candide

4 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

Steve bannon been indicted for fraud

 

Steve Bannon charged with fraud over Mexico border wall https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53853297

Why is it that a lot of his former aids are crooks.... let me think. ????

The four men are indicted for allegedly using hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to an online crowdfunding campaign called We Build the Wall for personal expenses, among other things. Bannon and another defendant, Brian Kolfage

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/20/politics/bannon-build-the-wall-indictment/index.html

9 hours ago, PoodThaiMaiDai said:

We have billions of dollars going to help the world,

It is true, as the US have the largest economy, they are the largest donor. However, calculated as a % of Gross National Income or per capita, the US are far behind European countries, I.e. 0.18% of GNI for the US,  to compare with 0.70% for UK or 0.67% for Germany.

https://www.wristband.com/content/which-countries-provide-receive-most-foreign-aid/

On 8/14/2020 at 2:49 PM, david555 said:

(Did the U.K. put  that white bedsheet really already in the laundry  ?......Do not forget to iron it   )  

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/08/13/brexit-trade-deal-can-done-september-says-uk-chief-negotiator/

Brexit trade deal can be done by September, says UK chief negotiator 
David Frost says 'our assessment is that agreement can be reached in September, and we will work to achieve this if we can' 

By James Crisp, 
Brussels Correspondent 
13 August 2020 • 5:03pm 

 

The UK's chief Brexit negotiator said on Thursday that a free trade agreement with the European Union could be agreed in September, as Ireland's prime minister said a "landing zone" for the deal had emerged. 

British and EU officials meet in Brussels for the seventh round of trade talks next week after a fortnight break following five weeks of intensified negotiations.Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, has set an end of October deadline for the trade deal to be finalised, which is supported by influential member states such as Germany. 

Ireland's Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, met Boris Johnson for talks on Thursday in Hillsborough, Northern Ireland (see video below). He said both sides knew that they needed to avoid the economic shock of a no trade deal Brexit after the coronavirus crisis. 

More...

 

⭐ (in this comments posts it seems the hard brexiteers dont trust Boris anymore .... it's fun to read..)????
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/08/13/brexit-trade-deal-can-done-september-says-uk-chief-negotiator/#comment

 

I guess they will come up with some diplomatic formulation, such as the ECJ will only supervise part of the deal, I.e. 90%. ????

12 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

 

But a great opportunity for Macron to show what a great power he and France are on the world stage, 

 

Wonder which choice he'll make? 

It's easy to say that, but in the meantime French soldiers are actually dying in order to prevent Islamist terrorism expansion. 

I would have thought your country had suffered enough from terrorism for you to be thankfull about it.

32 minutes ago, Motoko said:

I agree with you but who else bothered to listen?

I agree with you that the Dems have somehow lost contact with people who feel they have been left behind.

However:

- some of these expectations may not be in accordance with other values 

- some expectations may not be realistic. For example, get back manufacturing jobs. Under Trump's pressure they may be relocated from China, but for most of them not in the US, more likely in Vietnam, etc...

- the short term and highly visible solutions Trump is only able to come up with (tariffs, increase debt to finance tax cuts, etc...), are not particularly effective, I.e. US trade deficit increased during Trumps tenure.

2 hours ago, Motoko said:

I do not believe so, and my comments are not satire. The Trump campaign was a major shift in his party, curtailing identity politics and corporate power. A Democrat victory would have meant the Clintons in again.

 

Whereas, as a modern American, he supports sexual freedoms, to the point of advocating A of C reform on the Howard Stern show. He is not a right wing nut, as he is presented to the US.

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/trump-in-1999-i-am-very-pro-choice-480297539914

About the other issues, I think he's more a marketing guy than a convinced politician. He identified unmet expectations from core market segments and knew how to communicate to them. Actually, it goes beyond analytics. He and his core supporters are in full resonance. He feels how to talk to them.

10 minutes ago, Motoko said:

Trump has always been pro-life, sorry. That is one thing he stands for, and in return he was attacked by religious nutcases, for saying that an unborn baby could have been the next Beethoven (or whomever he used to illustrate the point). Such language was always used by pro-lifers themselves, until their descent into silliness, which followed their pairing up to big business too closely.

Trump publicly declared he was very pro-choice in 1999.

13 minutes ago, Motoko said:

Susan B Anthony was a good woman, and moderate by today's standards. She was a populist feminist, pushing labor reform and reform for women in an industrial era, but fighting against abortion and other forms of exploitation, now connected to the left.

 

Trump, himself is a moderate, trimming the old <deleted> from the GOP, curtailing the religious and corporate lobbies, and listening to calls for a wall.

 

Trump is comparable to Anthony, because he fights the same kind of exploiters and bigots ruining America. Trimming the lunatic fringes, upholding the moderate.

For a moment, I thought you were being sarcastic.....

31 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Hmm

 

Trump campaign Russia contacts were 'grave threat', says Senate report https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53830374

Full text here:

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/512493-read-final-senate-intelligence-committee-report-on-russian-election

A convenient case about an old issues which, unlike more recent feminist causes, is not going to offend the 'morality' of his ultraconservatice core electorate.

2 hours ago, Tippaporn said:

Fox News reporting on last Friday.

 

Kevin Clinesmith to plead guilty in Durham probe: Read the charging document

 

Wasn't hard to find.

 

Same reporting of lack of MSM coverage:

 

Fox News - Trey Gowdy rips mainstream media for ignoring ex-FBI lawyer's expected guilty plea

 

Why not simply to the lack of MSM coverage?  Doesn't that concern you?

Lol. So you complain MSM don't talk about it anymore, same as Fox News, and to contradict this latter point, you come up with a news dating from Friday.

All MSM reported it Friday, I.e. CNN two articles. Wasn't hard to find!????

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/14/politics/fbi-russia-clinesmith/index.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/14/politics/clinesmith-fbi-russia-mueller-trump/index.html

MSM (including Fox News) don't talk about it any more because it's old news.

Another fake conspiracy.....????

3 hours ago, jcsmith said:

You expected them to just look the other way while the President commited crimes?

And since we're talking relevancy of that Russia probe... This is well timed news: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/bipartisan-senate-report-describes-2016-trump-campaign-eager-accept-help-n1237002?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

 

The senate's bipartisan report is pretty damning, as well. 

Very interesting. Let's see what Cohen may say about it. ????

Quotes from the report:

"the Trump campaign took actions to obtain advance notice about WikiLeaks releases of Clinton emails; took steps to obtain inside information about the content of releases once WikiLeaks began to publish stolen information; created messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and following their release; and encouraged further theft of information and continued leaks."

"Russian officials, intelligence services, and others acting on the Kremlin's behalf were capable of exploiting the Transition's shortcomings for Russia's advantage."

"Despite Trump's recollection, the committee assesses that Trump did, in fact, speak with Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his campaign about Stone's access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions."

11 hours ago, stevenl said:

I just don't understand these kind of posts, the one I reacted to. Someone tries to make a point, prove it with a link, but the link doesn't support the position at all, often even contradicts it.

Because they don't have anything better to show. After that, they will try to take advantage of it by blaming you for never accepting their sources.

11 hours ago, Tippaporn said:

In theory.

A factual search reveals a horrible track record with fact-checking. Below is a small sample of their failed fact checks by IFCN fact checkers

DHS Quietly Moving, Releasing ‘Vanloads’ of ‘Illegal Aliens’ Away from Border – FALSE

Has Nancy Pelosi spent $100,000 on food, booze and “partying” during her air travel? – FALSE

Judicial Watch says ISIS operating a camp in Mexico–near El Paso –  FALSE

‘Islamic Refugee’ with Gas Pipeline Plans Arrested in New Mexico Border County – FALSE

Did the IRS ‘Fast Track’ Tax-Exempt Status for ‘After School Satan’ Clubs? – FALSE

“More than 100,000 DACA applicants have been arrested—Murder, Rape, DUI.” – MOSTLY FALSE

Did a legal settlement between Judicial Watch and California election officials prove that one million illegal votes were cast in the 2018 elections in California? – FALSE (4/29/2020)

Overall, we rate Judicial Watch Questionable based on extreme right-wing bias, promotion of conspiracy theories, and a very poor fact check record.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/judicial-watch/

15 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

I’ve been using this link https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales

 

which shows only date for England and Wales - with 53,000 excess deaths, the number has dropped over the past 7 weeks (the deaths for each of the last 7 weeks is below the 5 year average). 

 

 

I also agree that the initial lockdown tactic was valid. I believe we were slow to react, we (the world) should have locked down earlier to this ‘novel Coronavirus’ - A NEW Coronavirus, relatively fresh of the back of SARS-CoV-1 (±10% CFR) and MERS (±30% CFR), early on was time to get very worried, the models were frightening - ensuring the health services would not become overwhelmed was the right move. 

 

However as more became known and fatality rates established it was knows that this was not a major SARS or MERS, the fatality rates were much lower, lower than 1% it seems and perhaps closer to seasonal Influenza; something we’d only know with full antibody testing (to check who’s had Covid-19) - I’m wondering why countries are locked down. 

 

But, ultimately, I’m wondering if the numbers have not become politicised. The medical debacle and falsifying numbers in the US. The Died ‘with’ Covid-19 and not died ‘because of’ Covid-19 (those decapitated in car accidents who also had Covid-19 and thus were registered as dying ‘with’ (a satyrical point). 

 

Thus: the 170,000 deaths in the US, are they really Covid-19 deaths? or mostly regular numbers, given that 2.8million people die each year anyway - the number is about 6% of the yearly average.

 

The UK excess deaths are 16% more than the 5 year average...  thats alarming. 

 

 

 

 

 

From the same source (FT), US excess death number was 149,000 as of July 13th, while the covid death count was 135,000.

3 hours ago, JerseytoBKK said:

Here's another effect of the lockdowns:

 

"Recent modelling by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization has predicted that there could be 500,000 extra AIDS-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020-2021 if the COVID-19 crisis leads to a six-month disruption in vital supplies of antiretroviral medication."

 

https://frontlineaids.org/were-on-the-frontline-of/coronavirus-covid-19-impact-hiv/

 

https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/06-07-2020-who-access-to-hiv-medicines-severely-impacted-by-covid-19-as-aids-response-stalls

 

 

 

As it seems the same retroviral medication may be effective for HIV and covid-19, it is likely that supply will be channelled to developed countries and that people living in poor developing countries will be screwed as usual.