05 January 2017 (04:34 UTC-07 Tango 06) 16 Dey 1395/06 Rabi ‘ath-Thani 1438/08 Ji Chou 4714
On 31 December 2016 a small ceremony was held in the city of Kent to welcome home the 179th Engineer Company, Washington National Guard.
On 30 March 2016, the 179th deployed to Iraq, several of their personnel are single parents. On 06 May 2016, Lieutenant David Bauders was killed at the Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. At the time the U.S. Department of Defense said Bauders’ death was being investigated as a ‘noncombat incident’. So far no further details have been released to the public.
04 January 2017 (10:25 UTC-07 Tango 06) 15 Dey 1395/05 Rabi ‘ath-Thani 1438/07 Ji Chou 4714
China now boasts more than 1-thousand battery powered buses and California boasts the world’s fastest battery powered car (and it’s not a Tesla)!
Chinese investor funded (but California based) Faraday Future claims its new FF91 is the fastest battery powered car in the 0 to 60 miles per hour category:
The 2.39 second 0 to 101.4 kph (0-60 mph) run is achieved with a 130 kilowatt-hour energy/1-thousand 50 horsepower battery powered motor. Company admin claim the FF91 can also travel 638.82 km (378 miles) before re-charging. You need $5-thousand USD to “pre-order” your own FF91 (I wonder how much it costs to actually ‘order’ your car? Isn’t it impossible to pre-order anything because you’re actually ordering it when you pre-order?). Even then you won’t get the car until 2018.
Just one of many styles of battery powered buses in Tianjin
The city of Tianjin just bought a new fleet of 5-hundred battery powered buses, bringing the overpopulated city’s E-bus inventory to 1-thousand 346!
The city also built a new bus charging station that can handle 448 buses per day (now considered the largest bus charging station ever), and the city claims they now have 201 charging stations (that a big city) city-wide!
Despite having a total of 3-thousand 220 clean energy buses (including the batt-powered buses) Tianjin is still one of the smoggiest cities in China.
Al-Farah Choir performs at Dar al-Assad for Culture and Arts celebrating Christmas and New Year, can you recognize the tunes? Many Syrian Christians speak Syriac, a type of Aramaic. Jesus of Nazareth was Aramaic, not Hebrew, Aramaic was his primary language (in 2014 Catholic Pope Francis and Israeli despot Benjamin Netanyahu argued over what language Jesus of Nazareth spoke). Back then your primary language indicated your ethnicity. Aramians are Semitic, just like Arabs and Hebrews.
Syrian government held a charity art show for disabled university students, keep in mind that such an art show would never happen under the ruler-ship of U.S.-EU-Israeli backed ‘moderate’ (but really extremist) rebels:
21 December 2016 (13:51 UTC-07 Tango 06) 01 Dey 1395/21 Rabi ‘al-Awwal 1438/23 Geng Zi 4714
“We look forward to having a peaceful transition of power on the 20th of January. And we will continue to work with our state and interagency partners to make sure that we have a peaceful transition of power.”-Major General Errol R. Schwartz, District of Columbia National Guard
Joint Task Force-National Capital Region is so short staffed that 8-thousand National Guard personnel have been called-up to help with security & ceremony during Donald Trump’s inauguration!
Security forces are using a giant 18 meters by 12 meters (60 feet by 40 feet) map of Washington DC to walk through their security routes.
Drone video of DC map:
In addition to the 8-thousand state Militiamen, 7-thousand Regulars (federal military) will also take part in the 58th Presidential Inauguration on 20 January 2017. Most of the Regulars will be providing ceremonial services while many of the National Guard troops will be deputized by Metropolitan Police Department, to provide security.
21 December 2016 (13:31 UTC-07 Tango 06) 01 Dey 1395/21 Rabi ‘al-Awwal 1438/23 Geng Zi 4714
New York state Militia celebrates 380th B-day while deployed to Kuwait
13 December 1636 is the official ‘birth date’ for U.S. state militias, aka National Guard. That makes the National Guard 140 years older than the United States itself! It also means the National Guard is one of the oldest continuous military organizations in the world!
In 1636, the Massachusetts General Court ordered that all able-bodied men, between the ages of 16 and 60, join the militia.
While the Regulars (full time federal military) get most of the recognition during wars it’s actually National Guard personnel who supply most of the manpower. On 08 December 2016, Vermont’s Air National Guard deployed for never ending ops in The Middle East.
20 December 2016 (03:49 UTC-07 Tango 06) 30 Azar 1395/20 Rabi ‘al-Awwal 1438/22 Geng Zi 4714
“And almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago. In other words, by so many measures our country is stronger and more prosperous than it was when we started. It is a situation that I’m proud to leave for my successor. “-Barack Obama, 16 December 2016
“This is self delusion, isn’t it….. …Obama backed European political union, Obama backed countries giving away sovereignty, and Obama watched the rise of ISIS and appeared to be completely helpless… …..around the rest of the world, America’s standing is poor….”-Nigel Farage, pro-Trump British politician, 19 December 2016
19 December 2016 (14:44 UTC-07 Tango 06) 29 Azar 1395/19 Rabi ‘al-Awwal 1438/21 Geng Zi 4714
“All U.S. citizens should avoid area near Embassy compound until further notice….avoid travel to southeast Turkey and carefully consider the risks of travel to and throughout the country.”-U.S. Department of State tweet
A series of possibly connected events sweep across Türkiye and European Union. First the Russian ambassador to Türkiye was assassinated, live on Turkish TV by an off-duty Turkish cop who was protesting Russian support of Syria.
Next, police in Switzerland chased a ‘suspect’ into a Zurich mosque and open fired. At least three people wounded. The mosque is used by African migrants. Zurich cops say the suspect caused an ‘incident’ at a train station.
Then in Deutschland, a semi-truck plowed into a Xmas Market in Berlin, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 50. Cops say there were two people in the truck, they killed the passenger (officially they say the passenger “died at the scene”) and arrested the driver. No pro-immigrant official is willing to call it terrorism. The truck is owned by a Polska based company. The administrators of that trucking company say they lost communications (around 16:00 hours) with the driver and that the truck was off course (apparently the load was going from Italia to Polska). Many European news media calling the situation a “major crisis for Germany” and its pro-immigrant policy. Berlin cops ordering millions of city residents to stay at home and stay off social media!
Now the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Türkiye, is under lock-down.
Today’s events took place after some other significant events: Syria retakes Aleppo from U.S.-EU backed rebels. Iran and Russia hold phone meeting to discuss countering further U.S.-EU support for foreign rebels in Syria. European Union then extends sanctions against Russia.
