The latest electoral college map for the 2012 presidential election shows North Carolina's 15 electoral votes back as a toss up, as both President Barack Obama (Democratic Party) and Republican candidate Willard Mitt Romney are registered in a tie for the state, according to a Public Policy Polling Survey.
Real Clear Politis has now moved the state back into the toss up category, resulting in Obama leading in predicted Electoral College votes 201 to 191, according to RCP. That leaves 146 electoral votes as undecided still.
Electoral College Map on October 26, 2012 - Clear Politics (Click Image To Enlarge)
Just last week RCP had moved North Carolina as a "Leans Romney" state, but that "lean" now appears to be wiped out, and the state is still anyone's to call.
Some sources still maintain, however, that Romney will ultimately take the state; FiveThirtyEight has given the Republican candidate an 81 percent chance of winning the 15 electoral votes available there.
North Carolina has historically been a Republican leaning state, and in 2008 it was in fact the first time the Democrats had won the state since 1976.
Meanwhile Virginia is also an extremely tight contest, according to new polls. That state also was a Republican stronghold until the 2008 presidential election. President Obama won Virginia for the Democrats for the first time since 1964. At present a number of polls has Romney very marginally ahead of Obama in Virginia, but it's still too close to call confidently.
COMMENTARY: This is how Real Clear Politics sees the 2012 Presidential Race between President Barack Obama and Willard Mitt Romney as of October 26, 2012. RCP shows that the odds favor President Obama. RCP predicts that Obama ahead of Romney without Toss Up States: 201 to 191. Counting Toss Up States, Obama wins the Electoral College vote 290 to 248.
Click Image To Enlarge
In the key Battleground States of Ohio, Florida, Virginia, New Hampshire, Colorado and Iowa, President Obama has low single-digit leads over Romney. Obama has a slight lead in Ohio (48.2 vs 46.3 or +1.9), New Hampshire (48.6 vs 47.2 or +1.4) and Iowa (49 vs 46.7 or +2.3). Romney has slight leads over President Obama slightly in Florida (48.9 vs 47.1 or +1.8). Both President Obama and Romney are in a virtual tie in Virginia (47.8 to 47.8) and Colorado (47.8 to 47.8).
The 2012 election is going right down to the wire. It could be as close as it was in 2000 when George W. Bush squeeked by Al Gore when Florida took him over the top. That margin of victory in Florida was by less than 1,000 votes after several recounts. There was so much controversy during the 2000 Presidential Election, that the final decision regarding Florida went to the U.S. Supreme Court where the conservative judges voted straight across the board for Bush, 5 to 4. I have hated Bush ever since then.
Let's hope that there is not a 269 to 269 tie in the Electoral College. That could be a disaster for the country, because then the House of Representatives would vote for President. That would not take place until after the new House of Representatives is sworn into office in January 2013. What a mess that would be. Each state would count as one vote depending on how the congressmen in each state voted. This means that New Hampshire would have as much weight as California. It is also possible that some of the representatives could cross-over and vote against their party line. Since there are more Red states than Blue States, it is very likely that Romney would win the House vote.
Courtesy of an article dated October 26, 2012 appearing in The Christian Post and an article dated October 26, 2012 appearing in Real Clear Poltics
We’re just a few weeks away from the 2012 U.S. presidential elections, and social media has played an enormously important role in what is arguably the first time a digital election strategy has been employed by both candidates.
Did you know that, on average, President Barack Obama’s Twitter followers grow three times faster than his Facebook fans? Or that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s engagement rate is eighteen times higher on Facebook than on Twitter?
This, and other key matchup data, can be found in this infographic from Socialakers, which takes a closer look at how the presidential race is playing out on Twitter and Facebook.
Click Image To Enlarge
COMMENTARY: President Obama was the first U.S. Presidential candidate to make full utilization of social media as a way to communicate his "Yes we can" mission statement and political positions from women's rights to income taxes. As you can clearly see, President Obama leads in the number of total fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter. Mitt Romney is piling up faster rates of growth in fans and followers and engagement, but this is only because President Obama is starting from a larger fan or follower base.
So who has the most electoral votes so far?
According to a HuffPost Pollster's latest averages of state-wide and national opinion polls of registered voters, POTUS Barack Obama would win 332 electoral votes versus only 191 for Willard Mitt Romney if the election were held TODAY.
Everything may hinge on how well POTUS Obama and Willard perform during the upcoming debates. Willard could kick Obie's ass during the debate, but many pollsters now believe that voters favorable towards POTUS Obama are doing so because they believe that Willard does not represent 47% of the population, is generally dishonest, looks out mostly for the interests of the richest Americans, and would try to destroy everything POTUS Obama has accomplished during his first term.
Click To View An Interactive U.S. Presidential Electoral Map and see how each state is leaning towards
Courtesy of an article dated October 1, 2012 appearing in MediaBistro
Willard says, "Believe in America," but he "Invests in the Caymans"
The more everyone finds out about Mitt Romney's finances, the more questions they have. Perhaps that's why he's hiding as much as he thinks he can get away with.
Today, The Boston Globe reported that Romney was still running Bain Capital two years after he claims he left the firm, directly contradicting his campaign's denial that he was involved in deals that led to layoffs, bankruptcies, and American jobs getting shipped overseas.
It's a pattern of secrecy, and this is just the latest example of him trying to hide the truth from voters. There are a number of issues in play right now -- and voters deserve answers:
Mitt Romney refuses to release multiple years of taxes, ignoring decades of precedent.
He won't disclose his "bundlers," the people raising millions for his campaign.
He is the sole owner of a questionable shell corporation in Bermuda.
Until recently, Romney kept cash in a Swiss bank account.
According to The Boston Globe, he hasn't been honest about when he was running Bain Capital, even though legal documents refute his claims.
Share this graphic to help get the facts out (and, if you haven't already, join the Truth Team).
COMMENTARY: I think it's time that Willard Mitt Romney came clean with the American people about his past. Releasing one year's tax returns (2010 only) is not enough. I want to know more. I want to know his sources of income for the past five years. I want to know why he had that Swiss Bank account. Why does he have so many investments in foreign countries and refusing to provide details about those investments? I wrote about this in a previous blog post. Is Willard deliberately trying to avoid paying income taxes? God, I hope not. I want to know who his donors are, don't you? Now The Boston Globe is reporting that Willard was still running Bain Capital for two years longer than he claimed. We deserve a POTUS that is honest, don't you think?
Republican POTUS candidate Willard Mitt Romney does a stump speech at Ormond Beach, Florida in January 2012. God he looks good in designer jeans (Click Image To Enlarge)
Republican presidential challenger Wilalrd Mitt Romney shed dozens of stocks and holdings in various foreign companies in the last 10 months, beefing up his cash reserves while maintaining an overall fortune as high as $250 million, according to personal financial disclosures he filed Friday, June 2, 2012.
The disclosure — required of presidential candidates — showed that the GOP nominee's net worth has not changed greatly since September 2011's financial disclosure, when he reported his assets were worth between $190 million and $250million.
President Obama, meanwhile, reported in May 2012 that his assets are between $2.6 million and $8.3 million.
Most of the money held by Willard and his wife, Ann, is locked up in investments administered through two blind trusts established in 2003 after he was elected governor of Massachusetts. The trusts are stocked with debt securities, hedge fund investments and other complicated financial instruments — some of them based overseas — that date from his tenure running Bain Capital. Those Bain funds produced income between $720,000 and $6.3 million.
Andrea Saul, a Romney campaign spokeswoman said.
"They do not control the investment of these assets, which are under the control and overall management of a trustee."
One of the biggest shifts in Romney's portfolio in the last year was his divestment of dozens of stocks, boosting his cash reserves to at least $6.4 million.
Two separate investment fund managers decided independent of Romney to shed nearly all of his stocks, the filing states. Among those sold were his holdings in Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and Apple. Romney held on to three U.S. stocks: at least $250,000 worth of shares in Ford Motor Co., at least $1,000 in
Marriott Vacations Worldwide and at least $100,000 in Marriott International, where he served as a director from January 2009 to January 2011.
He dumped his extensive foreign stock holdings, which included Wal-Mart de Mexico — now the subject of U.S. inquiries into bribery allegations — as well as several publicly traded firms in China. Romney has been a harsh critic of China's trade policies.
In several of his fund holdings, Romney provided no information on the underlying investments. His report said that his fund managers asked for that information, but were told it was "confidential and proprietary." That included Solamere Founders Fund, a private equity fund run by his son Tagg Romney.
The campaign said a third trust for the Romney children, not listed in the disclosure, was worth $100 million.
The royalties for Romney's 2010 book, "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness," dipped to between $50,000 and $100,000. Last year, the royalties came in between $100,001 and $1million. Romney has donated the profits to charity, according to the disclosures.
The filings do not allow for a precise calculation of Romney's fortune. In January, he pegged his net worth at "between 150 [million] and about 200 and some odd million" dollars during an appearance on Univision. A recent analysis of his holdings by Forbes estimated his fortune to be worth $230 million.
Such wealth would make him among the richest occupants of the White House — a group that includes George Washington, whose net worth, adjusted to today's dollars, may have been as much as $500 million because of his land holdings.
Romney's riches have presented obstacles for him on the campaign trail, particularly in the GOP primaries, when rival Newt Gingrich cast him as out-of-touch with the average voter. Under pressure, Romney released his tax returns in January for the first time, providing a glimpse inside the complicated architecture of his far-flung holdings.
During the last two years, the Romneys paid about $3 million in federal taxes annually on an income of about $21 million, largely derived through capital gains and dividends, the returns showed.
In 2010, the Romneys reported a gross foreign income of $2.7 million, the best measure of how much they gained from international investments that year.
His campaign said that Romney gains no tax benefit from his overseas investments. However, a Vanity Fair article published this week revealed that Mitt Romney has heavily invested in foreign tax havens, raising questions about whether he's ever avoided paying U.S. taxes.
We already knew that he had a Swiss bank account until just last year, and that he still owns a mysterious corporation in Bermuda. The article notes that Romney's finances are "deeply entangled" with Bain Capital, including investment funds in the Cayman Islands. We don't know all the details because he won't follow precedent by releasing his tax returns, raising a lot of questions about his finances that Americans deserve to know the answers to. Take a look at this map of Romney's known investments in offshore tax havens, and make sure others see it, too:
Click Image To Enlarge
COMMENTARY: I would love to know what Willard's foreign investments are don't you? When I think of foreign tax havens, I think Caymen Islands. If you watched Tom Cruise in the film, "The Firm," you know what I mean.
With respect to Romney's foreign investments and bank accounts, Reuter's said.
"Romney advisers stressed that the holdings in the Caymans — along with those in a Swiss bank account that was closed in 2010 after an investment adviser decided it could be politically embarrassing to Romney — were reported on tax returns and were not vehicles to avoid taxes."
Under intense pressure from Republican house members, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Republican presidential candidate, Willard finally released his 2010 tax return and estimated for 2011. Here are a few highlights.
Willard and wife Anne had combined income of $42.6 million over the past two years (2010 and 2011).
Most of Willard's income came from capital gains on investments.
Willard paid $6.2 million in taxes over the past two years-- about $3 million was for 2010 and $3.2 million for 2011.
Willard made $7 million in charitable contributions over the past two years, including at least $4.1 million to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church).
Willard's effective tax rate for 2010 was 13.9%.
Willard's effective tax rate for 2011 is expected to be 15.4%
Willard's effective tax rates for the last two years is lower than the vast majority of U.S. taxpayers. By comparison, POTUS Barack Obama and Newt Gingrich's effective tax rates were 25% and 31% respectively.
The Washington Post's Wonkblog looked at some historical dataand found that Sen. John Kerry paid a 13.1 percent tax rate in 2003 and President Bill Clinton paid an 18.9 in 1990.
It's worth noting that Romney not only pays an effective tax rate that is lower than some middle-class Americans but he also pays a lower effective tax rate than most of his fellow millionaires.
"By contrast, millionaires pay an average rate of 25 percent. Although taxpayers earning between $2 million and $5 million pay an average tax rate of 26 percent, while those earning more than $10 million pay an average of 22 percent. We can speculate that one of the reasons for this is that much of their overall income comes from capital gains, which is taxed at 15 percent (only 20 percent of the total AGI for these $10 million-plus taxpayers is from salaries). However, even with this "preferential" tax rate on capital gains, the data clearly shows that their overall average tax rate is at least twice that of the nation as a whole."
Romney has vehemently defended his wealth and his tax rate, saying,
"I will not apologize for being successful."
During a late January debate, Romney added responded to questions about his tax returns:
"My tax bill is entirely legal and entirely fair. You'll see my income, how much taxes I've paid, how much I've paid to charity. I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. I don't think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes."
As a Republican taxpayer, wouldn't you want to know that your candidate for POTUS is paying ALL income taxes on domestic AND foreign investments. As reflected in the above, the precise value and nature of the majority of Willard's foreign investments is still unknown. If those foreign investments did not generate income, we all still deserve to know the nature of those investments, the value of those foreign investments, and if there were any losses.
Willard needs to come clean, and clearly demonstrate that he is abiding to U.S. foreign tax regulations and NOT making those foreign investments in order to avoid income taxes on that income.
If by happenstance Willard were to be elected POTUS (God forbid), we all deserve to know that he is honest and not willfully evading income taxes on his foreign investments. Tax evasion is a serious felony, punishable by fines and penalties and five years imprisonment, and it is also an impeachable offense. We all know how terrible dragging a POTUS through impeachment would be. I am jumping ahead of myself, of course. Willard has not been elected POTUS yet, but I dare ask,
"Would a Republican (hopefully changed to Democratic) dominated House of Representatives pursue impeachment proceedings against their own POTUS?"
When I heard that Willard had foreign investments in Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Switzerland and Luxembourg, and that those countries are known for their secrecy when it comes to protecting the identify of bank depositors, and have reputations as tax havens for the rich, I get a queezy feeling in my gut. I know one thing, if POTUS Obama had similar foreign investments, the House of Representatives would be demanding full disclosure, yet I have not heard shit from those punks in Congress. Kind of makes you wonder if our politicians have similar foreign investments, and just don't want to stirup a hornet's nest.
Courtesy of an article dated June 2, 2012 appearing in the Los Angeles Times and the Obama-Biden website and an article dated January 24, 2012 appearing in NPR
One problem with the Mitt Romney campaign's new iPhoneapp, which allows users to share photos of themselves in support of the Romney campaign.
His campaign made an embarrassing typo. "A Better Amercia," reads one of the banners with which users can customize their photos.
On Twitter and Tumbr, the typo is already being relentlessly mocked. The gaffe is still on the app as of Wednesday morning because Apple needs to approve the campaign's correction, the campaign told Talking Points Memo.
COMMENTARY: I don't know about you, but I want my next POTUS will be Obama, not some former punkass Bain & Company private equity who loaded companies with debt, then let them go bankrupt and laying off thousands of workers. I want my POTUS to be POTUS of America, not AMERCIA.
Courtesy of an article dated May 30, 2012 appearing in Business Insider
A man stands near drilling apparatus at the Vostok research camp in Antarctica (Click Image To Enlarge)
After drilling into Lake Vostok for over two decades, Russian scientists have confirmed that they reached the mysterious freshwater lake that was sealed beneath over two miles of Antarctic ice.
After decades of drilling, Russian scientists in the arctic have uncovered a rare piece of nature, an ancient lake buried thousands of feet under the ice. RT's Sean Thomas, toured the frozen continent exactly a year ago, and now explains what this discovery could mean.
Beneath the vast white landscape, Lake Vostok is the deepest and most isolated of Antarctica's subglacial lakes. Its size compares to Siberia's Lake Baikal or one of the Great Lakes, increasing the chance of biodiversity in its waters. Scientists estimate the body of water is roughly 1 million years old and supersaturated with oxygen, resembling no other known environment on Earth. John Priscu of Montana State University suspects that an oasis of life may lurk there, teeming around thermal vents.
A radar satellite image of the ice over Lake Vostok, a freshwater lake with a surface area of 14,000 square kilometres, that is under 4 kilometres of ice (Click Image To Enlarge)
Although reports on Lake Vostok came in Monday, the feat was not confirmed for two days. The Associated Press wrote Wednesday morning that according to a statement by Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, its team reached Lake Vostok on Sunday.
"The discovery has been avidly anticipated by scientists around the world, who hope that the lake, comparable in area to Lake Ontario, may contain microbial life and provide a clue in the search for life on other planets in similar conditions."
Click Image To Enlarge
According to Wired, Lake Vostok likely contains 50 times the amount of oxygen found in a typical freshwater lake. The conditions in the lake "are thought to be similar" to Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's Enceladus.
Despite the excitement surrounding the Russians' accomplishment, the project was not without environmental fears. The Washington Post explained that concerns exist that Lake Vostok"could be contaminated by the kerosene, Freon and other materials being used in the drilling."
"The lake water, rising up to 40 meters due to under-pressure in the crack, pushed the drilling liquid back onto the surface."
Russian scientists pose for group photo after their drill hole successfully reached Lake Vostok on February 5, 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Even with the concerns, the Russians' accomplishment at Lake Vostok has excited the scientific community. John Priscu, an Antarctic specialist at Montana State University, told The Washington Post,
"If they were successful, their efforts will transform the way we do science in Antarctica and provide us with an entirely new view of what exists under the vast Antarctic ice sheet."
The Russian operation is also significant because of the surface conditions which the scientists endured. The area above Lake Vostok is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. The lowest ever temperature on Earth, negative 128 degrees Fahrenheit (-82 C) was recorded there in 1983, according to the BBC.
COMMENTARY: This is an incredible feat and if the Russians are able to successfully retrieve water from Lake Vostok after all these millions of years, and discover living microbes, sea life or other forms of life, the 20 years they spent drilling, would all be worth it. We could end up discovering new species of life that existed in prehistoric times before Man walked on Earth.
But Russia must wait for the Antarctic summer to collect and study water samples, leaving the door open for U.S. and British missions to explore two other subglacial lakes and beat it to be the first to answer the question of whether life exists under the polar ice. Martin Siegert, head of the University of Edinburgh's School of Geosciences, said.
"This is scientific exploration, this is work that no one has ever done before. This is probably one of the last frontiers on our planet that remains largely unknown to us."
Siegert is leading a British expedition to explore Lake Ellsworth in West Antarctica in 2012-2013.
The British camp at the Lake Ellsworth drilling site as a team of British engineers have completed the first phase of a project to explore an ancient subglacial lake buried 1.8 miles beneath the ice in Antarctica (Click Image To Enlarge)
There's obvious cause for concern by British and American scientists that the Russians may release living microbes that may be harmful or dangerous to Man. Let's hope that the Russians don't fuck this up.
Courtesy of an article dated February 8, 2012 appearing in Huffington Post Green and an article dated February 9, 2012 appearing in The Guardian
Facebook Inc. is continuing its rapid pace of growth, with the social network doubling its revenue to $1.6 billion in the first half of 2011 from about $800 million a year earlier, said a person familiar with the matter.
Facebook's improving financial performance comes as speculation has swirled over its plans for an initial public offering. The company hasn't made any formal announcements around an IPO but has said it will begin disclosing financial information next April. Facebook's valuation has soared this year in the secondary market.
Erskine Bowles, at a Senate hearing this year, has joined Facebook's board. Bowles will serve as the CIA's "inside man" at Facebook, making sure Zuck does as he is told.
Separately, the company said Wednesday that it appointed Erskine Bowles, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina and a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, to its board of directors. Mr. Bowles is Facebook's second recent addition to its board, having brought on Netflix Inc. Chief Executive Reed Hastings in June. In total, Facebook now has seven board members, including Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.
The revenue figures for privately held Facebook were earlier reported by Reuters.
Facebook's revenue has been driven by its online-advertising business, as big brands rush to the site to interact with consumers through display ads and fan pages. Facebook brand campaigns, or fan pages created by big companies to interact with their consumers, are up 104% from last year, according to a recent report by TBG Digital.
Facebook's world-wide ad revenue increased from $40 million in 2006 to close to $2 billion in 2010, and an estimated $4 billion in 2011 according to data compiled by eMarketer. Facebook's share of display-ad revenue in the U.S. is projected to grow to 17.7% in 2011, up from 12.2% share last year, according to eMarketer. The research firm projects that Facebook's ad revenue will be close to $6 billion by 2012.
Social gaming and the sale of virtual goods within games has also become an important part of Facebook's business. EMarketer estimates that social-gaming companies generated more than $500 million in revenue from selling virtual goods last year. As of July 1, Facebook requires game developers to accept payments through its virtual payment system, called Facebook Credits. Through credits, the company takes a 30% cut of all game-developer revenue.
COMMENTARY: This blog post was supposed to be about Facebook's mid-year 2011 revenues, but when I saw that Erskine Bowles had been appointed a new Facebook board member, it all came together for me. Here's why.
It is not surprising that Facebook would add a Washington insider to its board of directors. Bowles has served under two U.S. Presidents, Bill Clinton (Chief of Staff) and Barack Obama (co-chair National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform). He also happens to be a member of the board for Morgan Stanley, who will probably figure prominently in any future Facebook IPO.
Facebook is getting too big, too influential, too intrusive, so Bowles fits in quite nicely with the federal governments future plans. Here's how it works: Bowles became President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff in Janury 1997, taking over from former CIA director Leon Paneta who was Clinton's COS at the time. Do you see the connection now? Bowles will be the CIA's "inside man" at Facebook, covering the CIA's "back" so to speak, insuring the CIA's clandestine and information gathering activities proceed unimpeded.
Facebook doesn't sell or make anything that I know of. YOU are the product. Facebook is, quite simply, in the information gathering business. Essentially, they gather the most intimate details of information about YOU. In Mark Zuckerberg's own words, "privacy is no longer a social norm". He once said,
"It's incredible what members will reveal about themselves on Facebook, that they wouldn't anywhere else."
I view Facebook as the perfect spy disguised as a social network, that has secretly become an arm of the CIA, NSA and FBI, who have funded the social networking giant directly or indirectly through several venture capital firms who are just conduits for money. Mark Zuckerberg maybe the major stockholder, but he has very little to say about it now. Here's Zuck hobnobbing with President Obie and other Silicon Valley CEO's:
Click Image To Enlarge
That guy in the foreground (tongue sticking out) who is just behind Zuck is CIA spy Eric Schmidt who used to be Google's CEO. Eric is Google's Washington D.C. go-between guy now, and makes regular visits to Langley, VA.
To insure that the information about YOU flows to the CIA, the CIA secretly spent nearly $300 million of taxpayer dollars for a new 150,000 square data center for Facebook. Everytime you click that LIKE button, the CIA knows about it. Everytime you post a Wall post, the CIA knows about it. If you play Mafia Wars, the CIA knows about it. They know everything about you punkasses. Be careful who you friend on Facebook, he's probably a CIA spy.
If a previous minister of national defense of a big country started talking publicly about his belief that some UFOs are interplanetary vehicles carrying visitors to Earth, would you believe him or not?
Well, stepping up to the plate is the Honorable Paul Hellyer, a former deputy prime minister of Canada and the longest serving current member -- ahead of Prince Philip -- of the Queen's Privy Council, which is made up of "prominent Canadians appointed to advise the queen on issues of importance to the country."
In the above video recorded on April 2008 at X-Conference at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C., former Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer, exposes the truth about a deliberate U.S. government cover-up of the existence of UFO's & extra-terrestrial beings.
As Canadian minister of national defense in 1963, Hellyer was responsible for integrating and unifying the Royal Canadian army, navy and air force into a single organization, the Canadian Armed Forces.
And yes, he is extremely outspoken about UFOs and alien visitors to Earth.
Hellyer told AOL News.
"Oh, I'm absolutely convinced of it. These things were not invented here. And I think people have to get accustomed to this new reality. We lived too long in a sense of isolation, thinking that Earth was the center of the cosmos, that we were the only species and, therefore, probably the most advanced. And when we come to the realization that we're not any of those things, then I think we should be aware of it, learn to live with it and certainly try to take advantage of anything that we can learn from visitors from anywhere."
Hellyer, 87, is also known for his activities involving world issues, including monetary reform, the Middle East and environmental concerns.
When Hellyer was Canada's minister of national defense, he says he never discussed UFOs with other high-ranking officials.
"I got periodic reports on sightings and I looked at them very casually, and it was decided that about 80 percent of them were natural phenomena of one sort or another, and the other 20 percent roughly were unexplained, and therefore unidentified. You know, this is the kind of thing that sometimes they don't tell politicians about, and I have no doubt that there were probably people in my employ who would have been more knowledgeable than I was at the time."
While spending last Thanksgiving north of Toronto, Hellyer and his wife spotted an unidentified flying object and recount what they saw.
"The two of us stood there transfixed for 20 minutes, looking up at this thing moving first in one direction, and then another. By process of elimination, we determined it wasn't a star or satellite and it wasn't the space station, so there was really no explanation for it other than it was, in fact, a UFO."
Hellyer's analytical mind raced as fast as the object he was looking at.
"It looked like a star, but it maneuvered in a way that stars don't. I must admit that when I saw this one, I wondered whether it was extraterrestrial or American. And I guess the thought that occurred to me was that if it is American, then they have learned some pretty big secrets about acceleration, because it accelerated at a pace that nothing I've ever known about that was built here is capable of."
Trusted political and scientific sources whom Hellyer has talked to have suggested that the United States has developed new forms of energy at top-secret "black operation" installations, using reportedly extraterrestrial technology.
"That is my belief. I do not have proof of that, but I believe that they have developed energy sources, and publicly I'm saying that if they do not exist in commercial form, that extraterrestrials would certainly give us that information if we would ask them for it and stop shooting at them. Paul Hellyer's story is an important contribution to the literature of modern Western civilization. His experience in government, his interest in exopolitics and the issues of sustainability of civilization are significant areas of current discourse."
In the above video, Apollo 14 astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, spoke at the Disclosure Conference held at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. Dr. Mitchell talks about what he knows about the Roswell UFO incident and existence of UFO's and extra-terrestrial lifeforms. There are two parts to the video.
While Hellyer believes -- as many people do -- in an ongoing cover-up of UFO information, there are those of equal or higher credentials who say otherwise. Case in point: retired Army Col. John Alexander -- another speaker at this week's International UFO Congress -- who acknowledges the reality of UFOs but says there has never been a cover-up of the facts and that UFO disclosure has already taken place over many decades.
In the above video uncovered by Grant Cameron & Neil Gould of former U.S. President Bill Clinton'a speech held at the Expolitics Conference on September 14, 2005, the former President answers questions regarding UFO's, Roswell and Area 51.
On the topic of disclosure of all facts relating to UFOs, Hellyer is pretty adamant.
"Basically, I'm a full-disclosure person. People keep talking about transparency and still not telling the truth, and this applies in various other areas as well as UFOs, and it's just about time that we started getting open with each other and trying to get along and live together."
If Hellyer was Canada's minister of defense today, would he be as up-front with his UFO beliefs?
He replied.
"I would probably be open-mouthed about it and I might get fired for it. I've always been pretty open and direct, so unless there was some reason which I can't conceive of, I wouldn't try to hide the existence of the extraterrestrials and their presence."
COMMENTARY: I suppose it's possible to have a wacked out, mental retard working at the highest levels of government. Hell yes, it is possible. We had George Bush running the U.S. government for eight years. He claimed he was in contact with God. Richard Nixon's suspicions of others bordered on lunacy. He even kept an "Enemy's List" and secretly recorded telephone conversations which eventually got him impeached. Lyndon Johnson did the same thing. Many of those recorded telephone conversations are finally being disclosed.
However, even at 87 years of age, I find Paul Hellyer quite sane, intelligent, frank, honest and very serious when he says that the U.S. has been deliberately covering up the truth about the existence of UFO's and extra-terrestrials for decades. What's even more astounding is that former Presidents, cabinet members, senator's and congressmen are completely "out-of-the-loop" about what the government knows about UFO's and extra-terrestrial beings and we are spending on so-called "black" projects. Everything is on a need to know basis. Sounds like a familiar story doesn't it?
In a blog post March 1, 2011, one of my earliest on the subject of UFO's and extraterrestrials, I profiled Paul Hellyer, who claimed that the U.S. is deliberately hiding the truth about the existence of UFO's and extraterrestrials, has back-engineered UFO craft and energy propulsion systems, and U.S. scientists and military personnel are coooperating with and working along side one or more species of extra-terrestrials to developed advanced weapons and other technologies that could provide mankind unlimited free energy sources and eliminate the damage to our environment from greenhouse gases from fossil fuels.
The year 2011 will be referred to as "The Year of the UFO", due to the sheer number of UFO sightings and number of witnesses to these sightings, including NASA astronauts, military and commercial pilots, military personnel, and even a few politicians, have reached epidemic proportions. The Mutual UFO Network or MUFON, which tracks and keeps accurate records of UFO sighting repots, reported that over 1,000 UFO sightings were reported in the month of August 2011. This is twice the usual number of 500.
In the old days you would see a lone UFO, typically saucer-shaped, and just a few witnesses to the sighting. Today, we are seeing fleets of UFO's some of them numbering in dozens, and sometimes accompanied by a larger UFO which is often been referred to as "The Mothership". Sightings have been reported everywhere, and witnesses to an individual sighting can number in the hundreds and even thousands. Witnesses have sighted UFO's in just about every continent, and some recognizable patterns are beginning to develop:
Commonly sighted UFO's appear to have a noticeable bright halo around their saucer-shaped perimeter. (Search YouTube under London UFO's, Mexico City UFO's, Hawaii UFO's, Fukushima UFO's, Chile UFO's, among just a few).
When UFO's appear at night, witnesses say they appear as a very bright star. The "Jerusalem UFO" is an excellent example. It was recorded by several different witnesses and videos are on YouTube and have been seen by thousands.
They fly at lower altitudes where they are clearly visible by the human eye.
They fly at high speeds, sometimes nearing 4,000 mph and often make crazy 90 degree turns that a regular military pilot could not perform.
A jumbo-sized "Mothership" often accompanies a group of UFO's.
They fly in waves or even formations of 3-5 UFO's, sometimes forming patterns like triangles. It is rare to see just one UFO.
Some UFO's have been known to hover over an area for several seconds to as long as 10-20 minutes.
They are appearing over large metropolitan areas, in broad daylight, and in greater frequency is if they purposely want to be seen.
The media has become more active in covering UFO sightings. The Jersualem UFO has caught worldwide media attention because it appeared over the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest spots for Jews, Christians and Muslims in the world. Some individuals are claiming it has a religious significance, but what that may be, remains to be seen.
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Everyday more highly creditable individuals are coming forward, many of them claiming they have seen UFO's and/or extra-terrestrials, and accusing the U.S. government of deliberately hiding the truth about UFO's and extra-terrestrials. Individuals within the government with inside knowledge of UFO's and extra-terrestrials claim that the truth is being withheld because it would cause panic.
Several nations (The U.K., Mexico, Belgium, The Netherlands, and several South American nations) have already began the serious process of releasing their classified records of UFO sightings and reports of extra-terrestrials. When government officials like Mr. Hellyer step forward, then you know its time our government came clean.
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Courtesy of an article dated February 25, 2011 appearing in The Huffington Post
The notorious character "Humongous" from the "The Road Warrior" film. Visions of the future economy. All he wanted was some gas for his chopper, so he took matters into his own hands.
The man who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union is now forecasting a revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellions - all within four years, while cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012.
Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is publisher of the Trends Journal which forecasts and analyzes business, socioeconomic, political, and other trends, and is renowned for his accuracy in predicting future world and economic events which can send a chill down your spine.
Celente says that by 2012 America will become an underdeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.
Celente, adding that the situation would be "worse than the greatdepression" said.
"We're going to see the end of the retail Christmas... we're going to see a fundamental shift take place... putting food on the table is going to be more important than putting gifts under the Christmas tree."
Celente also said.
"America's going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for."
He notes that people's refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.
Celente, who successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the sub-prime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar, told UPI in November last year that the following year would be known as "The Panic of 2008," adding that "giants (would) tumble to their deaths," which is exactly what we have witnessed with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and others.
He also said that the dollar would eventually be devalued by as much as 90 per cent. The consequence of what we have seen unfold this year would lead to a lowering in living standards, Celente predicted a year ago, which is also being borne out by plummeting retail sales figures.
The prospect of revolution was a concept echoed by a British Ministry of Defence report last year, which predicted that within 30 years, the growing gap between the super-rich and the middle class, along with an urban underclass threatening social order would mean,
"The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest. The middle classes could become a revolutionary class."
In a separate recent interview, Celente went further on the subject of revolution in America. He said.
"There will be a revolution in this country. It ' s not going to come yet, but it's going to come down the line and we 're going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for i t: the takeover of Washington, D.C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen."
He goes on to give us a horrid look into the future of America.
"The first thing to do is organise with tax revolts. That's going to be the big one because people can't afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You're going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop."
"It's going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we're going to see many more."
"We're going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It's going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to."
"It's going to come as a shock and with it, there's going to be a lot of crime. And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people's minds weren't wrecked on all these modern drugs, over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be."
"So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody's comprehension."
The George Washington blog has compiled a list of quotes attesting to Celente's accuracy as a trend forecaster.
CNN Headline News:"When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente."
USA Today:"Gerald Celente has a knack for getting the zeitgeist right."
CNBC:"There's not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he's talking about."
The Wall Street Journal: "Those who take their predictions seriously ...consider. Gerald Celente and the Trends Research Institute."
The Atlantic Journal-Constitution:"Gerald Celente is always ahead of the curve on trends and uncannily on the mark ... he's one of the most accurate forecasters around."
The New York Times:"Mr. Celente tracks the world's social, economic and business trends for corporate clients."
48 Hours, CBS News:"Mr. Celente is a very intelligent guy. We are able to learn about trends from an authority."
The Detroit News:"Gerald Celente has a solid track record. He has predicted everything from the 1987 stock market crash and the demise of the Soviet Union to green marketing and corporate downsizing."
Chicago Tribune: "Gerald Celente forecast the 1987 stock market crash, 'green marketing,' and the boom in gourmet coffees."
The Los Angeles Times:"The Trends Research Institute is the Standard and Poor’s of Popular Culture."
New York Post: "If Nostradamus were alive today, he'd have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente."
So there you have it - hardly a nut job conspiracy theorist blowhard now is he? The price of not heeding his warnings will be far greater than the cost of preparing for the future now.
Storable food and gold are two good places to make a start.
COMMENTARY: Gerald Celente reminds me of a fast talking Atlantic City bookie, laying odds on the Super Bowl, than a professional trends expert and visionary, but you cannot deny the accuracy of many of his predictionssince he started in 1980.
You don't have to be a noted economist to make these predictions. The evidence of a U.S. financial collapse are all around us. I have written extensively on different aspects of the U.S. and world economies, including:
In a blog post dated July 6, 2011, titled "The Root Causes Behind Today's High Unemployment Situation, And Why This May Not Change Anytime Soon," I showed in great detail why unemployment will continue to remain high. This is a must read for any pessimists who believe we are out of the woods.
The symptoms are everywhere around you. In February 2011, I wrote about the impending Peak-Oil Crisis, a catastrophe we will all face because the demand for oil will exceed production (peak-oil). If you have noticed a rapid rise in the price of gas, that's what I am talking about.
The Arab Spring Revolutions which erupted in North Africa and Middle East saw the overthrow of long standing dictators in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, a bloddy revolution in Syria which continues to this day, and unrest and demonstrations in Jordan. All of these events have created further instability in the oil rich regions of the Middle East and North Africa.
Adding fuel to the fire is the refusal of Iran to end its illegal nuclear weapons program in defiance of the U.N. and AEIA inspectors and boycott resolutions, and threats to destroy Israel and further threats to the West that it could close the Straits of Hormuz, adds further tensions and instability to the free flow of oil from the Middle East to the rest of the world.
This is not just a U.S. problem, but it is global in scale. We all know about the financial collapse of several European countries, namely Greece, Spain, Portugal and now Italy, but major developed nations like Japanare on the brink of financial collapse. Standard & Poors recently reduced the credit ratings of France, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy. This will make it doubly difficult for these countries to raise funds and pay their longterm sovereign debt when it comes due.
In a blog post dated January 7, 2012, I told you about passage and signing by President Obama, of the National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA (H.R. bill 1540), which effectively gives the President the power to use our military in purely civilian matters. Though the wording in the NDAA is itself torturous -- and there is a provision for a waiver from the Defense Secretary regarding mandatory military detentions -- the elasticity of words like "associated forces" and "supported" have left some civil libertarians worried that the U.S. military could be deployed domestically against people opposing future American wars against alleged "terrorists" or "terrorist states." In effect, this new NDAA law could lead to a police state, in which you could be detained as a "person of interest" or labeled as a "traitor" simply for demonstrating against future wars. You could be held for an indefinite period of time, denied rights of habeaus corpus and you would disappear into some detention camp never to be seen again. Does the U.S. government believe that civil law and order will collapse during a revolution? Why would the politicians pass such a devisive law and destroy your civil and legal rights under the U.S. Constitution unless they are planning for something?
Finally, in a blog post dated January 9, 2012 (reposted), I told you about the booming demand for underground "Apocalypse" bunkers by the rich and powerful. They are the so-called 1 percenters with the financial means to protect themselves in the event of a natural catastrophe, or maybe a revolution, perhaps? These wealthy individuals are well connected and are the largest doners and supporters to both major political parties. Why would they be willing to pay many thousands of dollars unless they knew something truly bad was about to happen? While the 99 percenters experience an all-out revolution, these rich and powerful individuals will live in absolute luxury and comfort in plush deep underground bunkers protected from the chaos above ground.
It does not surprise me then why Mr. Celente predicts a "violent revolution" and that "food will become more important than Christmas". There is a lot of anger out there. The roots for the emergence of a third party are already here. The Tea Party could emerge as that Third Party. The Tea Partyreflects a lot of that anger, although I don't agree with much of their radical politics, including their racism reflected in their personal hate for President Obama. The Occupy Wall Street movement has expanded across the country. Major demonstrations are planned in 2012 in many major cities.
Courtesy of an article dated January 30, 2011 appearing in Before It's News
President Obama bows to Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Nuclear Security Summit in April 2010, after all they are our bank
The USS Gerald R. Ford was supposed to help secure another half century of American naval supremacy. The hulking aircraft carrier taking shape in a dry dock in Newport News, Va., is designed to carry a crew of 4,660 and a formidable arsenal of aircraft and weapons.
But an unforeseen problem cropped up between blueprint and expected delivery in 2015: China is building a new class of ballistic missiles designed to arc through the stratosphere and explode onto the deck of a U.S. carrier, killing sailors and crippling its flight deck.
WSJ's Nathan Hodge reports on a new fleet of Chinese ballistic missiles that can strike warships nearly 2,000 miles offshore and are intended to keep U.S. warships. AP Photo/Xinhua, Pu Haiyang
Since 1945, the U.S. has ruled the waters of the western Pacific, thanks in large part to a fleet of 97,000-ton carriers—each one "4.5 acres of mobile, sovereign U.S. territory," as the Navy puts it. For nearly all of those years, China had little choice but to watch American vessels ply the waters off its coast with impunity.
Now China is engaged in a major military buildup. Part of its plan is to force U.S. carriers to stay farther away from its shores, Chinese military analysts say. So the U.S. is adjusting its own game plan. Without either nation saying so, both are quietly engaged in a tit-for-tat military-technology race. At stake is the balance of power in a corner of the seas that its growing rapidly in importance.
Pentagon officials are reluctant to talk publicly about potential conflict with China. Unlike the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Beijing isn't an explicit enemy. During a visit to China last month, Michele Flournoy, the U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, told a top general in the People's Liberation Army that "the U.S. does not seek to contain China," and that "we do not view China as an adversary," she recalled in a later briefing.
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Nevertheless, U.S. military officials often talk about preparing for a conflict in the Pacific—without mentioning who they might be fighting. The situation resembles a Harry Potter novel in which the characters refuse to utter the name of their adversary, says Andrew Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a think tank with close ties to the Pentagon. He says.
"You can't say China's a threat. You can't say China's a competitor."
China Unveils New "Carrier-Killer" Anti-Ship Ballistic Missle
Beijing's interest in developing anticarrier missiles is believed to date to the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1996. The Chinese government, hoping to dissuade voters in Taiwan from re-electing a president considered pro-independence, conducted a series of missile tests, firing weapons into the waters off the island. President Bill Clinton sent two carrier battle groups, signaling that Washington was ready to defend Taiwan—a strategic setback for China.
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China's state media has said its new missile, called the DF-21D, was built to strike a moving ship up to about 1,700 miles away. U.S. defense analysts say the missile is designed to thwart our defenses in two key ways:
Come in at an angle too high for U.S. defenses against sea-skimming cruise missiles.
Com in too low for defenses against other ballistic missiles.
Flight path of China's DF-21D ASBM (Click Image To Enlarge)
Even if U.S. systems were able to shoot down one or two, some experts say, China could overwhelm the defenses by targeting a carrier with several missiles at the same time.
As such, the new missile—China says it isn't currently deployed—could push U.S. carriers farther from Chinese shores, making it more difficult for American fighter jets to penetrate its airspace or to establish air superiority in a conflict near China's borders.
Comparative Range of China's DF-21D missle at 2700KM (Blue) and 1500KM (Yellow) ranges(Click Image To Enlarge)
U.S. Response To New China Threat
In response, our military is developing:
The Navy is testing long-range pilotless, drone aircraft that can hover 70,000 feet above aircraft carriers and allows fleet commanders to track suspicious vessels across vast expanses of sea. A prototype of the as-yet-unnamed drone, referred to as the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) system, is in action with the Navy’s 5th Fleet in the Pacific and, according to one naval expert, could help keep tabs on any Iranian threats to shipping in the Persian Gulf.
The Air Force wants a fleet of pilotless bombers capable of cruising over vast stretches of the Pacific. The Air Force presently has an extensive arsenal of medium-range pilotless drones, including the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper, and used in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Now on the Pentagon wish list is a proposed fleet of 80 to 100 nuclear-capable bombers that could operate with or without a pilot in the cockpit. Pentagon weapons acquisition chief Ashton Carter met separately with representatives of Northrop, Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin said. These companies are expected to vie for the estimated $55-billion contract that is expected to provide jobs and decades of work for Southern California’s aerospace industry.
China Also Presents A Cyberspace Threat
The gamesmanship extends into cyberspace. U.S. officials worry that, in the event of a conflict, China would try to attack the satellite networks that control drones, as well as military networks within the U.S. The outcome of any conflict, they believe, could turn in part on who can jam the other's electronics or hack their computer networks more quickly and effectively.
In May 26, 2011, at a recent press conference held by the Defense Ministry, Geng Yansheng, spokesman of China's Defense Ministry, explained the role of "China's Blue Team," a team of hackers created to twart cyberattacks. He said.
"At present, Internet safety has become an international issue. It not only affects our civil societies but also the military. China is also a victim of Internet attacks. Right now our Internet protection system is still relatively weak. Improving Internet safety is one of the most prominent tasks of our military training. The purpose of the "Cyber Blue Team" is to improve our ability to safeguard Internet security."
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The Defense Ministry also emphasized that the "Cyber Blue Team" are not hackers and that the International community should not misunderstand the purpose of it. "Cyber Blue Team" is just a nickname used within the military training routines and is not an actual unit within the PLA.
China's Cyber Blue Team busy hacking (Click Image To Enlarge)
Sizing up China's electronic-warfare capabilities is more difficult. China has invested heavily in cybertechnologies, and U.S. defense officials have said Chinese hackers, potentially working with some state support, have attacked American defense networks. China has repeatedly denied any state involvement.
How China Plans To Control The Seas Through "Anti-Access, Area Denial" Technologies
Throughout history, control of the seas has been a prerequisite for any country that wants to be considered a world power. China's military buildup has included a significant naval expansion. China now has 29 Song Class electric submarines armed with antiship cruise missiles, compared with just eight in 2002, according to Rand Corp., another think tank with ties to the military. In August, China conducted a sea trial of the "Varyag", its first aircraft carrier —a vessel that isn't yet fully operational.
At one time, military planners saw Taiwan as the main point of potential friction between China and the U.S. Today, there are more possible flash points. Tensions have grown between Japan and China over islands each nation claims in the East China Sea. Large quantities of oil and gas are believed to lie under the South China Sea, and China, Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations have been asserting conflicting territorial claims on it. Last year, Vietnam claimed China had harassed one of its research vessels, and China demanded that Vietnam halt oil-exploration activities in disputed waters.
A few years ago, the U.S. military might have responded to any flare-up by sending one or more of its 11 aircraft carriers to calm allies and deter Beijing. Now, the People's Liberation Army, in addition to the missiles it has under development, has submarines capable of attacking the most visible instrument of U.S. military power.
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Eric Heginbotham, who specializes in East Asian security at Rand says.
"This is a rapidly emerging development. As late as 1995 or 2000, the threat to carriers was really minimal. Now, it is fairly significant. There is a whole complex of new threats emerging."
The Chinese military embarked on a military modernization effort designed to blunt U.S. power in the Pacific by developing what U.S. military strategists dubbed "anti-access, area denial" technologies.
Adm. Gary Roughead, the recently retired U.S. chief of naval operations, last year said.
"Warfare is about anti-access. You could go back and look at the Pacific campaigns in World War II, [when] the Japanese were trying to deny us access into the western Pacific."
In 2004, Chinese President Hu Jintao unveiled a new military doctrine calling for the armed forces to undertake "new historic missions" to safeguard China's "national interests." Chinese military officers and experts said those interests included securing international shipping lanes and access to foreign oil and safeguarding Chinese citizens working overseas.
At first, China's buildup was slow. Then some headline-grabbing advances set off alarms in Washington. In a 2007 test, China shot down one of its older weather satellites, demonstrating its ability to potentially destroy U.S. military satellites that enable warships and aircraft to communicate and to target bases on the Chinese mainland.
The Pentagon responded with a largely classified effort to protect U.S. satellites from weapons such as missiles or lasers. A year after China's antisatellite test, the U.S. demonstrated its own capabilities by blowing up a dead spy satellite with a modified ballistic-missile interceptor.
Last year, the arms race accelerated. In January, just hours before then U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates sat down with Chinese President Hu to mend frayed relations, China conducted the first test flight of a new, radar-evading fighter jet. The plane, called the Chendu J-20 (see video below), might allow China to launch air attacks much farther afield—possibly as far as U.S. military bases in Japan and Guam.
The aircraft carrier China launched in August was built from a hull bought from Ukraine. The Pentagon expects China to begin working on its own version, which could become operational after 2015—not long after the USS Gerald R. Ford enters service.
American military planners are even more worried about the modernization of China's submarine fleet. The newer vessels can stay submerged longer and operate more quietly than China's earlier versions. In 2006, a Chinese Song class submarine appeared in the midst of a group of American ships, undetected until it rose to the surface.
China's Type-094 Nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarine (SSBN) is now under construction
China's Song Class Type-039 and 041 electric submarines (SS) carry cruise missiles
China's technological advances have been accompanied by a shift in rhetoric by parts of its military. Hawkish Chinese military officers and analysts have long accused the U.S. of trying to contain China within the "first island chain" that includes Japan and the Philippines, both of which have mutual defense treaties with the U.S., and Taiwan, which the U.S. is bound by law to help defend. They now talk about pushing the U.S. back as far as Hawaii and enabling China's navy to operate freely in the western Pacific, the Indian Ocean and beyond.
Maj. Gen. Luo Yuan, one of China's most outspoken military commentators, told a conference in September.
"The U.S. has four major allies within the first island chain, and is trying to starve the Chinese dragon into a Chinese worm."
The Pentagon Conducts War Games
China's beefed up military still is a long way from having the muscle to defeat the U.S. Navy head-to-head. For now, U.S. officials say, the Chinese strategy is to delay the arrival of U.S. military forces long enough to take control of contested islands or waters.
Publicly, Pentagon leaders such as Mr. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said the U.S. would like to cultivate closer military-to-military ties with China.
Privately, China has been the focus of planning. In 2008, the U.S. military held a series of war games, called Pacific Vision, which tested its ability to counter a "near-peer competitor" in the Pacific. That phrase is widely understood within the military to be shorthand for China.
Retired Air Force Gen. Carrol "Howie" Chandler, who helped conduct the war games says.
"My whole impetus was to look at the whole western Pacific. And it was no secret that the Chinese were making investments to overcome our advantages in the Pacific."
Those games tested the ability of the U.S. to exercise air power in the region, both from land bases and from aircraft carriers. People familiar with the exercises say they informed strategic thinking about potential conflict with China. A formal game plan, called AirSea Battle, now is in the works to develop better ways to fight in the Pacific and to counter China's new weapons, Pentagon officials say.
U.S. Navy Developing New Weapons And Expanding Bases
The Navy is developing new weapons for its aircraft carriers and new aircraft to fly off them. On the new Ford carrier, the catapult that launches jets off the deck will be electromagnetic, not steam-powered, allowing for quicker takeoffs.
The carrier-capable drones under development, which will allow U.S. carriers to be effective when farther offshore, are considered a breakthrough. Rear Adm. William Shannon, who heads the Navy's office for unmanned aircraft and strike weapons, compared the drone's debut flight last year to a pioneering flight by Eugene Ely, who made the first successful landing on a naval vessel in 1911. "I look at this demonstration flight…as ushering us into the second 100 years of naval aviation," he said.
The Air Force wants a longer-range bomber for use over the Pacific. Navy and Air Force fighter jets have relatively short ranges. Without midair refueling, today's carrier planes have an effective range of about 575 miles.
China's subs, fighter planes and guided missiles will likely force carriers to stay farther than that from its coast, U.S. military strategists say.
Andrew Hoehn, a vice president at Rand says.
"The ability to operate from long distances will be fundamental to our future strategy in the Pacific. You have to have a long-range bomber. In terms of Air Force priorities, I cannot think of a larger one."
The U.S. also is considering new land bases to disperse its forces throughout the region. President Barack Obama recently announced the U.S. would use new bases in Australia, including a major port in Darwin. Many of the bases aren't expected to have a permanent American presence, but in the event of a conflict, the U.S. would be able to base aircraft there.
In light of China's military advances and shrinking U.S. defense budgets, some U.S. military officers have begun wondering whether the time has come to rethink the nation's strategic reliance on aircraft carriers like the USS Ford. A successful attack on a carrier could jeopardize the lives of as many as 5,000 sailors—more than all the troops killed in action in Iraq.
Navy Captain Henry Hendrix and retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Noel Williams wrote in an article in the naval journal Proceedings last year.
"The Gerald R. Ford is just the first of her class. She should also be the last."
COMMENTARY: In two blog posts dated February 7, 2011, July 16, 2011 and November 8, 2011 and have extensively covered the new cyberspace threat posted by China, including the U.S. USCYBERCOM or CYBERCOM and its Chinese counterpart "Blue Cyber Team." In 2011, President Barack Obama established cyberattack rules of engagement and could respond to such an attack by an attack of its own, including the use of military weapons.
China has just finished test flying its new Chendu J-20 stealth fighter jet, so not much is known about the new Chinese stealth fighter specifications and capabilities, but it is believed that the America's F-22 and new F-35 stealth fighters are more than a match. However, the J-20's stealth capabilities, larger armament payload and longer range could present a serious threat U.S. bases in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
China's navy is growing rapidly, and includes submarines (both conventional and nuclear), surface combat ships, coastal warfare, amphibious warfare and minewarfare vessels. U.S. military experts estimate there are approximately 63 submarines in its fleet, of which 10 are nuclear. They include two classes of nuclear attack submarines (SSN)--Type 091 and 093. China also has two classes of nuclear ballistic missle submarines (SSBN)--Type 092 and 093. China is also building a newer, larger nuclear ballistic missle submarine (SSBN), the Type 095. Here's an estimate of China's latest naval inventory.
China's Naval Inventory
The following chart may help explain why the U.S. Naval Pacific Fleet is supporting Taiwan and patrolling the East and South China Seas.
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Obama's bow to China's President not withstanding, the U.S. is not sitting on its butt while China ramps up its military. We have the largest naval fleet of any country, largest air force, largest nuclear arsenal, both day (F-22 and F-35) and night stealth fighters (F-117), and stealth bombers (B-2).
The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined, including China's. The U.S. Navy also has the world's largest carrier fleet, with 11 in service, one under construction (two planned), and one in reserve. The service had 328,516 personnel on active duty and 101,689 in the Navy Reserve in January 2011. It operates 286 ships in active service and more than 3,700 aircraft.
Our nuclear submarine fleet numbers 71, giving us a 7-to-1 superiority in nuclear submarines. We have 12 super aircraft carriers to China's lone "little" aircraft carrier. The U.S. is also developing a fleet of very fast Littoral ships that can operate off costal waters and can be used in different missions, an electronic rail gun that can shoot a projectile 100 miles with precise accuracy (and shoot down China's DF-21 carrier-killer missile), and we are working on numerous secret aircraft and military weapons systems that very few people know about.
The U.S. also has the world's largest, and most sophisticated fleet of unmanned drones, many of them being used in combat over the skys of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The U.S. is now testing two unmanned, long-range, nuclear-capable bombers. When completed, that bomber fleet will number 80-100.
Obama's bow to China's president not withstanding, the U.S. is not intimidated by China, and I don't see us losing our mastery of the seas anytime soon. We will just have to learn to co-exist. Do you honestly believe they would jeopardize their entire economy, risk a war and everything they have built, over the little island of Taiwan? China also holds over $1 trillion of U.S. debt and I am sure they would like to be paid at some time.
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