https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-missile-crisis-if-you-want-one-idUSKCN1QA1A3 Putin to U.S.: I'm ready for another Cuban Missile-style crisis if you want one Andrew Osborn 4 Min Read MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia is militarily ready for a Cuban Missile-style crisis if the United States wanted one and threatened to place hypersonic nuclear missiles on ships or submarines near U.S. territorial waters. The Cuban Missile Crisis erupted in 1962 when Moscow responded to a U.S. missile deployment in Turkey by sending ballistic missiles to Cuba, sparking a standoff that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. More than five decades on, tensions are rising again over Russian fears that the United States might deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe, as a landmark Cold War-era arms-control treaty unravels. Putin’s comments, made to Russian media late on Wednesday, follow his warning that Moscow will match any U.S. move to deploy new missiles closer to Russia by stationing its own missiles closer to the United States or by deploying faster missiles or both. Putin detailed his warning for the first time, saying Russia could deploy hypersonic missiles on ships and submarines which could lurk outside U.S. territorial waters if Washington now moved to deploy intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe. “(We’re talking about) naval delivery vehicles: submarines or surface ships. And we can put them, given the speed and range (of our missiles)... in neutral waters. Plus they are not stationary, they move and they will have to find them,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript. “You work it out: Mach nine (the speed of the missiles) and over 1,000 km (their range).” TREATY VIOLATIONS The State Department dismissed Putin’s earlier warning as propaganda, saying it was designed to divert attention from what Washington alleges are Moscow’s violations of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the Federal Assembly, including the State Duma parliamentarians, members of the Federation Council, regional governors and other high-ranking officials, in Moscow, Russia February 20, 2019. Sputnik/Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin via REUTERS It referred queries about Putin’s latest remarks to the Pentagon, which did not immediately respond. The INF pact bans Russia and the United States from stationing short- and intermediate-range land-based missiles in Europe. Washington announced on Feb. 1 it will withdraw from the treaty in six months unless Moscow ends its alleged violations. Analyst Kingston Reif of the Arms Control Association think tank said Putin may be seeking to signal that Russia can keep up with the United States, to distract from its internal problems or to deflect blame for the parlous state of the INF treaty. “He may also be trying to send the message that, look, neither side should want this world (of a new arms race) so we should sit down and resume discussions,” Reif said. Putin has said he does not want an arms race but would have no choice but to act if Washington deployed new missiles in Europe, some of which he says could strike Moscow within 10 to 12 minutes. The United States does not currently have ground-based intermediate-range nuclear missiles that it could place in Europe but could develop and deploy them if the INF treaty collapses. Putin said his naval response to such a move would mean Russia could strike the United States faster than U.S. missiles deployed in Europe could hit Moscow because the flight time would be shorter. “It (the calculation) would not be in their favor, at least as things stand today. That’s for sure.” said Putin. Relations between Moscow and Washington were strained, he added, but the tensions were not comparable to those of the Cuban Missile Crisis. “They (the tensions) are not a reason to ratchet up confrontation to the levels of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s. In any case that’s not what we want,” said Putin. “If someone wants that, well OK they are welcome. I have set out today what that would mean. Let them count (the missile flight times).” Separately, Washington said on Thursday that it was carrying out an observation flight over Russia under the Open Skies Treaty, the first one since 2017. In a statement, the Pentagon said an unarmed OC-135B aircraft was being used and Russia was aware of the flight.
Today is the Feast of the Chair of St Peter. Gospel Matthew 16:13-19 © You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’ http://www.universalis.com/mass.htm
https://www.foxnews.com/us/ice-tsun...e-erie-as-thousands-without-power-across-east Here, east of Lake Ontario, we have 60 mph winds with driving snow; some trees down. It is pretty wild. Took Devin out for a run; he did his business and dashed for the door. Safe in the Refuge of the Immaculate Heart!
Half of Minnesota was shut down yesterday because of a huge blizzard, all of the roads around us were closed. I’ve never seen anything like it. Fatima has probably seen a lot of blizzards like this, but I sure haven’t!
I'm really surprised we still have power. I took a load of trash just now to our local dump. On Towsley Rd, they had just finish cutting up a downed tree and a little further along a tree was laying across power lines (I called that one in.). At the dump, I was only the third customer of the day (3 pm)! Not too many venturing out in this wind. I had to take it easy, because I was mainly on north-south roads and this driving wind and snow is out of the west. Poor visibility. Safe Under Mary's Mantle!
Yikes. Be careful. We are now having the wind and it is fierce. Shaking the house. Temperature dropping.
I do, Mario. Here is the link to the original video. It's so beautiful it makes me cry. http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2015/huggies-meeting-murilo/ Also a site with still photos. https://www.behance.net/gallery/65764923/Meeting-Murilo
This is horendous. All but 3 democrats voted against this bill. They are doing a bang up job of showing their true face. The woman quoted at the end - Senator Patty Murray - is my senator and made her way into congress under the pretenses of being just a mom in tennis shoes. I don't know how these people sleep at night. Senate blocks bill on medical care for children born alive after attempted abortion By Mike DeBonis and Felicia Sonmez February 25 at 9:41 PM The Senate voted Monday to block consideration of a measure that would punish any doctor who fails to provide medical care to a child born alive after an attempted abortion. All but three Democrats voted against a procedural motion on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, denying it the necessary 60 votes to proceed. The final vote count was 53 in favor and 44 opposed. The bill would require a health-care practitioner to “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child” as he or she would to “any other child born alive at the same gestational age.” The bill includes criminal penalties, a right of civil action for an affected mother and a mandatory reporting requirement for other health providers. Opponents of the bill argued that it represented an unjustified attack on abortion rights, preventing doctors from exercising their best medical judgment and exposing them to possible lawsuits or prosecution. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has sought to put Democrats — and 2020 candidates in particular — on the record on the issue after recent comments made by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D). McConnell also plans to hold a vote in the coming weeks on the Green New Deal climate change legislation as he has cast the Democrats as extreme. In remarks on the Senate floor ahead of Monday’s vote, McConnell described the measure as “a straightforward piece of legislation to protect newborn babies.” Democrats, he argued, “seem to be suggesting that newborn babies’ right to life may be contingent on the circumstances surrounding their birth.” “So my colleagues across the aisle need to decide where they’ll take their cues on these moral questions. On the one hand, there are a few extreme voices who decided some newborn lives are more disposable than others. On the other side is the entire rest of the country,” McConnell said. A group of House Republicans, led by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), walked across the Capitol to the Senate side in a show of support for their colleagues in the other chamber. President Trump targeted the Democrats for attack after the vote. “Senate Democrats just voted against legislation to prevent the killing of newborn infant children. The Democrat position on abortion is now so extreme that they don’t mind executing babies AFTER birth,” Trump wrote in a message on Twitter. “This will be remembered as one of the most shocking votes in the history of Congress. If there is one thing we should all agree on, it’s protecting the lives of innocent babies.” The mostly Republican supporters of the bill say that new state-level legislation that has sought to remove barriers to late-term abortions necessitate federal action. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), the bill’s author, has described it as an “infanticide ban” that aims to protect innocent newborns. “I want to ask each and every one of my colleagues whether or not we’re okay with infanticide,” Sasse said on the Senate floor Monday. “It is too blunt for many people in this body, but frankly, that is what we’re talking about here today. . . . Are we a country that protects babies that are alive, born outside the womb after having survived a botched abortion?” But that characterization has infuriated abortion rights supporters, who note that infanticide is already illegal and argue that Sasse’s bill is actually meant to dissuade doctors from performing late-term abortions in the first place. “We must call out today’s vote for what it is: a direct attack on women’s health and rights,” Leana Wen, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. “This legislation is based on lies and a misinformation campaign, aimed at shaming women and criminalizing doctors for a practice that doesn’t exist in medicine or reality.” Several medical groups, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Women’s Association and the American Public Health Association, also have publicly opposed the bill, saying in a recent letter to senators that it “represents a dangerous government intrusion into private health-care decisions.” Three Democrats — Sens. Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.), Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Doug Jones (Ala.) — joined all Republicans present in supporting the measure. All of the announced 2020 Democratic presidential candidates — Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Cory Booker (N.J.), Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — voted “no.” The Republican push to pass these bills follows efforts in New York and Virginia to roll back restrictions surrounding late-term abortions, which represent a small minority of hundreds of thousands of abortions performed in the United States each year. Those abortions, experts say, typically are prompted by concerns for the mother’s health or fetal abnormalities. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1.3 percent of abortions in 2015 were performed at 21 weeks of gestation or later. About 91 percent took place at or before 13 weeks of gestation. The issue was thrust further into the national debate when Northam discussed in a January radio interview what would happen if a child were born after a failed abortion attempt. “The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother,” he said — a statement that many Republicans cast as endorsement of infanticide. That included Trump, who said in his State of the Union address that Northam “basically stated he would execute a baby after birth.” Since then, House Republicans have attempted, and failed, to get a bill similar to Sasse’s taken up in the Democratic-controlled chamber. McConnell, meanwhile, scheduled valuable Senate floor time to put that chamber’s Democrats on the record on the issue. In response, Democratic lawmakers have made an aggressive and often-exasperated case that infanticide is already illegal and that the “born alive” bills are a stalking horse for more-thorough abortion restrictions. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) described the bill Monday as “clearly anti-doctor, anti-woman and anti-family.” “It has no place becoming law. Its proponents claim it would make something illegal that is already illegal,” Murray said on the Senate floor. She added that the legislation would “do nothing except help Republicans advance their goal of denying women their constitutionally protected rights.”
What I c a nt get over is blatant ignoring of personhood citizen status of a born child--with all rights and privileges thereof. This will end up in the supreme court. The fact that it even has to be litigated tells you how far the US and the DeMs have fallen into shadow.
It really strikes me that a large cross section of women around the world have been so incredibly brainwashed when it comes to their so called rights. The entire argument for this sort of thing revolves around the rights of women. Not one single representative even considered to bring up the rights of God at all. Its as if He simply doesn't exist outside whatever box we think we think we have the right to put Him in. Men I think are ultimately to blame for this. The notion that we have a right to the endless summer when it comes to sex and can forgo all self control in these matters is nothing but modernist tripe. It's no wonder so many men have become weaklings emotionally and physically let alone in reason. Not willing to accept responsibility for ones actions. Not able to withstand temptations. Then blaming women for our own lack of self control and manufacturing a straw man to shift the responsibility away from us. It's the story of the fall all over again.
When they say the "infanticide is already illegal", I would like to know what statutes have been written into law that expressly prohibits infanticide. We know what we mean by infanticide; is it the same as what the opposition says it means? How are these law enforced, if at all?
https://nationalprolifealliance.com/laca_petition.aspx?pid=ls1902a&npla=EP19 Sign the petition to end abortion in the US from Senator Rand Paul. Please. And thank you.
India Pakistan: Kashmir fighting sees Indian aircraft downed https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-47383634
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...ibe-fraud-charges-n977571?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma By Yuliya Talmazan and Paul Goldman Israel's attorney general announced Thursday that his office plans to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges after a two-year investigation. The prime minister faces one count of bribery and three counts of breach of trust. "The Attorney General, Avihai Mandelblit, has informed the Prime Minister, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, through his attorney, that he is considering indicting him on several criminal charges," according to a statement by Ministry of Justice spokesman Adi Livni. Prosecutors would have to go forward with a pre-indictment hearing before Netanyahu is formally charged. Netanyahu rejects allegations of corruption Feb. 28, 201901:08 "It should be noted that the decision regarding an indictment is not yet final, since the Attorney General will offer to conduct a pre-indictment hearing before reaching any final decision, according to Israeli law," according to Livni's statement. With elections just six weeks away, Netanyahu called the prosecution's announcement "outrageous" and an "unprecedented witch hunt" carried out by his liberal opponents. The prime minister vowed to refute all allegations which he said are "blood libel." Police have previously recommended indicting Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three different cases. Netanyahu claimed his predecessors have received small gifts similar to what he has been accused of taking, but were not charged. "If it not Bibi — there’s no investigation," Netanyahu said, referring to himself by his nickname. The most serious allegations against Netanyahu involve his relationship with Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of Israel's telecom giant Bezeq. Police recommended an indictment in the case based on evidence collected that confidants of Netanyahu promoted regulatory changes worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Bezeq. In exchange, they believe Netanyahu used his connections with Elovitch to receive positive press coverage on Bezeq's popular subsidiary news site, Walla. Police have said their investigation concluded that Netanyahu and Elovitch engaged in a "bribe-based relationship." Police also recommended charges be brought against Elovitch, members of his family and members of his Bezeq management team. Police have previously recommended indicting Netanyahu on corruption charges in two other cases. One involves accepting gifts from billionaire friends, and the second revolves around alleged offers of advantageous legislation for a major newspaper in return for favorable coverage. Netanyahu, 69, who is serving his third consecutive term as prime minister and his fourth overall, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and called the various allegations against him a witch hunt aimed at removing him from office. The attorney general's decision to publish his conclusions 39 days prior to the general election on April 9 is raising questions about what impact it can have on the outcome of the vote. Israeli media reported Thursday that with just hours to go before Mandelblit's anticipated decision to indict Netanyahu, his Likud Party filed a petition to the Supreme Court to stop the announcement from happening before the election on the grounds that it would unfairly impact on Netanyahu's prospects of re-election. However, the court's spokesperson confirmed later in the afternoon that the petition was rejected.
