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| Donald Trumps orders Pentagon to create US 'space force' AFP| Updated: Jun 19, 2018, 01.56 AM IST US President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the Pentagon to create a new US "space force," which he said would become the sixth branch of the American military. "I'm hereby directing the DOD (Department of Defense) and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a space force as the sixth branch of the armed forces," Trump said at the start of a meeting of the National Space Council. "That's a big statement. We are going to have the Air Force, and we are going to have the space force, separate but equal." |
War-waging US now wants both world and space dominance!
KUALA LUMPUR (June 2018): US President Donald Trump has not only become economically “unreliable” to the rest of the world, even the Pentagon does not trust him with making a nuclear decision.
And, today (June 19), Trump ordered the Pentagon to immediately create a new US “space force” to be the war-waging America’s military’s sixth branch.
Trump also reportedly said that not only must there be a military presence in space for the US, “we must also dominate space”.
So, the war-waging US is no more just aiming for world dominance, but also space as well!
Now, isn’t that an open global threat to the rest of the world?
Here are four very significant and relevant news reports that point to a globally unreliable Trump-led US:
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The Unpredictable States of America is Making Trouble Not Only for China, but Also for Itself
2018-06-16 China-US, Economy, Politics, TOPICS Lv Xiang
By Lv Xiang
The USTR announced Friday that President Donald Trump had approved 25% tariffs on $50bn worth of Chinese goods, which are products, alleged to be of “significant industrial technologies”, with tariffs on $ 34 billion goods under the first subset taking effect as from July 6, 2018,and those on another $ 16 billion goods under the second subset to take effect undated. From June 15 2018 – the date of announcement that will live in history – a massive trade war targeting China has been launched. It involves the world’s two biggest economies and the trade volume involved also represents a record in decades.
Containers are seen at the Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai, China April 24, 2018.
The existing world economic order was set up after WWⅡ with the US as the leading force. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an essential cornerstone. The organization has kept growing and contributing to world economic development, especially since China joined.Containers are seen at the Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai, China April 24, 2018.
However, a new threat of neo-isolationism arose during the US presidential election in 2016 with Donald Trump as its champion. From campaign to taking office, Trump has repeatedly attempted to compensate for his deficit in public popularity by sowing an image of the US as a “victim” into the public mind. Trump has claimed that the US has been “raped”, “robbed”, “exploited” and “taken advantage of” by other countries under the existing international order. Hence, the US need to re-define its relationship – in fields such as the economy, trade, and security – with the rest of the world.
The US trade war does not target China alone, but even traditional allies including the EU and Japan, and neighboring countries including Canada and Mexico. But in terms of the scale, China is unique.
Economies such as the EU and Canada have already taken counter-measures against the irrational US actions. China’s Ministry of Commerce released a statement in the wake of the US announcement, claiming that China will take immediate counter-measures of equivalent scale and strength against US products.
Chicago Board of Trade futures settled much lower on Monday amid massive selling triggered by concerns
over trade tensions between China and the United States.[Photo/IC]
The essence of trade is the exchange of necessary goods. It is a reciprocal activity among economies. Both the companies and the people of the US have derived enormous benefit from trade between China and the US. Trump’s increased tariffs on Chinese goods fall under the unwarranted charge of a “301 Investigation”, forcing the mutually-beneficial economic relations between the two countries into a state of hostility. This action is unarguably an open challenge to world trade rules and global interests.
However, the actions of Trump’s government do not represent the will or further the interests of all the US people or any of its industrial giants. Key institutes including the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have united in condemning the counterproductive actions.
US stock, bond and foreign exchange markets have all been fluctuating since February this year, indicating that US economic growth is still beset by enormous uncertainty. The US economy has been generally stable in recent weeks, but with these new prospects of a trade war it will once again come under pressure.
The Chinese government has shown all possible goodwill and sincerity in its trade talks with the US. But in the volatility of in its actions, the US has been acting like the most disorganized government in the world. “USA” is becoming synonymous with “The Unpredictable States of America”. A capricious US government is making trouble not only for China, for the world, but also for itself.
By Lv Xiang, expert on US issues, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China Association of International Trade
Editor: Cai Hairuo
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China Focus
'US has become unreliable’: Austrian chancellor questions Washington’s commitment to EU
Published time: 29 May, 2018 02:33Edited time: 29 May, 2018 08:10
The US, under Donald Trump's administration, is becoming increasingly unpredictable and “unreliable” to its European partners, the Austrian chancellor noted, joining a chorus of EU members urging for more unity and self-reliance.
“The US has become more and more unreliable for us,” Sebastian Kurz told the Financial Times. “The most important thing is that Europe has to remain united.”
Concerns about Donald Trump’s administration have been growing across the EU recently. Earlier this month, a poll showed that 82 percent of Germans believe the US is not a reliable political partner after Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that Europe “needs to take its fate into its own hands.”
'With friends like that who needs enemies’: Tusk lashes out at Trump
The major transatlantic rift first emerged after Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement, and it only deepened after the US administration recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, pulled out of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and imposed tariffs on aluminum and steel, which are due to come into force in June.
Kurz and Merkel are not the only EU politicians to question Washington’s commitment to its European partners. Earlier this month, European Council President Donald Tusk also questioned the American friendship. The US President “made us realize that if you need a helping hand, you all find one at the end of your arm,” Tusk said in Bulgaria at a Western Balkans summit earlier this month.
“Looking at the latest decisions of President Trump, someone could even think: with friends like that, who needs enemies?” he said. “But frankly speaking, Europe should be grateful for President Trump because thanks to him we have got rid of all illusions,”Tusk added, urging the Europeans to unite, against Washington's “capricious assertiveness.”
Kurtz expanded his message to the European nations, calling on other EU capitals to mend ties with Moscow. “We won’t be able to solve the crisis in Ukraine alone… Syria, we will only be successful if we find a way to act united with the US and Russia, so I think it’s not negative for the EU if countries like Austria — which has always been a bridge-builder — has… a good relationship with Russia,” Kurtz noted.
over trade tensions between China and the United States.[Photo/IC]
The essence of trade is the exchange of necessary goods. It is a reciprocal activity among economies. Both the companies and the people of the US have derived enormous benefit from trade between China and the US. Trump’s increased tariffs on Chinese goods fall under the unwarranted charge of a “301 Investigation”, forcing the mutually-beneficial economic relations between the two countries into a state of hostility. This action is unarguably an open challenge to world trade rules and global interests.
However, the actions of Trump’s government do not represent the will or further the interests of all the US people or any of its industrial giants. Key institutes including the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have united in condemning the counterproductive actions.
US stock, bond and foreign exchange markets have all been fluctuating since February this year, indicating that US economic growth is still beset by enormous uncertainty. The US economy has been generally stable in recent weeks, but with these new prospects of a trade war it will once again come under pressure.
The Chinese government has shown all possible goodwill and sincerity in its trade talks with the US. But in the volatility of in its actions, the US has been acting like the most disorganized government in the world. “USA” is becoming synonymous with “The Unpredictable States of America”. A capricious US government is making trouble not only for China, for the world, but also for itself.
By Lv Xiang, expert on US issues, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China Association of International Trade
Editor: Cai Hairuo
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China Focus
'US has become unreliable’: Austrian chancellor questions Washington’s commitment to EU
Published time: 29 May, 2018 02:33Edited time: 29 May, 2018 08:10
The US, under Donald Trump's administration, is becoming increasingly unpredictable and “unreliable” to its European partners, the Austrian chancellor noted, joining a chorus of EU members urging for more unity and self-reliance.
“The US has become more and more unreliable for us,” Sebastian Kurz told the Financial Times. “The most important thing is that Europe has to remain united.”
Concerns about Donald Trump’s administration have been growing across the EU recently. Earlier this month, a poll showed that 82 percent of Germans believe the US is not a reliable political partner after Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that Europe “needs to take its fate into its own hands.”
'With friends like that who needs enemies’: Tusk lashes out at Trump
The major transatlantic rift first emerged after Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement, and it only deepened after the US administration recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, pulled out of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and imposed tariffs on aluminum and steel, which are due to come into force in June.
Kurz and Merkel are not the only EU politicians to question Washington’s commitment to its European partners. Earlier this month, European Council President Donald Tusk also questioned the American friendship. The US President “made us realize that if you need a helping hand, you all find one at the end of your arm,” Tusk said in Bulgaria at a Western Balkans summit earlier this month.
“Looking at the latest decisions of President Trump, someone could even think: with friends like that, who needs enemies?” he said. “But frankly speaking, Europe should be grateful for President Trump because thanks to him we have got rid of all illusions,”Tusk added, urging the Europeans to unite, against Washington's “capricious assertiveness.”
Kurtz expanded his message to the European nations, calling on other EU capitals to mend ties with Moscow. “We won’t be able to solve the crisis in Ukraine alone… Syria, we will only be successful if we find a way to act united with the US and Russia, so I think it’s not negative for the EU if countries like Austria — which has always been a bridge-builder — has… a good relationship with Russia,” Kurtz noted.
Would the Air Force Let Airman Trump Near a Nuclear Weapon?
By Steven Buser
Jan. 17, 2018
President Trump boarding Air Force One on Friday.CreditAl Drago for The New York Times
As a psychiatrist for the United States Air Force, one of my responsibilities was evaluating the mental stability of airmen who handled nuclear weapons, using the standards laid out in what is called the Nuclear Personnel Reliability Program. There is no need to justify why our military would take every precaution necessary to ensure that the men and women in uniform handling nuclear weapons were fit to do so, whether they were in charge of a missile silo or loading nuclear bombs onto aircraft — or giving the orders to them, on up the chain of command. Strangely, the commander-in-chief, the one who would decide when and how to use those weapons, is the only individual in the chain who is not subject to the ongoing certification under the program.
According to the program, or P.R.P., personnel who handle nuclear weapons are held to higher standards of physical and mental readiness than other personnel, and rightfully so. The Department of Defense Directive 5210.42 states: “Only those personnel who have demonstrated the highest degree of individual reliability for allegiance, trustworthiness, conduct, behavior, and responsibility shall be allowed to perform duties associated with nuclear weapons, and they shall be continuously evaluated for adherence to P.R.P. standards.”
On Tuesday the White House physician, Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, gave the president a clean bill of health. And no doubt, by many standards, Mr. Trump is in decent shape. But the standards for a person’s physical and mental health are a different matter from his fitness to oversee our nuclear arsenal. What if President Trump were, instead, Airman Trump, and was to be assessed under the program’s guidelines; would I certify him as “P.R.P. ready” to work in the vicinity of nuclear weapons?
I have not had the opportunity to examine the president personally, but warning signs abound. What if I had reliable outside information that Airman Trump displayed erratic emotions? That I saw very clearly that he was engaging in cyberbullying on Twitter? That he had repeatedly made untruthful or highly distorted statements? That his language implied he engaged in sexually abusive behavior? That he appeared paranoid about being surveilled or persecuted by others, that he frequently disregarded or violated the rights of others?
These are the sorts of things that set off alarms for Air Force psychiatrists. I certainly could not certify him as “P.R.P. ready” without more extensive psychological evaluation.
It does not take a former Air Force psychiatrist to point out that our country finds itself in a place unlike any we’ve ever been before. Saturday morning’s alarm in Hawaii, as residents read alerts that incoming ballistic missiles were on their way, is a wakeup call to the very real danger we’re facing. Global tension and angst are significantly heightened.
We’ve been here a few times before, but unlike those other times our commander-in-chief adds, without equivocation, to this angst almost daily with his words and actions. We have always assumed that the person at the top has the mental fitness to meet whatever standards the Air Force set for the rest of the chain of command. What keeps me up at night? The realization that, at the worst possible time, we have a chief executive who I believe would probably fail the P.R.P.
The topic of presidential fitness and cognitive decline has always been a legitimate issue. The ability for the Executive Office to function effectively and without exposing the American people to undue danger relies on the mental faculties of the one person inhabiting its walls. Former President Jimmy Carter pointed this out in an article he wrote for The Journal of the American Medical Association in 1994, in which he warned that our country is in “continuing danger” from the possibility that a president could become disabled “particularly by a neurological illness.” Revelations that President Ronald Reagan may have had early-stage Alzheimer’s while he was president add to these concerns.
It’s unlikely that the military will act on its own to require the president to submit to an Air Force psychiatrist’s evaluation. But there are other options. A bill in the House, with support in the Senate, called the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017, explicitly prevents any president from initiating a nuclear first strike without Congressional approval. This should be common sense for any politician to support, because it assures that the checks and balances intended by the framers of the Constitution remain intact. But equally important, it remedies a glaring failure within the nuclear chain of command and mitigates one of the greatest dangers of our nuclear ages: the possibility of an unhinged president executing a calamitous decision that endangers millions of Americans, and potentially millions of others around the globe.
No president, including Mr. Trump, should have the unilateral power to begin a nuclear war. Congress must protect the American people, and taking away the option of an impulsive first strike nuclear attack is a clear and sane way to prevent a dangerous and insane result.
Steven Buser is a clinical psychiatrist and a former major in the United States Air Force. He is an editor, with Leonard Cruz, of “A Clear and Present Danger: Narcissism in the Era of President Trump.”
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Germany's Merkel Signals Deepening Rift With U.S. Under Trump
by Andy Eckardt and F. Brinley Bruton / May.29.2017 / 11:33 PM ET / Updated May.30.2017 / 6:55 PM ET
German Chancellor Angela Merkel enjoys a beer during an election campaign in Munich on Sunday.Christian Bruna / EPA
BERLIN — Angela Merkel's weekend speech stating that Europe could no longer "fully count on others" was a sign of the widening cracks in the relationship between Germany and the U.S. — an alliance that has defined the post-World War II global order, experts and analysts said.
Europe Must Take Control of its Own Fate: Angela Merkel
MAY.31.201700:47
"All I can say is that we Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands," the German leader told the crowd of some 2,500 during a campaign event at a beer tent in Bavaria. "The times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days."
While Merkel never mentioned President Donald Trump by name, her blunt remarks followed a bruising series of meetings with the U.S. president at the NATO summit in Belgium and then at the G-7 gathering in Italy.
Trump sent a tweet criticizing Germany early Tuesday.
Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump
We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change
6:40 PM - May 30, 2017
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On Thursday, Trump did not explicitly promise to protect America's NATO allies if they came under attack, instead alleging 23 out of the 28-member nations owed "massive amounts of money" to U.S. taxpayers. The U.S.-led NATO alliance made up mainly by European countries has for decades been a bulwark against the Soviet and then Russian aggression.
At the G-7 summit, European and other diplomats were frustrated that Trump refused to endorse a global climate change accord and said he needed more time to decide. Trump was also quoted as calling Germany "very bad" on trade — but the White House denied it.
"Solidarity for Donald Trump is a commodity, only available with advance payment"
Merkel's comments were made on the election trail and therefore directed at a domestic audience as much as to an international one.
Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper stated that Sunday's comments showed "Merkel no longer regards the USA as reliable."
Elmar Thevessen, the deputy editor-in-chief at German public broadcaster ZDF, said that "Merkel sent a very important signal" from Europe.
"[French President Emmanuel] Macron and other European leaders seemed to have the same takeaway" from the encounter with Trump and his delegation at NATO's headquarters and the G-7, he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel enjoys a beer during an election campaign in Munich on Sunday.Christian Bruna / EPA
In an op-ed, Thevessen suggested that the summits offered insight into Trump's approach to foreign affairs, which he summed up as "'America first and only.' Responsibility for the world — no chance."
"Solidarity for Donald Trump is a commodity, only available with advance payment," Thevessen added. "I am not a psychologist, but am judging as a political scientist and journalist: this U.S. president is dangerous. We Europeans can do nothing against it."
Martin Schulz, Merkel's main challenger in the September federal election, told German broadcaster ZDF that "we have to make clear to the United States that they are isolated, they are also isolated on their own continent."
On Monday, AFP also quoted Germany’s Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel as saying that Trump’s actions had “weakened” the West.
The U.S.-European relationship is built on the ashes of the Second World War, when America spent around $103 billion in today's dollars to help rebuild a shattered continent. The European Union has gone on to become one of Washington's key economic partners, and the world's largest trading bloc.
Ivo H. Daalder, a former U.S. envoy to NATO, told The New York Times that “this seems to be the end of an era, one in which the United States led and Europe followed."
“Today, the United States is heading into a direction on key issues that seems diametrically opposite of where Europe is heading. Merkel's comments are an acknowledgment of that new reality,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Michael McFaul, who was ambassador to Russia under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, expressed dismay at the state of the key relationship.
Michael McFaul✔@McFaulJust amazing .. and sad... and so easily avoidable.
Yannis Koutsomitis✔@YanniKouts
Merkel: We can't rely on the US anymore. I have experienced this in the last days. We Europeans should take destiny in our own hands. ~@BILD
3:14 AM - May 29, 2017
Kori Schake, a national-security expert at the Hoover Institution think tank, was more guarded. In a tweet, she said that Obama had also damaged U.S. alliances by "calling our reliability into question," but went on to say that "Trump has damaged them more."
Andy Eckardt reported from Berlin. F. Brinley Bruton reported from London.”
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters"
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| The scary truths about Trump’s nuclear summit In which Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un compared the size of their nuclear buttons. Violet Blue, @violetblue 06.15.18 in Politics In the first summit meeting between the leaders of the United States and North Korea, Donald Trump met with Kim Jong-un on June 12, 2018, in Singapore. The two leaders smiled warmly, posed for cameras as friends, shook hands, and Trump spoke in glowing terms of admiration about Kim at the news conference. The summit came after a year-and-a-half of both men terrorizing the world with open threats of thermonuclear annihilation and childish public insults. Trump derisively nicknamed the North Korean dictator "Rocket Man" and called him "fat and short," while Kim called Trump "a mentally deranged U.S. dotard." This week's historic meeting was nearly scrapped by Trump in a threatening yet passive-aggressive letter to Kim that tried to make the cancellation look like it was North Korea's idea … for more, go to https://www.engadget.com/2018/06/15/the-scary-truths-about-trump-s-nuclear-summit/ |
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