Saturday, May 16, 2015

One more to go.

May 16, 2015

American Pharoah (click here) is on his way to getting his misspelled name in the history books!

Following his victory at the Kentucky Derby, the speedy colt won the 140th Preakness Stakes despite the pouring rain, putting him on track for a shot to earn horse racing's highest honor, the Triple Crown. 

American Pharoah, ridden by jockey Victor Espinoza, edged out a tough field of eight horses in Saturday's race in Baltimore, adding to trainer Bob Baffert's string of victories. If American Pharoah can follow up with a win at the Belmont Stakes after the Preakness, Baffert can add a Triple Crown -- a sweep of the top races -- to his war chest.

American Pharoah was the favorite heading into the race at Pimlico Race Course, but by no means without competition, having to beat out rivals he bested at the Kentucky Derby, Dortmund and Firing Line, who were also picked as horses to watch. American Pharoah also had the unfavorable No. 1 post.
Mr. Z started off the race in front, but the Kentucky Derby winner pulled ahead in the stretch, finishing first with an impressive lead.

It is that time of year. Spring and the three tests of the 3 year old generation of thoroughbreds.

American Pharoah #18, ridden by Victor Espinoza, comes out of turn 4 during the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 2, 2015 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Image source: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Three year old, American Pharaoh, came from the 18th place in the starting gate to win the "Run for the Roses."

The colt didn't have the track record. That occurred in 1973 and belongs to "Secretariat" and his enormous stride, broad chest and long underline which defined the size of his lungs. His finish was incredible. He out classed all the other colts at one minute and 49.40 seconds.

The second place record holder was robbed of his title as his best time lagged 0.57 seconds behind the great Secretariat.  It occurred in 2001 and belongs to "Monarchos"with a time of one minute and 59.97 seconds.

But, does "American Pharoah" have the will, speed and stamina of his Great, great, great grandfather "Northern Dancer?" "Northern Dancer," a Canadian horse, holds the third fastest time of the Kentucky Derby at 2 minutes flat. It occurred in 1964. 

If we are to measure "American Pharoah" against his distant relative he wouldn't even come close at a time of two minutes and 3.02 seconds. That may seem minimal, but, with Secretariat's average performance speed of 37.5 miles per hour it is an enormous distance behind the most spectacular three year old in history.

The Preakness is the second race of the Triple Crown. It takes a special horse to capture it, but, it takes only a horse that out performs his or her peers. Anything is possible. 

WHEN: Saturday, May 16, 2015. Post time: 6:18 p.m. ET

WHERE: Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore.

HOW TO WATCH: (click here)

Preakness prep coverage, NBC Sports Network, 2:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.

Preakness race coverage, NBC, 4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.

Preakness post coverage, NBCSN, 6:30 p.m.-7:00 p.m.

Do you want to know where the intelligence came from so the USA could invade Syria successfully?

The hard core KGB that McCain always complains about. That is why the intelligence worked. Vladimir got on the phone and called his buddy from Syria and said, "Hey, the USA is here; what is the low down that would end the conflict?"

How is the new baby Vlad? You are never seen in photos with ALL your children. It would be nice for the Russia people to know their First Family is for real rather than asking if "I am love and I love."

May 15, 2015
By David M. Herszenhorn

MOSCOW — For Russia, (click here) victory came three days after Victory Day, in the form of Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit this week to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi. It was widely interpreted here as a signal of surrender by the Americans — an olive branch from President Obama, and an acknowledgment that Russia and its leader are simply too important to ignore.
Since the seizure of Crimea more than a year ago, Mr. Obama has worked aggressively to isolate Russia and its renegade president, Vladimir V. Putin, portraying him as a lawless bully atop an economically failing, increasingly irrelevant petrostate.
Mr. Obama led the charge by the West to punish Mr. Putin for his intervention in Ukraine, booting Russia from the Group of 8 economic powers, imposing harsh sanctions on some of Mr. Putin’s closest confidants and delivering financial and military assistance to the new Ukrainian government....

I heard that President Putin had inside intelligence directly form Saddam that was passed to "W" before the Iraq invasion. And who did Powell appear with at the UN? CIA. USA CIA and they couldn't state they had heard from other countries with better intelligence because the CIA was afraid Bush would ignore even more information from his PDB as he did with bin Laden. And we want another Bush? The older brother couldn't get it right and the little brother already can't understand where to stand on issues that would jeopardize crony support. Bush's come with an agenda and the country suffers for it. Want to talk about the global economic collapse, Wall Street and the Former Treasury Secretary Paulson?
 

Maintain the sequester cuts, it is the best thing that ever happened to the USA.

The Iraq War pulled the USA into a death spiral. It can't be repeated again. We have witnessed yet another Bush praising his brother for his decisions regarding the invasion due to 'faulty' intelligence. That is bullshit. There was on the ground intelligence from the UN. Just that simple.

Bring everyone home. The US Navy has a base in Italy for defense of NATO. 

May 14, 2015
By Emmarie Heutteman and Ashley Parker

WASHINGTON — Key Democrats on Thursday (click here) said they opposed Republican efforts to circumvent broad, congressionally mandated cuts in military spending as lawmakers considered the annual Pentagon budget.
As the House began voting on amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act, members debated whether to dedicate about $39 billion to go into a fund insulated from the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration, which took effect in 2013. That fund, the Overseas Contingency Operations account, is intended to be used for emergency military operations.
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, said Republicans were willing to let nonmilitary spending bear the brunt of the cuts....

The Himalayas has dropped three feet with recent earthquakes.

There was no intelligence about the flying conditions in those mountains? Really?

May 16, 2015
By Binaj

KATHMANDU, Nepal — The bodies of all eight people (click here) on board the U.S. Marine helicopter that crashed during a relief mission in earthquake-hit Nepal have been recovered, Nepal’s army said Saturday.

The wreckage of the UH-1 “Huey” was found Friday following days of intense searching in the mountains northeast of the capital, Kathmandu. The first three charred bodies were retrieved the same day by Nepalese and U.S. military teams. The Nepalese army said in a statement Saturday that the remaining five were also recovered.

The aircraft, with six Marines and two Nepali soldiers on board, went missing while delivering aid on Tuesday.

May 13, 2015
by Sarah Zhang

The earthquake in Nepal (click here) was so violent it moved mountains. Satellite imagery shows that the parts of the Himalayas sank three feet—and the area around it as much as five feet—as tectonic plates snapped under extreme pressure. But the mountains will regain their height, slowly but surely, thanks to the geologic forces at work.

The European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1A radar satellite captured before and after images of the area hit by the earthquake. The image below show how the Eurasian plate bent, the land falling in some places (yellow) and rising in others (blue). The area of the Himalaya’s Langtang range sank by three feet. Everest, which was further away from the earthquake, sank about an inch....

The Himalayas dropped 3 feet with recent earthquakes in Nepal.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — The bodies of all eight people on board the U.S. Marine helicopter that crashed during a relief mission in earthquake-hit Nepal have been recovered, Nepal’s army said Saturday.
The wreckage of the UH-1 “Huey” was found Friday following days of intense searching in the mountains northeast of the capital, Kathmandu. The first three charred bodies were retrieved the same day by Nepalese and U.S. military teams. The Nepalese army said in a statement Saturday that the remaining five were also recovered.
The aircraft, with six Marines and two Nepali soldiers on board, went missing while delivering aid on Tuesday.
Ya know, trying to eliminate the charismatic draw of this bozo outfit named Deash is impossible. Absolutely impossible. The USA military just gave Daesh the target they wanted for so long. I hear there are oil employees from BP volunteering now.

This isn't just about US troops. This was a bozo move if I ever saw one.

Mexico went to Russia to launch a satellite? You've got to be joking.

This is what privatization of the US space program has done to the world. Amazing. 

May 16, 2015

The Proton-M carrier rocket broke (click here) down minutes after it was launched from Kazakhstan on Saturday morning, the Roscosmos agency said.
The cause of the accident is being investigated, Roscosmos added.
Russia's space programme has experienced a series of mishaps in recent months, including the loss of an unmanned supply ship.

On Tuesday Russia was forced to delay the return of three astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) after the out-of-control cargo ship burnt up as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 28 April....

The USA needs to remove it's troops from the region.

Special Ops seems to do just fine when it comes to killing, but, can't seem to carry out any hostage rescue. It would think it would be the other way around. At least when hostages are reached they can be an ally on the inside rather than resistance to death. Go figure.

I don't think there is a UN resolution that justifies USA troops on the ground. This also doesn't fit into the request by President Obama.

The talking head generals are out in force in the media.

May 16, 2015

American special operations (click here) forces killed a senior Islamic State leader who helped direct the group's oil, gas and financial operations during a raid in eastern Syria, U.S. officials said on Saturday.

The White House said President Barack Obama ordered the overnight raid that killed the man identified as Abu Sayyaf. U.S. officials said his wife, Umm Sayyaf, was captured in the raid and was being held in Iraq.

This was the first known U.S. special forces operation inside Syria apart from a failed secret effort to rescue a number of U.S. and other foreign hostages held by Islamic State in northeastern Syria last year.

White House National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement that U.S. personnel based out of Iraq conducted the operation in al-Amr in eastern Syria....

There will be escalation of tensions in the region.

May 16, 2015
By the AP

CAIRO — An Egyptian court sentenced ousted President Mohammed Morsi and over 100 others to death Saturday over a mass prison break during the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak and later brought Islamists to power for the first time in Egypt.

As is customary in passing capital punishment, Judge Shaaban el-Shami referred his death sentence on Morsi and others to the nation's top Muslim theologian, or mufti, for his non-binding opinion. El-Shami set June 2 for the next hearing.

Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, was ousted by the military in July 2013 following days of mass street protests by Egyptians demanding that he be removed because of his divisive policies. Morsi's successor, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, was the military chief at the time and led the ouster. El-Sissi ran for president last year and won the vote in a landslide....

This is more obvious a cause. The actual cause in the USA is yet to be decided.

Sorry to hear this happened in Germany. This happens in the USA, but, usually with freight trains.

May 17, 2015

BERLIN (AP) " A train hit a truck Saturday (click here) on a road crossing in western Germany, killing two people and injuring at least 20 others, police said, adding that three of the injured were in severe condition.

Police spokesman Jochen Laschke said a regional train coming from the city of Osnabrueck and heading to the small town of Ibbenbueren collided with a farm truck with a tank full of manure. Laschke said the accident happened in a rural area near Ibbenbueren, 440 kilometers (275 miles) west of Berlin.

According to the first investigators on the scene, the truck got stuck when trying to drive over the train tracks, he said. The train crashed into the truck and came to a stop 200 meters (650 feet) down the track. He said the truck driver was not injured....