2018 midterm campaign warms up.

TRUMP,  BARLETTA RALLY, WILKES BARRE

BIGGER CROWD THAN 2016

President Donald Trump came to Wilkes Barre to kick off the beginning of midterm campaigning in Pennsylvania. He came to give recognition to Lou Barletta, running for the Senate in opposition to Bob Casey. He endorsed Scott Wagner for governor. He also introduced House candidates John Chrin, candidate for the 8th. Congressional district and Dan Meuser, candidate for the 9th district. 

My companions, Wendy Gloffke and her grandson ED, my grandson Payton and Scott and Maureen Delaney

It was an overflow crowd, the parking lot was filled by 4 PM and many people walked about a mile from a nearby parking area. Rt 81 was closed while the president entered and exited the arena.  It was an enthusiastic, optimistic collection of Trump supporters, young and old, men and women all came to give support to the besieged 45th president. 

He listed his and his parties accomplishments as the crowd roared their approval. He did the usual chastising of the press, while the crowd booed in unison. It was as enthusiastic crowd as there could be.

I observed one protester, who was removed immediately. 

It was a happy and pleasant group of people, all came to see and support the President, all anxious to begin the fall campaign.

Appreciation earned by the Secret Service, the Pennsylvania State Police and the Wilkes Barre police for handling the security and the traffic in a well coordinated professional manner.

Black lives matter came to take advantage of the opportunity to sell TRUMP MAGA hats.

Media upset that Trump supporters don't like them.

WHEN YOU BELITTLE AND EMBARRASS PEOPLE, AND DISTORT THE TRUTH, THEY WILL NOT LIKE YOU.

MEDIA MAY NEVER REGAIN THEIR CREDIBILITY

We now hear much angst, by Jim Acosta of CNN for one, that the Trump supporters just don't respect them or like them. This of course, is because Trump has been pushing back and calling them fake news and other things they don't like. They state that they are the 4th estate, that they are providing a public service by keeping politicians accountable. Conservative politicians mostly. 

I watch a lot of speeches and 6 news channels for their take on stories, MSNBC is the most biased, all out hate Trump network . CNN has moments of objectivity, but most of their contributors hate Trump and despise the people who support him and his policies, Fox news reports are pretty objective, most of the opinion shows are biased toward Trump. One America News is interesting that they cover other stories not covered by the regular media, Newsmax  is a conservative leaning network.  RT is interesting in that it also has stories not covered by the mainstream press. It goes from socialist leaning to conservative, and has some different points of view. Free speech TV, is a Marxist network.

It all started when Trump, who I did not support at the time,  came down the elevator and stated his policy on illegal immigration. The media often misquoted him by removing the illegal part. He was immediately labeled a xenophobe and racist. I watched all his speeches, and saw the numerous and often misquotes and subtle removing or adding a word or two to change what was said. This became the norm with the media. 

Some in the media made the mistake of giving Trump as much air time as he wanted, because they thought they could trap him and distort him and they also believed that most Americans thought like them. When it did not work, they not only labeled Trump as a racist, xenophobe, a white supremacist,  Nazi, authoritarian or whatever they could think of, but also labeled his supporters in the same manner.

Anyone who has been around watching the news for 4 decades remember how they badgered and attacked Reagan, Bush, or other republicans, while  Covering for the Clinton's and Obama. They are now applauding Trump for not taking it and dishing it back. Now the media claims Trump is restricting the first Amendment. That they should be above criticism as they are the protectors of the people. Everyone believes in the first amendment, we all have first amendment rights, not just the press. No one would criticize the press for objectively reporting the news. There of course, can be a difference of opinion on the direction of the policy of the country. We are way beyond that today.

When you see reporters, at the meeting with Russia, ask the Russian president if he has damaging information on our president. When you see a reporter ask the President at a news conference,  with the trade negotiator of the EU, how he feels about Cohen's tape. These are not questions in search of  a answer, they are questions meant to embarrass and humiliate on the world stage. Those reporters should never be allowed to ask a question again. Not by rule, but by effect. If they really represented a real news organization, they would have been fired.

So now we hear they are concerned that there are angry Trump supporters who don't like the media. We have watched and listened to them, attack, humiliate, embarrass poor Sarah Sanders, every day in an effort to force her to quit. They have intentionally degraded the members of Trump's administration to resign or criticize the president, so the press could affirm their perceptions. Trump and his supporters have had enough! The press is our enemy! They have made it this way. The media has become a weapon of the opposition. You reap what you sow. We all support an objective reporting of the news, all the news, not just what some believe the people should see.  And not with a political agenda.

Mueller and Media hypocrisy is obvious.

ITS OK FOR DEMOCRATS TO PAY RUSSIANS TO MAKE UP STORIES ABOUT TRUMP

BUT ILLEGAL  FOR TRUMP TO TALK TO ANY RUSSIANS

It is a known fact the the Democratic party and the Hillary Clinton campaign paid millions of dollars for opposition research on Trump and his campaign. The money was then funneled to a foreign former intelligence agent, Christopher Steele,  in England who paid Russian intelligence agents to put together a fake story about Donald Trump and his associates. This story was then funneled to the FBI, the media, the State department and anyone who would listen, The FBI then started an investigation based on this phony story. This it seems is OK, not a problem, just part of a political campaign.

Now the Trump campaign did meet with some Russians who promised to provide damaging information on the Clinton campaign. They did not receive any information, they did not pay for any information, but this is considered treasonous and illegal.

It is also a known fact that the U.S. Intelligence community has claimed that Russians hacked the Democratic Committee and the Clinton campaign. The only problem is they have never inspected the servers involved, as they were forbidden access by the democrats. They are relying on the word of CrowdStrike a computer company hired by the DNC.  They claimed after 1 day that it was hacked by the Russians. So in effect the U.S. intelligence agencies have taken the word about who hacked the DNC servers from the DNC themselves and also have conducted a 2 year investigation  based on information paid for by the DNC and provided by Russian Intelligence

So, this story is not going away, no matter how they try to be outraged about every insignificant thing they can claim about Trump. The media and the U.S. intelegance agencies have destroyed their own reputations and credibility. There defiantly needs to be a housecleaning of the higher levels of the FBI. There also needs to be a serious investigation into the real conspiracy by the Democratic party.

Nuclear Fusion, providing the energy of the future

THE REAL ALTERNATIVE ENERGY OF TOMORROW

FORGET WINDMILLS AND SOLAR PANELS

Nuclear fusion has been under development for many years, but now it is expected to be able to go into commercial electricity generation by 2030. 

Nuclear fusion is the energy of the sun and stars. It is expected to require much less fuel, which makes it much safer than the present nuclear fission reactors. It will produce much less waste.

The nuclear fusion of hydrogen into the heavier element helium is the main nuclear reaction that keeps the sun and other stars burning for millions of years. 

Proponents of nuclear fusion say it will make many other types of electric generation obsolete by producing large amounts of electricity from small amounts of heavy hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, which are relatively abundant in ordinary seawater.

110 pounds of tritium and 73 pounds of deuterium could produce a gigawatt of electricity for a year. It is enough energy to power 700,000 American homes.

The UK based Tokamak Energy has announced that it has made breakthroughs in the design of it reactor that are very encouraging. Tokamak is one of several privately funded companies working to create a working fusion reactor. Other companies working on this are General Fusion in British Columbia and TAE Technologies, based in California. This is also being developed by Lockeed Martin in California.

This technology could probably be accelerated by a cooperative effort of these companies and some research encouragement  by the government.

Nuclear fusion appears to be a viable alternative to the unsightly and minimal generation capabilities of solar panels and wind mills. These present alternative technologies are useful for private remote power generation, mostly encouraged by government subsidies, but unlikely to ever be able to power a modern industrial society.

Should Trump trust intelligence leaders?

TRUTH IS,  TRUMP DOES NOT TRUST THE INTELLIGENCE ESTABLISHMENT

TRUST CANNOT BE WILLED, EITHER YOU HAVE IT OR YOU DON'T

Much is being made of President Trump's obvious distrust of the findings of the intelligence community. While often praising the work of the rank and file employees, he has good reason not to be all in on the leaders in the Intelligence community.

Since before this election there have been indications that large segments of the Federal government have been politicized to the point that their judgement has been questioned. 

The reports of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction have proved to be a failure that has created much of the crisis in the middle east that we now see. There are indications that this was much more than a colossal mistake, but an effort to effect United States foreign policy by those in high office in the intelligence community. For years it was thought this was the manipulations of the Bush administration. Now the question is, was this the manipulation of the intelligence community itself. 

We have seen the bias and out right attempts by Ex Cia Director Brennan, a confirmed Communist, appointed by Barack Obama to undermine and criticize every action of Trump.

We have seen the long list of biased and corrupt members of the FBI, Comey, FBI directer, McCabe assistant Director, Strzok, head of counter intelligence, and a long list of others who are now under investigation.

We have seen corruption in the Department of Justice, the irregularities in the Clinton investigation, all which have destroyed the confidence in these organizations.

We also see many ex-Obama appointees of the intelligence community, now on the payroll of  the major media. They have a very uniform point of view when it comes to the Trump Administration.

The priority now, by the intelligence leaders seems to be to protect themselves in any way possible. This is portrayed as protecting the reputation of these agencies. Covering up their corruption will not restore their reputations, but make matters worse. 

The Democrats and the media are willing to overlook this corruption to further their own political goals, but they are damaging the country in the process.

As for the Russians, I do not see them as the biggest economic or military threat to our country. They are far surpassed by the Chinese. The Russians are perceived as an easy, no risk enemy to cultivate at the moment, The Chinese have more spies in the process of stealing intellectual property and intelligence than the Russians. The Chinese are contributing to the wealth of many, both in the private and public sector. They are not making any money with the Russians.

This election has exposed the high third world levels of corruption in this Country. It will be up to the people to be vigilant in their paying attention or this is not going to end well for our country. 

Northwestern Lehigh School board meeting

JUNE SCHOOL BOARD MEETING

DISTRICT HIRES SCHOOL POLICE CHIEF

School Board approves hiring of Brian Tobin as the School District Police Chief at a salary of $61,000.

The district is expected to receive a Safe Schools Grant of $40,000 for the police chief and a $25,000 equipment grant.

$340,000 of change orders for the school modernization project were approved by the board in June.

The final budget of $47,256,640 for the next year was approved by the board. This included a 1.74% rise in the property tax. The new millage is 16.24.

Lunch prices for the coming year are $2.75 for the elementary schools, $2.90 for the middle school and $3.15 for the high school. Breakfast is $1.80.

The Administration salaries for the coming year are as follows.

There will not be a school board meeting in July.

Trump to confront NATO, Brexit, Putin

NATO, TRADE, EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

DISAGREEMENTS DO NOT MEAN DIVORCE

Donald Trump's trip to Europe, Britain and Russia is being viewed by many as a crisis in the making. Trump believes that adjustments need to be made to this alliance that is now 60 years old.

After World War 2, Europe and Japan were in shambles, the continent was devastated militarily, economically and in risk of social collapse. The United States was the only major power that was intact and actually in a stronger position both militarily and economically. Our industrial capacity was able to produce armaments for the western world that was essential for the success of the allies. 

The Soviet Union while damaged severely by the war, losing 30 million citizens and many cities destroyed,  had been able to produce large numbers of tanks and aircraft to defeat the Germans on the eastern front. There was the fear that the brutal dictator Stalin would take advantage of the weakened and disorganized western Europe. Some U.S. generals, like Patton, proposed attacking and overthrowing Stalin while we had the military power and resources on the soviet border. Some actually had plans of a limited nuclear attack to accomplish this goal. This strategy was abandoned but the alternate was to help to stabilize Europe and also Japan with economic assistance and military protection until they would be able to become strong and viable democracies.

NATO , the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed in 1949 to be a counter to the Soviet Union, Originally it consisted of 12 Nations.

We also engaged in very favorable trade agreements to help these countries gain in economic viability in an accelerated time. By 1965, 20 years after WW2 both Europe and Japan had become a stable and economically thriving. The protection and help of the United States made this recovery possible.

In 1952 Greece and Turkey were added to NATO. West Germany in 1955. The Soviet Union and its satellite countries formed the "Warsaw Pact" the same year.

This arrangement continued until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1989, In the negotiations at that time it was agreed that a unified Germany would be a member of NATO, but that there would not be any further expansion. This lasted until 1999 when NATO began adding former Warsaw pact countries to their membership, this was the beginning of the return to the cold war. Russia now viewed the west as an adversary who wanted to encircle the Russian federation. It perceived this expansion as both a military and economic threat. 

While Europe enjoyed the protection and favorable trade policies with the United States, they seemed to believe these policies should go on forever. Trump believes a reanalysis of this union should be re-negotiated. Starting with the NATO countries providing more military spending for their own defense. He is also proposing that there be a real free trade agreement that eliminates all tariffs and  protections. He believes they should be a real equal partner, they have had economic stability now for many decades.