Archive for July, 2017

Donald Trump Says USS Gerald Ford Will Make Enemies ‘Shake With Fear’ – TIME

(NORFOLK, Va.) President Donald Trump helped commission the USS Gerald R. Ford on Saturday and declared that the most advanced aircraft carrier to join the Navy will cause America's enemies to "shake with fear" whenever they see its form cutting across the horizon.

"I hereby place United States Ship Gerald R. Ford in commission," Trump said after delivering a speech in which he praised the U.S. military and the American labor that went into building the 100,000 ton, $12.9 billion warship.

"May God bless and guide this warship and all who shall sail in her," Trump said.

He was followed shortly by Susan Ford Bales, the ship's sponsor and daughter of the 38th president, whom the ship honors.

"There is no one, absolutely no one, who would be prouder of the commissioning of this mighty ship than the president of the United States, Gerald R. Ford," she said. "I am honored to give the command: 'Officers and crew of the United States Gerald R. Ford, man our ship and bring her to life.'"

And with those few words, the ship was brought to life. "Anchors Aweigh" played and sailors who stood in formation in their crisp, white uniforms began filing off to their stations.

Sirens and bells sounds. Horns blared. The U.S. flag was raised to full mast.

Within minutes, the captain was informed that "the ship is manned and ready and reports for duty to the fleet."

Trump arrived aboard the carrier's steamy flight deck by the Marine One presidential helicopter and was greeted by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and other officials.

Trump, who visited the carrier in March to promote his plans for a military buildup, told Time magazine this year that the Navy should revert to using steam catapults to launch fighter jets because some of the state-of-the-art systems and technology aboard the USS Ford "costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it's no good."

Construction on the USS Ford started in 2009 and was to be completed by September 2015 at a cost of $10.5 billion. The Navy has attributed the delays and budget overruns to the ship's state-of-the-art systems and technology, including electromagnetic launch systems for jets and drones that will replace steam catapults.

The warship also has a smaller island that sits farther back on the ship to make it easier and quicker to refuel, re-arm and relaunch planes, and a nuclear power plant designed to allow cruising speeds of more than 30 knots and operation for 20 years without refueling.

The vessel completed sea trials in April but still will go through a battery of tests and workups at sea before becoming operational and ready for deployment, work that is expected to cost nearly $780 million and take more than four years to complete, congressional auditors said in a report this month.

The USS Ford is named after the country's 38th president, who rose to the rank of lieutenant commander in the Navy during World War II. After military service, Ford was elected to the House of Representatives, serving Michigan until he was tapped by President Richard M. Nixon to become vice president.

Ford became president after Nixon resigned during the Watergate scandal.

Docked at Naval Station Norfolk, the USS Ford eventually will house about 2,600 sailors, 600 fewer than the previous generation of aircraft carriers. The Navy says that will save more than $4 billion over the ship's 50-year lifespan.

The air wing to support the Ford could add more personnel to the ship, which is designed to house more than 4,600 crew members.

"I was with you four months ago and I knew that I had to be here today and I told you I'd be back to congratulate you and the crew and everybody involved in commissioning the newest, largest and most advanced aircraft carrier in the history of this world," Trump said Saturday. "That's a big achievement."

The return visit Saturday fell during what the White House has coined as "Made in America" week, during which Trump and other administration officials highlighted a wide assortment of products ranging from trucks and helicopters to baseball bats and glass bottles for pharmaceuticals that are manufactured in the United States.

"This is American craftsmanship at its biggest, at its best, at its finest," Trump said aboard the carrier during his previous visit. "American workers are the greatest anywhere in the world. This warship, and all who serve on it, should be a source of shared pride for our nation."

The Ford was built at Newport News Shipbuilding, the giant Navy contractor in Virginia. Trump tweeted before departing Saturday for the ceremony that the Ford is the largest aircraft carrier in the world.

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Donald Trump Says USS Gerald Ford Will Make Enemies 'Shake With Fear' - TIME

Donald Trump’s lost opportunity – Washington Post

There are many ways to evaluate the Trump presidency at the six-month mark. What I am struck by is the path not taken, the lost opportunity. During the campaign, it was clear that Donald Trump had many flaws, but he tapped into a real set of problems facing the United States and a deep frustration with the political system. Additionally, he embraced and expressed somewhat inconsistently a populism that went beyond the traditional left-right divide. What would things look like at this point if President Trump had governed in the manner of a pragmatic, jobs-oriented reformer relentlessly focused on the forgotten Americans of whom he often speaks?

We have an interesting template to assist our imagination. After Trumps election, a small group of pro-Trump intellectuals, from both left and right, banded together to launch a journal, American Affairs, that promised the discussion of new policies that are outside of the conventional dogmas. Its the best forum for the articulation of the ideology behind Trumps rise, and there has been so much interest in the journals views on various subjects that the editors opened the second issue with a brief summary of their editorial stance.

On trade, immigration and foreign policy, the editors endorse modest changes to standard U.S. policies, some of which the administration is pursuing. But on the central questions of domestic economic policy, American Affairs seems markedly different and genuinely populist. Taking on the subject at the center of Republican ideology, taxes, the editors profess to be quite skeptical of the conservative orthodoxy that reflexively prescribes tax cuts as the cure-all for every ill. Although corporate tax reform is warranted, the editors say, reducing upper-income tax rates is unlikely to address core economic challenges in any significant way. Instead, they recommend eliminating mechanisms by which the rich evade taxation. In addition, the journal denounces financial deregulation and calls for higher taxes on hedge-fund and private-equity managers. It embraces large and direct government expenditures on infrastructure, warning against relying heavily on the private sector. On health care, the editors come out openly in favor of universal coverage and suggest two options, a single-payer system or a version of the Swiss system, which is basically Obamacare with a real mandate.

Needless to say, this has not been the Trump agenda. But reading these intelligent ideas raises the interesting question, why not? All of the policies proposed above would have helped the forgotten people whose cause Trump champions.

There have been two cardinal features of the Trump presidency so far. The first is that, far from being a populist breakout, it has followed a fairly traditional Republican agenda repeal Obamacare, weaken Dodd-Frank, cut taxes, deregulate industry. Trumps anemic infrastructure plan is little more than tax credits for private investors. The only real break with Republican tradition has been on foreign policy, where Trump is pursuing a truly bizarre and mercurial agenda that seems to be inspired by his own personal passions and peeves instituting the travel ban, demanding payment from allies, embracing autocrats who flatter him and his family.

(Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

The second defining feature of the Trump administration has been incompetence. As many have pointed out, had Trump chosen to begin his presidency with a large infrastructure bill, he would have put the Democrats in a terrible bind. They would have had to support him, even though this would have enraged the partys base. Instead, Trump chose health care, a complicated, difficult issue sure to unite his opposition and divide Republicans. Consequently, very little has actually been done. Obamacare has not been repealed, no money has been appropriated for the border wall, NAFTA is still standing, and there is no tax reform bill, nor an agreement to raise the debt ceiling. Even in deregulation, an area of broad presidential authority, little of substance has been accomplished. Many of Trumps executive actions have been to review various measures. An environmental activist told me that he has tried to cheer up his staff by pointing out that the Trump administrations words have rarely been followed by successful deeds.

Trump could have quickly begun reshaping American politics. He discerned voices that others didnt, understood what those people wanted to hear and articulated much of it. But when it came time to deliver, it turned out that he had no serious idea or policies, nor even the desire to search for them. He just wanted to be president, meeting world leaders, having Oval Office photo ops and flying on Air Force One, while delegating the actual public policy to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) or Vice President Pence. So far, Trump has turned out to be something far less revolutionary than expected a standard-issue, big-business Republican, albeit an incompetent one, wrapped in populist clothing.

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Donald Trump's lost opportunity - Washington Post

John McCain Cancer Is ‘Godly Justice’ for Challenging Trump, Alt-Right Claims – Newsweek

Most Americans met Wednesday nights news that Arizona SenatorJohn McCain was facing a dire diagnosis of brain cancer with shows of respect for the elder statesman and former prisoner of war. But to some on the extreme right, the longtime Republican is a traitorworthy of scorn, presumably because ofhis willingness to work with Democrats, as well as his criticism of President Donald Trump.

The attack on McCain--a war hero who spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prisonis faintly reminiscent of the early days of Trumps presidential campaign. During a family values summit in Iowa in the summer of 2015, just a month after hed announced his seemingly quixotic bid for the White House, Trump lashed out at McCain: Hes not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who werent captured.

At the time, Trump was angry because McCain had complained that Trump "fired up the crazies" during an anti-immigration rally in Phoenix.

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Trump has in no way endorsed or encouraged the alt-rights attacks on McCain, which have thus far been limited to the fringes of digital discourse. Trump sent a statement of support for McCain on Wednesday. "Senator John McCain has always been a fighter. Melania and I send our thoughts and prayers to Senator McCain, Cindy, and their entire family. Get well soon," that statement said.

The attacks came regardless.

The last president for McCain will be Trump. Theres some godly justice right there, wrote one user on the Politically Incorrect message board of social media network 4chan, a hothouse of right-wing memes.

Im pretty sure that God is punishing him, wrote another 4chan user. God made it pretty clear that he supports New Right now.

"John McCain = a war mongering, never Trumper whom I dislike," wrote a user on Gab, another social media network popular with the alt-right.

The attacks, for the most part, focused on McCains willingness to work with Democrats during his three decades in the Senate. Those attacks, some of which are too tasteless to mention here, speak to the utter debasement of civic discourse, particularly on the internet.

On Twitter, some called McCain a cuck.

Cuck is short for cuckservative, a portmanteau that combines cuckold and conservative. As the Southern Poverty Law Center explained, the imprecation aims to depict conservatives who dont kowtow to ultra-right political views as inept traitors to the conservative base that elected them.

Any death of a genuine eternal cuck should be celebrated. John McCain's passing, assuming he passes, will do our race a lot of good and that's what matters, wrote a user on Reddit.

The vitriol against McCain seems especially striking given his record of military service, as well as his leadership of the Republican Party. The attackers, it would seem, have more fealty to alt-right mascot Pepe the Frog than to the GOPs iconic elephant.

Mike Cernovich, among the most vociferous members of the alt-right, implicitly defended such attacks on McCain with a tweet:

Hes a traitor and a psychopath, one responder said. His interests are of the globalists. They all need to die, faster the better. Then we straighten things out.

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John McCain Cancer Is 'Godly Justice' for Challenging Trump, Alt-Right Claims - Newsweek

India prematurely win ICC Women’s World Cup on Wikipedia – The Indian Express

By: Express Web Desk | Published:July 21, 2017 1:19 pm The Wikipedia entry for Womens World Cups was edited even before the final took place. (Source: Wikipedia screenshot)

Wikipedia is a great resource for research and knowledge garnering on a wide variety of topics and ever since its launch in January, 2001 byJimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, it has grown into a massive tool which is used by people from all walks of life. But the fact that Wikipedia pages can be edited makes it quite dangerous to be used without full research. It has had its share of problems in the past after edited entries have resulted in controversies. In 2007, Turkish historian Taner Akam was detained upon arrival at an airport in Canada because of false information on his biography indicating that he was a terrorist.

And that level of inaccuracy spreads across to the sporting world too and the most recent entry seems to be of India womens team winning the 2017 World Cup against England. As per the Womens World Cup article page and the list of previous winners, the 2017 winner has already been declared as India with England finishing runners up. However, the editors chose not to mention the margin of the win.

In truth, though, the match is yet to take place. India and England are infact into the final of the womens event after England beat South Africa in the first semi-final and India beat Australia in the second semi-final. The final will be played at Lords on Sunday with India hoping to win the title for the very first time. They had made the final in 2005 but emerged second best to Australia who have won the title six times.

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India prematurely win ICC Women's World Cup on Wikipedia - The Indian Express

Quora: How Entwined Are the European Union and India? – Newsweek

Quora Questions are part of a partnership between NewsweekandQuora, through which we'll be posting relevant and interesting answers from Quora contributors throughout the week. Read more about the partnershiphere.

Answer from David McDonald, founder of The Global Millennial:

India and Europe indeed have a close relationship in regards to trade, politics, and humanitarianism. With Indias economy poised to grow approximately $7.25 - $10 trillion from now until 2030 - an average growth rate of 8 percent - there is no disputing that the cooperation between Europe and India, and for that matter, Europe and Asia, will only strengthen with time.

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History Of India - Europe Relations

The two regions have been engaged in trade for thousands of years, but to speak in modern terms, cooperation between Europe and India became a priority as early as 1993 upon the emergence of the Joint Political Statement of 1993 and the 1994 Cooperation Agreement, which took relations beyond trade and economic cooperation to meet political and various societal needs as well.

The European Union flag. President Donald Trump's possible Brussels ambassador is a controversial figure.

Summits - which have been ongoing since 2000 - are the most visible aspects of this cooperation.

As explained by theEuropean External Action Service,

There are also regular dialogues on foreign policy and security issues of common interest such as counter-terrorism, cyber-security, counter-piracy, non-proliferation and disarmament and human rights, as well as close contacts in multilateral forums and interactions in the margins of regional or international events. The EU and India moreover consult regularly on migration and mobility, trade, economic cooperation, science and technology, energy, environment and ICT.

This strong cooperation is a strong signal that these two powers are committed to not only facilitating economic growth, but also maintaining peace in their respective regions.

This partnership expanded once more in 2004 upon the establishment of the EU-India Strategic Partnership, which serves to provide annual summits where leaders can meet and discuss various diplomatic strategies. The partnership is of course, based on the shared values and principles of democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the promotion of peace and stability.

The Partnership Today

Annual summits are still being held, the most recent being on March 30th, 2016, to which the main topics were foreign policy, security and human rights cooperation, economic cooperation and global issues such as climate change and migration and mobility.

Some highlights from this summit include:

With well over two decades of cooperation between Europe and India, there is now a growing strategic alliance emerging. And with summits being held every year - on top of meetings being held much more frequently - the level of trust and understanding between the two regions remains at a sustainable level.

This partnership is crucial for the long term sustainability and development of Eurasia. The fact that these two regions have kept close ties for this amount of time should signal that they are serious about cooperation in all aspects of their respective democracies. Ultimately, political relations between the two regions will continue to strengthen, which will in turn lead to long-term economic cooperation.

The Future Of Trade Between India And Europe; What Role Will India Play In Shaping Europes Economy?

To directly answer thisquestion - India will play a pivotal role in aiding the future development of the European Union. As previously stated, the Asian service-oriented power is poised to maintain annual GDP growth of 8% up to 2030, which would propel India into the second place position for worlds largest economy.

India will continue to increase investments in infrastructure, signalling their focus on growing their exports to Asia and Europe.

Whats more is the recent statements by Indian financial supervisors stating that they plan to invest nearly $1.5 trillion into infrastructure projects within the next decade - a feat that will see India pouring nearly $100 to $200 billion into construction each year.

Given the fact that they are the service-hub of the East, this is an interesting move by Indias economic advisers. This move signals their commitment to establishing a larger manufacturing sector, which is interesting considering China - the manufacturing powerhouse of the world - lives right next door.

However, I do believe this is a smart move.

With a shift from a service-oriented economy to a more balanced economy within India, I would argue that European countries would be tempted to take advantage of the cheap labor in India and begin to outsource much of their manufacturing roles there. Countries in Eastern Europe such as Ukraine and Russia would be more likely to import from India because it could essentially shave off hundreds of kilometers off the transportation trip as opposed to importing from China, which would obviously save time and money.

For this transition to take place however, India needs to maintain political stability within their boundaries as well as with Europe - which I do not see being even a slight issue - as well as maintain technological development to stay competitive, and secure long-term trading partners with Western countries. Also, India has had armed conflict with Pakistan and with China and there is always the small chance that hostilities escalate again the future. Border disputes are not fully resolved between the countries.

Does Europe Need Strong Economic Ties With India In Order To Prosper?

I wouldnt say that Europe as an entirety is going to be reliant on just one market to succeed - they are simply far too big and far too diversified to fail because of this.

However, leaders of Europe realize the economic potential that India provides and they are going to do everything in their power to retain close ties with the Asian power.

Bilateral trade between Europe and India has more than doubled in the last decade, making the European Union Indias number one trade and investment partner. Two-way trade in goods between the EU and India reached EUR 77.3 billion in 2015, or EUR 211 million per day. If we add services, total trade now exceeds EUR 100 billion/year, or EUR 275 million per day!

Furthermore, the European Union is also India's most important source of Foreign Direct Investment, with almost EUR 5 billion of EU outward investment to India in 2014. Investment from India destined for the EU was over EUR 1 billion.

The EU and India hope to increase their trade in both goods and services - as well as investment - through the negotiations for a free trade agreement (better known as Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement BTIA) that they launched in 2007.

The building blocks for a century of Eurasian economic growth are being laid as we speak. Numerous trade agreements, infrastructure projects, investment pool banks, and bilateral partnerships are emerging throughout this region and this all points to the notion that: The 21st century will be Asias for the taking; Europe is just along for the ride.

Is the future of EU's economy anyhow dependent on its relationship with India? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:

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Quora: How Entwined Are the European Union and India? - Newsweek