CHINA'S INCREASED AGGRESSIVENESS – AT 11:08 A.M. ET:  Like North Korea, China is learning that it can challenge the United States and pay nothing in return.  From Fox:

China blocked a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier from arriving at a port in Hong Kong as tensions ratcheted up over disputed islands in the South China Sea, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed Friday.

The USS John C. Stennis and escort ships had planned to visit the port next week, Stars & Stripes reports. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not explain why it denied the request.

"We have a long track record of successful port visits to Hong Kong, including with the current visit of the USS Blue Ridge, and we expect that will continue,” Cmdr. Bill Urban told Fox News. The USS Blue Ridge is a Navy command ship.

China claims virtually all of the strategically vital South China Sea and has tried to shore up its control by building islands on coral reefs complete with airstrips, harbors and radar stations.

Satellite images provided to Fox News earlier this month showed how China deployed new fighter jets to Woody Island in that same region.

COMMENT:  As they say, the whole world is watching.  And it is watching something they've seen repeatedly under Obama – the United States bullied and humiliated by a hostile nation, and getting away with it.

Weakness always provokes more conflict, and that's what we're bound to see, no matter who becomes president.

May 1,  2016