Day: April 26, 2018

Almost No One Caught Brilliant Reason Melania Picked Mt Vernon for French Pres. Visit

Source: https://goo.gl/cVsg8n
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte as honored guests this week for the administration’s first official state visit.

However, prior to the pomp and circumstance of Tuesday’s official state dinner, the Trumps and Macrons traveled the short distance on Monday from the White House in Washington, D.C., to Mt. Vernon in Virginia. Mt. Vernon, of course, is the preserved home of our nation’s first president, George Washington.

According to White House East Wing historian Jennifer Boswell Pickens, writing in The Daily Caller, the first lady — who oversaw all of the arrangements for the state visit — had a specific reason for scheduling a dinner at Mt. Vernon.

Likely due to her deep sense of respect for tradition, Melania Trump chose a dinner at Mt. Vernon with the Macrons as a way to highlight the deep and lengthy relationship between the U.S. and France, which dates back to the American Revolution.
President Washington was actually granted honorary French citizenship by the National Assembly of France in 1792, and his historic home is loaded with numerous gifts presented to him and first lady Martha by French dignitaries.

Chief among the collection are the many gifts from Marquis de Lafayette, who provided military advice and assistance to Washington’s rag-tag Continental Army during the Revolution and remained personal friends with the first president following the war.

One such gift was a key to the notorious Bastille prison in France, the storming of which served as an impetus to the French Revolution just a few short years after the American fight for independence.

Over the years, Mt. Vernon has played host to numerous presidents, including former President Ronald Reagan, who visited to commemorate Washington’s 250th birthday. Moreover, Mt. Vernon was the site of a state dinner hosted in 1961 by former President John Kennedy in honor of the president of Pakistan.

Former President George W. Bush also chose Mt. Vernon as the perfect location to host high-level talks between himself and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, during which time Sarkozy noted the French people’s deep appreciation and love for Americans.

Melania Trump no doubt had the historical significance of Mt. Vernon as it relates to America’s long relationship with France in mind as she carefully planned out all of the details of the visit. Thankfully, that attention to history and tradition has not gone completely unnoticed.

Meanwhile, in a related sign of respectful sentiment for the relationship between the two nations, President Macron brought along a gift of his own for President Trump that hasn’t received quite the attention it should have.

According to Reuters, Macron brought with him a small oak sapling tree to be planted on the White House grounds. The sapling was been taken from the site of a monumental World War I battle in France where U.S. Marines fought ferociously and valiantly.

In the Battle of Belleau Wood, which occurred in the Ardennes Forest, the Marines helped French troops fend off a massive assault by German forces in the final year of that bloody war.

The location where the surviving Marines are believed to have gathered following that brutal battle is now marked with a fountain monument in honor of the sacrifice of the “Devil Dogs” who fought, bled and died in France. The transplanted sapling came from near where the fountain is located in order to further honor those troops.

Macron, no doubt aware of Trump’s deep affinity for the U.S. military — particularly the Marines — probably couldn’t have picked a better symbol by which to signify his country’s appreciation for the help it received then and at other points in history.

These signs of mutual respect and honor for the 200-plus years of ties that bind the U.S. and France together perfectly symbolize the two nations’ abiding friendship.

BREAKING News Out Of North Korea!!! HOLY HELL! LOOK WHAT JUST HAPPENED!

Source: https://goo.gl/gK2HfX
A study by Chinese geologists shows the mountain above North Korea’s main nuclear test site has collapsed under the stress of nuclear test explosions. This would render the site unsafe for further nuclear testing and necessitate monitoring for any leaking radiation.

Is this perhaps the reason Kim Jong-Un has agreed to denuclearize North Korea? Perhaps, but of course, we’ll probably never know. The findings by the scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China may shed new light on North Korean President Kim Jong Un’s announcement that his country was ceasing its testing program.

Nuclear explosions release enormous amounts of heat and energy, and the North’s largest test in September was believed early on to have rendered the site in northeastern North Korea unstable. The data in the latest Chinese study was collected following the most powerful of the North’s six nuclear device tests on September 3, 2017 that they believed could have triggered four earthquakes over the following weeks. The yield of the bomb was estimated at more than 100 kilotons of TNT, at least 10 times stronger than anything the North had tested previously. (The bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 had a yield of about 15 kilotons.)

The University of Science and Technology of China paper, authored by Tian Dongdong, Yao Jiawen, and Wen Lianxing, said the first of those earthquakes that occurred eight-and-a-half minutes after the explosion was “an onsite collapse toward the nuclear test center,” while those that followed were an “earthquake swarm” in similar locations.

“In view of the research finding that the North Korea nuclear test site at Mantapsan has collapsed, it is necessary to continue to monitor any leakage of radioactive materials that may have been caused by the collapse,” the authors said in a summary dated Monday and viewed Wednesday on the university’s website. –USA Today

The Chinese study makes sense and is based on “well-understood research,” said Rowena Lohman, a seismologist at Cornell University who wasn’t part of the work, but believes there’s an international effort that monitors these tests for radiation. The study is peer-reviewed and has been accepted for publication by the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

On Saturday, North Korea announced it will close its nuclear testing facility and suspend nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests (a move welcomed by President Trump as “big progress”) and which comes ahead of a planned summit between Trump and Kim.

However, the media wants us all to know that the North stopped short of suggesting it will give up its nuclear weapons or scale back its production of missiles and their related components.

Almost No One Caught Brilliant Reason Melania Picked Mt Vernon for French Pres. Visit

Source: https://goo.gl/8Ert6u
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte as honored guests this week for the administration’s first official state visit.

However, prior to the pomp and circumstance of Tuesday’s official state dinner, the Trumps and Macrons traveled the short distance on Monday from the White House in Washington, D.C., to Mt. Vernon in Virginia. Mt. Vernon, of course, is the preserved home of our nation’s first president, George Washington.

According to White House East Wing historian Jennifer Boswell Pickens, writing in The Daily Caller, the first lady — who oversaw all of the arrangements for the state visit — had a specific reason for scheduling a dinner at Mt. Vernon.

Likely due to her deep sense of respect for tradition, Melania Trump chose a dinner at Mt. Vernon with the Macrons as a way to highlight the deep and lengthy relationship between the U.S. and France, which dates back to the American Revolution.
President Washington was actually granted honorary French citizenship by the National Assembly of France in 1792, and his historic home is loaded with numerous gifts presented to him and first lady Martha by French dignitaries.

Chief among the collection are the many gifts from Marquis de Lafayette, who provided military advice and assistance to Washington’s rag-tag Continental Army during the Revolution and remained personal friends with the first president following the war.

One such gift was a key to the notorious Bastille prison in France, the storming of which served as an impetus to the French Revolution just a few short years after the American fight for independence.

Over the years, Mt. Vernon has played host to numerous presidents, including former President Ronald Reagan, who visited to commemorate Washington’s 250th birthday. Moreover, Mt. Vernon was the site of a state dinner hosted in 1961 by former President John Kennedy in honor of the president of Pakistan.

Former President George W. Bush also chose Mt. Vernon as the perfect location to host high-level talks between himself and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, during which time Sarkozy noted the French people’s deep appreciation and love for Americans.

Melania Trump no doubt had the historical significance of Mt. Vernon as it relates to America’s long relationship with France in mind as she carefully planned out all of the details of the visit. Thankfully, that attention to history and tradition has not gone completely unnoticed.

Meanwhile, in a related sign of respectful sentiment for the relationship between the two nations, President Macron brought along a gift of his own for President Trump that hasn’t received quite the attention it should have.

According to Reuters, Macron brought with him a small oak sapling tree to be planted on the White House grounds. The sapling was been taken from the site of a monumental World War I battle in France where U.S. Marines fought ferociously and valiantly.

In the Battle of Belleau Wood, which occurred in the Ardennes Forest, the Marines helped French troops fend off a massive assault by German forces in the final year of that bloody war.

The location where the surviving Marines are believed to have gathered following that brutal battle is now marked with a fountain monument in honor of the sacrifice of the “Devil Dogs” who fought, bled and died in France. The transplanted sapling came from near where the fountain is located in order to further honor those troops.

Macron, no doubt aware of Trump’s deep affinity for the U.S. military — particularly the Marines — probably couldn’t have picked a better symbol by which to signify his country’s appreciation for the help it received then and at other points in history.

These signs of mutual respect and honor for the 200-plus years of ties that bind the U.S. and France together perfectly symbolize the two nations’ abiding friendship.