The CHICAGO CUBS~~~~are In The World Series !!

Y  E  S  !!!!!!!!!!!!

---{-=@

HICKOK

 I just need to see you; even if for five-minutes----------------
said nobody-----ever...............................................................

I Just Need To See You........

Kenmore swimmer’s dreams synch up with reality in Rio

Kenmore swimmer’s dreams synch up with reality in Rio

 

 

Anita Alvarez, of Kenmore, and her synchronized swimming partner Mariya Koroleva compete in Olympic qualifications on March 3 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The women return to that pool on Sunday.
Getty Images file photo

RIO DE JANEIRO – Kenmore’s Anita Alvarez didn’t arrive in Brazil until Thursday. The problem wasn’t the color of the water in the pools, but the sheer lack of them. So Alvarez, the pride of the Tonawanda Aquettes, spent the last two weeks training for her first Olympics in Puerto Rico.
Alvarez and her Olympic duet partner, Mariya Koroleva, spent eight hours a day polishing their routine. Natalie Vega, a Puerto Rican native who lived for a time in Western New York and swam with the Aquettes, invited her American friends to her home for an Opening Ceremonies party on Aug. 5.
They came dressed for the occasion, wearing the official outfits that had been provided to the USA athletes to march in the Ceremonies.
“Yeah, we were all dressed up,” Alvarez said Friday in a synchro press session. “We were watching and eating. Then the USA came on and everybody in the room started cheering.”

Advertisement

Vega’s family rewound the broadcast. They told Alvarez and Koroleva to step outside and march back into the house as if they were part of the American team following Michael Phelps into the stadium in Rio.
“We have a video of it,” Alvarez said. “It’s really funny. It was a little sad that we weren’t there and didn’t get to experience all of it. But it was also exciting because it made me feel at home. I’ve been watching the Ceremonies at home all my life.”
It began to seem real at that moment, too. Alvarez was really going to the Olympics. The nerves and the emotions started kicking in. Koroleva, who had competed in London, did her best to prepare Anita for the real thing.
“I experienced the Pan-American Games last summer, which is like a mini-Olympics,” she said. “I had a little idea about what it was going to be, but I knew it was going to be 10 times bigger – and it is.
“It was exciting, just walking around the village and seeing all the Rio 2016 signs and the athletes. Every time you turn your head, there’s another amazing athlete walking by you. It’s been an amazing experience. I get goose bumps thinking about it.”
Soon after arriving, she and Koroleva checked out the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre, where they will compete in the synchro duet preliminaries on Sunday.
They looked at the dive pool, which had turned green on Tuesday and ignited a flurry of reaction on social media.
“We saw the dive pool was green,” Alvarez said. “We didn’t know ours was turning green, too. It’s on its way. Well, it’s ... it’s not blue, but it’s not green. It’s kind of in the middle.”
But what if she and Koroleva are in the middle of their duet, underwater, and the water is so green they can barely see each other?
“For our routines, it’s important to see each other,” Alvarez said. “When we’re spinning and turning around, it’s really important to spot the walls and we’re supposed to stay close to each other as we swim.
“But we’ve trained these routines so much we could do them with our eyes closed. We could do them in our sleep. We have all the muscle memory that we need. We both know we’re ready physically.”
The question is how prepared they’ll be mentally and emotionally. As Koroleva said, you don’t know what to expect at the Games until you’ve experienced it. “People can tell you,” Koroleva said, “but it’s a whole different animal.”
They have the added burden of representing the U.S. at a time when synchronized swim is in decline in America. They’re the only competitors here. The U.S., which won gold or silver in every Games from 1984-1996, hasn’t medaled since 2004. They haven’t qualified for the two events in the last two Games.
It’s not often you hear an Olympian admit that there’s no chance of winning a medal. But synchro judges have preconceived notions of routines, based on reputation, and it’s difficult to sway them. The Russians have won the gold medal in team and duet in four straight Olympics.
“I wouldn’t say we’re going for a medal,” Koroleva said, “but we definitely have ranking goals. There’s a couple of countries right ahead of us that we’d like to pass. Since we started competing in January, we’ve been inching closer and closer to the competitors right ahead of us.
“So that’s what we’re hoping to do, to overtake one or two pairs. And for us, that would be a great accomplishment.”
Koroleva and her duet partner finished 11th in London. She and Alvarez were seventh in Olympic qualifying. Moving up to fifth in Rio – in the same pool where they qualified for the Olympics early this year – would represent a significant step forward for the American squad.
For Alvarez, simply being here is a dream. She grew up watching the Olympics on TV and followed in the footsteps of her mother, Karen, a synchro All-American at Arizona who coaches the Aquettes and will be in Rio, along with Anita’s father, brother and grandmother.
Alvarez said she’s been touched by the support from people back in Western New York, by every imaginable method of communication. “It’s been crazy and overwhelming,” she said, “but I’m excited to go out there and represent Western New York and Buffalo.”
“We’ve competed in this pool before. But it looks totally different. The set-up is different, volunteers everywhere, cameras, other athletes. It’s huge, and every time I walk into the pool I get butterflies in my stomach. But it’s cool, and I’m excited to see what it feels like when we walk out on the big competition day on Sunday.”
email: jsullivan@buffnews.com

---{-=@

HICKOK

12 men who helped shape the Netherlands into what it is today

12 men who helped shape the Netherlands into what it is today Life & Culture August 8, 2016    




Erasmus by Hans Holbein the Younger 

They’ve given their names to schools, to squares and to streets – every Dutch town seems to have a Hugo de Grootstraat, for example – but who are the men behind the name plates? Here’s a quick profile of 12 masters of war, learning and thought who helped shape the Netherlands into the country it is today.

Willibrordus Willibrordus (658- 739), a Northumbrian priest, is the most famous missionary to come to the Netherlands. Called the ‘apostle of the Low Countries’, he had no success whatsoever converting the stubborn Friesians to Christianity. It wasn’t until the end of his life when he had settled in Utrecht that cohorts of missionaries sent into Frisian territory managed to convert some – but not all – Frisians. 


Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus (1466 – 1536) was a priest, philosopher, writer and humanist whose best-known work is In Praise of Folly (1509), a satire on the follies of mankind, the vanity and frippery of bishops and princes of the church included. The book paved the way for the Reformation. Erasmus was an educational reformist as well: he disapproved of corporal punishment and thought the study of the Latin and Greek texts would teach children all the moral values they needed. 

Charles V Charles V (1500- 1558), Holy Roman Emperor, king of Spain and regent of the Low Countries (the area that now covers the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium) decided to turn the 17 provinces into an administrative union in an effort to make some of the bits of his vast empire a bit more manageable. This is seen as a first step towards Dutch nationhood. 

William of Orange William of Orange (1533-1584) is regarded as the ‘father of the fatherland’. His revolt against fiercely catholic Philip the Second of Spain who was tightening his religious and financial grip on the Netherlands started the Eighty Years’ War which eventually led to the independent United Provinces in 1581. Philip put a price on his head and French Catholic Balthasar Gérard took him up on it. In 1584 he shot William in the Prinsenhof in Delft where the bullet holes in the wall can still be seen. 


Hugo de Groot Hugo de Groot (1583-1645) was a lawyer and theologian.



He wrote his book De Jere Belli ac Pacis (On the law of War and Peace) in exile having famously fled his native country concealed in a book chest after his religious work got him in trouble with the authorities. That publication earned him the title of ‘father of international law’. 

Rembrandt van Rijn Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), the Netherland’s finest painter and ongoing source of income for the Dutch tourist industry, was born a miller’s son. Apprenticed to Pieter Lastman, Rembrandt began a career that would yield some 280 etchings and 300 paintings, although the exact number of paintings remains a bone of contention. Rembrandt is best-known for his use of clair-obscur and rendering of rich textures. He is, possibly, best-loved for his self-portraits which give us an impression of the man. 


Michiel de Ruyter Michiel de Ruyter (1607 – 1676) went from being an unruly rope maker’s apprentice to becoming the saviour of the Dutch republic.




After a successful career at sea he was made lieutenant-admiral of the fleet in 1665 to fight the Brits in three consecutive Anglo-Dutch wars. In a daring feat he attacked- and clobbered- the British fleet at Chatham in 1667, securing an advantageous peace for the Dutch. 


Baruch Spinoza Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was a philosopher and mathematician. His magnum opus is Ethica in which he proposed his radical theory that god equals nature. This flew in the face of conventional religious beliefs as did his contention that the Thora – Spinoza was a Sephardic Jew – and the Bible were the work of man, not God. His works were banned and Spinoza had to rely on his skills as a lens cutter and the kindness of friends to survive until his death from tuberculosis in 1677. 


Willem I In 1813, when the  Napoleonic empire collapsed Willem I (1772 – 1843) became the first sovereign king of the Netherlands. In 1815 Austria handed Willem Belgium as well, much to the Belgians’ disgruntlement. Willem governed with an iron hand. His motto was ‘The old times will soon live again’, and he set about promoting trade, infrastructure and industry, not forgetting to pocket some of the proceeds himself. When he decided Dutch should become the first language of the realm, the French speaking Belgians started a revolt which ended in the independence of Belgium in 1839 and a curtailment of his power through the inclusion of ministerial responsibility in the constitution. A humiliated Willem I then abdicated in favour of his son Willem II. 

Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker) After a largely unsuccessful career int the Dutch East Indies Multatuli (1820-1887) published the book he is most famous for: Max Havelaar or the Koffieveilingen van de Nederlandsche handelsmaatschappij (Max Havelaar or the Coffee Auctions of a Dutch Trading Company).



In it he criticised the dire treatment of the local Javanese population by the Dutch ‘robber state on the sea between East Friesland and the Scheld’. The book ‘sent a shiver’ through the country but did little to help the Javanese. It did put Multatuli on the map as a writer, however. Max Havelaar went on to the be name of a Dutch fair trade organisation. 

Cornelis Lely Engineer and waterworks minister Cornelis Lely (1854 -1929) is the father of the Zuiderzeewerken, a project to increase the amount of  fertile agricultural land and protect the surrounding country from floods. The unruly Zuiderzee was turned into what is now the IJsselmeer, Waddenzee and various polders. The best-known feature of the Zuiderzeewerken is the Afsluidijk, literally the closing-off dyke.  Lely launched his plan in 1891 (many earlier plans had come to nought) but had to wait until 1920 to see the first steps towards the realisation of the project. He died in 1929 and never saw the completion of the Afsluitdijk in 1932. 

Willem Drees Labour prime minister Willem Drees (1887-1988) introduced the ‘Emergency help for the elderly’, a precursor of the 1956 state pension law, in the  Netherlands in 1948, having seen at first hand the misery of the crisis of the 1930s.  It earned him the nickname ‘Vadertje ( little father) Drees’ and the undying gratitude of the nation. Drees was renowned for his frugality. The best-known (but perhaps apocryphal) story is about Mrs Drees offering a visiting American diplomat a cup of tea and a humble Maria biscuit. It convinced him that here was a man who wouldn’t squander what Marshall help he was given. Drees is regarded as one of the architects of the welfare state. When he died at 101 years of age he had been a recipient of the state pension he had established for 36 years.

---{-=@


HICKOK

Chicago’s Deadliest Day 24 JULY 1915

Chicago’s Deadliest Day

July 24, 2015 By Christopher Klein

Eastland Ship Being Righted After Disaster. (Credit: Jun Fujita/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)

On July 24, 1915, nearly 900 people died when SS Eastland capsized in the Chicago River. It was a particularly astounding loss of life considering that, unlike in most deadly shipwrecks, the calamity occurred only 19 feet from shore in the middle of a metropolis. On the anniversary of the SS Eastland catastrophe, look back at the deadliest disaster in Chicago history.

S.S. Eastland

Even the falling drizzle couldn’t dampen the soaring spirits of the crowd who gathered on the banks of the Chicago River on July 24, 1915. Employees of the Western Electric Company, the country’s only telephone manufacturer, savored a rare Saturday off and looked forward to a day of fun with family and friends at the company’s annual summer excursion to Michigan City, Indiana. Not wanting to miss a single enjoyable moment, passengers with picnic baskets and baby carriages in tow began to board SS Eastland, the first of five vessels chartered by Western Electric, at the early hour of 6:30 a.m.
Women in long summer dresses and men in three-piece suits chuckled and joked as the slender steamship occasionally rocked from side to side during the hour-long boarding in what felt like a preview of the roller coaster and other stomach-dipping amusements that awaited them on the other side of Lake Michigan. Deep below deck, however, Eastland’s crew knew the listing was no laughing matter. “The Speed Queen of the Lakes” may have been one of the Midwest’s fleetest ships, but it was hardly the safest. The ballast system, which was designed to keep the steamer on an even keel, suffered from repeated malfunctions, and at least twice before—in 1904 and 1907—the vessel nearly capsized. “Eastland’s owners were aware of stability problems that needed to be repaired but planned to postpone them until after the sailing season ended in 1915 because of the expense,” says Michael McCarthy, author of “Ashes Under Water: The SS Eastland and the Shipwreck That Shook America.”

S.S. Eastland lying on its side after capsizing. (Credit Chicago Tribune historical photo/TNS via Getty Images)

The required addition of lifeboats on the top deck in the wake of the 1912 sinking of Titanic and a recent 500-passenger capacity increase authorized by inspectors only compounded the steamship’s stability problems. With its three decks packed to its new 2,500-person limit, Eastland began to creep away from its berth at 7:30 a.m., but as its stern swung into the Chicago River, the ship’s listing from side to side turned violent.
“Look out, she’s tipping!” cried warehouse workers along the river. Dishes and bottles crashed to the floor. Panic along with the Chicago River gushing through gangways and portholes swept across the decks. Frightened passengers and crew jumped to the dock as the last line holding Eastland to the wharf snapped like a whip.
For those on board the steamer, the world suddenly turned sideways.

A rescue worker leaps into the Chicago River. (Credit: Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)

Eastland rolled onto its port side and rested partially submerged in less than 20 feet of water. “It lay like a toy boat of tin wrecked in a gutter,” reported the Chicago Tribune. The unfortunate passengers who happened to be on the port side were crushed by the hundreds of people, deck chairs and other furniture that suddenly fell on top of them. “The entire crowd of men, women and children came slipping and sliding and sprawling down with a mass of lunch boxes, milk bottles, chairs—rubbish of every sort—on top of them,” said passenger George Goyette. “They came down in a floundering, screaming mass.” As the enclosed decks filled with water and debris, the mob of humanity who tried to scale the staircase to the promenade deck, now turned sideways, turned the lone escape path into a deathtrap.
Screams mixed with gurgles as survivors struggled to stay afloat in the filthy river, a toxic cocktail of raw sewage and detritus from Chicago’s stockyards. Few passengers knew how to swim, and even those who did were weighed down by their water-logged dresses and heavy suits. Rescue boats scrambled to the scene as welders ran with torches in hand to the crippled steamer. Hearing the muffled cries of the desperate passengers pounding on the metal hull, the welders began to cut rectangular escape hatches when Eastland’s horrified captain, Harry Pedersen, incredibly protested that they were “ruining his ship.” “The captain showed more regard for the company property than the people inside,” McCarthy says.

Chicago fireman Leonard Olson rescuing a child. (Credit: Jun Fujita/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)

As doctors tried to force water out of victims’ lungs with pulmotors, rescue workers hoisted lifeless bodies found by divers working in the dark holds of the ship. In all, the Eastland tragedy claimed 844 victims, including more than 50 infants. In just mere minutes, the capsizing wiped out 22 entire families.
Pedersen, the ship’s engineer and four of its owners stood trial for the disaster, but a federal judge changed the original charges from criminal negligence and manslaughter to conspiracy to operate an unsafe ship. As McCarthy notes, the owners may have been negligent, but there certainly was no conspiracy. Represented by the legendary Clarence Darrow—who was in the “valley of his career” according to McCarthy after accusations of bribing jurors on an earlier case—the six men were all found not guilty. No one was ever held criminally responsible for the disaster, and a civil trial that dragged on for more than two decades ultimately provided little money to victims’ families. “I don’t believe justice was done,” McCarthy says. “The Eastland story offers an example of how important it is to bring charges against people who have endangered lives and how careful you must be to pin the charges on them.”

Chicago Examiner front page, July 25, 1915.

Although the Eastland disaster was the deadliest in Windy City history—claiming seven times the lives as the official death toll from the Great Chicago Fire—it quickly faded from public memory. McCarthy attributes this in part to the lower economic status of the victims as well as the timing. “This happened just before the U.S. entered World War I, and the world-changing events eclipsed so much else of what was going on,” he says while adding, “It is remarkable that something so catastrophic wouldn’t be better remembered.”

---{-@

HICKOK

Near Russia’s border with the Baltics, soldiers on both sides are practicing for war

Europe Near Russia’s border with the Baltics, soldiers on both sides are practicing for war Europe Near Russia’s border with the Baltics, soldiers on both sides are practicing for war.

July 13, 2016 

 

  Note from Lou: By Michael Birnbaum July 3~~~WASHINGTON POST

 

  A soldier is seen during a NATO troop exercise in Estonia. Troops from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Britain, Germany, Holland and other European countries were training for warfare in the woods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  BALTIC CURTAIN | This is part of a series examining the new front lines in a Cold-War-style confrontation between Russia and the West. VORU, Estonia — When unidentified aircraft were speeding toward northern Estonia one recent day, British fighter jets stationed nearby scrambled to intercept them. Screaming across the country, they quickly identified the targets: two Russian fighters and a spy plane. It was just the latest confrontation between the West and Russia in a region that has fast become a tripwire for conflict between nuclear superpowers. In the two years since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, the tiny Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have taken an oversize role in facing down Russia’s challenge to the West. The Kremlin has been building up its military along its border with the former Soviet satellites. Western allies of the Baltics, worried that the region is vulnerable, have responded by pouring tanks, warplanes and soldiers into an area slightly larger than Florida. They will commit thousands more troops to the three countries and Poland at a summit starting Friday. The British decision to leave the European Union makes NATO even more important as an alliance that binds the West together, NATO leaders say, amid concerns that the political and economic turbulence unleashed by the decision will shrink Britain’s outsize role in global affairs. The departure plans come at a critical time of escalation between Russia and the West.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                        

“Uncertainty and unpredictability always create challenges to our security,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview. “It is a more unpredictable situation now than before the U.K. decided to leave.” Western and Russian warplanes already encounter each other in the Baltic skies nearly every day. A Russian warplane buzzed a U.S. destroyer in April, coming within 30 feet and raising fears of an accident that could quickly escalate into a crisis. Any attack on the Baltics has the potential for far more global danger than Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, since the United States and other members of NATO committed to defend the region when Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined the military alliance in 2004. Adding to the fears, Russian leaders now routinely raise their willingness to use nuclear weapons, a habit not seen since the height of the Cold War in the early 1960s. Western leaders shy away from talk of a new Cold War. But Russian and Western officials make clear that they are settling into a confrontation that neither side expects to end quickly. “There is a much greater sense that we’re dealing with a long-term strategic competition with Russia,” said Alexander Vershbow, deputy secretary general of NATO, the Western military alliance formed during the Cold War to defend against the Soviet Union. “It will be a very dangerous relationship that needs to be managed very carefully going forward,” he said.  

A car sits idle in the middle of a potato field in Estonia in May. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post) NATO’s new top military leader, U.S. Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, said as he arrived in the spring that the alliance had to be ready to “fight tonight” against Russia, if necessary. And President Obama quadrupled military spending in Europe in his budget proposal earlier this year, to $3.4 billion. Russia plans to form three new divisions of its military by the end of the year — tens of thousands of troops — and station them in its westernmost territories, near the Baltics and Poland. Russian President Vladimir Putin has framed it as a simple response to NATO  activity.

 “We are constantly accused of military activity, but where?” Putin said Thursday. “Only on our own soil. We are supposed to accept as normal the military buildup on our borders.”

The Baltics, which were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 and won independence only in 1991, fear they could make a tempting target for a Kremlin that has in recent years taken a revanchist attitude toward its neighbors. If they were attacked and NATO failed to come to their aid, it would break the military alliance, an outcome that would probably delight Putin. He has declared NATO to be one of Russia’s biggest strategic threats. Western leaders have sought to place enough firepower in the Baltics to deter an attack while avoiding the perception of a military threat to Russia. Many Russian officials say they view the arrival of Western tanks at their frontiers as a security risk. NATO military leaders retort that such fears are exaggerated and that the roughly 2,500 troops that have been sent to the region could do little to harm the vastly larger Russian forces arrayed across the border.

 Dutch soldiers board their armored personnel carrier while raiding the woods during a NATO troop exercise in Estonia. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post) 

 Estonian Special Forces soldiers are shown reading the A area map during the NATO troop exercise in Estonia. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post)A Lithuanian Humvee driver is seen through a vehicle during the NATO troop exercise in Estonia. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post) A recent Rand Corp. study that simulated a Russian invasion found that Baltic capitals would be overrun within 60 hours. To change the calculus, the authors recommended a significantly higher Western troop presence in the region than NATO is currently contemplating — seven brigades, more than 30,000 troops. A similar NATO-wide crisis war game in March that simulated an attack from Russia left the West losing to its foe. Even without a permanent presence in the Baltics, NATO troops have been conducting military exercises throughout the region since the Crimea military operation. Practice for street-to-street combat recently was held in Voru, a sleepy town of 13,000 people 16 miles from the Russian border that is better known as a home for an unusual language dialect than as a future spark plug for world war. An international coalition of troops, including Americans, fought from the outskirts of town into the city center, taking over an old municipal archive, then an abandoned factory and a gas station. The fighting intensified on Paju Street, where 19th-century wooden homes sit in the shade.

A recent Rand Corp. study that simulated a Russian invasion found that Baltic capitals would be overrun within 60 hours. To change the calculus, the authors recommended a significantly higher Western troop presence in the region than NATO is currently contemplating — seven brigades, more than 30,000 troops. A similar NATO-wide crisis war game in March that simulated an attack from Russia left the West losing to its foe.
Even without a permanent presence in the Baltics, NATO troops have been conducting military exercises throughout the region since the Crimea military operation. Practice for street-to-street combat recently was held in Voru, a sleepy town of 13,000 people 16 miles from the Russian border that is better known as a home for an unusual language dialect than as a future spark plug for world war. An international coalition of troops, including Americans, fought from the outskirts of town into the city center, taking over an old municipal archive, then an abandoned factory and a gas station. The fighting intensified on Paju Street, where 19th-century wooden homes sit in the shadow of a hulking Soviet-era apartment building.

The soldiers fought right past the computer repair shop where Roman Jastrebov, 25, was working on a Saturday morning as his 4-year-old daughter played. He said he was delighted by the war games even if he “almost got shot in the face with a shell.” “It was like the Fourth of July. It’s like a big playground,” he said. But he was skeptical that the combat practice would save Estonia if its worst fears of a Russian invasion came to pass. “It’s not like we’re going to be saved from it if there’s a war. One tank division could take us,” he said. Others were less happy about the street-to-street fighting that paralyzed the town for hours. “This is just to scare people,” said Kertu Luisk, 24, a cosmetology trainee whose hair salon was in the thick of the fighting. “To see this kind of show, I’d rather go to the theater. None of us wants to think war is possible. But it seems to me that the real risk is there.” The Baltics’ flat, open terrain means that the countries could be overrun faster than NATO could scramble a response from elsewhere in Europe, leading to the focus on discouraging Russia from acting in the first place, Western leaders say. 

 Members of an Estonian heavy-caliber machine-gun team chat with a local resident. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post) Along Estonia’s forested border with Russia, the only demarcation of the frontier is a series of orange-and-green poles erected every several dozen yards. A new chain-link fence won’t be finished for at least another year, and it would do little to stop an invasion. NATO officials plan to send a battalion of about a thousand troops to each Baltic nation and Poland, about 4,000 in total. The United States originally considered committing about 2,000 soldiers to the effort, but it recently halved its offer, NATO diplomats and officials say, amid growing political pressure to push Europe to commit more to its own defense. Obama recently derided “free riders” on American military might, while Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has declared NATO obsolete. That has left Baltic leaders — and NATO military planners — balancing what they feel they need with what they think they can get.

 “We don’t want to return to the Cold War era, tank for tank, soldier for soldier,” said Estonian Defense Minister Hannes Hanso. “But in the Baltic Sea, Russia is flying military aircraft almost daily, sometimes five times a day. It would be irresponsible not to respond.” “What we are doing is reacting to what they’re doing,” Hanso said. A drive across the Baltics reveals a constant hum of military activity. Camouflaged convoys snake down dim roads late at night. Armored personnel carriers idle alongside fields. Belgian, British and Spanish fighter jets thunder across the skies. Before the Crimean annexation, it was rare to see a combat vehicle in the Baltics. Now they are omnipresent, amid a constant cycle of military maneuvers and rotations. The biggest military operation in Europe this year is underway in Poland, where 25,000 troops from 24 nations are engaged in combat exercises that include live fire from tanks. The sustained rhythm can be jarring to those who live in the areas seen as most vulnerable. Narva, an Estonian border city that is more than 80 percent ­Russian-speaking, is often depicted as Russia’s first target if it were to move on the Baltics. But residents 

 Narva’s streets are in decent shape, unlike the rutted roads in Ivangorod, the Russian town just across the river. Narva residents’ salaries and pensions are paid according to Estonian standards, while their Russian neighbors’ earnings have lost half their value with the collapse of the ruble since 2014. “People in Narva love Putin. But it’s a platonic love. They don’t want him here,” said Sergei Stepanov, the editor of the local newspaper, Narvskaya Gazeta. “People here are not stupid. They can just cross the border and compare how things are in Russia.” Ultimately, Estonian leaders say, the threat from Russia has forced them to unite under pressure. “Five or six years ago, we would have had arguments” about holding extensive military exercises, said Hanso, the defense minister. “Putin is our best recruiter.” 

---{-=@ 

HICKOK

Reflection for July 17, 2016

Reflection for July 17, 2016

On this 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time we, SSMN’s are celebrating the 50th Jubilee of our Sisters, Elizabeth Buchala and Roberta Fulton. The Sunday Readings are superbly appropriate . Below, I share part of an Introduction by Father Carroll Stuhlmueller, C.P. in his series, Biblical Meditations for Ordinary Time.

The first reading from Genesis recounts:
a. The appearance of three angelic visitors, including the Lord, to the tent of Abraham and Sarah;
b. They both rush to invite the visitors into the tent and entertain them.
c. Before the visitors depart the next day there is an announcement of a “birth” which has to everything to do with do with the future of God’s relationship with Israel, the revelation of the Covenant.

The Gospel passage from Luke shows us Jesus (and his disciples, likely) arriving at the home of Martha and Mary.
a. Martha complains about doing all the chores that hospitality requires while Mary sits at Jesus’ feet.
b. Jesus confirms Martha yet does not yield to her wishes.
c. His presence, friendship ,and attention is served in both ways. Away with dualism and that which would divide! Jesus’ call (He who is The new Covenant) brings communion, the center of which tenderly welcomes Mary’s attentive contemplation, as well as doing the work of justice . It is not a matter of “either- or” but of “both- and..”

Paul is very clear in his words to the Colossians. If we are called to belong to Christ we follow him even to suffering:” filling up what is lacking” on behalf of his body, which is the church…”

Our Sisters today, at the milestone of 50 years of Consecrated Life within the Church, continue their story of God’s Presence via appearances and visitations of his Spirit along the path of faith to the Kingdom. We rejoice with them and offer our prayers of gratitude for God’s faithful Spirit alive in their hearts.

Sister Nancy

---{-=@


HICKOK

Here’s why I’m DELIGHTED about the FBI’s verdict on Hillary…

Written by Allen West on July 5, 2016

Of course, the news cycle is completely dominated by FBI Director James Comey’s announcement yesterday recommending no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton. And my response is GREAT! I can’t thank Director Comey enough for coming to this decision.

My concern has always been that Barack Obama would release the hounds on Mrs. Clinton and then push for his vice president, Joe Biden, to be the Democrat nominee. And then, to placate the far lefty socialists, who own the Democrat party, Obama would position Sen. Elizabeth Warren as Biden’s VP. That would be a really tough ticket to beat, since Joe Biden’s favorables, regardless of gaffes and such, are extremely high.
However, James Comey just delivered a gift wrapped with a bow. Why do I say that?
Simple, here’s what FBI Director Comey said regarding Hillary Clinton and this email server episode:

• He concluded Hillary was “extremely careless” in handling our nation’s secrets.
• He admitted no reasonable person could have believed putting these emails on a private server was at all appropriate or acceptable.
• He admitted 110 emails on the server were classified at the time they were sent — showing Hillary not only lied, but knowingly endangered national security as secretary of state.
• He admitted Hillary deleted work-related emails before turning them over to the State Department, despite her claims otherwise.
• And, most shocking, Mr. Comey even admitted it’s likely foreign governments hacked her emails — and our adversaries could know critical secrets about the U.S. government because of Hillary’s actions.

Here’s a simple Southern summation. Hillary Clinton was extremely careless with our not just classified, but highly classified, information — why not just term this gross negligence? I can tell you, if I were a member of our Armed Services who’s been punished for misuse or mishandling of classified information, I would be filing an appeal. See, in the military, at a minimum, you’ll lose your security clearance; maximum, you’ll face courts-martial punishment.
Comey has said Hillary Clinton is not reasonable — is that who you want as president and commander in chief? And Mrs. Clinton’s actions were not appropriate or acceptable. That follows with Mrs. Clinton’s blatant lie about not having any classified material on her private server — her unclassified, private, personal server. Hillary Clinton stated there was no classified correspondence she emailed — wrong, a lie. Lastly, Comey confirmed Hillary Clinton inappropriately deleted the property of the American people — State Department, work-related emails. We know from the deposition of her closest aide, the daughter of Muslim Brotherhood associates Huma Abedin, that she admitted to burning emails.

And yes, Hillary Clinton lied about not having any of her emails “hacked.”
Andrew McCarthy, in his article at the National Review, stated:
There is no way of getting around this: According to Director James Comey (disclosure: a former colleague and longtime friend of mine), Hillary Clinton checked every box required for a felony violation of Section 793(f) of the federal penal code (Title 18): With lawful access to highly classified information she acted with gross negligence in removing and causing it to be removed it from its proper place of custody, and she transmitted it and caused it to be transmitted to others not authorized to have it, in patent violation of her trust. Director Comey even conceded that former Secretary Clinton was “extremely careless” and strongly suggested that her recklessness very likely led to communications (her own and those she corresponded with) being intercepted by foreign intelligence services.
Yet, Director Comey recommended against prosecution of the law violations he clearly found on the ground that there was no intent to harm the United States. 
In essence, in order to give Mrs. Clinton a pass, the FBI rewrote the statute, inserting an intent element that Congress did not require. The added intent element, moreover, makes no sense: The point of having a statute that criminalizes gross negligence is to underscore that government officials have a special obligation to safeguard national defense secrets; when they fail to carry out that obligation due to gross negligence, they are guilty of serious wrongdoing. The lack of intent to harm our country is irrelevant. People never intend the bad things that happen due to gross negligence.
Marcus Tullius Cicero referred to this as “the arrogance of officialdom.” Consider that just last week, there was a secret, private meeting between former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The attorney general told us they talked about golf vacations and grandkids. Over the weekend, quietly, Hillary Clinton visited FBI headquarters and then came out to give an interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd — who stated he had inside information there would be no charges. Then the morning after our 240th Independence Day, Director Comey announces a press conference — as the pre-flight checks were being conducted on Air Force One, preparing to fly President Obama and Hillary Clinton on a campaign ride to North Carolina. The optics of this rivals any episode of “Game of Thrones” or “House of Cards.”
Comey announces no charges, and Air Force One takes off. Barack Obama is flying, on taxpayer dollar, not with someone under criminal investigation — but a recently-exonerated Hillary Clinton. This, Ladies and Gents, is the “policy of political corruption” on full display. And it’s offensive to me, and should be to you, that these chuckleheads think so little of the American people.
Well, not all. Certainly the Kool-Aid drinking sycophants are rejoicing — and so am I. Why, because we see who these progressive socialists truly are and how they’ll use any means in order to achieve their ends. It’s obvious that somewhere there are emails involving Barack Obama, so the Clintons got the drop on him and Valerie Jarrett. Loretta Lynch paid her homage to the Clintons, not the Obamas.
So, is this the “new normal?” Have we decided there are political elites who are indeed above the law? It appears that is the case…but I believe the final vote will be cast by the American people. James Comey gave us every reason to look upon that stage in Charlotte, North Carolina, with abject disdain toward two of the biggest liars in U.S. political history. When Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton stood together on that stage, you saw two people who abandoned Americans to die and lied about it. We saw on that stage that the new American socialist party resembles the old Soviet politburo where there are no rules for the few — but rules, laws and edicts for others.
If you looked upon Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on that stage yesterday and cheered, the day after our 240th American Independence Day — you are no Patriot and citizen of this Republic. You are nothing more than, as Vladimir Lenin stated, a “useful idiot” — and a supporter of liars. We can ill afford the mindless lemmings to take this nation further down the road to perdition. Thanks, Director Comey, you may have just become the one person who will end the corrupt reign of the Clinton Family, and terminate any chance for an honorable legacy for Barack Obama.

---{-=@

HICKOK

Trivia Questions about the Birth of the GOP

Trivia Questions about the Birth of the GOP

•  July 6, 2016

On July 6, 1854, more than 10,000 people gathered on the outskirts of Jackson, Michigan, for the first official meeting of the Republican Party. To celebrate the anniversary of this landmark event in U.S. political history, we've put together some trivia questions; try your luck with them to see how much you know about the early years of the Grand Old Party.

Why Was the Republican Party Founded?

This historical marker is located at the site of the Republican Party's first official meeting near Jackson, Michigan.Frustrated at the apparent unwillingness or inability of the Whig Party to stop the spread of slavery into America's western territories, disgruntled Whig Party members broke away from their party to form a new political movement opposed to slavery's spread. The seeds for the new political party were first planted at an informal meeting in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin, in early 1854. Those meeting in Ripon were determined to find a way to carry out the goals of the short-lived Free Soil Party, which focused primarily on stopping the spread of slavery. Energizing the anti-slavery movement in the North was the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act, federal legislation that would allow new states to decide whether they would allow slavery within their borders. The man behind the meeting in Ripon was a young attorney named Alvan E. Bovay, who had moved to Ripon four years earlier from New York.

Why Did the New Party Oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act?The Republican Party's first presidential candidate was John C. Fremont.Prior to the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, signed into law by President Franklin Pierce on May 30, 1854, the Missouri Compromise had struck a delicate balance between the states that allowed slavery and those that prohibited it. Under the terms of the Missouri Compromise, passed in 1820, Missouri was admitted to the union as a slave-holding state but future states carved out of the Louisiana Purchase were to be prohibited from allowing slavery if they were north of latitude 36 degrees, 30 minutes north. The Kansas-Nebraska Act essentially scrapped the Missouri Compromise and allowed new states to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. Anti-slavery activists worried that this could lead eventually to a pro-slavery majority in the U.S. Congress, which would essentially doom their efforts to 

Who Suggested the Name for the New Party?Attorney Bovay, a transplanted New Yorker, had been close friends with Horace Greeley, the well-known editor of the New York Tribune. Although Bovay later said that he was the first to suggest the name "Republican" for the new party, it was Greeley who first brought the name to national prominence in a June 1854 editorial he wrote in the Tribune. Greeley wrote: "We should not care much whether those thus united (against slavery) were designated 'Whig,' 'Free Democrat' or something else; though we think some simple name like 'Republican' would more fitly designate those who had united to restore the Union to its true mission of champion and promulgator of Liberty rather than propagandist of slavery."

Who Was the Party's First Presidential Nominee?At the Republicans' first national convention in Philadelphia in 1856, the party picked John C. Fremont, a prominent U.S. military officer and explorer, as its presidential candidate. In the election that November, Fremont faced off against Democrat James Buchanan and Whig-American Millard Fillmore. Fremont came in second to Buchanan, polling about one-third of the popular vote and almost 40 percent of the electoral vote. Four years later, the Republicans selected Abraham Lincoln as their candidate, and he went on to win the election. During Lincoln's presidency, slavery was abolished.

---{-=@

HICKOK