Obamaville September 28 - USA Hit by 8.2 Earthquake as Pope Francis, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin converge on America

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What a week of astounding foreign influence on America as Pope Francis led a trio of international heavyweights onto American soil resulting in a seismic tsunami of epic proportions when it comes to America's role in the world, and the American agenda at home.

Pope Francis stopped in Cuba on the way and blew the doors off the Communist regime with his non-threatening message of peace and call to end the Cuban embargo by America.  Once the Cuban people saw Cuban President Raul Castro at the Pope's side for every Mass he delivered, they came out by the millions to welcome the Prince of Peace from the Vatican.

Next, the Pope journeyed to the heart and soul of America as millions flocked to hear his message in Washington, D.C., New York City, and the City of Brotherly love Philadelphia.  The first Jesuit Priest to become Pope in history and the first Pope ever from the Americas stunned the news media and politicians as he took on the most contentious and divisive issues of the day.

In our nation's capitol, he was the first Pope to address a joint session of Congress and he literally brought down the house.  In the process he inspired the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, to resign from his position as third in line for the presidency, and his congressional seat from Ohio.

The smiling, soft-spoken Pope from Argentina taught all the politicians a lesson on humility, service, and love for all human beings.  Clearly uncomfortable with the royalty and riches of capitalism, he became energized, and animated when diving into the crowds to embrace the handicapped, kiss the babies, take selfies with the youth, and highlight the rich American heritage resulting from open borders.

No matter how serious or contentious the issue, the Pope did not hesitate to embrace it from immigration reform to abortion, neglect of the elderly to refugees in Syria, the need for giving hope to the masses to the shame of sexual abuses in the church.  His visits to Harlem, to programs providing care for the downtrodden, to meeting prison inmates, overshadowed his amazing addresses to congress and the United Nations.

Whether the 266th Pope was meeting in the White House with the 44th President of the United States, or addressing the United Nations General Assembly in their 70th year in existence, the Pope cast an amazing aura.  The fact the Popes have been around for 1,982 years, and he was the direct line of succession from St. Peter the apostle who walked with Jesus Christ, gave a mystical quality to the joyful and hopeful Pope.

His words struck at the very heart of humanity when he said sexual abuse by priests and others caused, "God to weep."  His insistence that climate change required action for the good of our future generations, or that the sanctity of life must be protected from the womb to the end of life, resulting in his call for an end to the death penalty, left pundits gasping for air.

The gentle smile from this 78-year-old pontiff allowed all Americans and citizens of the world to hear his words, not just the 1.2 billion Catholics, and his Inter-faith service at Ground Zero of the World Trade Center of New York with clergy from every major religion of the world proved he was serious.

As the Pope was flying from Washington to New York the Chinese President, Xi Jinping and his wife were arriving at the White House.  As leader of the second most powerful economy in the world, Obama has accused China of many things, including every major cyber attack on the US.

In addition, China has expanded their defense capability and violated the territorial rights of islands off the coast of China by building an airport at that location.  It seems the islands are near major Pacific shipping lanes.

Of course, the USA has been using cyber attacks and infiltration and monitoring of computers and phones for fifteen years against foreign countries.  The big difference is Edward Snowden proved we do it while the Obama administration cannot prove the Chinese did.

President Xi Jinping immediately announced plans by China to reduce their military by 300,000 soldiers, ten percent of their entire army.  Then he agreed to secure international approval of the island annexation, and said China would commit to participating in the climate change treaty in November.  As one of the biggest polluters in the world because of their rapidly expanding economy, it shocked world leaders China was prepared to do their part.

By now, the Pope and Chinese president had beaten Obama by embracing massive and significant changes in the world landscape without being told to or lectured by America. Unfortunately, for the president, the world was not through with him.

On Saturday with the Pope in Philadelphia and Chinese President on his way to the United Nations in NYC, Russian President Putin requested a meeting with Obama.  Now Putin is the one world leader who can get to the president just by opening his mouth or smiling.

Obama has refused to meet with Putin for over two years because Putin snatched Crimea back from the Ukraine and Russia is still causing fits in the Ukraine.  As Obama waffled on whether to meet Putin, Russia also announced approval of a new security pact with Syria, Iran, and Iraq, stunning the American intelligence services when he made the announcement, the same day as his meeting request.

Syria is Obama's greatest foreign policy failure, Iraq is the biggest war disaster for Obama, and Iran only agreed to limiting production of nuclear weapons because Russia (Putin) and China were partners in the negotiations.  Suddenly, Obama found himself shoved off the stage of public opinion by the Pope, China, and Russia, and it was all happening on American soil.

Stay tuned for the results.

United Nations approves Global Development Goals after Pope speaks to General Assembly

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If you get a chance, watch the festival and concert tomorrow from Central Park in NYC.  Today the United Nations votes on the Global goals to wipe out extreme poverty by 2030 along with many other initiatives like freedom, education, health care, climate control, justice, etc.  MSNBC will be broadcasting live from Central Park beginning at 3 pm tomorrow and Sunday night I think NBC and BBC will broadcast worldwide an edited version of the concert.  It is a massive undertaking to reach 7 billion people in 7 days. Today the Pope talked about it at the United Nations. 

TODAY IS THE DAY...TODAY, in this very building, the #GlobalGoals will be signed by 193 presidents, prime ministers...
Posted by The Global Goals on Friday, September 25, 2015

CPT Twit - A Pope and Two Presidents - three most powerful leaders of the world - here now

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What a rare occasion when the three most powerful people in the world are in America for meetings. For this week Pope Francis, President Obama, and Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife First Lady Peng Liyuan congregate on Washington, D.C. and New York City for talks that could shape the future of the world.

First Pope Francis came calling after a triumphant visit to Cuba on the way, with his message of hope, peace, and compassion electrifying the crowds and knocking politics out of the news.

At the same time the Pope was landing in Washington, D.C., Chinese President Jinping and his wife were landing in Seattle on their way to our nation's capital, first for meetings with Bill Gates and prominent American industrialists.

All three will be attending the United Nations General Assembly in NYC in what could be a historic gathering to adopt the Global Goals initiative to wipe out poverty and address sixteen other major issues over the next fifteen years.

This is such a historic gathering here in America it makes one want to break out in song.

    

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'College GameDay' a major coup for Cats - as in University of Arizona

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Publisher's note - Arizona is my alma mater...

If your school is selected to host ESPN’s “College GameDay”, it’s like somebody scheduled a parade and everybody you know is going to be there.

About two million people climb out of bed every Saturday morning to watch the show and it almost never disappoints. It’s Army-Navy, Kansas-Missouri and in 2001, 2001, 2008 and 2009 it was Texas-Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry.

Eleven hours before Saturday’s Arizona-UCLA kickoff, GameDay will be live on the UA mall.

“It’s cool,” said UA junior nose tackle Sani Fuimaono. “It’s what I used to wake up to watch when I was in high school.”

GameDay goes beyond cool. What’s a good word? Nirvana. It’s got to have a little music to it.

GameDay used to be snooty. It used to be Alabama-Auburn and Nebraska-Notre Dame, and an excessive diet of Wolverines, Volunteers and Buckeyes.

But over the last 15 years, GameDay has become monument to all the people of college football. It has given us Harvard-Penn, Army-Navy, Southern-Grambling and, believe it or not, North Dakota State-Incarnate Word.

The NDSU Bison hosted GameDay twice. That’s one more time than Arizona State, whose lone appearance as a host was in 2005. (The Sun Devils lost to No. 1 USC, 38-28).

“It’s gonna be big,” Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said Monday. “I’m tickled to death they are here.”

GameDay was once the center of all “East coast bias” in college sports. Its first 24 locations were so far from the Pac-12 that when it finally erected a stage for the November 1998 Oregon-at-UCLA game — its first game at a Pac-12 venue — that the crew looked around Pasadena and realized “hey, this is where they play the Rose Bowl!”

But until Pete Carroll turned USC into a powerhouse, GameDay went 49 consecutive shows, from early 2001 to late 2004 — without a Pac-12 host.

All of that has changed. USC has since been host to 10 GameDay shows; Oregon eight.

Arizona and Stanford have twice been hosts. No other Pac-12 school has had more than one hosting role; Washington State and Cal have none.

“Just to show off our campus and the city of Tucson; it’s all positive,” RichRod said.

ESPN won’t divulge the identity of GameDay’s much-anticipated “guest picker” until Saturday.

In 2009, when Arizona lost 44-41 to Oregon in its Tucson GameDay debut, the guest picker was Olympic swimming gold medalist Amanda Beard. She was underwhelming, to put it politely.

Perhaps this time GameDay will fly Arizona alumnus Bob Baffert in from a California race track. Or maybe Steve Kerr can squeeze in a visit before the Golden State Warriors open training camp. They would fit nicely with the list of guest-picking celebrities that have ranged from Ken Griffey Jr., father of UA receiver Trey Griffey to Alice Cooper and Bubba Watson.

The appeal of GameDay is now part of America’s football fabric. This is Year 23, but ESPN didn’t always have such a willing audience.

When ESPN decided to televise the 100th meeting between Division III football rivals Amherst and Williams, the Lord Jeffs against the Ephs, the Amherst administration of 1985 balked.

They left the decision to football coach Jim Ostendarp, who famously said “we’re in the education business, not the entertainment business.”

You almost expected a poetry reading.

Twenty-two years later, the Ephs and Lord Jeffs met again, a showdown for the 2007 Little Three championship, and when ESPN’s GameDay crew erected a stage three days in advance, the population of Williamstown grew and grew and grew, from 2,500 to almost 14,000.

People camped on every available plot of grass near the Massachusetts-Vermont border.

When the ESPN people flipped the switch early Saturday morning, downtown Williamstown was transformed into a mobile fraternity party. Dozens of people dressed in purple cow costumes (the Eph mascot is a purple cow). Others held signs that said “FEAR THE COW” and “AMWORST MUST GO.”

On Saturday morning at the UA mall, scores of bleary-eyed Wildcat fans will sway behind the GameDay stage. If you’re going to be part of the crowd, jot down these words and put them on a red and blue sign:

PLEASE COME BACK

ESPN News

The original wildcat mascot arrived on campus October 17, 1915, and was introduced to the student body the following day at assembly in Herring Hall.

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