As the weather heats up in Washington, DC, the Obamas are planning their summer vacation.
The Boston Herald reports that President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia will be staying on Martha’s Vineyard from August 8-23.
The Obamas have spent almost every single summer on the tony island off the coast of Massachusetts’ Cape Cod except for 2012 – when the president was running for re-election.
Continuing yet another tradition of their annual retreat, the Obamas are also expected to stay at the same $12 million ‘cottage’ in Chilmark they rented last year.
The 8,100-square-foot home features seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a basketball/tennis court, hot tub, infinity pool and views of the Elizabeth Islands. (Read more from “Inside the Obamas’ $12 Million Summer Vacation Spot” HERE)
Amid all the hoopla over NASCAR requesting fans not to display the Confederate flag at its races, it was easy to spot the flags at Sunday’s Coke Zero 400 race at Daytona International Speedway.
Easier than finding a souvenir shop, restroom or beer stand, according to The Associated Press, which reported that dozens of flags could be seen throughout the infield . . .
”They’d have to come and get it,” said Steven Rebenstorf, who displayed the Confederate flag atop his tent canopy inside the racetrack.
NASCAR had asked fans not to fly the now-controversial banner, and even offered to exchange Confederate flags for American flags at Sunday’s race, but The AP reported that there were few takers . . .
A quick scan of social media showed the Stars and Bars was indeed easy to spot in Daytona over the Fourth of July weekend, and that story turned out to be secondary to NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., winning the Coke Zero 400 amid a spectacular last lap crash. (Read more from “Confederate Flags Fly High as Daytona Fans DEFY ‘Ban'” HERE)
By Justin Fishel and Luis Martinez. As Americans were celebrating the Fourth of July holiday, four Russian long-range bomber aircraft flew close enough to the US shores that they were intercepted by military fighter jets. The first set of two bombers flew near Alaska and just 30 minutes later a separate set flew far off the west coast of California.
According to officials at NORAD the flights stayed within international airspace and at no time did any of the Russian bombers enter or get close to entering sovereign North American boundaries.
The first incident occurred at approximately 10:30 a.m. EDT on July 4, when Alaskan-based NORAD F-22 fighters intercepted and visually identified two Russian TU-95 “Bear” long-range bomber aircraft flying off the coast of the Aleutian Islands within the Air Defense Identification Zone (an area of international waters that stretches 200 miles from US coastline), officials at NORAD said in a statement to ABC News. (Read more from “Russian Bombers Near Alaska on July 4th” HERE)
Russia Claims to Have Developed Secret ‘Superweapon’ Capable of Switching off Foreign Satellites and Enemy Weapons
By Mark Prigg. Russia has claimed to have built a revolutionary new weapon system that can render enemy satellites and weapons useless.
Its Russian makers say it is a ‘fundamentally new electronic warfare system’ which can be mounted on ground-based as well as air- and sea-borne carriers.
However, it has refused to reveal how the system works.
It is described as ‘a fundamentally new electronic warfare system capable of suppressing cruise missile and other high-precision weaponry guidance systems and satellite radio-electronic equipment.’ (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-07 03:32:492016-04-11 10:59:13Russia Claims it has Developed “Super Weapon,” Then Flies Bombers Near Alaska on July 4th
The United States has a reported military presence in at least 150 countries. Indeed, it could be said that the sun never sets on the American empire.
Some outposts of that empire are supposed to be kept secret, however, as they are operating in countries placed off limits by treaty or by U.S. law. Somalia is such a place, but that hasn’t stopped the U.S. Defense Department from setting up bases and deploying troops in that country.
In an exclusive report, Foreign Policy exposed an expansing military presence in the war-torn east African nation — a presence that is paying dividends to those that have to sign off on the operations.
“But the shadowy U.S. presence in this strategic port city [Kismayo] in war-torn southern Somalia has clear consequences for anyone with a share of power here. That includes Somali regional officials who are quick to praise American counterterrorism efforts, African Union forces who rely on U.S. intelligence as they battle back al-Shabab, and even the al Qaeda-linked militants themselves, who are increasingly hemmed in by a lethal combination of AU-led counterinsurgency, airstrikes, and raids by U.S. special operators,” the July 2 article claims . . .
Based out of a fortress of fading green Hesco barriers at the ramshackle airport in Kismayo, a team of special operators from the Joint Special Operations Command, the elite U.S. military organization famous for killing Osama bin Laden, flies drones and carries out other counterterrorism activities, multiple Somali government and African Union sources have confirmed.
(Read more from “Confirmed: Secret US Bases in Somalia, US Boots on the Ground” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-07 03:32:382016-04-11 10:59:13Confirmed: Secret US Bases in Somalia, US Boots on the Ground
By Carmine Sabia. Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter used her signature sarcasm on Twitter to proclaim herself and Donald Trump right about America’s illegal immigration problem after a young woman was killed by an illegal who had been deported five times.
Her comments came after reports on Friday that the suspect, Francisco Sanchez, had already been deported five times before he shot and killed Kathryn Steinle, 32, as she walked along the San Francisco waterfront with her father Wednesday. San Francisco authorities ignored requests from immigration officials to turn him over after they arrested him months ago on drug charges and subsequently released him.
Girl strolling with her father on pedestrian bridge in San Fran shot dead by illegal immigrant yesterday. https://t.co/UuuHnIe715
By Ashley Killough. Jeb Bush said Donald Trump doesn’t represent the views of most Republicans, offering his most aggressive comments so far on the real estate titan who’s used inflammatory language when talking about immigrants.
“This is a guy who was a Democrat for most of the last decade. I don’t think he represents the Republican Party, and his views are way out of the mainstream of what most Republicans think,” Bush told reporters after an Independence Day parade in Merrimack, New Hampshire, according to The New York Times.
Calling immigrants from Latin America “rapists,” Trump has become a thorn in the side of many Republicans, who are trying to appeal to a wider tent of voters, including Latinos.
Other GOP presidential contenders hammered Trump for those remarks on Sunday.
“I was offended by his remarks,” former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said on ABC’s “This Week.” (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-07 03:32:212016-04-11 10:59:13Ann Coulter: ‘Boy, Were Trump and I Wrong’
By Lisa Abramowicz. Investors tend to respond to impending doom by selling risky stuff and hiding out in safer assets — namely, bonds in places such as Germany and the U.S.
There’s a problem with that formula this time around: Traders aren’t so sure they can find anything that’s truly safe right now. So, instead of piling into sovereign debt of developed nations, traders are pulling their money out of those places as the Greek economy teeters on the brink of collapse, Puerto Rico talks about delaying some debt payments and China’s stock market suffers its biggest selloff since 1992.
Investors yanked $2.9 billion from European government bond funds last week, more than ever before, and pulled $699 million from short-term investment-grade U.S. bond funds, Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. data show. While these assets have traditionally been havens during rocky periods, they look less appealing now after more than six years of unprecedented monetary stimulus that pushed yields to record lows.
Why is that a problem? Well, the European Central Bank’s bond-purchasing program this year sent yields so low (negative, in fact) that investors revolted, selling German debt in the face of some signs of economic growth and causing unprecedented volatility. In the U.S., the economy has improved enough that the Federal Reserve is planning to raise interest rates this year from virtually zero, where they’ve been since 2008 . . .
And nations and companies around the world have taken on unprecedented amounts of debt, all with the hope of igniting some growth, with the results being rather tepid. (Read more from “Good Luck Finding a Place to Hide as Global Markets Crumble” HERE)
By Bob Adelmann. In its just-released report “The 2015 Long-Term Budget Outlook,” the Congressional Budget Office stated bluntly:
The long-term outlook for the federal budget has worsened dramatically over the past several years, in the wake of the 2007-2009 recession and slow recovery…. If current law remained generally unchanged in the future … growing budget deficits … would push [the national] debt above its current high level.
It’s all about government spending that’s baked into the cake: the Baby Boomers retiring and asking the government to make good on its Social Security and Medicare promises and the rising costs of healthcare along with “an increasing number of recipients of exchange subsidies and Medicaid benefits attributable to the Affordable Care Act [which will] push up spending … if current laws … remain unchanged,” said the report.
The CBO created two avenues for politicians concerned about the matter to pursue: one, to keep the deficits from going any higher, and the other to bring them back down to historic levels. For the first, taxes would have to increase by $1,450 per person per year, starting immediately, or Social Security benefits would have to be cut by $2,400 per person per year, starting immediately . . .
The report considers the consequences of doing nothing: At some point investors in government bonds would become concerned about getting their money back and would demand higher interest rates to compensate for that risk. This would accelerate the deficits to new levels. As the report noted, “The larger the government’s debt, the greater the risk of a fiscal crisis.” (Read more from “US Financial Outlook Has “Worsened Dramatically”” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-07 03:32:122016-04-11 10:59:14Good Luck Finding a Place to Hide as Global Markets Crumble
By Adam Kredo. White House officials on Monday held a private conference call with liberal organizations to discuss ways of pressuring Democrats and other lawmakers on Capitol Hill into supporting a nuclear deal with Iran that is expected to be finalized in the coming days, according to an audio recording of that call obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The call, in which there were more than 100 participants, was organized by the liberal pro-Iran group Ploughshares Fund, which has spent millions of dollars to slant Iran-related coverage and protect the Obama administration’s diplomatic efforts.
The White House officials described a nuclear deal with Iran as President Obama’s “signature foreign policy accomplishment” and urged liberal groups to launch an all-out lobbying campaign to pressure lawmakers, especially Democrats, to back the deal.
Progressive leaders on the call told participants to prepare for a “real war” and repeatedly declared that “the other side will go crazy” in the coming days. The call also included the anti-war group MoveOn.org.
“This has really been on the front burner from a foreign perspective, although not in the public eye necessarily, since the very beginning,” Matt Nosanchuk, an official in the White House Office of Public Engagement, told participants. “This is not an issue of the day, this is really an issue of the presidency.” (Read more from “White House Officials Plot Ways to Pressure Lawmakers Into Supporting Iran Deal” HERE)
Iranian Official: US Will Remain Our Enemy Despite Emerging Nuclear Deal
By JPost Staff. A senior Iranian military official said Sunday that despite the emerging nuclear deal between Iran and the US-led P5+1 group of world powers, America will remain Tehran’s enemy.
Iranian Ground Force Commander Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said that even if a nuclear deal comes to fruition in Vienna, where Iranian and western negotiators are currently trying to reach an agreement by a Tuesday deadline, Tehran and Washington will not become friends.
“The US might arrive at some agreements with us within the framework of the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany), but we should never hold a positive view over the enemy,” Iran’s Fars News Agency quoted Pourdastan as saying.
“Our enmity with them is over the principles and is rooted because we are after the truth and nations’ freedom, but they seek exploiting nations and putting them in chains,” he explained further.
Pourdastan’s comments came as differences still remained between the two sides over the country’s disputed nuclear program ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for a final agreement to end a 12-year-old dispute. (Read more from “Iranian Official: US Will Remain Our Enemy Despite Emerging Nuclear Deal” HERE)
At first, the most ambitious attempt ever to create a new multinational currency all seemed to go so well. The predicted problems with banks and vending machines never materialized. The euro surpassed the dollar in value. The launch was hailed as a success.
And yet for Greece, it seems now to have all fallen flat. How did it happen? . . .
2001: Greece became the 12th — and last — country to join the eurozone before the launch of the euro at the beginning of 2002 . . .
But even then, warnings were sounded. The president of the European Central Bank, Wim Duisenberg, warned that Greece had much to do in terms of improving its economy and controlling inflation . . .
2010: In 2009, international investors, understandably spooked by the revelation that Greece’s previously announced debt and deficit figures were inaccurate, became worried about the country’s ability to pay its debts. (Read more from “Greece: How Did It Get Into This Mess?” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-07 03:31:462016-04-11 10:59:15Greece: How Did It Get Into This Mess?
A 24-hour period last Wednesday and Thursday saw two cases of male illegal immigrants allegedly murdering women in two separate U.S. states: California and Texas. In both instances, the women’s murder could have been prevented by authorities had they enforced existing U.S. immigration laws and/or had the U.S.-Mexico border been functionally secured. The California murder involved an illegal immigrant who had been previously deported five times with seven felonies and the Texas murder involved an illegal immigrant who had been deported on four previous occasions. In the Texas case, local Laredo police had been called to the man’s house on at least three occasions over domestic disputes, yet they failed to contact Border Patrol about the man, according to federal agents.
The California murder was covered by Breitbart California’s Michelle Moons. She wrote:
Five-time deportee and seven-time convicted felon Francisco Sanchez has been jailed on suspicion of shooting and killing 31-year-old Kathryn Steinle Wednesday evening while taking photos with her father at Pier 14 in San Francisco, California. Sanchez was freed after the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department refused to honor a request by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain him, following a policy adopted in 2014. He was arrested soon after the shooting.
The immigration status and history in the Texas case was broken by this reporter when sources within the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency revealed that the murderer had been previously deported. The alleged confessed murderer is named Juan Francisco De Luna Vasquez and he allegedly beat his wife to death with a hammer. I wrote:
Breitbart Texas has exclusively confirmed that a man who confessed to murdering his wife with a hammer in Laredo, Texas is a four-time deported illegal immigrant who would not have been in the U.S. had he not been able to illegally cross back into the country multiple times from Mexico after his deportations. In addition, the Laredo Police Department continuously encountered the man in violent episodes with his wife, yet did not notify Border Patrol, according to federal agents who spoke with Breitbart Texas on the condition of anonymity.
(Read more from “Two Previously Deported Illegal Aliens Allegedly Murdered Two Women in Two States.. In 24 Hours” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-07 03:31:402016-04-11 10:59:15Two Previously Deported Illegal Aliens Allegedly Murdered Two Women in Two States.. In 24 Hours
A western Michigan woman heads to court Tuesday after being arrested for failing to renew her dog’s license.
Becky Rehr says she drove to the Kalamazoo County sheriff’s office June 23 to prove that she’s recently renewed the license for the family’s 11-year-old dog, Dexter. Rehr’s 14-year-old daughter waited in the car as her mother was arrested, fingerprinted and held for three hours, The Kalamazoo Gazette said.
“They frisked me and put me in this intake cell with all these inmates in orange jumpsuits,” Rehr said. “I was pretty nervous.” (Read more from “Woman Frisked, Jailed, for Not Doing This” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-07-07 03:31:242016-04-11 10:59:15Woman Frisked, Jailed, for Not Doing This
