But first some good news.   Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump met this morning in Busan and came to a workable understanding .  Said Trump: “I guess, on the scale from zero to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after the meeting. “You know, just the whole relationship is very, very important. I think it was very good.” No details were released, but you can read that  article  for more. An hour before his meeting with Xi, Trump fired off the following social media missive: After Russia Conducts Nuclear Weapons Tests, Trump Announces U.S. Will Restart Its Own A tariff is one thing, but to re-enter a state of cold war where one incident can cause Armageddon, or the end of Humanity, is just another in a string of Trump's intentions regarding dictatorship and retrogression in dealing with global warming that have never before been voiced by past U.S. presidents.  Of course, he was in his ...

But first:  MOSCOW/WASHINGTON/KYIV >> President Donald Trump said today that Russia and Ukraine “will immediately start negotiations” toward a ceasefire and an end to their three-year-old war, speaking after he held a call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Photos and a video about our departure from Vancouver on Air Canada. Air Canada Lounge cuisine of soup with beer, Bloody Mary, Johnny Walker Black Label on rocks and sparkling rosé. Our plane, showing snow still on Vancouver mountain on May 18. Airline meal. Final view of Canada. This is a weird photo of our plane right over Diamond Head. Returned home at 9:15PM.  Walked 3641 steps. Great night sleep.  So anyway, our 33-day trip was wonderful. We went to the Osaka Expo twice.   Amazingly enough, we won the lottery on both days, for we got to use their motor scooter each day.  FREE!!!  Four for four.  The odds of this happening had to be 100 to one for this to occur.   We st...

 The USA would not have amounted to much if we had not acquired all those territories to the west, north and south.  Maybe President Donald Trump's manifest destiny for Greenland, Panama Canal and Canada might well be visionary.  Make American Even Greater! Original size of U.S. in 1789 = 864,746 square miles. We then grew to 3,531,905 square miles through territorial acquisitions. 1803 Louisiana Purchase from France, 828,000 ( almost the same size as originally ) square miles (sm) for $15 million, now worth $389 billion. 1818, British Cession, 45,417 sm. 1819, Florida, $5 million, Spain, 72,101 sm. 1845, Texas cession, 389,166 sm. 1846, Oregon territory, UK, by contested occupation, 286,541. 1848, Mexican Cession from Mexico, $15 million, 529,189. 1853, Gadsdend Purchase from Mexico, $10 million, 29,670. 1857-1858, Islands in the Pacific, 16 sm. 1867, Alaska, $7.2 million from Russia, 591,000. 1967-1947, islands mostly in the Pacific, like Hawaii, small sums, about 120,0...