I knew your Dad

U.S. President Donald Trump settled into a White House meeting on Monday by looking across a large mahogany table to Justin Trudeau to say nice things about the prime minister’s father.
The remarks were prompted by a gift Trudeau gave the president that morning: a black and white photo of Trump delivering a speech in honor of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau in 1981.

 A photo gift Prime Minister Justin Trudeau presented President Donald Trump on Monday. 

 

It was presented in a silver frame adorned with maple leaves. The president was touched by the gift. Trump opened a roundtable meeting on women in the workforce by saying how honored he was to be with Trudeau, "whose father I knew and respected greatly."
The photo, taken at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City, shows Trump speaking at podium during a dinner honoring Trudeau Sr. with the Family of Man Gold Medallion award.  At the time, Trump served as chairman of the awards dinner hosted by the international interfaith organization.
“He gave me a picture of myself and his father,” Trump said, referring to Trudeau. “And what a great picture. I will keep that in a respectful place.”


Here’s the original photo:

 Council of Churches of the City of New York -  Donald Trump speaks at the podium during an awards ceremony honoring Pierre Elliott Trudeau. 

 

The gift signals a sentimental strategy by the prime minister’s office in forging a relationship with the new Trump administration. Trudeau was guest of honor at a White House state dinner last year hosted by Barack Obama last year. He sealed his “bromance” with the former president when he gave Obama a signed copy of the “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” script.
The prime minister has been facing increasing pressure at home to stand up to Trump in light of the U.S. leader’s previous comments about women and recent backlash over his controversial travel ban targeting those from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Last week, in lead-up to his Washington trip, Trudeau stressed the commonalities the two leaders share with regards to job creation and security for the middle class. In areas of policy where they disagree, the prime minister said he would be respectful of Trump by treading those areas carefully.

The Big Picture

Insecure, popular vote loser Donald Trump simply cannot let his disappointing inauguration attendance go! For five days he pissed and moaned about the media accurately reporting his smaller-than-usual crowd, especially in comparison to the Women’s March the following day.  He was so angry about what he feels is mistreatment from the media (for accurately reporting the crowd size) that he ordered the photo above to be hung in the White House press hall. Not in one location, but in two locations within the press hall:  You may notice it's a side view, close to the building and not the long view to the capitol
Unfortunately, there is a major flaw. The wrong date was printed at the bottom. Instead of the inauguration date, it says January 21st 2017.... the date of the 'Women's March on Washington'.

Here are the photos that caused  Mr Trump's paranoid episode

 And below  are a couple of amusing takes by slightly cynical citizens

A Hand comparison ... Even Melania's hands are larger

Oh, now I see the resemblance

 But Ivanka is a much lovlier version

Dam Breach Update ...Oroville

UPDATED — original evacuation notice extended to the south and now includes 130,000 people.
This is an evacuation order by Department of Water Resources this afternoon around 4:15pm. Evacuation now includes the southern end of the Sacramento Valley from Oroville to Wheatland (near Beale Air Force Base) and west to the Sacramento River .

Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered. A hazardous situation is developing with the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway. Operation of the auxiliary spillway has lead to severe erosion that could lead to a failure of the structure. Failure of the auxiliary spillway structure will result in an uncontrolled release of flood waters from Lake Oroville.
In response to this developing situation, DWR is increasing water releases to 100,000 cubic feet per second.

 Below:

 Time before an area would flood if the lake water (upper right) is released.

 

Scientists have discovered what's been pushing our galaxy around

Our galaxy is being pushed and pulled by unseen forces. We are on a journey to a very crowded neighborhood in space. But fortunately, it will take a very long, long time to get there. 



Best and Worst Case Scenario

The Washington Post    

Kathleen Parker1 day ago:

Good news: In two years, we’ll have a new president. Bad news: If we make it that long.
My “good” prediction is based on the Law of the Pendulum. Enough Americans, including most independent voters, will be so ready to shed Donald Trump and his little shop of horrors that the 2018 midterm elections are all but certain to be a landslide — no, make that a mudslide — sweep of the House and Senate. If Republicans took both houses in a groundswell of the people’s rejection of Obamacare, Democrats will take them back in a tsunami of protest.
Once ensconced, it would take a Democratic majority approximately 30 seconds to begin impeachment proceedings selecting from an accumulating pile of lies, overreach and just plain sloppiness. That is, assuming Trump hasn’t already been shown the exit.
Or that he hasn’t declared martial law (all those anarchists, you know) and effectively silenced dissent. We’re already well on our way to the latter via Trump’s incessant attacks on the media — “among the most dishonest human beings on Earth” — and press secretary Sean Spicer’s rabid-chihuahua, daily press briefings. (Note to Sean: Whatever he’s promised you, it’s not worth becoming Melissa McCarthy’s punching bag. But really, don’t stop.)
With luck, and Cabinet-level courage that is not much in evidence, there’s a chance we won’t have to wait two long years, during which, let’s face it, anything could happen. In anticipation of circumstances warranting a speedier presidential replacement, wiser minds added Section 4 to the 25th Amendment, which removes the president if a majority of the Cabinet and the vice president think it necessary, i.e., if the president is injured or falls too ill to serve. Or, by extension, by being so incompetent — or not-quite-right — that he or she poses a threat to the nation and must be removed immediately and replaced by the vice president.
Aren’t we there, yet?
Thus far, Trump and his henchmen have conducted a full frontal assault on civil liberties, open government and religious freedom, as well as instigating or condoning a cascade of ethics violations ranging from the serious (business conflicts of interest) to the absurd (attacking a department store for dropping his daughter’s fashion line). And, no, it’s not just a father defending his daughter. It’s the president of the United States bullying a particular business and, more generally, making a public case against free enterprise.
To an objective observer, it would seem impossible to defend the perilous absurdities emanating from the White House and from at least one executive agency, the Agriculture Department, which recently scrubbed animal abuse reports from its website, leaving puppies, kittens, horses and others to fend for themselves.
In a hopeful note, a few Republicans are speaking out, but the list is short.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz recently got a taste of what’s ahead for Republican incumbents. Facing an unruly crowd at a town hall meeting in Utah, the House Oversight Committee chairman was booed nearly every time he mentioned Trump. Even if many in the crowd were members of opposition groups, the evening provided a glimpse of the next two years. From 2010’s tea party to 2018’s resistance, the pendulum barely had time to pause before beginning its leftward trek.
While we wait for it to someday find the nation’s center, where so many wait impatiently, it seems clear that the president, who swore an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution, has never read it. Nor, apparently, has he ever even watched a Hollywood rendering of the presidency. A single episode of “The West Wing” would have taught Trump more about his new job than he seems to know — or care.
Far more compelling than keeping his promise to act presidential is keeping campaign promises against reason, signing poorly conceived executive orders, bashing the judicial and legislative branches, and tweeting his spleen to a wondering and worrying world.
Trump’s childish and petulant manner, meanwhile, further reinforces long-held concerns that this man can’t be trusted to lead a dog-and-pony act, much less the nation. Most worrisome is how long Trump can tolerate the protests, criticisms, humiliations, rebuttals and defeats — and what price he’ll try to exact from those who refused to look away.

California dam about to bust .... Thousands told to evacuate

Water flows over the emergency spillway at Lake Oroville for the first time in its near 50-year history

Thousands of people in northern California have been told to evacuate their homes after the tallest dam in the US was weakened by heavy rainfall. The emergency spillway of the Oroville Dam could collapse at any moment, officials said.
People living in flood risk areas have been ordered to leave immediately.

Water levels in the reservoir have been rising because of heavy rain and snow in California following years of severe drought. It is the first time that Lake Oroville has experienced such an emergency in the dam's near 50-year history.

The California Department of Water Resources said on Sunday that it was releasing as much as 100,000 cubic feet (2,830 cubic meters) of water per second from the main spillway to try to drain the lake.

In a statement posted on social media, the sheriff for the area around the Lake Oroville Dam in California ordered residents to evacuate, warning them it was not a drill. On Thursday engineers began releasing water from the dam after noticing large chunks of concrete were missing from a spillway.
Residents of Oroville, a town of 16,000 people 65 miles (105km) north of Sacramento, have been told to head north. Other cities affected should follow orders from their local law enforcement agencies, officials said.

Water flows through a break in the wall of the Oroville Dam spillway Feb. 9, 2017,

 in Oroville, Calif.