COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, July 06, 2017

Trump Tilts East

Trump understands Poland is leader in Central Europe: Polish president

05.07.2017 11:48
US President Donald Trump is coming to Warsaw on Wednesday because he understands Poland is a leader in Central Europe, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said.

Andrzej Duda. Photo: PAP/Jacek TurczykAndrzej Duda. Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk
“For our country, President Trump's visit is really extremely important. I would even say that if one looks at the context of the whole situation, it cannot be ruled out that it will be of a historical nature as a whole,” Duda said in an interview with the PAP news agency.


Duda said: “We are simply an important country in this part of the world. We are one of the bigger European countries, we are a leader in Central Europe and that is why President Trump is coming to us, because he sees that and understands that.”

Duda told PAP that among the issues he aimed to discuss with Trump was energy security “and therefore also a future contract with some US entity, with a supplier of LNG gas.

“The first delivery has already been made, and it was a test. It arrived, it was introduced to our LNG terminal, so it is possible, feasible... for a long-term contract to be struck.”

(pk)
Source: PAP

34 comments:

  1. For once, I would like to hear some honesty from some of the reporting. Not likely.

    All the US reporters are talking about the political relationships of Poland in the last century. Of course they bring up WWII and invariably they talk about the "Nazi" invasion of Poland. I would remind everyone that none of the invaders had a Nazi birth certificate or spoke Nazi. They did not have Nazi blood or eat Nazi food. They were Germans. They spoke German, ate German foods and were German through and through.

    Why do I make the distinction? Poland was done incalculable damage by the horrific destruction at the hands and arms of the Germans.

    The audacity of the Germans (and the French) that Poland as a recipient of EU investment owes the Germans anything including the social disaster of forced acceptance of undesirables from The Middle East and Africa, is disgraceful hypocrisy. I would further remind the French that the Poles fielded the fourth largest army under Eisenhower to free the French from the Germans.

    Poland owes western Europe Nothing. Nothing. It would be refreshing to hear Trump mention it.

    Twenty years of Russian occupation of Poland was an additional Polish tragedy, but the award for arrogant audacity is owned by the Germans.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for expanded trade between the two nations, taking a joint stand before the Group of 20 summit during a day of panda diplomacy in Berlin.

    Two days before Merkel hosts other G-20 leaders in Hamburg, Xi’s stop in the German capital underscored the bond between the world’s No. 1 and No. 3 merchandise exporters as they step into a global leadership gap left by President Donald Trump’s administration.

    “German-Chinese relations stand before a new beginning, for which we need new breakthroughs,” Xi said alongside Merkel in Berlin after the two oversaw the signing of agreements between China and companies including Siemens AG, Airbus SE and Daimler AG.

    Panda Curtain

    Berlin then played host to the ultimate Chinese gesture of tightening relations in an environment buffeted by geopolitical risk: the panda handover. The U.S. received the first two pandas in 1972, after President Richard Nixon made his historic first visit to Communist China.

    To the crash of a gong, Berlin zoo officials drew back a red curtain to reveal Jiao Ping and his female companion Meng Meng. The two giant pandas were pre-flown to Germany in June for their public debut attended by Xi and Merkel, who smiled as they watched one of the bears devour branch after branch of bamboo.

    “This event is symbolic of relations between our two countries,” Merkel said. “We’ve worked very closely over the past year in the G-20 framework. Now we have two very pleasant diplomats here.”

    ReplyDelete
  3. USA President Trump/Polish President Duda Press Conference

    Starts at about 51:30


    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/07/06/watch_live_president_trump_holds_news_conference_with_polish_president_duda.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Merkel's Magic

    Angela Merkel has ‘invited the world into Europe’

    Because the crisis which Angela Merkel and the EU Commission fired up in 2015 is not really a crisis.

    It is in fact the ongoing disaster of an entire continent.

    Italian authorities have threatened to close their ports. People are arriving too fast.

    Today the flow is partly caused by NGOs like Medecins sans Frontieres and Save the Children.

    These groups have good instincts — to save vessels and stop people drowning.

    But they are helping to increase the flow and their short-term decencies are now triggering serious long-term fall-out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Merkel and Momma's boy Macron will be sure to make Trump wish he had stayed in Poland.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Poland is a very quiet super power, often flying under the radar. Trump's visit shows he knows this. Having Poland as a solid ally is brilliant.

    Trump continues to keep the media and the rest of the world guessing. He treats the media as though he has a laser pointer and the media and the Libs are like cats in a small room. Shine the pointer in one spot and they all run and pounce on it, shine it in another spot and they all run there. He must be enjoying himself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. His unpredictable behavior is a feature, not a bug.
      :)

      Delete

    2. Poland is such a quiet super ally it has abandoned US in Afghanistan.

      Reality, not "Fake News".

      With 'allies' like that, who needs enemies?

      Delete
    3. Without our 'enemies', the Russians, the US could not resupply the International Space Station.

      One Worlders United.

      ... the United States relies on the Atlas V rocket, powered by a Russian rocket engine, to transport crucial space satellite technology.

      It is concerning to the US to heavily depend on Russia, at the moment still under sanctions for interfering in Ukrainian unrest.


      Without the Russians, the US has no meaningful space program.

      Reality, not "Fake News".

      Delete

    4. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has described American fees for the space transport as “free money” that is invested directly into Moscow’s missile development program.

      NASA spokesman Mr. Allard Beutel stated recently that his agency still has a transport contract with Russia until June 2020.


      Shouldn't Mr Trump stop the US funding of Russian missile technology development, technology that could be easily transferred to North Korea or Iran?


      Delete
  7. Canada To Pay $8 Million To Confessed Killer Of U.S. Special Ops Soldier
    ANDREW MALCOLMPosted at 8:01 am on July 6, 2017

    The admitted killer of an American Special Ops soldier in Afghanistan will receive $8 million in damages from the Canadian government, plus an official apology for mistreatment.

    You read that right.


    That’s the reported agreement between the Liberal Canadian government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the fighter, Omar Khadr, 30. He spent a decade in the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility after being captured in a 2002 firefight at an al Qaeda compound in which Special Ops Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer was killed.

    In a 2010 plea bargain the Canadian-born Khadr confessed to throwing the grenade that killed Speer, an Army medic.

    “I’m very familiar with the Khadr family,” said Sgt. Layne Morris, who lost an eye in the same blast, among other serious wounds. “This is the third generation of Khadrs that owe humanity an apology, not the other way around. I shudder to think what $10 million (Canadian) in the hands of an avowed and accomplished terrorist will do.”

    Khadr’s father, Ahmad, was a trained terrorist and alleged money man for Osama bin Laden who moved his family from Egypt to Pakistan. He was killed in a 2003 skirmish with Pakistani troops.

    Under the Khadr son’s agreement with military prosecutors, he pled guilty to murder, attempted murder, providing material support for terrorism, spying and conspiracy. He received an eight-year prison sentence.

    Remember President Obama had been trying to em pty Guantanamo. In 2012, Khadr was returned to Canada to serve the remaining six years. But three years later a Canadian judge granted bail, pending appeal of his sentence.

    Once in Canada, Khadr also sued its federal government for $20 million for not protecting its citizen and for allowing U.S. interrogators to abuse him through sleep deprivation during interrogations. He claimed his confession came under duress. Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that Canadian intelligence obtained the confession under “oppressive circumstances,” then shared it with American colleagues.

    Speer’s widow and Special Ops teammate have filed papers to seize any funds paid Khadr under a successful U.S. lawsuit.

    Asked about the Toronto Star’s report that his government would pay multi-million dollar damages and apologize to the confessed killer of a coalition soldier, Prime Minister Trudeau declared unequivocally:

    “There is a judicial process underway that has been underway for a number of years now and we are anticipating, like I think a number of people are, that that judicial process is coming to its conclusion.”

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/07/06/killer-of-special-ops-omar-khadr-wins-8million-damages/

    ReplyDelete
  8. President Trump’s speech in Warsaw was a smash hit - 7/6/17
    It will be tricky making Trump look bad, but there will be no shortage of people trying. And, based on experience, we can expect some of the efforts to boomerang, because so many people in the media have been driven mad. More




    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/07/president_trumps_speech_in_warsaw_was_a_smash_hit.html

    The very same human being reviled by his political enemies as mentally unfit to serve under the 25th Amendment was wildly cheered by a huge crowd in Warsaw, chanting “USA! USA!” and “Donald Trump! Donald Trump!” His speech delighted them, highlighting Poland’s courage, endurance, and faith as a mainstay in defending our civilization, historically and now. It was one of his best speeches ever.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Mr Trump was elected the President of the United States, not Poland.

      That the Polish government has played Mr Trump, with promises of large crowds for his speech, really the most important story ...


      Well, that the CIA is not to be trusted when it delivers "Slam Dunk" intellignce ...
      That no one can really believe the US analysis of NorK's capabilities.

      Strange thing for the President to advocate.

      Delete

    2. That Mr Trump did not know he has 17 intelligence agencies, interesting ...

      That the analysis of those agencies cannot be trusted, interesting ...

      That when the world last 'trusted' US intelligence, it led to a massively wasteful war, in Iraq ...
      And that 'intelligence' was a lie.
      "Fake Intel".

      Now we are expected to believe those same sources in its analysis of North Korea.

      Why would a reasonable man believe the US intelligence agencies ...
      when the President of the US does not?

      Delete
  9. Oops: It Might Not Be Amelia Earhart In That Photo After All

    An investigator who researched the photo for MailOnline firmly believed initially that the figures on the end of the jetty on the island of Jaluit, in the Pacific Marshall Islands, showed Miss Earhart sitting down with her back to the camera, while Fred Noonan was pictured standing.

    But when he established that the picture was among others contained in an envelope that clearly identified them as being taken on Jaluit after 1940 – at the very least three years after Miss Earhart disappeared on an attempt to circumnavigate the world – his enthusiasm waned.

    ‘The 1940+ date is probably the most disheartening of all,’ the investigator told MailOnline, pointing out other discrepancies, among them the body shapes of the figures that are now claimed in the new documentary as being those of Miss Earhart and Noonan.


    http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/07/06/oops-it-might-not-be-amelia-earhart-in-that-photo-after-all/

    ReplyDelete
  10. EXCLUSIVE: Study Finds Temperature Adjustments Account For ‘Nearly All Of The Warming’ In Climate Data
    Photo of Michael Bastasch
    MICHAEL BASTASCH
    11:21 PM 07/05/2017

    A new study found adjustments made to global surface temperature readings by scientists in recent years “are totally inconsistent with published and credible U.S. and other temperature data.”

    “Thus, it is impossible to conclude from the three published GAST data sets that recent years have been the warmest ever – despite current claims of record setting warming,” according to a study published June 27 by two scientists and a veteran statistician.


    The peer-reviewed study tried to validate current surface temperature datasets managed by NASA, NOAA and the UK’s Met Office, all of which make adjustments to raw thermometer readings. Skeptics of man-made global warming have criticized the adjustments.

    Climate scientists often apply adjustments to surface temperature thermometers to account for “biases” in the data. The new study doesn’t question the adjustments themselves but notes nearly all of them increase the warming trend.

    Basically, “cyclical pattern in the earlier reported data has very nearly been ‘adjusted’ out” of temperature readings taken from weather stations, buoys, ships and other sources.

    In fact, almost all the surface temperature warming adjustments cool past temperatures and warm more current records, increasing the warming trend, according to the study’s authors.

    “Nearly all of the warming they are now showing are in the adjustments,” Meteorologist Joe D’Aleo, a study co-author, told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. “Each dataset pushed down the 1940s warming and pushed up the current warming.”

    “You would think that when you make adjustments you’d sometimes get warming and sometimes get cooling. That’s almost never happened,” said D’Aleo, who co-authored the study with statistician James Wallace and Cato Institute climate scientist Craig Idso.

    Their study found measurements “nearly always exhibited a steeper warming linear trend over its entire history,” which was “nearly always accomplished by systematically removing the previously existing cyclical temperature pattern.”

    “The conclusive findings of this research are that the three [global average surface temperature] data sets are not a valid representation of reality,” the study found. “In fact, the magnitude of their historical data adjustments, that removed their cyclical temperature patterns, are totally inconsistent with published and credible U.S. and other temperature data.”

    Based on these results, the study’s authors claim the science underpinning the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to regulate greenhouse gases “is invalidated.”.....

    http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/05/exclusive-study-finds-temperature-adjustments-account-for-nearly-all-of-the-warming-in-climate-data/

    ReplyDelete
  11. IU researchers help provide first look at atomic structures of protein tangles found in Alzheimer’s disease
    July 5, 2017

    INDIANAPOLIS – New research by scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the United Kingdom and Indiana University School of Medicine gives the most detailed view yet of tau protein structures found in Alzheimer’s disease.
    The team of the MRC scientists—led by Michel Goedert, MD, PhD, and Sjors Scheres, PhD—along with IU Distinguished Professor Bernardino Ghetti, MD, and Assistant Research Professor Holly Garringer, PhD, of the IU School of Medicine Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, are the first to present high-resolution structures of tau filaments from the brain of a patient with a confirmed diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.


    Dr. Ghetti said their findings, published online July 5 in Nature, represent one of the major discoveries of the past 25 years in the field of Alzheimer’s disease research.

    “This is a tremendous step forward,” Dr. Ghetti said. “It’s clear that tau is extremely important to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and certain forms of dementia. In terms of designing therapeutic agents, the possibilities are now enormous.”

    Tau proteins are a stabilizing element in healthy brains, but when they become defective, the proteins can form bundles of filaments—or tangles—known as the primary markers of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. But tau filaments are invisible at the light microscope, Dr. Ghetti said, and without high-resolution images showing their atomic structure, it has been difficult to decipher their role in the development of these diseases.

    That’s why the research team used an imaging technique called cryo-electron microscopy, which studies samples at very low temperatures, to see atomic-level detail in the structures of these proteins. Dr. Ghetti and Dr. Garringer studied multiple brain areas and DNA of the Alzheimer’s disease patient to facilitate the analysis of tau proteins by cryo-electron microscopy.

    Dr. Ghetti said the new images and analysis could help scientists better understand the molecular mechanisms that cause Alzheimer’s disease and identify new strategies for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of this and other neurodegenerative diseases.

    http://news.medicine.iu.edu/releases/2017/07/atomic-structures-tau-protein-alzheimers-disease.shtml

    ReplyDelete
  12. Quoting a G20 protester:

    "I came here because in general I'm totally against the G20 summit," Nicklas, a 21-year-old student protester, told CNN.

    "...It's the root cause or reason for what's going wrong in the world. Wars can be bad but capitalism kills."

    Totally......dude.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Donald Trump

    Defender of the Faith

    ReplyDelete
  14. BY: Matthew Continetti
    July 6, 2017 1:24 pm

    President Trump delivered one of the most important speeches of his young presidency on Thursday. Billed as "Remarks to the people of Poland," the address was as clear a statement we've heard of Trump's nation-state populism. This philosophy, which differs in emphasis and approach from that of other post-Cold War Republican presidents, is both enduring and undefined. Reaching as far back as Andrew Jackson, and carrying through, in different ways, William Jennings Bryan, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Spiro Agnew, Ronald Reagan, Ross Perot, Patrick Buchanan, James Webb, and Sarah Palin, the nation-state populist tradition has suffered from its lack of intellectuals, professors, and wordsmiths. But that is beginning to change.

    The most important concept in nation-state populism is the people. These are citizens of the folk community, membership in which crosses ethnic, racial, and sectarian lines. Note, for example, Trump's reference to the Nazis' systematic murder of "millions of Poland's Jewish citizens, along with countless others, during that brutal occupation." Or as Trump put it, in a different context, in his Inaugural Address: "Whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots, we all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American flag."

    Together, the people constitute the nation. Borders define the nation's physical extent, but not its nature. Indeed, the nation may exist independent of statehood or political sovereignty. "While Poland could be invaded and occupied," Trump said, "and its borders even erased from the map, it could never be erased from history or from your hearts. In those dark days, you had lost your land but you never lost your pride." Nor is the nation always represented in the corridors of power. "Today, we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another," Trump said at the inaugural, "or from one party to another—but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C, and giving it back to you, the American people."

    ReplyDelete
  15. “The fact that Ms Merkel placed the saving of a terror suspect on the agenda was something I found very, very peculiar,” Mr Erdogan told Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper in an interview published this week.

    ...

    “President Trump was certainly elected by many who are sceptical of globalisation, and he feels he has a duty to those voters,” she told Die Zeit.

    Asked whether she could have imagined a year ago a G20 meeting with Messrs. Putin, Trump, and Erdogan, she responded: “We have to accept these constellations as they are.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the fact that Merkel is in power shows you how fucked up things are in EU.

      Delete
    2. And that same model is what Obama promoted at every opportunity.

      Delete
  16. Trump, however, offered no mention of Polish democracy concerns, unlike President Barack Obama’s visit to Warsaw for a NATO summit almost exactly a year ago. Trump joined with Polish President Andrzej Duda in hammering the media.

    ...

    Earlier in the day, Trump refused to say definitively that he believes Russia was solely responsible for interference in the 2016 U.S. election. “I think it could very well have been Russia, but I think it could well have been other countries.

    I won’t be specific,” Trump said at a news conference in Warsaw with Duda. “I think a lot of people interfere.


    ReplyDelete
  17. Video:

    Guy shoots neighbor four times in the chest, neighbor walks away but is now critical a week later.

    Will not face charges, prosecutor says.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/indiana-firefighter-shot-neighbor-times-face-charges-prosecutor/story?id=48462520

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Guy walks away cussing like it's a flesh wound!

      Delete
    2. More complete video:
      http://wishtv.com/2017/07/05/video-released-of-johnson-county-neighbor-fight-no-charges-to-be-filed/

      Delete
    3. :) heh

      Property line dispute !

      Weigle didn't even drip any blood walking away !

      Delete
    4. I wasn't gonna watch a damned snuff film, but it turned out to be funny as Hell.

      ...if you're not Weigle.

      wrt "property line dispute:"

      Weigle is a renter!

      ...or was, if he doesn't make it.

      Still gotta respect taking four in the chest and stomping off in profane high dudgeon.

      Delete
  18. Scalise downgraded from fair to serious, but remains almost a non-story for the MSM.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Ratings Collapse: CNN Now Losing To Nick-At-Nite In Primetime Ratings War

    According to cable ratings from the week of June 26-July 2, CNN’s viewership of its primetime shows was ranked significantly lower than its competitors like Fox News and MSNBC, which place first and second respectively. Clocking in at No. 10 on the list, CNN fell behind HGTV, Nick At Nite, History Channel, and ESPN — the sports network that’s been hemorrhaging viewers for months....

    http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/07/06/ratings-collapse-cnn-now-losing-to-nick-at-nite-in-primetime-ratings-war/


    Heh, the Bash Trump Commie News Network is collapsing.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We Should Cheer CNN’s Ritual Suicide

      Kurt Schlichter Kurt Schlichter |Posted: Jul 06, 2017 12:01 AM




      If you ever had any doubt that Donald Trump was right that the mainstream media is the enemy of the American people, CNN corrected your inexplicable inability to comprehend this painfully obvious truth by choosing July 4th to threaten some guy for daring to make fun of Its Medianess Holiness. Apparently, if you dare defy the media it has the right to wreck your life - as long as you are an anti-Obama rodeo clown or a meme-making rando on Reddit. If you are a zillionaire like Anthony Scaramucci with the bucks to hire top flight law firms and Gawkerize its lame carcass - which I would have done in a split-second if CNN had lied about me the way it did about him - then you get a free pass.

      Instead of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, CNN's new motto is apparently “Confront the afflicted and settle with the comfortable.” Every time I see the CNN logo I hear James Earl Jones's voice intoning “This is CNN, and we suck.”.....

      https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/07/06/we-should-cheer-cnns-ritual-suicide-n2350761

      Delete
    2. Commie News Network

      CNN’S SECRET BUSINESS LINKS TO THE CASTRO REGIME
      The shameless ties that bind.
      July 7, 2017 Humberto Fontova

      “Wow. CNN had to retract big story on 'Russia,' with three employees forced to resign. What about all the other phony stories they do?” (tweet from President Trump, June 27.)

      Start with practically everything from CNN’s Havana Bureau for the past twenty years, Mr President. But don’t take it from me. Take it from the mass-murdering terror-sponsors who graciously bestowed CNN their platform to spread communist propaganda:

      “Propaganda is vital—propaganda is the heart of our struggle.” (Fidel Castro.)

      “Much more valuable than rural recruits for our Cuban guerrilla force were American media recruits to export our propaganda.” (Ernesto “Che” Guevara.)

      “Fidel Castro is one hell of a guy!" Ted Turner gushed to a capacity crowd at Harvard Law School during a speech in 1997. "You people would like him! Most people in Cuba like him."

      Within weeks CNN was granted its coveted Havana Bureau, the first ever granted by Castro to a foreign network. Though Tuner officially relinquished his vice chairmanship of (CNN parent) Time-Warner in 2003, the network’s role as subsidiary of the Castro regime’s propaganda ministry remains as shameless as ever—a “shining” legacy!

      A genuine (but hopelessly naive) Spanish reporter who took his job title seriously and (very foolishly) attempted to practice his profession in the Castro-Family-Fiefdom, explains the issue very succinctly:

      “The Castro regime assigns 20 security agents to follow and monitor every foreign journalist. You play the regime’s game and practice self–censorship or you’re gone.” (Vicente Botin, reporter for Madrid’s El Pais who was promptly booted from Cuba for refusing to play the same sniveling, cowardly game as CNN’s cuckholded –perhaps even black-mailed--“reporters” play every time they file a “story” from Cuba.)

      Retired U.S counter-intelligence officer Chris Simmons also explains the issue: “The vetting procedure starts the minute the (Cuban) regime receives a visa application,” says the man long-regarded as America’s top Cuba spycatcher. “When those smiling Cuban “guides” greet you at the airport they know plenty about you, and from several angles.” (Chris Simmons, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s top Cuban spycatcher, now retired.)

      In brief, you’re not getting and keeping a Cuban journalist visa (much less a Havana Bureau) unless you shamelessly (and genuinely) collude with Cuba’s KGB-founded and mentored ministry of propaganda. This isn’t rocket science, amigos.

      According to a recent story where CNN’s Havana-based reporter Patrick Oppmann (SURPRISE!) bemoans President Trump’s proposed Cuba policy, Uncle Sam has no better, more honorable or more trustworthy friend in the war on drugs than the Castro family, those noble purifiers of Cuban society–because according to CNN’s Oppmann:

      “Cuban officials told CNN that, despite political differences with the United States, they have provided key intelligence to help capture smugglers,” among many other heart-warming modes of selfless cooperation.

      Let’s have a look at some of the fruits of this co-operation, shall we. (please carefully note the dates.)....

      https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267204/cnns-secret-business-links-castro-regime-humberto-fontova

      Delete