Another Taxpayer Paid Michelle Vacation

Another vacation for Michelle Obama on the tax payers dime. Not just for her, but her two kids and Mom to boot.

I have no idea how much this is going to cost us as such expenses are some government secret.

OK, we all know such vacations by the First Lady are not cheap. The one question I would like an answer to is just what we taxpayers get in return.

WH: 'Real Treat' for Michelle Obama to Take Her Mom and Daughters to China

(CNSNews.com) - First lady Michelle Obama "has been looking for an opportunity to go to

China," a White House official said on Monday. And she considers it a "real treat" to take her daughters and her mother with her -- a trip she's making at considerable expense to taxpayers, although the White House refused to give a dollar figure.

"You know, the first lady has talked about the importance of young people here in the United States learning about other cultures. She believes that about her own children, and has seen this as a really unique opportunity to share a very different part of the world with her two daughters and with her mother as well," Mrs. Obama's Chief of Staff Tina Tchen told a conference call on Monday.

"I think, as she said before, before they came here to the White House, Mrs. Robinson had not done any travel internationally, so the opportunities when she's been able to do that have been a real treat, I think, for Mrs. Robinson, for the first lady, for her daughters as well to travel together and to see these places and experience them together."

CNS NEWS

Beijing Limits Number of Cars in City

It is a sign or progress so I WELCOME China to the first world joy and pain of private automobile transportation. 

Hmm, maybe not quite yet, at least for everybody who maybe able to afford a car. Seems garnering the yuan for that brand new car is the easy part. Next is getting a license so to be able to legally drive that vehicle in any major city in itself  is a daunting task.

No surprise when faced with an obstacle, there are those determined to rise to the challenge. 

Imagine the frustration once all is done trying to actually drive that vehicle anywhere?

Beijing Plates Harder to Win Than Roulette Spur Loopholes: Cars

Raising the money was once the big obstacle to auto ownership in China. Now it’s getting the right license plates.

Small wonder then that resourceful motorists are finding ways around the rules. An entire industry has sprung up to help them, from services that register cars in other towns, to brokers of surplus licenses to thieves and counterfeiters of plates.

“We can’t do business without a car in such a huge city,” Beijing-based fruit importer Jason Chi said, explaining that after two years of failing at the lottery he registered his Buick Excelle for 100 yuan ($16) about an hour’s drive away in Langfang, Hebei province. Applying twice a year for permission - - with restrictions -- to drive in Beijing is a worthwhile hassle, he said. “What other choice do I have?”

China’s regional patchwork of vehicle registration rules mean loopholes big enough to drive 1.5 million cars through. That’s the estimated number of autos in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou that are registered elsewhere, according to JSC Automotive Consulting. The problem will only grow as more cities plan quotas in a country where car ownership is only about 1/14th of U.S. levels.

“Policy makers know they cannot kill the demand for cars,” said Lin Huaibin, a Shanghai-based analyst at auto researcher IHS Automotive. “If people really want to buy a vehicle, these policies won’t stand in their way.”

FULL STORY - Bloomberg

Gotta hand it to the Chinese government. 

Not only are they spending more on their military, but doing it wisely. This is a good example, tactical use of areal drones.

China's Drone Swarms Rise to Challenge US Power

 China is building one of the world's largest drone fleets aimed at expanding its military reach in the Pacific and swarming U.S. Navy carriers in the unlikely event of a war, according to a new report.

The Chinese military — known as the People's Liberation Army (PLA) — envisions its drone swarms scouting out battlefields, guiding missile strikes and overwhelming opponents through sheer numbers. China's military-industrial complex has created a wide array of homegrown drones to accomplish those goals over the past decade, according to the report released by the Project 2049 Institute on March 11.

"The PLA now fields one of the world's most expansive UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] fleets," said Ian Easton and L.C. Russell Hsiao, researchers at the Project 2049 Institute and authors of the new report.

U.S. military forces still operate the largest drone fleet, with at least 679 drones in 2012, according to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies reported by the Guardian. But the new Project 2049 Institute report estimates that China had 280 military drones as of mid-2011 — a number that has likely grown since then.

FULL STORY - China Drones-TECH NEWS DAILY

Peoples Republic of China Hates Guns in the hands of Citizens

Here we have the Full Text of Human Rights Record of the United States in 2011 according to the Consulate General of the Peoples Republic of China New York.

I could present it to you here in full, but really what most interests me is this keen observation.

"The United States prioritizes the right to keep and bear arms over the protection of citizens' lives and personal security and exercises lax firearm possession control, causing rampant gun ownership. The U.S. people hold between 35 percent and 50 percent of the world' s civilian-owned guns, with every 100 people having 90 guns (Online edition of the Foreign Policy, January 9, 2011). According to a Gallup poll in October 2011, 47 percent of American adults reported that they had a gun. That was an increase of six percentage points from a year ago and the highest Gallup had recorded since 1993. Fifty-two percent of middle-aged adults, aged between 35 and 54, reported to own guns, and the adults' gun ownership in the south region was 54 percent (The China Press, October 28, 2011). The New York Times reported on November 14, 2011, that since 1995, more than 3,300 felons and people convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors had regained their gun rights in the state of Washington and of that number, more than 400 had subsequently committed new crimes, including shooting and other felonies (The New York Times, November 14, 2011)."

I love it. On the one hand, they say we have a lot of crime, on the other they deride American ownership of guns for self protection. All this as more Americans are buying guns and the FBI crime stats say that crime is going down, no matter of what the New York Times or China Press want to make ya all believe.



No doubt from that government point of view, such freedom should always be forbidden, lest it is turned against the government itself.


Who said it best, "Power comes from the barrel of a gun"
MAO?

China's Population

I never really gave much thought about China's demography, especially in relationship of urban vs. farming populations.

I happen to live in a rural county, largely farming. For over a century it has seen an exodus of citizens to urban areas. I wonder on the local level how people feel about this.

Most Chinese Are Now Urban Dwellers

China has announced that people living in its towns and cities now outnumber those in the countryside, making it a predominantly urban nation for the first time in Chinese civilization.


The historic milestone spotlights a trend that China's government says will be a key driver of economic growth over the next two decades as hundreds of millions more people move into urban areas in search of higher-paying jobs.

But it also points to the challenges facing Chinese leaders as mass migration places an increasing strain on urban housing, transport and welfare, while fueling pollution, social unrest and demands for political reform.

Urban dwellers account for 51.27% of China's entire population of nearly 1.35 billion—or a total of 690.8 million people—the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.


Wall Street Journal

Ghost Towns in China

This a fascinating story.

The ghost towns of China: Amazing satellite images show cities meant to be home to millions lying deserted

Ghost city: Kangbashi was meant to be the urban centre for wealthy coal-mining community Ordos and home to its one million workers, but its roads are eerily empty and the houses stand vacant

These amazing satellite images show sprawling cities built in remote parts of China that have been left completely abandoned, sometimes years after their construction.

Elaborate public buildings and open spaces are completely unused, with the exception of a few government vehicles near communist authority offices.
Some estimates put the number of empty homes at as many as 64 million, with up to 20 new cities being built every year in the country's vast swathes of free land.

I suspect this a result of central planning and those who do that do not understand what they are doing.

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences:
Of the 35 major cities surveyed, property prices in eleven including Beijing and Shanghai were between 30 and 50 per cent above their market value

That is an incredible statement, or there is something happening in China I just can't comprehend.

Prices equal MARKET VALUE!

No cars in the city except for approximately 100 clustered around the government headquarters

Shi has insisted China will not end up in a worse place than Dubai - where a property price bubble imploded during the global financial crisis.

PRICE BUBBLE represents an inflated MARKET PRICE!

Find out what is causing the bubble and pop it before it causes to much damage!

Back when I sold my house in California it was no secret that prices were inflated and eventually the BUBBLE would pop.

Causes were no less than central planning by liberal wackos like Barney Fag, oops I mean Sen. Barney Frank who helped push quasi government agencies like Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac to guarantee home loans to people who had no business buying a house. Followed by unscrupulous financiers with nothing to loose.

So much for the liberal concept that everybody has a RIGHT to own their own house.

I wonder what the problem in China is.

Is it some philosophical idiotology or simply greed by some who will no matter what profit immensely?

For Full Story and Pictures From the

MailOnline       

CLICK HERE

China Leans on North Korea?

I am not making any bets, or holding my breath if this signifies positive news.

Now that's said.

To me it is apparent that when China sighs,  an ill wind engulfs the city of Pyongyang, capital of an ill governed impoverish country.

China calls on N Korea to admit inspectors

Beijing, Pyongyang’s only ally, has refused to criticise it publicly despite being pressed since a North Korean attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong in November. “We support North Korea to make peaceful use of nu-clear energy, but it should also respect inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency under the framework of the six-party talks,” said Jiang Yu, a foreign ministry spokeswoman.

 FT.COM  (FINICIAL TIMES UK)