The Trump Apocalypse - It's Loyalty or Disaster

Latest News: The Trump Organization's finance boss, Allen Weisselberg, has reportedly been granted legal immunity in the probe into Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's longtime former lawyer. Mr Weisselberg is reportedly mentioned on a tape secretly recorded by Cohen in 2016 in which a hush money payment to an alleged lover of Mr Trump is discussed. On Thursday August 21, it emerged that David Pecker, head of the company that publishes the National Enquirer tabloid, was also given immunity. BBC - Al-Jazeera - US media on August 24, 2018.

After Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen admitted in court his participation in the paying out of two playmates on behalf of his boss, Trump could do nothing else but officially state that such paying out was made with his own money and not with funds intended for his election campaign. While Cohen is now on the doorsteps of jail after having pleaded guilty on different charges regarding illegal financial behaviour and false statement, walls are further closing in on Trump whose former campaign manager Paul Manafort has been equally found guilty of illegal financial action. Cohen who paid off to the state attorney and Manafort who kept silent on Trump's involvement are differently treated in the president's public statements. While Manafort could even hope for Trump's personal support, Cohen is being described by his longstanding employer as a corrupt and treacherous liar and which raises the question why he has survived as an important member of Trump's inner circle for such a long time. At least some personal "qualities" of Cohen should have been of value for Trump.

Now, when the word goes about an impeachment process that could be started after the Democrats won enough additional seats in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, Trump is threatening, both, opponents and followers with the cruel scenario of an economic breakdown. Such disaster should certainly follow as Trump, according to his own evaluation, has " made such a good job ".




Here now tomorrow's news on the impeachment subject :




Trump’s Strong-Dollar Weakness published on August 22, 2018, by Project Syndicate :

The Trump administration would like us to believe that the dollar’s rise reflects faster economic growth, driven by deregulation, tax cuts, and expanded defense spending. But, if anything, Trump's economic agenda is creating inflationary pressure and undercutting the "exorbitant privilege" that the dollar has long conferred on the US.

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After all, a strengthening dollar increases the price of exports abroad and lowers the domestic cost of imports, thus discouraging the former and encouraging the latter. That is directly at odds with Trump’s stated goal of reducing the US trade deficit.

Trump’s obsession with the trade deficit has led him to impose import tariffs on steel, aluminum, and a wide range of products from China. But, ironically, more expensive imports will also put upward pressure on the domestic inflation rate, which could force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates even faster than planned. That, in turn, would produce still more dollar appreciation and even bigger trade deficits, as happened under Reagan and Bush.

[Project Syndicate: An organization providing high-quality commentaries written by prominent political leaders, policymakers, scholars, business leaders, and civic activists from around the world.]

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" From Russia with Love " - A recent Moscow visitor to " blueprint news ".

Trump Revives Star Wars Scenario

After US vice-president Mike Pence and some time later president Donald Trump announced an increase in spendings for the modernization of US weapon systems, an almost forgotten project of the Reagan era is being seen to surface again in US military plannings: Some kind of a "Star Wars Scenario" where a newly formed "US military space unit" should ensure US domination of space, - a provocation to all other nations peacefully engaged in space research.




美国是要统治太空吗？

America Claims Domination of Space ?

“星球大战计划2.0版？”法国国际广播电台发出惊呼。报道称， 上世纪80年代冷战后期，美国里根政府曾推出“星球大战计划”， 近40年后，一向将里根时代标榜为自己榜样的特朗普， 今年多次表达“立即组建一支美国太空军队”的想法。

8月9日，在彭斯发表演讲后，特朗普随后在推特上发文称：“将太空军队进行到底。”

" Star War Plannings 2.0 ? ", France International Radio cried out in alarm, reporting that in the 1980ies, the final period of the cold war, America's Reagan administration had promoted their "star war plannings". About 40 years later, what was consistently boosted during the Reagan era becomes Trump's own model [to follow]. It has become the idea of an "immediately formed US military space unit", already voiced many times this year.

On August 9, after the development was made public by Pence, Trump soon afterwards came about with the message: "May the military space unit advance to [accomplishment]."

The Chinese source is, as well, quoting a German and a Russian news source.

[Zhejiang online浙江在线 quoting People's Daily foreign edition on August 15, 2018]




Quoted from News Corp Australia Network 澳大利亚新闻网 on August 15, 2018

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As PR China's internet can be complicated, it needs a Chinese provider
for web hosting and data transfer between China and US based servers.

Blueprint News Celebrates 250 000 Visits

Update added on August 12.

The registration of visitor statistics for - blueprint news - started in May 2010 and reported about 250.000 site visits in August 2018. Here are some numbers that remain incomplete, however, because only the leading 10 visitor nations are given, together with information about browsers and systems applied by visitors. Some rare browsers that came to my attention during the years are not included in the overall statistics as they present only a low number of visitors i.e. < 1%. Same goes with the computer systems where the list is too long to integrate it entirely into the following chart, and there are, as well, some visitors who withhold part of the Information. An increasing trend to data anonymization makes it even more difficult to collect visitor data.



However, more important than mere numbers should be the following choice of highlights of visitor activity during all those years and which might give an idea of the global acceptance my rather tiny blog achieved.


Visitor Highlights



Chinese visitors coming from River Yangtse and from Hangzhou, both places being
near to Shanghai. A closer look on the satellite images provides interesting features.



The former Portuguese colony of Macao which is now a part of PR China. Two
long bridges, connecting the main parts of Macao, might attract your attention.



Living the Chinese Dream



Economic prosperity and military strength are integral parts of China's global dream. While
facing maritime disputes with other nations, China is enforcing a modernization of its navy.



Japan and North Korea



One visitor came from the diplomatic quarters of Tokyo (above) and which is near to
the Imperial Palace. Another visitor called from Ground Zero in Hiroshima where the
first atomic bomb had been dopped in 1945.



Earlier this year Japanese authorities launched a missile alert via Japan National TV
when a North Korean test missile was heading toward Japanese territory. As tensions
with North Korea were high at the time, I was just watching Japanese news on satellite
TV. I immediately took a photo from my TV screen and posted it. My blogspot was then
available on the internet while the North Korean missile was still in the air over Japan !



One of the rare visitors from North Korea is indicating he came from the Ryugyong
neighbourhood in Pyongyang and which is not far away from the central compound
of North Korea's ruling Workers Party. The internet access point, however, remains
difficult to localize in this case.



In August 2017 two US military bases on Guam were threatened by North Korea which said
it would create an "enveloping fire" around the US territory using four Hwasong-12 missiles
that should detonate 30-40 km off the island. The US side made clear this would mean war.



Nuclear Research

The CERN Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, is operating the greatest particle accelerator
ever built. It was there that a predicted elementary entity, the Higgs boson, was detected
for the first time.



US website quoting my graphics which I had prepared
to visualize how Higgs Bosons can come into being :



The center for nuclear research in Dubna is situated in the neighbourhood of
Moscow, Russia. In Soviet times it was the most important facility of its kind.



Washington and Israel

No, it's not at all a call from the President but rather from a
public hotspot facing the White House in Washington DC :



In the hustle of the 2016 pre-election times I simply forgot to publish the below picture.
Sorry for that ! The picture can be named "Grabber King at the Chicago Trump Tower".



The US Department of State noticed my translation of a political poem originally written by
Guenter Grass, one German laureate of the Nobel Price for Literature. It's all about Israeli
militarism directed against Arab neighbours (i.e. their Semitic brethren...) and against Iran.



In the week after the author's death, my translation
of his poem was addressed by different US visitors :



US - Iranian Enmity



The National Defense University NDU in Washington DC, a US government institution,
visited a blogspot of mine and which is dealing with a scenario of mutual threats that
has steadily developed between Iran and the USA.

All

All of Central Asia and the Middle East
is under control of The Empire.
Well, not entirely ..........

An Iranian visitor enjoyed, as well, my visualization of the conflict ...



... and some US opinion forum even quoted my blogspot on mutual US-Iranian threats :



One visitor coming from the faculty of law at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, made
a Google search by simply entering the timeless adage of justice to be found above the
entrance of a Cairo law court, and found ..... my blogspot about decisive battles in Syria.
What an amazing coincidence !



After the ousting of Libyan dictator Muammar al-Ghadafi, a visitor called from some
internet access point nearby to Martyrs Square in Tripoli, the former capital of Libya.
It is on Martyrs Square that a shrine was established for the heroes of the revolution.



A "postcard" from the holy places of Makkah in Saudi-Arabia :



In August 2014 Islamic fighters were threatening Kurdish residents in the
Kirkuk region of Northern Iraq. People fled into the nearby mountaineous
area while Islamists headed further to Mosul. After the fall of Mosul, the
Islamist leader al-Baghdadi declared his caliphate in the great mosque
of Mosul.



Visitors coming from Northern Pakistan took immediate interest in the Iraqi developments.
They came from Islamabad, its southern environment, from Quetta and Peshawar (below).



Mongolia - Chingis Khan and the "Art of War"



A smiling Mogolian leader once presented his Mongolian horsemen to US president Bush.
When a Mongol horde invaded and destroyed the Caliphate of Baghdad in 1258, they left
a gigantic regional chaos similar to what did the US Cavalry under US president Bush. The
difference, however, is: The Mongol horde robbed what they could carry on horseback and
returned home, while the US sat and waited as oil wells cannot be so easily carried away.



Other "cold warriors" can be found on Elmendorf Air Base in Alaska, USA, .....



..... while some people are peacefully fighting the cold in an Inuit community on Greenland :



The "University of the South Pacific" on the lonesome island of Fiji, however, is a real "hotspot".
No wonder they provide a swimming pool needed to cool off the heated brains of young folks.



In comparison, the "Harvard Business School" in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, might make a point with a better reputation.

Iran and India - US Sanctions and Tariffs

美下⼀波制裁旨在打击伊朗⽯油业，油价年前或升 ⾄90美元

A wave of US sanctions aims at hitting Iran's oil industry.
Recent year's oil price might rise to 90 US$ [per barrel]

8⽉6⽇，美国再次对伊朗的⾦融、汽⻋、航空和⾦属⾏业实施第⼀波制 裁，伊朗总统鲁哈尼(Hassan Rouhani)对此予以回击，称美国总统特朗普 (Donald Trump)呼吁两国进⾏对话的态度不诚实，只是在作秀⽽已。

On August 6, America once again put into effect a wave of sanctions against Iran's banking, car industry, air traffic and metal industry. Iranian president Rouhani hits back at this spear [attack], stating that US president Trump's appeal on both nations is carried out in a verbal attitude that is not honest, simply made elegant that's all.

[SINA 新浪财经 on August 7, 2018]


Further US import tariffs on Indian products like medicines, diamonds, auto parts and seafood, being discussed as a possible consequence of Indian retaliatory tariffs against US steel and aluminium import levies, might bring India's prime minister Modi in a difficult position ahead of the 2019 general elections, in case India's politically sensitive agriculture sector is forced to open up to US imports.

The world's largest democracy is known for high levies on agricultural imports as a means to safeguard the livelihood of its massive farmer population. Recent droughts and falling commodity prices have also triggered a hike in Indian import duties. In February, the government doubled levies on sugar to 100 percent, while chickpeas saw an increase to 40 percent.



[CNBC on August 7, 2018]




《RUSSELL专栏》在中国减少进⼝之际 美国对印度出⼝原油⼤增

[Reuters] "Russell Column": While China's imports decreased,
US crude oil exports to India increased on a great scale.

Clyde Russell, a Reuters columnist, expresses his opinion on oil market developments. Here are some quotations from his article:

US crude oil producers seem to have found new buyers for shipments that are no longer exported to China. India is expected to import record-scale crude oil in August.

..........

Indian refinery interest in US crude oil will be a good news for shale oil producers looking for buyers outside of China. Due to the escalation of trade disputes between the Trump administration and Beijing, China may reduce imports of US crude oil.

Although not yet implemented, China has proposed to impose import tariffs of up to 25% on US crude oil as well as liquefied natural gas and coal.

[Reuters, Chinese language edition on August 7, 2018]

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History - Iran 1979

In 1979 religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in Iran. It was in the turbulent days of Iran's Islamic Revolution that militant followers of Khomeini invaded the US embassy in Tehran and abducted its personnel. 52 American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days which makes up for the longest hostage crisis in recorded history.

Many years later, a French camera team was allowed to visit the specially secured part of the embassy where US secret services had maintained their communications center.



إيران .. رحلة في مبنى السفارة الأمريكية السابق في طهران

Iran ..... A walk through the building
of the former US embassy in Tehran.