candide

2 hours ago, placeholder said:

Even if I agreed that that those foreigners were paying Hunter Biden, James Biden and that daughter-in-law in the hopes of gaining access to Joe Biden, there is no evidence that they succeeded In fact, not only did  the Chinese venture fail, but Ye Jianming, the founder and chairman of CEFC, was jailed by the Chinese Govt in 2018 on charges of bribery where he remains to this day. Is this the person  who Comer accused of being an agent of the Chinese govt.?

Ye was detained and put under investigation in March 2018 on suspicion of economic crimes.^[9] According to South China Morning Post and AsiaNews, the order for the investigation came from Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping.^[10][11] Shanghai Guosheng Group, a portfolio and investment agency controlled by the Government of Shanghai, subsequently took control of CEFC China Energy in March 2018.^[12][13] In October 2018, it was reported that prosecutors alleged Wang Sanyun, former Communist Party Secretary of Gansu province, had accepted bribes from Ye Jianming in 2011.^[14]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Jianming

 

Not only that, but Hunter Biden only began to do business with CEFC in 2017, when Joe Biden was no longer vice- president.

 

As for Joe Biden having met with Hunter Biden's business associates.  In 2015 Joe Biden dropped by a dinner  for the World Food Program USA charity that Hunter Biden was holding. Some of Hunter Biden's business associates were there. There were also people there who weren't his associates. No evidence of any substantive discussions took place. It's not even clear that Joe Bide was even introduced to these people..

“I remember the vice president coming in, and he did not go around the table. He just simply waved at everybody,” recalled one attendee, Father Alex Karloutsos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. “I did not hear any business exchanges with anybody.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/us/politics/hunter-biden-investigations.html

 

Another instance where Joe Biden met Hunter Biden's associates, took place at a rope line in China where 2 of these associates along with other Chinese people shook Biden's hand. Biden was briefly introduced to these 2. Is it unreasonable to assume that he didn't recall such a brief and public encounter?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/us/politics/hunter-biden-investigations.html

 

It's also worthy of noting that when Biden became VP, Hunter Biden gave up his lucrative Washington D.C. lobbying business.

Excellent factual post! As you already know, don't expect these facts will be taken into account by this poster.

1 hour ago, sscc said:

 

One-Belt-One-Road is a very, very high risk. grand scheme undertaking for China. 

" Locals always have the edge and upper-hand "  is barely common sense. 

Fortunately for China,   the mega project had not gone badly so far and over 130 countries had signed on. . 

 

Mentally of Chinese is actually very similar to other Asians nearby. 

" Achieve Monetary enrichment while taking fuss-free and low profile approach. " 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have some reliable information about how risky it is (for the Chinese)?

Knowing them, I wouldn't bet they took much risk without guarantors and/or a significant interest rate, ex. the railway project.

1 hour ago, placeholder said:

Study links 35 percent of Chinese Belt and Road Initiative projects to scandals involving corruption, environmental problems, labour violations

Over the past several years, hidden debt and problematic projects have begun to emerge as a feature of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s signature Belt And Road Initiative (BRI).

A new deep-dive study from AidData, a research center at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, adds to this body of research and paints a picture of growing headwinds against Beijing’s infrastructure initiative.

The study found 42 low- and middle-income countries that now have debt exposure to China exceeding 10 percent of their annual gross domestic product (GDP).

https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/study-links-35-percent-of-chinese-belt-and-road-initiative-projects-to-scandals-involving-corruption-environmental-problems-labour-violations/

Well, in some countries, not having tight ethical contrainsts may be an advantage for the Chinese, at least on short-term. 

However, on a longer term, they may be perceived as a neo-colonialist country by the local populations.

11 minutes ago, sscc said:

I am surprised of all the movement that had happened rapidly. 

 

//     Out of 53/54 countries in Africa that had gone through Western colonial experience for centuries,  about 50 of them insist siding with the East camp rather than the West.  

//    Two largest countries in South American --  Brazil and Argentina side with China rather than USA.  China is very far geographically and is not associated with Latin in culture at all. 

 

//    Middle East is turning around with news coming out weekly.   USA would prefer nothing had happened.  

//    India had admired UK for many decades,  not any more. Now Indians talk tough. 

//   SouthEast Asians had been pro-Europe for centuries,  now claim to be neutral. 

 

Yes,  USA still has stronghold in Japan and South Korea.   But even Israel is watching the change close and may lose up eventually  ( another unthinkable for USA ) .   

The Chinese have been very smart in articulating their influence policy. For example, the belt and road is a brilliant marketing and communication initiative.

The U.S., and also European countries are lacking such a coherent and highly visible policy (while they probably spend more than the Chinese.

Anyway, they are also starting that it's not all nice with the Chinese. For example, read:

https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/areas-in-africa-with-more-chinese-backed-projects-were-more-likely-to-experience-protests

1 hour ago, JackGats said:

Is that a reason to support a system of legalised misandry that makes every (heterosexual) man liable to blackmail or life-ruining scandal every time they have a tryst? To me it is exactly the opposite.

 

First hey came for Bill Cosby, Epstein, Ron Jeremy, Kelly, Polanski, Woody Allen, Trump ... (the list goes on) ...until one day they ran out of celebrities and came for us. 

 

 

 

It's not comparable at all. Trump is not being investigated for sex crime.

And some people are arguing that NATO was a threat to Russia.....

20 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

So in another 3 months, the world can forget about trying to stop climate change 'cos we're all going to die anyway. Good to hear, we can live our lives without further worries.

 

Obviously the Climate Alarmists will just change the end date when it doesn't happen. (like they always do when their bonkers predictions fail)

Bonkers predictions? ????

The current climate change is following the forecasts made during the early 2000's

Study Confirms Climate Models are Getting Future Warming Projections Right

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2943/study-confirms-climate-models-are-getting-future-warming-projections-right/

12 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

The ex-Soviet bloc countries became NATO allies instead of Soviet /Russian allies, which they found 'threatening', there former-'friends' were now on the side of their enemies.

Whenever we see the history of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and what is never mentioned is that the US had previoulsy placed nuclear missiles in Turkey, in the Soviet's backyard. As I said, most people are completely unaware of that.

Turkey, that was during the 60's. It has nothing to do with the post-Soviet NATO policy.

35 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

It wasn't NATO's policy for most of the Soviet-bloc to become NATO members...until it was.

I think Putin/Russia feel threatened by NATO expansion. What's NATO's answer to that? Let's make NATO even bigger.

And before I get slagged off for making these comments, I don't believe that the invasion of Ukraine is that different to the 2003 invasion (a 'war of aggression' based on falsehood) in Iraq, where maybe half a million people, many of them innocent, were killed.

NATO was not a threat to Russia. There was no intent to attack or threaten Russia.

Putin is a sore loser. He cannot accept this simple fact: no European country wants to be associated with Russia. One reason being that he failed to develop his country and Russia has no soft power. Another is that they have suffered from Russian (and Soviet) imperialism in the past

The Iraq war was different but it doesn't really matter. Everybody would agree with you that it was not a "good war". It was a scam war. Even at that time, several NATO countries were against it (ex. France). Both invasions are horrendous.

4 hours ago, Misty said:

Then there's peachy story, let's see, the Saudis give Jared Kushner, an actual member of the Trump administration and senior advisor to the former president, $2bn for his "investment" fund - why, because Kushner is such a talented investor?  Yeah, right. 

 

"Kushner created his investment firm the day after Trump left the White House in January 2021 and the Saudi government gave it the $2 billion six months later."  https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/03/house-oversight-investigating-2b-saudi-investment-in-jared-kushners-firm.html

An obvious conflict of interest. I guess the GOP committee has now buried the investigation. They seem to focus only on non-conflict of interest cases.

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The offer to voluntarily surrender is a deliberate play to avoid being handcuffed and to avoid the ‘Perp Walk’.

 

Trump will then claim he wasn’t arrested.

 

Here’s a thing though.

 

assuming an indictment is issued and assuming Trump voluntarily surrenders.

 

The next step is booking and arraignment.

 

That is an arrest.

 

He’ll stand in front of the booking officer, he’ll be read his rights.

 

His personal details will be recorded.

 

He’ll be fingerprinted and mug shots will be taken.

 

He’ll then be arraigned before a court, the formal charges against him will be read and recorded.

 

He’ll apply for bail.

 

Assuming he’s not charged with any violent crimes, he’ll be granted bail with conditions.

 

Surrender passports, bail bond and house arrest are the most likely outcomes.

 

A trial date will be set.

 

He’ll be processed just like every other person indicted for crimes. 

 

Though with one difference.

 

He’ll make a circus of it, and his supporters will bay at the moon.

 

Expect the press to go to court to have the mug shots released.

 

Don’t expect FOX or NewsMax to petition for the mug shots to be released or publish them when they are.

 

 

He's already starting the circus. This is going to be entertaining! ????

“THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!,”

https://nypost.com/2023/03/18/donald-trump-says-he-will-be-arrested-tuesday/

(Sorry mod for the caps, that's the original text)

33 minutes ago, DudleySquat said:

FBI was given the laptop years ago. They sat on it. If there had been tampering we would have heard about it.   

 

Nice try.

Not so nice try at deflection.

9 hours ago, cncltd1973 said:

the progress China has made recently was from infiltrating and copying, I'm thinking specifically of the wave of Chinese enrollment in Harvard that was part of their gov't program to infiltrate, learn and implement back in China. that happened 10+ years ago, and the reverse engineering and copying that they are actively doing now. do you think they made all this progress in house, in their own universities? Harvard specifically changed criteria because the Chinese were enrolling enmass. their scores for rote memory were better than westerners but they were lacking in EQ and problem solving. whatever they learned in our universities is serving them well now, they are quickly making up for lost time

They have relied extensively on copying western technology, but have also significantly improved their domestic R&D capabilities. They have followed a path which is similar to Japan or SK, and now have reached the domestic innovation stage in many domains. On top of it, there are many people, so it's not that difficult to extract enough top scientists and engineers from such a mass of people. Not to mention a captive market which is huge enough to make investment profitable. t's just a question of time and they are fast.

Tucker Carlson on Tuesday gave viewers an economical snapshot of two of his biggest lies.

“Jan. 6, I think, is probably second only to the 2020 election as the biggest scam in my lifetime,” the Fox News host said. ????

https://news.yahoo.com/tucker-carlson-packages-2-biggest-125955212.html

Unlike the US, Europe kept its banks on a tight rein post-2008. That was smart

http://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/15/economy/european-bank-rules-svb/index.html

1 hour ago, Tug said:

Now he’s gonna start his crybaby victim spiel and start a grift on his rubes ???? ment to say supporter’s just the thought of his being such a victim makes me want to start bawling and blubbering like a 5 year old who dropped his ice cream cone lmao ???? oh boy tantrum storme inbound 

It was a perfect fine transaction! ????