Xircal

16 hours ago, NongKhaiKid said:

However Brussels still feels obliged to talk to this man because they're afraid of the consequences of upsetting him !

There's just no way the EU would accelerate Turkey's accession given Erdogan's rhetoric. It would be madness to do so even allowing for him to open the floodgates like he's threatening to do. Better to have another million illegals land on Greek shores than 75 million Turks.

And if he turns to Russia or China, he needs to be kicked out of NATO and quick.

7 minutes ago, Strange said:

 

I mean its always a possibility, but in reality I think its extremely unlikely that Russia (or whoever) hacked/manipulated our voting machines. Anythings possible though and if thats the case then hell ill be pretty shocked.

 

We are getting all conspiracy theory here so I don't want to comment much on that. 

 

Anyway whatever I want Hill to be out on her ass but I want the president that got the most electoral votes to be president. Right now I don't see anything and neither does Jill Stein & Crew. 

That sounds reasonable and I respect your opinion.

Just going back briefly to your map of Illinois with its red predominance with just a few blue coded counties to represent votes for Clinton, I was looking at the makeup of the actual systems in place there. There appears to be a mix of electronic voting systems with verifieable paper results together with the option for purely paper votes.

To save us both jumping backwards and forwards between posts, I've created an image to compare them both side-by-side. The two counties in red on the right hand side of the image both voted for Clinton using a purely electronic means. The others either used a mixture of electronic and paper voting, or just paper ballots.

I wanted to do the same thing with Wisconsin, but can't figure out how to get the map view from your link ?

51 minutes ago, Strange said:

 

Jill Stein is saying that the reason she wants a recount is not because she does not Trump as president, but because she is concerned about voter fraud/hacking. The "evidence" is something like "Pre-election polling vs Voter Turnout" or some such. 

 

So basically Stein is doing this as an integrity check. Nothing to do with Trump or Clinton and neither have made a comment yet. 

 

Of course thats what she is "saying" anyway. Reading between the lines she is just playing the long game. 

 

Majority of MSM agrees the chance is virtually non-existent.

 

So again, its not about Clinton but you think it is. 

That's not was I was thinking at all actually. But Clinton would be the one to benefit if a discrepancy did arise and that's what I was trying to point out.

The problem with the three swing states is that they all relied on electronic voting systems. Given the controversy surrounding Clinton's private email server and substantial evidence that Russian hackers infiltrated the system dumping large amounts of email copied from it, it's only fair to make the case that the three states in question could have been hacked in a similar way to manipulate the final result.

There's a blog written by Alex Halderman who is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Michigan which deals with that same scenario: https://medium.com/@jhalderm/want-to-know-if-the-election-was-hacked-look-at-the-ballots-c61a6113b0ba#.tlescl1gq

Just now, acid thunder said:

 

Get a grip, Xircal.  You've been defeated and no point crying.  Jill Stein is thrashing about with nowhere to go and trying to make a name for herself but will be for all the wrong reasons. 

Now you're being childish.

It stands to reason that there wouldn't be any point in contesting all three states if there was no chance that Clinton could gain from it. The fact that there is is something you need to accept like an adult; not like a spoilt little child who has just had his favorite teddy-bear taken away from him.

2 minutes ago, acid thunder said:

 

What do you think the result would be if all three states were recounted?  I'll give you a clue, Trump is still president-elect.

Nope: http://www.ibtimes.com/can-clinton-win-michigan-wisconsin-pennsylvania-recounts-sought-republican-electors-2450693

1 hour ago, OMGImInPattaya said:

Another reason to fly Emirates, with their non-unionized workforce; and another nail in the coffin of European aviation.

Yes, Emirates is a good airline and especially so since it supports Airbus, an excellent European aircraft manufacturer: http://www.thenational.ae/business/aviation/emirates-to-buy-more-airbus-a380s-even-if-neo-version-is-shelved

21 hours ago, Strange said:

 

It literally matters not. The red counties are Trump and 1 vote over Hillary is enough to paint it red. It does not matter as the popular vote in the state is the one that gets the EC votes but the point is to illustrate that there is a lot more Trump support than meets the eye. 

 

In illinois, yeah I'm sure there are hundreds in some counties and thousands in some counties and that IS the case 100%. 

 

Hillary got the Popular Vote but drive across america and you'll find a lot more Trump support.

 

People think Trump won by some freak of nature and that is just not the case. EC did its job.  

 

Your rural photo is likely a vehemently red state. The ones I showed are vehemently blue states but are almost completely red. 

Well, it'll be interesting to see what the results of the recount in Wisconsin reveal together with those of the other two contested states of Michigan and Pennsylvania. http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-election-recount-wisconsin-idUKKBN13K2DA

Wisconsin alone won't be enough to topple Trump, but all three combined would mean Trump will be out and Clinton in.

Let's hope one doesn't take place in Yellowstone. Earthquakes are bad enough but if one took place there it could trigger an eruption from the supervolcano which would cause massive devastation and loss of life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera

On 11/24/2016 at 5:39 AM, Strange said:

Electoral College did its job in this election and its job was to create some balance across our 50 states. More states wanted Trump as president. Just some quick math has California, Illinois, NY, and DC at something like 5,800,000 votes over trump HOWEVER when you look at some of the these states by county, there is even more in favor of trump in Illinois and New York and about 50/50 in California. 

 

http://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president

 

HRC won Illinois, but look at it by county:

 

 

HRC won NY but look at it by county:

 

It looks impressive when viewed by county but you have to look at in perspective I think. Many of those counties are just farmland as shown in my image with just a single solitary dwelling in a vast expanse of bare fields. Painting the picture the way you have makes it look like hundreds, if not thousands of people in each county voted for Trump which isn't the case at all.

Just cut interest rates to 1.0% (currently 1.5%). That coupled with the projected US rate rise Yellen has been promising us in December should cause capital flight from Thailand to the US. That will lift the abysmal FX rates for the Euro and for Sterling which in turn should encourage more visitors to Thailand.

As for cutting tax of cosmetics, do the junta really think that tourists come to Thailand to buy that kind of junk? Even with 21% VAT on perfumery in the Netherlands, prices are still 50% less than what you have to pay in Thailand.

12 hours ago, Emster23 said:

Let me toss this into the hopper: Donald Trump is not yet the president. He is still a private citizen until January 20. So I assume this means he can take all the "gifts" he wants, doesn't need to turn them over to national archives, nothing. So listen up countries wanting undue influence: get your "gifts" in now while you can! Donald is a bit busy now, so will write "thank you" notes later, sometime late January.....

Gifts are acceptable provided the value doesn't exceed $375: https://ethics.od.nih.gov/topics/giftforn.htm

I doubt if even Trump is stupid enough to accept one which exceeds that value, but when it comes to his own projects which his presidency can influence it's a different story. There's one controversy doing the rounds already which is Trump's plan to build another one of his 'towers' in Argentina: http://www.vox.com/world/2016/11/25/13729548/controversy-trump-tower-project-argentina-macri-ivanka

That would one could contravene the Emoluments Clause according to another Vox report: http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/23/13715150/donald-trump-emoluments-clause-constitution

6 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

Here's a bio of Trump.  I recommend it.  It's fun to watch. . . . . . 

 

 

Brilliant! Thanks for posting that.

Trying to move the tenants out of the building he bought by threatening them (34:34 in the video) certainly shows what  kind of a guy Trump is. I'm glad he was overruled.

Also, the part called "Making Waves in Palm Beach" which starts at 47:05 with Trump demanding that the city relocate the airport somewhere else because the noise from aircraft taking off and flying over the property was disturbing him is outrageous. City officials must have thought he was a complete nutter.

How on earth he got elected to the country's highest office is a complete mystery. But given all the furor over Trump's own accusation that the election was rigged if HRC had won, the question has to be asked whether it is possible to manipulate the result, only this time in Trump's favour: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/could-hillary-clinton-appeal-us-election-results-hacking-russia-claims-wisconsin-a7433221.html

4 minutes ago, Opl said:

 

Right ... brains are not as waterproof as M. Pence seems to believe..

There will be leaks,

There will be insider trading

There will be conflict of interest

but as D. Trump says : lawsuits are part of the costs for running business ..

Because we are talking about big big big business, America. inc under Trump.inc governance  

Lawsuits may well be a part of running a business and especially so in Trump's case, but he's not running a business now: he's running the most powerful country in the world and needs to be squeaky clean while he's doing it. That's going to prove the most difficult task he's ever had to accomplish I suspect and unlike one of his defunkt businesses, he won't be able to declare bankruptcy when his policies lead to mass unemployment and inflation goes ballistic.

I would have thought some kind of beach patrol to enforce whatever policy is in effect would be a better idea. Metal barriers look unsightly and won't encourage tourists to visit the beach.

6 minutes ago, PeeJay1959 said:

In the UK the vehicle would be inspected to see if there were any mechanical faults.

In the UK, more than half the bus drivers in Thailand would never qualify for a licence.

1 hour ago, Opl said:

 

From the link you shared :  

Vice President-elect Mike Pence said: “I’m very confident that the President-elect and his extraordinary talented family are going to work with the best legal minds in this country and create the proper separation from their business enterprise during his duties as President of the United States.”

 

I guess everyone  working for this administration will have to be totally in line.  

Or is M. Pence always so oily? "extraordinary talented family "

Too much flattery is like insult to your intelligence ...

They can say lots of things, but we live in the digital age now and with apps like Signal - recommended by Edward Snowdon incidentally - communicating secretly without leaving any trace affords the Trump family ample opportunity to communicate with their father and get hold of some spicy tips on how to capitalize on forthcoming foreign or domestic policy changes which will add a few more million $$$ to the Trump kitty.

I'm sure Trump has thought of that too and being an avaricious individual he's unlikely to allow the opportunity pass him by.

7 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

Even the Donald would not be that stupid. If I were him I would say "Give the job to Pence I'm out of here"

His ego won't let him resign. He's a borne and bred narcissist who thrives on adulation and flattery. Give up being photographed with all those business leaders and heads of state who will be coming to meet him both before and after his inauguration? No way, baby.

8 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

Great choice, let her explain Donald Trump and his actions towards the UN. Why would he place someone he cares about into a position that he knows will draw lightening in the very near future? I hope he renegotiates that $2 Billion that the USA gets nothing for.

The US gets something very important for their contribution actually. It's called a veto.

If the US doesn't like a resolution the UN has voted for, they can use that veto to stop it in its tracks. That's well worth the money I think bearing in mind that only five UN members namely the US, Britain, France, China, and Russia possess veto power.

What a morbid subject. Doesn't this lecturer have anything better to do that to talk about preparing for death?

As for living life to the fullest, too many things can happen over which you have no control and life can suddenly become very unpleasant and totally meaningless.

I prefer to take life as it comes and learn from my experiences. It seems to have worked pretty well so far.

Bearing in mind the vendetta Trump seems to be pursuing against Mexico, I wonder if the reason he decided to withdraw from the TTP is because Mexico was one of the countries that had signed up to it.

His additional threat to scrap NAFTA wouldn't achieve very much if the TTP was ratified since Canada had also signed up to it as well. Therefore it would be essential to pull the plug on the TTP before scrapping NAFTA.

4 hours ago, anotheruser said:

They should waive the insurance requirement for those unable/unwilling to buy insurance. The catch would be you have to voluntarily sign a euthanasia contract. So if you get hurt or become ill and can't afford care you consent being put down with as much ceremony as a soi dog. You would be required to have enough money permanently in an account to pay for the procedure.

There would likely be an argument that the cost of the injection to end your life was too expensive. But if you'd be willing to agree to be chucked off an 18th floor balcony, that would be acceptable.

8 hours ago, schlog said:

I would prefer the Prince Court Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur also if it needs some more minutes then to Thalang hospital.

Flying time from HKT to KLIA is 1hr 10 mins. Also, Kuala Lumpur is 28 minutes distant by train from the airport so an ambulance would likely be that much slower.

8 hours ago, fred007 said:

Free trade agreement for motor vehicles two examples the US and Australia not reciprocating 

Wow a big wake up call for Thai Government is  coming if other countries follow the US lead 

Forget about free travel visas issued to only 20 lucky countries thats in it self is laughable.

Soon Thailand will issuing free visas free accomodation and free cars when the economy crashes here. 

That's unlikely to happen anytime soon since Thailand and China have been deepening ties just lately. It all went a bit awry after US Ambassador to Thailand Kristie Kenney harshly criticised the coup which overthrew the Yingluck administration advocating a return to democracy which didn't go down too well with the junta: http://www.uscnpm.org/blog/2016/04/04/is-the-united-states-losing-thailand-to-china/

We're now seeing a surge in Chinese visitors to Thailand and the two countries have held bilateral military exercises recently. TTP could have saved the day by containing China which wasn't included in the treaty, but Trump only looked at the figures by the sound of it and since the deal wouldn't have led to any significant benefit for the US, he scrapped it (or soon will).

China no doubt will be over the moon and I can imagine the celebrations going on behind closed doors on hearing the news that the US was going to withdraw from the treaty. Watch what happens now as the countries which would have benefitted from TPP also move closer to China. The US will become marginalised and its influence in the world will begin to wane.

It's going to be interesting to see what Trump does when he realizes the US ship is about to capsize and the crew didn't wait for the order to abandon ship.

11 hours ago, Emster23 said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought Thailand wasn't part of TPP. Seems like business as usual if Trump dumps

Quite right. The countries which were part of the TTP deal were the US, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru.

Thailand could benefit if it signed up to China's OBOR and RCEP though: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38061616

You're coming up against the scenario BritTim described back in April I think.