6.25.18
This is good news, or at least a mammoth improvement on the bad news that is always associated with terrorism. If the numbers I gathered are correct terrorist attacks world wide dropped by almost 90% in 1 year, and the number of deaths caused by terrorism dropped by about 65%. This is absolutely amazing!! I would use other words like wonderful, which it kinda is, but maybe that should be reserved for the day the death total from terrorism is zero.
According to Statistica.com there were just over 11,000 terrorists attacks in 2016, resulting in about 25,600 fatalities.
In 2017, according to StoryMaps.seri.com there were only 1,370 terrorst attacks resulting 8,439 deaths.
These numbers seem extreme, but I found similar numbers at DaileyNewsEgypt.com
The headline of the article –
“1,055 terrorist attacks took place in 2017, resulting in 6,123 fatalities”
While the numbers are not exactly the same the article confirmed the radical change all the same –
“….despite the appalling number of deaths resulting from terrorism in 2017, the deaths represent a large decrease from the 25,673 that occurred in 2016, of which 9,765 deaths were in Iraq alone, and less than a peak of 31,321 deaths in 2014, according to the “Global Terrorism Index” (GTI) 2017 report published in November by the Institute for Economics and Peace.”
I have not seen any speculation or research as to the reasons for this drastic change, but it seems to coincide with the timeline for the turn of events in the middle east and the nearly complete defeat of ISIS.
6.17.18
Well, president Trump finally met with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un. After all the hoopla, criticism and second-guessing that has gone on with the press for the last couple of months the meeting itself was almost anti-climatic. After a year of trading insults Trump and Kim agreed to have this meeting. The meeting was canceled least twice the press had a field day criticizing Trump for anything and everything he did through the entire process. Some of it was justified and some was not. How unusual.
But this was still a historic meeting. It was more pomp and circumstance than it was of substance but it made more progress toward resolving our issues with North Korea than any other president has made since the end of the Korean War. From this meeting the two leaders agreed to work toward the denuclearization of North Korea in exchange for security guarantees from the United States. Both sides also agreed to exchange the remains of soldiers of the Korean War. Trump also agreed to stop the military exercises conducted biannually with South Korea. None of the existing sanctions against North Korea have been altered or canceled. Leading up to this meeting Trump did manage to secure the release of several American hostages North Korea was holding, some for several years.
Read the agreement between Trump and Kim signed 6.12.18
One thing I found disgusting was the poorly disguised attempts by the press to subvert or undermine any progress made by this meeting. This is not surprising since the friction between Trump and the press has been going on since the presidental primaries but this is something more important than the media’s hatred of the president Trump. As I have stated previously I believe that this is probably just another stalling or sympathy ploy by Kim. However if there is any hope at all of anything good coming from this it is actually unAmerican and evil for the far left press to try to undermine it. This shows the undeniable attitude of the party Nazi. Most members of the press believe it is more important to attempt to belittle and humiliate Trump than it is to support him in negotiations with Kim. It appears that many members of the media are showing that their loyalty to their party is more important than their loyalty to their country.
As I have stated many times I am not a fan of Donald Trump. I did not vote for him. I do not think he’s qualified to be president, but neither was Hillary Clinton and I did not vote for her either. With all the stupid things Trump says and tweets I can understand disliking him. He often comes off as a rude and insulting human being. He has terrible public speaking skills. However he is president of the United States and deserves the support of the American people and the American press when dealing with a dangerous foreign country that is run by a brutal dictator and has nuclear capability.
One example I noticed was how many members of the media actually had to ask Trump if he trusted Kim. This is a stupid question and it’s akin to “have you quit beating your wife” yet it was asked repeatedly by the media. If Trump says no he does not trust Kim then he undermines any goodwill and progress toward denuclearization and that has been established through this meeting. If Trump says yes he does trust him, which is what he did say, the press rants to the whole world about how he trusts this murdering dictator. This question is completely unnecessary as well before the meeting Trump told the world he would deal with North Korea on a “trust but verify” basis. I even saw 1 tv clip where the interviewer went out of his way to describe how brutal Kim is in the process of forming the question as to whether or not Trump trusts Kim. There was no purpose for this other than an attempt to undermine Trump’s credibility and subvert anything positive that would’ve come from the meeting between Trump and Kim. I would never want to stop the press from reporting actual news and reporting the truth. However their coverage of this meeting is been absolutely disgraceful. This exemplifies one of the true traits of the party Nazi mentality. But then again, that is not unusual. It is actually standard procedure for most of mainsream media, on both the left and the right.
Regardless of what the press does North Korea is an incredibly complex situation with no easy answer. As I have previously stated China has every reason to want North Korea to continue to be a disruptor on the world stage and we have no real answer for that. China is the world’s most populous country, the second-largest economy and the third most powerful military. Any military action against North Korea would probably bring the China military in the play. This is not a battle that we want to fight, and it is a battle we could possibly lose. The casualties would easily be in the millions and could go into the tens of millions. The Only Way, Kim Jong Un will ever relinquish his nuclear weapons is if he feels there is more in it for him to relinquish them than to have them. This will not be easy as Kim’s biggest problem is not his ego or his viciousness but it is China. China has the military strength to conquer North Korea in a week or two and there is no one on the planet it would step up to help North Korea. Kim knows this. So China can destroy him economically or militarily very quickly. And they might do either one if Kim becomes too friendly with South Korea, the United States and the West in general. I do not believe that China will allow a Western friendly country to be on their border unless there is some advantage to China, and right off hand I cannot think of what that would be.
It seems that Trump has an overwhelming job trying to convince Kim that the economic prosperity the West offers him and his country are more important than his ties to China and he needs to do this while China is watching from a few miles away. It does not seem like an unreasonable request if the American people asked the American press to at least report honestly on the situation and quit trying to subvert the efforts Trump is making to bring peace to this volatile problem.
5.15.18
Picture courtesy of Billboard
5.3.18
In the last couple of months the trade/tariff wars have been heating up. Trump slapped tariffs on aluminum and steel imports which angered not only China but some of our other allies that have been selling those materials to us. Several manufacturers that use lots of aluminum or steel (ie: GM, Caterpillar and similar) have said the cost increases will have a negative affect on their pricing and their bottom line. The steel and aluminum companies are already expanding production facilities and hiring more workers. I think that eventually everybody will reduce their tariffs and both the steel workers and the auto workers will benefit.