Tanks but 'no tanks'.... Trump's parade not well recieved

U.S. Army Reserve color guard soldiers carry the colors on Fifth Avenue during the annual New York City Veterans Day Parade in New York, NY, U.S., November 11, 2017.

 

 President Donald Trump's dream of a grand military parade through the streets of the U.S. capital attracted scorn, skepticism and even a dash of wit from local officials on Wednesday.

Critics argued a parade could cost millions of dollars, at a time the Pentagon wants more stable funding for an overstretched military.
“A military parade in D.C. would shut down the nation’s capital and waste taxpayer dollars just to feed Trump’s ego,” said Eleanor Holmes Norton, a non-voting delegate to the U.S. Congress for the District of Columbia, a Democratic stronghold. 

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent Republican voice on defense matters, said he favored highlighting the country’s armed forces but not its weaponry.
“I think a parade showcasing the military and the sacrifices they make for the country would be appropriate, it would be a way to say thank you, but I’m not interested in a military hardware display. That would be cheesy and project weakness,” Graham told reporters on Wednesday.
The White House said on Tuesday it had asked the Pentagon to explore a celebration of “America’s great service members,” after the Republican president marveled at the Bastille Day military parade he attended in Paris last year. ( Isn't that what November 11th [Veterans' Day] and the fourth of July
[Independence Day] are set aside for ??? )

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis - who argued to lawmakers on Tuesday that a budgetary impasse was eroding U.S. advantages over adversaries and could lead to aircraft being grounded - said the Pentagon was putting together options that would be sent to the White House.
“I think we’re all aware in this country of the president’s affection and respect for the military,” Mattis told reporters, while declining to address the costs of the parade.
One option under consideration is for a parade on Nov. 11 - which would be the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One. 

GENERALLY RARE

Military parades in the United States are generally rare. Such parades in other countries are usually staged to celebrate victories in battle or showcase military might.
In 1991, tanks and thousands of troops paraded through Washington to celebrate the ousting of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces from Kuwait in the Gulf War.

That parade cost $12 million, according to a report at the time. While the Pentagon does not yet have a cost estimate for how much another parade may cost, it is likely to be in the tens of millions of dollars. U.S. officials say it would also be a logistical challenge to bring thousands of troops, tanks and aircraft to Washington.  Not to mention accommodating  and feeding the men and storing all the tanks and aircraft. And the whole production put on for no particular holiday, occasion, or military exercise; Just a big show to entertain a big showoff.
The District of Columbia Council ridiculed the idea of a parade on Pennsylvania Avenue, the 1.2-mile (1.9-km) stretch between the Capitol and the White House that is also the site of the Trump International Hotel.
“Tanks but no tanks!” it tweeted. 
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser’s spokeswoman said the District had no formal request for a parade but ”just like the wall, he will have to pay for it,” a reference to Trump’s plan to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and have Mexico pay for it. The Mexican government has insisted it will not do so.
Trump publicly expressed his interest in an American military display after watching the Paris parade. It is well known that Trump loves pomp and ceremony especially if it strokes his enormous ego.  At least consider for a moment, that this whole incredible waste of money, that could be much better spent on  the  actual defense budget, is just another self aggrandizing Trump stunt.

Triumph for SpaceX ...The Launch of Falcon Heavy

Florida’s space coast roared to life on Tuesday as SpaceX fired off its, long-in-development, Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center. Tens of thousands of spectators made the pilgrimage from across the country to experience the immense heat and thunderous roar of the rocket’s 5 million pounds of thrust. Upon liftoff, at precisely 3:45 pm Eastern, the Falcon Heavy rocket took its place as the most powerful launch vehicle in the world.
About 3.5 miles away from Pad 39A, the site that hosted the first crewed mission to the moon in 1969, hundreds of reporters dispatched from around the world gathered at NASA’s press site to witness the maiden flight. In the shadow of the largest single-story building in the world, NASA’s towering Vehicle Assembly Building, and in front of the agency’s iconic countdown clock, onlookers gasped as cloud plumes quietly billowed out from beneath the Falcon Heavy.  Then the thunderous firing of the rocket’s 27 engines startled the crowds that packed the coastline for miles.

 

Flying atop the Falcon Heavy is SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s cherry-red Tesla Roadster, carrying a passenger—of sorts. SpaceX revealed last weekend that a mannequin wearing the company’s new spacesuit would ride in the driver’s seat of the electric sports car. Nicknamed Starman, the dummy will listen to some tunes on its long and endless journey: David Bowie’s Space Oddity.

Following the Roadster’s deployment to its preliminary orbit, the Falcon Heavy’s recycled side-boosters came flying back to Cape Canaveral for nearly simultaneous twin touchdowns in separate landing zones. The Falcon Heavy’s central core, meanwhile, was sent back toward SpaceX’s autonomous drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You. The live video feed of the ship cut out before the core approached; SpaceX has yet to confirm if the core successfully landed.

 

While this is just a test flight for the Falcon Heavy, SpaceX’s stated goal is to get the Roadster about 250 million miles away from Earth, its journey tracked by cameras and sensors on the rocket’s upper stage. It’s heading is to chase Mars around the sun, sharing the same orbit—forever approaching the red planet, but never actually reaching it. Can you picture that beautiful roadster orbiting the sun for a billion years?  I wonder how long Bowie's music will play. And I wonder what a random, passing, alien, space vessel will make of it.

 "This is a test mission," said Musk. "We don't want to set expectations of perfection by any means."

The billionaire claimed that an unexpected explosion of the Falcon Heavy at liftoff would be the equivalent of 4 million pounds of TNT—which would nearly demolish the pad that also hosted missions of NASA’s celebrated Space Shuttle program. This was part of the reason that getting Falcon Heavy safely off the pad was so critical, and even considered a win at that point into Tuesday’s launch. Much was at stake.
 

 

SpaceX leased the pad from NASA and spent nearly $20 million renovating it to launch Falcon Heavy and missions for the upcoming Commercial Crew Program in which NASA crew will be taxied to the space station.

SpaceX is moving forward with building a massive multi-purpose spacecraft it calls BFR that will essentially make its current fleet redundant, including the Falcon Heavy.

But for today, at least, SpaceX’s cheering employees in Florida will keep their energy focused on Falcon Heavy.

Upward Trajectories

• Elon Musk's long-term plan for SpaceX is to get humans off of Earth and on to Mars—but what does the company's recent progress say about that goal?
• You might not know that the company also wants to launch thousands of small satellites for faster internet. But that may not be all SpaceX wants to use them for.
• Oh, and then there's the plan to transport humans between Earth cities on rockets. Wait ... What ?? Sign me up for that one.

@realDonaldTrump explains climate change

ACTUAL ANSWER ... REALLY

Wax figure Donald Trump paraded outside new US embassy in London

 

Donald Trump arrived in London to visit the new US embassy - well, sort of.
The wax figure appeared on Friday morning to pose outside of the new American Embassy

A Madame Tussauds waxwork figure of the US President was paraded outside the future home of American diplomats in Britain in a humorous and typically British stunt on Friday morning.

It came after Mr Trump cancelled plans to visit to the UK , cut the ribbon and open the building in Nine Elms, south London.  

 

Contractors who worked on the embassy posed for pictures with the president

 

 

    The president graciously posed for photographers but refused to answer questions about the Russian investigation.

Delighted construction and office workers posed for photos with the 6ft Trump model next to the nicknamed 'Giant Cube' building on the banks of the River Thames. The hugely expensive and ultra modern embassy will definitely beome another iconic Thames landmark.

Clad in a trademark black suit, white shirt and long red tie, waxwork-makers Madame Tussauds said they took their replica down to the Nine Elms site for "a bit of fun" when all the people involved in designing and building the embassy and the people destined to work there were so disappointed by Trump's abrupt cancellation.

 

 

 

Trump said the building was in an 'off location'...whatever that means

 

The president gave the 'evil eye' to a curious journalist who asked him if he intended to fire Mr. Mueller. Trump did not comment.

"We woke up to the news as everyone else did in the country and thought it would be a bit of fun," Tussauds  executive Claire Treacy announced with a chuckle.

She said the company decided to  put a jovial spin on Mr Trump's announcement he was pulling out of visiting the UK and opening the new home of American diplomats in Britain.

 

 

The 'cube' is a piece of architecture you either love or hate and has been called by a number of nicknames, including a 'bread box on stilts'. I admit it looks a little wobbly and ungainly even to my failing eyesight.

 The wax models are very delicate and the staff who chauffeured Mr Trump to the embassy literally treated him with kid gloves and saw to his every comfort.

Mr Trump said he was cancelling the forthcoming trip because his predecessor Barack Obama sold the old Grosvenor Square embassy for "peanuts" and built the new one in an "off location".

Despite the claims, it was actually the George W Bush administration that initiated the building's move to Battersea.

Battersea Labour MP Marsha De Cordova said Mr Trump was "scared to come to London because of all the protests he would face".

My dad always said, " You can make a negative into a positive, if you really want to."

Well done Madame Toussauds!  By the way, your Trump was more charming and polite than the other one.

 

 

The First Lady Quacks her way to fame in an Aflac Commercial

 

 

President Donald Trump apparently doesn't want anyone to forget that his wife Melania used to be a model. Amid allegations about a possible affair with a porn star, Trump highlighted Melania's appearance in a strange advertisement for insurance during a recent meeting.

The Republican met with Georgia insurance firm Aflac on Wednesday as part of a drive to promote his tax cuts, where he took an opportunity to remind its employees about his wife’s turn in an advert for their company.

“Your chairman I know very well and he’s done a fantastic job,” the president told Aflac Resource Manager Michael Porter, the Ledger-Enquirer reported.

“He actually a long time ago hired my wife to do a big commercial, an Aflac commercial, and I think it was a successful commercial, too. So say hello to him,” Trump added.
The commercial Trump name-dropped features Melania lying on an operating table and being experimented on by scientists who are attempting to change her voice with the voice of a duck (the company’s logo) in order to “to tell the world the benefits of Aflac with sex appeal.”
At the end of the commercial, the voice change operation apparently having been a success, Melania can be seen quacking and looking shocked at her new webbed feet.
The first lady saw previous modeling shoots and old rumors resurface during her husband’s election campaign. According to tell-all book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Melania was inconsolable when old nude photographs of her were published in The New York Post last year.
Melania opted to sue The Daily Mail in the UK after the newspaper suggested she had once worked as a paid escort during her modeling days. The lawsuit resulted in the Mail agreeing to pay the first lady damages in April 2017 and offering an apology.
Unfortunately, Your past always catches up with you. If  pose nude for commercial photographers, the pictures will always re-surface. They are public domain and you knew that when you signed up for it Melania.



'HAPPY GROUNHOG DAY' !!