a pair of rockets off their east coast on Saturday morning. The rockets landed in the sea, outside of Japan’s territorial water, and did no damage to anything.

Despite noting that nothing landed in their territorial waters, Japan was quick to caution ships to stay well clear of any debris from the rockets. The South Korean government would only say they are monitoring for additional launches.

These reports, and the fact that the rockets landed short of Japan, point to yet more short-range rocket testing. That has been virtually the entirety of North Korea’s recent tests, and US officials have shrugged them off as largely immaterial.

(antiwar.com)

His Majesty gets “beautiful letters” from Kim and yet Trump’s right hand Pompeo is not so popular with the North Koreans…..

North Korea’s foreign minister on Friday called US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a “poisonous plant of American diplomacy” and vowed to “shutter the absurd dream” that sanctions will force a change in Pyongyang. The North’s blistering rhetoric may dim the prospect for an early resumption of nuclear negotiations between the countries, the AP reports. A senior US diplomat said earlier this week that Washington was ready to restart the talks, a day after US and South Korean militaries ended routine drills that Pyongyang called an invasion rehearsal. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho made the comments to protest Pompeo’s remark in an interview with the Washington Examiner earlier this week that Washington will maintain crippling sanctions on North Korea unless it denuclearizes.

Ri said Pompeo is a “brazen” man because he “had begged for” North Korean denuclearization and improved bilateral ties when he visited Pyongyang and met leader Kim Jong Un several times. In April, North Korea demanded President Trump remove Pompeo from the nuclear negotiations. Ri said North Korea is ready for both dialogue and confrontation, but he warned that North Korea will try to remain “America’s biggest threat” if the US continues to confront the North with sanctions. South Korea, meanwhile, said it is terminating an intelligence-sharing deal with Japan that focused on classified information about North Korea, a surprise announcement that is likely to set back US efforts to bolster security cooperation in the region. Seoul attributed the decision to its bitter trade dispute with Japan.

Poison Plant?  Is that like a Noxious Weed?

There is other news from the Korean Peninsula than just the North Koreans…..

Appears the Japan is following in Trump’s demented shadow on trade….

South Korea said Thursday it is canceling an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan amid a bitter trade dispute, a surprise announcement that is likely to set back US efforts to bolster mutual security cooperation with two of its most important allies in the Asian region, per the AP. South Korea’s decision will further aggravate its relations with Japan, which are already at their lowest point since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1965. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Many experts had predicted that South Korea would be unlikely to spike the 3-year-old intelligence-sharing deal for the sake of its relations with the United States. As the New York Times notes, the US pushed for the deal partly to keep a better eye on North Korea’s military activity.

Neither Japan nor the US has responded to the move. South Korea’s presidential office said it decided to terminate the intelligence deal because Japan’s recent decision to downgrade South Korea’s trade status caused a “grave” change in security cooperation between the countries. In recent weeks, Japan has imposed stricter controls on exports to South Korea of three chemicals essential for manufacturing semiconductors and display screens—key export items for South Korea—and decided to remove South Korea from a list of countries granted preferential trade status. South Korea accuses Japan of weaponizing trade to punish it over a separate dispute linked to Japan’s brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Japan denies that, saying its steps were taken because of unspecified security concerns.

Has our president started a new “age of mercantilism”?  (Do I need to explain the term?)

 

Sunday Space Thoughts

It is that time again……

Since I am the only one that cares I feel that I must keep my readers abreast of developments in space…..since they will be paying for it with their tax dollars for many generations to come…..

Now would it not be nice to know what you are paying for?

Bear with me and learn stuff.

August will be the launch of US Space Command……

We’re a week away from having a US Space Command—not to be confused with a US Space Force. “Next week we will formally stand up the new unified combatant command that will be known as the United States Space Command,” Vice President Mike Pence announced Tuesday during a meeting of the National Space Council, referring to space as “war-fighting domain,” per Space.com. In tweets late last year, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan clarified that a potential Space Force—to be established by 2020 pending congressional approval and funding—would “serve as a force provider for personnel, assets, and capabilities supporting space operations, while Space Command will serve as the operational command that will employ space capabilities and lead space operations.”

Nearly 90 people will be under the direction of Gen. John Raymond, Space.com reports, describing a formal ceremony to establish the command on Aug. 29. Those personnel will be in charge of missile warnings, space control, satellite operations, and space support, said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, who also spoke at the meeting, per the Hill. “The direction is clear, we understand it and we’re moving out.” Shanahan noted in 2018, “This action reflects the value of space contributions to national security, the evolution of the threats to US space systems, and the importance of deterring potential adversaries from attacking US space systems.” It’ll be America’s first new combatant command in a decade, following the creation of the US Africa Command in 2009.

Virgin Galactic has announced a new Space Port in New Mexico….

Spaceport America is no longer just a shiny shell of hope that space tourism would one day launch from a remote spot in the New Mexico desert. The once-empty hangar that anchors the taxpayer-financed launch and landing facility has been transformed into a custom-tailored headquarters where Virgin Galactic will run its commercial flight operations. The interior spaces unveiled Thursday aim to connect paying customers with every aspect of the operation, providing views of the hangar and the space vehicles as well as the banks of monitors inside mission control, the AP reports. Two levels within the spaceport include mission control, a preparation area for pilots, and a lounge for customers and their friends and families. There’s also space behind two massive sliding doors to accommodate two of Virgin Galactic’s carrier planes and a fleet of six-passenger rocket ships.

Company officials say the space is meant to create “an unparalleled experience” as customers prepare for what Virgin Galactic describes as the journey of a lifetime. Just how soon customers will file into the spaceport for the first commercial flights to space has yet to be determined, but Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides says that once the test flights are complete, commercial operations can begin. He envisions a fundamental shift in humanity’s relationship with space, noting that fewer than 600 people ever have ventured beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. “We’re going to be able to send way more than that to space from this facility here,” he says. “In another 15 years, I really hope that we’ve had thousands of people go.” About 600 people have reserved a seat, according to the company, at a cost of $250,000 a ticket.

Does that come with a payment plan?

Instead of looking for cash in tourism why not come up with a plan to help clean up the space around this tiny blue planet of tired and worn out satellites?

For the low, low price of $2.25 million, SpaceX will put your small satellite on a big Falcon 9 rocket and shoot it to orbit with a bunch of similarly small satellites. It’s part of a new initiative called the SmallSat Rideshare Program, and with a first flight in late 2020 or early 2021, it will carry only diminutive instruments, a boon for their makers. While a Falcon 9 carried out a similar rideshare mission last year, that launch was organized by another company. This time, SpaceX itself is promising “regularly scheduled, dedicated Falcon 9 rideshare missions,” according to its website.

https://www.wired.com/story/here-come-the-space-tugs-ready-to-tidy-up-earths-orbits/

Lastly…..why is space so critical?

Easy answer lots of wealth possibilities……a prime motivator……

Why is space so critical to the future? Space is powerful precisely because it benefits from the attributes and principles of a network. A network can deliver power, information, and goods from one node, or all nodes, at a fraction of the increase in cost per customer compared to a linear system. The post office is an example of a linear model. If you send a letter to 100 different people, you have to pay for 100 stamps. The Internet is an example of a networked model. If you want to send an email to 100 people you can send it at a fraction of the cost. Most of our terrestrial economies are modeled on linear design, driving up cost for every delivery to a new customer. A networked space infrastructure will always win the cost war against a linear terrestrial infrastructure. Consequently, the first civilization to build a robust networked space infrastructure will dominate the global economy of the 21st century.

Space will be a multi-trillion-dollar market that will disproportionately benefit the first great power that builds a vibrant infrastructure there. Finishing second in this race means accepting defeat. Why is this the case? Whoever moves into a new marketplace first defines and sets the terms of that market. If America is first to build the infrastructure of space, its rule of law and values, including every human’s inherent right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, will underpin the marketplace. If China is first, its values will dominate. China continues to demonstrate a lack of regard for fair economic practices, the rule of law, human dignity, or liberty.

The Real Stakes in the New Space Race

But does any of this promised wealth and influence violate a standing treaty on space?

A first ever space thingy……a crime of sorts…..

It’s an unfortunate custody dispute between estranged spouses, with one element that makes it stand above all others—it has led to what the New York Times reports might be the first allegation of a crime in space. In the short version, astronaut Anne McClain is accused of improperly accessing the bank accounts of spouse Summer Worden while McClain was aboard the International Space Station, reports Click2Houston. Worden has the bank records to prove that McClain did so, and the astronaut is not denying it. McClain is not accused of taking or even moving any money. She maintains that she was simply doing what she had always done while the couple was together: keeping on an eye on finances out of concern for the boy they’d been raising together. “She strenuously denies that she did anything improper,” says her attorney.

Worden, though, says she is “appalled,” and she and her family have filed formal complaints with the FTC and with NASA. They see it as identity theft. The dispute centers around Worden’s 6-year-old son, who was 1 when the couple met. They married in 2014, but Worden resisted having McClain legally adopt him as her son, too, per the Times. Now that they’re splitting, McClain is fighting for shared parenting rights. If McClain’s name is familiar, it might be because of an odd story from earlier this year. She was supposed to take part in the first-ever all-female spacewalk, but NASA called it off at the last minute, explaining they didn’t have enough medium-sized space suits. (This even became a bit on SNL.) A NASA spokesperson tells the Times the allegations had nothing to do with the scrapped spacewalk

This sounds like an Adam Sandler movie….God knows he could use the work…..

Sunday and MoMO has me trained……she taught me to play fetch…..LOL

Have a great day and thanx to all for the visits and comments over the last week…..your time is much appreciated.

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

The Mystery Of The Muddy Shower

The Old Professor’s Mystery Theater

My Saturday and a rainy day…little did I know that a mystery of epic proportions would present itself…a mystery that need solving for the good of mankind.

Thunder….lightening…..down pour after down pour….an atypical Summer Saturday in the Deep South.

It all began so innocently….I felt the urge come over me and made my way, awkwardly, down the hall turn the corner and into the bathroom…as I entered the door I noticed something unusual…..foot prints from an unknown source….

Image

I studied for a moment….searching my mental files on the prints and then followed them to the door….

Image

I was fascinated with the mystery surrounding the unidentified foot prints…..so I followed them as far as I could and they brought me to the culprit…..using my considerable tracking skills I found the perp.

There she was looking as innocent as a babe.

She was sitting in her favorite chair and when I asked if she had been in the bathroom I get the typical.”What?  Who me?” look.

Image

She had been outside in the rain and mud and decided to wander around the house leaving her mark everywhere she went. (and I imagine she was snickering all the while)

The interrogation ended when MoMo decide to end it…..to wait for her attorney.

Image

My constant barrage of questions  abruptly ended when she decided that it was nap time for she had enough of the questions and accusations.

Image

Another mystery solved!

No matter the culprit I still had to clean the mess.

I wish I could solve the one of where my sock goes in the dryer….but that will be for another weekend in the rain….then there is that sound in the kitchen that no one hears but her.

Have a good Saturday….Be well be safe…..

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Random Thoughts For A Saturday

A Saturday and an egotistical douche bag has been put in his place….Tom Brady…..

Tom Brady can still be terrific. He just can’t be Terrific, the US Patent and Trademark Office has decided. The star Patriots quarterback had applied for trademark protection for the “Tom Terrific” nickname, which has long been applied to baseball Hall of Famer Tom Seaver, 74. The applications by Brady’s company involved commercial uses of the nickname on trading cards, posters and shirts, reports Boston.com. Such uses would “falsely suggest a connection” with the retired Mets pitcher, the ruling said. Because the nickname refers “uniquely and unmistakably” to Seaver, he’d have to agree to Brady’s trademarking of it.

Brady’s application outraged many fans, especially Mets fans, and he said he didn’t intend to actually cash in on the nickname. He doesn’t like it, he said, and just wanted to keep others from selling products calling him “Tom Terrific.” The quarterback said: “It wasn’t something I was trying to do out of any disrespect or ill manner or anything like that,” per ESPN, calling the episode a “good lesson learned.” The trademark applications will be dropped automatically unless Brady responds within six months to the ruling.

Weekend begins and of Nazis…..we were talking about Nazis, right?  We seem to always be talking Nazis these days.

Not a big fan of German sports cars, especially Porsches….but this one is just cool…..

In the late ’30s, Adolf Hitler commissioned a special “people’s car” to be built for a Berlin-to-Rome road rally, and what resulted was the 1939 Porsche Type 64, or what Jalopnik calls the “missing link between Porsche and Volkswagen.” Only three of these vehicles were built, and just one survives to this day, so when it was announced that RM Sotheby’s was putting it up for auction, the automotive aficionado world lit up, with predictions the car would go for as much as $20 million. But a current glimpse at the auctioneer’s website after Saturday’s much-hyped event shows a “still for sale” notice, the result of what Jalopnik calls a “weird and unsatisfying ending.” Bloomberg explains an opening bid of $30 million jump-started what appeared to be a fierce bidding war, rising all the way to $70 million—until the auctioneer suddenly corrected himself, noting the top bid was $17 million, not $70 million

A video of the auction shows the bizarre incident unfolding. Whether it had been an accident or, as Jalopnik puts it, a joke meant to hype the sale and boost bidding, potential buyers were miffed, and no one ever topped the $17 million bid. MSNBC notes that because $17 million was below the seller’s minimum price, the sale was nixed. “A massive f—up,” one observer notes, per Bloomberg. “As bidding opened … increments were mistakenly overheard and displayed on the screen, causing unfortunate confusion in the room,” RM Sotheby’s says in a statement. “This was in no way a joke or prank on behalf of anyone at RM Sotheby’s, rather an unfortunate misunderstanding amplified by excitement in the room.”

Remember back in the day when red meat and full fat dairy was going to kill you if you kept eating it?  All that tasteless cheese and watery milk……that may be changing….

Eating full-fat dairy and red meat will not increase the risk of heart disease or stroke, according to a new study.

The major review of Australian and international research found little evidence to suggest healthy people should restrict their intake.

The study has prompted the Heart Foundation to hose down concerns, going against previous recommendations for Australians to stick to reduced-fat dairy products.

(Sky News)

One of our most visited National Parks, Yellowstone, has a dark tale to tell……

Plenty of op-eds in the New York Times these days worry about a political apocalypse. A new one warns about the old-fashioned variety. More specifically, author Bryan Walsh is reminding everyone that Yellowstone National Park has a supervolcano, one that last blew 640,000 years ago. If it goes off again—there’s a 1-in-730,000 chance of that in any given year, Walsh writes—the “eruption would be like nothing humanity has ever experienced.” The park itself would be wiped out, of course, and as much as 3 feet of volcanic ash would be dumped on large parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. But the effects on the rest of the nation and the world would be catastrophic as well, with reductions in sunlight and rainfall, the widespread destruction of crops, and a breakdown of the electrical grid.

This makes it an “existential risk” for the planet, a catastrophe with a capital C that could theoretically wipe out humans. Asteroid strikes and nuclear wars also qualify, and those risks get more attention and money. But the world has 20 supervolcanoes of the Yellowstone variety, and we humans at the very least should make sure that all are being monitored at the highest levels to reduce the risk of surprise. “What has happened before can and will happen again, eventually—but because we remain confined to the brief human time horizons of our own experience, we treat them as unreal,” writes Walsh. This lack of imagination leaves us vulnerable, he warns. (Read the full column.)

Plastic is the big no-no for the environment these days…..and markets are not telling the truth on their use…..

It’s next to impossible to be a plastic-free grocery shopper. Unless you live near a boutique store that offers goods naked, you likely don’t have much choice about buying food wrapped in plastic netting or transparent film. 

Walk into any of the biggest grocery chains in the United States, and you’ll see row upon row of items in containers and bags that are designed to be used once and trashed. Americans produced 14.7 million tons of such waste in 2015, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Of that, only 14.6% was recycled. 

Plastic is necessary for boosting the shelf life of perishable foods, without adding much to the sticker price. Getting rid of it entirely isn’t realistic. But there is a growing consensus that companies responsible for creating this packaging overuse plastics and could easily cut down on the amount sold to consumers. 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/grocery-stores-plastic-walmart_n_5d3f68f3e4b0d24cde046f4a

A quick run down of absolutely useless information to begin your weekend…..

“Lego Ergo Scribo”