Tag Archives: united states

President-elect Donald Trump, and President Vladimir Putin

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putin-and-trump

Source of quote: The Washington Post, online edition, December 14, 2016: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-kremlin-likes-the-hacking-attention-but-not-the-blame/2016/12/14/65279738-c177-11e6-92e8-c07f4f671da4_story.html?utm_term=.fc453119c6fd.

Fiona Hill co-authored the 2015 book Mr. Putin: Operative at the Kremlin, available here, on Amazon. She is also (according to the Washington Post story linked above, written by David Filipov) a scholar at the Brookings Institution. Here’s the headline, taken from a screenshot.

moscow

For those who do not know, The Washington Post is the newspaper which blew open the Watergate scandal, and that, in turn, brought down the Nixon administration.

These are facts.

On the 2016 American Presidential Election, and the Whole Sorry Lot Running

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A self-righteous megalomaniac. Several far-right wingnuts, from a party rapidly making itself irrelevant by trying to live in the past. A big-government advocate with a past history of questionable ethical practices. And, to round out the lot, an actual socialist.

Sigh. I wish we could vote for “none of the above,” and just leave the White House empty for four years.

Next-best option, in my opinion: if we must have a Clinton, bring back Socks the Cat.

Socks_the_Cat_Explores

[Image source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socks_(cat)]

The American Historical Clock of War and Peace

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SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA

The yellow years are ones in which the USA was getting into or out of major wars — or both, in the case of the brief Spanish-American War. The red years are war years, and the blue years are years of (relative) peace.

The sectors are each bounded by two radii, and a 1.5° arc. The current year is omitted intentionally because 2016 isn’t over yet, and we don’t know what will happen during the rest of it. 

Silly U.S. Map Puzzle #5

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What do the colors on this map mean?

mappuzzle5

If you wish to check your answer, or just what to know what the solution is, just scroll down.

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And keep on scrollin’. . . .

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Solution:

Of the other 49 states in the USA, how many are adjacent to this one? The answer to this question determines the color of each state.

One point of clarification: if it takes a lengthy trip by boat or ship to get there, I didn’t count it as an adjacent state . . . so, for example, Minnesota and Michigan didn’t make each other’s lists. Simply going over a bridge isn’t enough for this sort of separation, though, which is why Arkansas and Tennessee did make each others’ lists of adjacent states. Had I interpreted water borders differently, this map would have some differences.

Another way this map could be altered would be to count states that meet others only at a single point, rather than a border with non-zero length. This would change the colors of the “four corners” states of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado, but would have no effect on the other 46 states.

Silly U.S. Map Puzzles #4a and 4b

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First, for puzzle #4a, what are the meanings of the colors on this map?

mapquiz4a-letters

For puzzle #4b, what do the colors mean on this second, similar map?

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To find the answers, simply scroll down.

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Keep scrolling….

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Solution:

In the first map, consider the number of letters in the name of each state. Is this number prime or composite?

In the second map, consider the number of characters, rather than letters, in each state’s name. This number is different for states with two-word names, due to the single character, a blank space, needed to separate the two words. Again: prime, or composite?

Silly U.S. Map Puzzle #3

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What is represented by the colors on this map?

mapquiz3

The answer may be found by scrolling down.

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Keep scrolling….

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Answer:

Do any of the borders of this state contain squiggles? (Note: if you think New Mexico is the wrong color, check the part of that state which borders El Paso, Texas.)

Silly U.S. Map Puzzle #2

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What is represented by the colors on this map?

mapquiz2

If you give up, you can scroll down to find the answer.

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Keep scrolling….

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Answer: the colors show whether the name of each state starts with a letter in the first, or second, half of the alphabet.

Silly U.S. Map Puzzle #1

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What is represented by the colors on this map?

mapquiz1

If you decide to give up, you can scroll down for the answer . . . but, I promise, the solution to this puzzle is extremely simple.

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Keep scrolling, if you’re looking for the answer….

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Answer:

The map shows how many words are in the name of each state.

A Timeline of the Major Wars of the United States of America, in Our Brief History

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Because it was, in some ways, a precursor to the American Revolutionary War, this timeline begins with the pre-American-independence French and Indian War. American independence was formally declared during the Revolutionary War, in 1776.

war1Light blue areas are for pre-American involvement in wars which ultimately ended in some form of victory for the USA, with dark blue areas representing American involvement in wars that ended in a victory for the side containing the United States, alone or with allies.

Each new part of this timeline contains the end of the previous one, and all wartimes within a single portion of this timeline are shown to scale. The white areas represent periods of peacetime, and are also shown to scale. Yellow wars are those that ended in stalemates, or conditions that could simply be called a tie.

war2war3war4war5

war6Beginning in 1945, things get complicated, with an ideological war (the Cold War) occasionally turning “hot,” as it did in Korea and Vietnam. A similar “it’s complicated” situation appears later, during the ongoing War on Terror. Also, the Vietnam War makes two new colors needed:  orange, for pre-USA-involvement in wars that ultimately lead to a defeat for the USA, and red, for the period leading up to a loss for the USA which actually involved American personnel.

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When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, ending the Cold War, some actually wrote of “the end of history,” as if the world had suddenly became uncomplicated. Subsequent events proved this idea to be premature.

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Since the War on Terror, as well as its component in Afghanistan, is unresolved as of now (2014), a new color, green, is used here for ongoing conflicts.

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Finally, it should be pointed out that the administration of George W. Bush tried to sell, to the American public and others, the idea that the 2003-2011 Iraq War was part of the War on Terror. Many Americans, however, myself included, do not accept this rationale, for no connection has been established between Iraq, on the one hand, and the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks against multiple targets in the USA, on the other.