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Opl
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Posts posted by Opl
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On 20/12/2016 at 2:33 AM, craigt3365 said:
I read an article some time ago where Iran was going into schools with their own teachers. Changing from whatever they were teaching to Shiite. Scary stuff. As I've said before, the biggest problem in the ME is the Saudi Arabia/Iran conflict.
About Iran / Saudi Arabia , I just read this article ( french press Le Monde article by Christophe Ayad ) that summarizes it well , translation of some extracts: :
1/ Access to the Mediterranean Sea is essential for Iran for security reasons (the direct delivery of sophisticated weapons to Lebanese Hezbollah, front-line against Israel) and energy (the export of Iranian oil and gas to the Union European Union).
- > Iran has succeeded in building an almost continuous corridor of access to the Mediterranean Sea through direct or indirect control of territories in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon by militias, governments and allies interposed.
This thesis,is developed in an article in The Guardian : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/08/iran-iraq-syria-isis-land-corridor
-> this is confirmed by the announcement in December of the existence of a Russian-Iranian military base in Syria. http://www.worldtribune.com/iranian-security-chief-reveals-iran-russia-share-military-base-in-syria/
2/ Iran is the only country in the region that knows how to mix soft and hard power, build alliances without losing sight of its interests, mobilize religious faith (Shiite) and political rationality in turn, to control without directly intervening.
Three challenges still await Iran:
-> co-management with Russia of his victory in Syria;
-> The risk of Israel taking the initiative in confrontation;
-> And the uncertainty created by the election of Donald Trump, who never concealed his hostility towards the Islamic Republic.
There remains, finally, an insurmountable obstacle to this patient and cynical strategy of nibbling in the Middle East: although Iran is a Muslim country, it remains a foreign power in the Arab world.
3/ With the fall of Aleppo, the Saudi defeat is consummated in Syria.
Worse, the war launched in Yemen by Riyadh (spring 2015) to drive the Houthis out of power, Shiite rebels suspected of proximity to Iran, turns to the military, humanitarian and media fiasco.
During fall 2015, Houthi fighters repeatedly fired missiles in the direction of major Saudi cities, including Jeddah and Mecca.
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1 hour ago, elliss said:
The oil wealthy counties , Saudi , etc .
They have no concern about the well being of fellow Muslims.
Leave that to those of the Christian faith , the enemy .
You will find some answers here (Lessons from Afghanistan for the Current Refugee Crisis) from section 5.1
https://gulbenkian.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/UnderstandingtheDriversofMigrationtoEurope2016.pdf
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·Migrant smuggling is a multinational business, with suspects originating from more than 100 countries.
According to Europol and Interpol, migrants smuggling to Europe has yielded between five and six billion dollars in 2015.
The chaos in Libya, since the fall of Colonel Gaddafi in 2011, favors all trafficking. "Any armed group can enter this business, traffickers use larger boats instead of inflatables, 600 or more people are piled on these old fishing boats. These boats are in poor condition and are not made to cross the Mediterranean. As soon as they go to sea, they call for help. Traffickers go so far as to give the number of aid to their victims.https://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Trafficking-in-human-beings/People-smuggling
Full Europol report PDF file , search " migrant smuggling networks - Europol"
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Intelligence experts believe that the use of Twitter by Trump "may already be used by foreign intelligence agencies to analyze his personality, understand his habits and find clues as to what to expect from his government,
"I do not want the enemy to know what I'm doing." One more contradiction.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-twitter-national-security-232518
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6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:
Can't catch mad cow disease from intercourse with a cow. Whatever.
If anyone takes him at his word they have a serious humour deficit. The guy is obviously very silly, and not to be taken seriously.
When such an irreverent candidate as Trump is POTUS- elect, it is normal that his suite comes down to the same level. Carl Paladino + Stephen Bannon etc.. reflect Trump's affinities.
But , even if you dislike Obama, to come up with such statements becomes appalling
However, elected representatives are the image of the majority of citizens: rude, dehumanized and superficial.
You deserve what you vote for.
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On 22/12/2016 at 3:48 PM, ilostmypassword said:
Here's a link to a brief interview with Michael Lewis the author of Moneyball and The Big Short
http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-lewis-reveals-what-scares-him-about-president-trump-2016-12
Trump's economic plan is inspired by Kansas Governor Brownback who promised to slash taxes on business owners and lower personal income tax rates, unleashing an economic renaissance in Kansas.
Fact check: ( Job growth - Taxes - Business creation):
- What the governor says
- Where he gets it
-What the governor leaves out
- What the governor’s office says:
- What an economist says
http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article111182802.html
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/yael-t-"abouhalkah/article105335286.html#storylink=cpyand https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-24/kansas-ends-bad-economic-news-by-not-reporting-it
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16 hours ago, Ulysses G. said:
He won a presidential race that many considered unwinnable and shocked the whole nation. He certainly deserves credit for that.
I agreed " yes" he is a political Genius, in this : In politics you can vomit on a system and stuff yourself with!
He is a politician therefore necessarily motivated by his own personal interests..At least Trump supporters - those who understood it, taking him seriously, not literally , those supporters ( not all) deserve credit for that
But if you believe in his promises, then you believe in anything; ))
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18 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:
There has been a very positive movement in the US, called the Divine Pledge. Big men, with big hearts like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Ted Turner, and others are part of this. They have pledged to give away the vast majority of their fortunes, in their lifetimes. Trump reminds me of alot of Thai billionaires. The concept of helping mankind has not entered many of their brains or hearts. Here is an example of what people with huge hearts do:
Judy Faulkner is the CEO and founder of Epic (EPOR), a company that sells electronic health records. Her net worth is about $2.6 billion, according to Forbes, and she pledged to give 99% of it away in her pledge letter. --
Venture capitalist and Groupon (GRPN) co-founder Brad Keywell and his wife, Kim. Keywell is also the founder of the Chicago Ideas Week and the Future Founders, which seeks to spur inner-city entrepreneurship.
Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya, who launched his yogurt company in 2007 and has since amassed an estimated $1.4 billion fortune.
Sir Ian Wood, who was born and raised in Scotland and made his money in the North Sea oil industry, has an estimated $1.7 billion. In his pledge letter, Wood wrote that he founded the Wood Foundation to develop agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. Particularly, the letter said, the tea industry.
Gordon Gund manages an investment firm in New Jersey. He was the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers from 1983-2005 and owned three NHL teams. He signed with his wife, Llura, who is the president of the New Jersey chapter of the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Gordon, who is blind, co-founded the foundation in 1971.
Six of the new signees -- Keywell, Faulkner, Harold Grinspoon and Diane Troderman, Ruth and Bill Scott, and Sunny and Sherly Varkey -- were not previously listed on the pledge's website.
And that is what Trump does not do. Give to mankind or provide the kind of assistance to people that his fortune would enable him to do, if his stingy, cold, callous, dark heart allowed him to behave in a humane fashion:
Charity begins with oneself
"Trump had sought credit for charity he had not given — or had claimed other people’s giving as his own." and so does his son Eric - it's a family trick - They'd say it's smart.
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What will President Trump's legacy be ?
" mingling of politics, business and charity " = Trump brand's Baseline = US image .
Attain performance optimization & cost reduction through best practices benchmarking from The Trump Organization , a leading transparency policies consulting firm
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4 hours ago, mesquite said:
Trump has a lot on his plate right now, but he is quite obviously the best choice we Americans could have made for president. It's hard to say exactly what he will do as he does not tip his hand, but certainly he will do better against ISIS than his predecessor who called ISIS the junior varsity, or his opponent who took money from Saudi Arabia.
I do think we are looking at a multi-generational Trump Dynasty. Donald for 8 years, then one of his children, possibly Ivanka. I would like to see her as the first woman president.
Trump may be the sunshine of your life, he is not God himself, and his children have no divine right to rule America.
but yes, America Inc is now under Trump Organization
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21 hours ago, NeverSure said:
Trump is a political genius. Before you diss that let me remind that against all odds and using his own tactics he won the Primaries against 16 other candidates and then won the general election and held the Electoral College. By every metric that counts he beat "the inevitable" HRC by a landslide.
He did it while spending about 1/2 as much money as HRC did which makes sense when you pit a businessman against a politician who never actually earned any of her own money.
Knowing how unpopular and how mistrusted the MSM is, and knowing they would be in the tank for HRC, he came out blasting the MSM which itself was a very popular tactic with the people. Conventional wisdom has been that one needs the MSM to win but it didn't work for HRC and they couldn't touch Trump. At his rallies he'd point at them and actually get people to boo them. Then he went around them with tools such as Twitter. He has 17 million followers on Twitter - far more than watch any TV program and he can get his "news" out in a flash, 24/7.
Just keep on making fun of his Twitter tactics. He won the POTUS with them.
Again, the same people who told me Trump couldn't win (while I kept insisting that he would win) are now having the nerve to tell me how he'll do as POTUS. Amazing.
Cheers.
HAHAHA yes Trump is a political Genius
Donald Trump’s Greatest Self-Contradictions
The many, many, MANY sides of the likely Republican nominee, in his own words.
By Michael Kruse and Noah Weiland
May 05, 2016
" Has anyone ever disagreed with Donald Trump more than Donald Trump?"
“I have no intention of running for president.” (Time, September 14, 1987)
“I am officially running for president.” (New York, June 16, 2015)
“I don’t want it for myself. I don’t need it for myself.” (ABC News, November 20, 2015)
extended version for your pleasure : http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-contradictions-213869
( gems Inside)
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5 hours ago, sweatalot said:
Europe’s far-right blasts Chancellor Angela Merkel for Berlin lorry attack
Europe's "far-right" is right.
1/ Austrian far right signs deal with Putin's party, touts Trump ties
Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO) offered on Monday to act as a go-between for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin after signing a cooperation agreement with Putin's party.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-austria-farright-russia-idUSKBN1481MJ
2) (So.. we can easily imagine Angela - as german chancellor, is not Putin's first choice regarding the sanctions lift )
Vladimir Putin says that the rift created by anti-Russian sanctions is affecting cooperation in the battle against terrorism, while Russia’s foreign ministry says that recently introduced US sanctions “will not be left without reply.”
3) Stephen Bannon, Trump's adviser - I mean Trump POTUS very very close and influent adviser has a dream: A Worldwide Ultra-Right
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no ethics, no values, no morals, .... no problems!
no conflicts of interests, no doubt, Trump is above law.
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The map shows the actions taken or inspired by Daech in a single month, from mid-July (the attack of Nice the day before) to mid-August 2016.
Extract below translated from french press Le Monde - article by Jean Pierre Filiu 9/9 2016
This map highlights the coordinated nature of the continent-wide jihadist campaign.
Just as Daech's obsession is to provoke inter-communal sedition in France, a similar obsession sees the jihadist organization constantly seeking to "involve" refugees in Germany. In either case, it is a matter of destabilizing a democratic society by fueling an escalation of violence, pushing certain groups against others by terror. The taking of Muslims from France as hostages by Daech refers to an equally collective hostage taking of Middle Eastern refugees in Germany. To this must be added Daech's virulent campaign against the Syrian refugees, accused of having fled the so-called "blessed" land of the self-proclaimed caliphate.
A little more than 800 people from Germany have joined Syria and Iraq in recent years, most to enlist in Daech
One of them, Reda Seyam, even became"minister of education" (sic), but his death was announced in a bombing in Iraq in December 2014 .The head of the German "contingent" would today be a Austrian-born Berliner, Mohammed Mahmoud, a "veteran" of jihad on media, who put Daech's skills at the disposal of Al-Qaeda September 2015 on a performance video in Palmyra).
One hundred and forty German jihadists were already dead, including at least 14 in suicide bombings.
The German Federal Police, the BKA, studied the profile of 677 of these jihadists. As a result, 61% were born in Germany (6% in Turkey, 5% in Syria and 5% in Russia) and 64% are German nationals. 21% are women and 18% of converts, slightly lower than in France. One of these converts, Christian Emde, acquired a certain notoriety after being interviewed on the spot by the German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer, a voluntary instrument of Daech propaganda in December 2014.
Nils Donath, arrested in Germany shortly after the January 2015 attacks in Paris, admitted to being a member of Amni, Daech's security branch, which, following the model of Saddam's "services", has evolved from low-police tasks To actions in "enemy" territory. The Amni, nicknamed "the Gestapo of Daech" by some German analysts (and sometimes transcribed Emni in the Anglo-Saxon press), is today responsible for international terrorist planning. The Amni had at least tried to recruit Harry Sarfo, another jihadist arrested in Germany in July 2015. A third jihadist, arrested in April 2016, was even "infiltrated" into the refugee channels by none other than Abdelhamid Abaaoud , Responsible for the massacre of 13 November 2015 in Paris, killed shortly after in Saint-Denis.
It is the possibility of an operational triangle between Germany, France and Belgium which is of greatest concern to German counter-terrorism specialists. But their worst nightmare would of course be a bloody attack perpetrated by a refugee, who would unleash populist, even racist passions. -
Not only will the Trump administration not mark a break with the past and with incestuous links between industry and politics, it will increase and systematize them.
He places companies at the heart of government, placing himself and several members of his Cabinet - if confirmed - in a permanent conflict of interest situation : when D.Trump or R. Tillerson make comments or decisions, the question will inevitably be, "Is it in the interest of their business or in the interest of the United States?.... With the risk of a parallel diplomacy
And it's not just about enrichment. It is the domestic and foreign policy of the United States that are at stake.
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I can remember Trump supporters, during the campaign, saying Trump was a better choice because he pretended he needed no money as billionaire, therefore he did not need donators .
Anyway he picked up some of these donators for his Cabinet.
the Trump Foundation has largely relied on donations from others to support its giving. In fact, since 2008, no money flowing into the foundation came from D. Trump himself.
https://newrepublic.com/article/137522/trumps-charity-tells-us-lot-business
- Trump used $258,000 from his charity to settle legal problems
http://www.pressherald.com/2016/09/20/trump-used-258000-from-his-charity-to-settle-legal-problems/
How Donald Trump Exploited Charity for Personal Gain
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1 hour ago, Ahab said:
Being fit to be President is actually a very, very low bar. You need to be born in the USA and 35 years old. Like it or not, Mr. Trump defeated a large field of 16 Republican presidential hopefuls, and then he defeated possibly the most "qualified" but absolutely worst presidential candidate we have seen in my lifetime. Hillary lost because she was a horrible candidate, much worse than Trump. Which is why he won over 300 electoral votes.
Reminds me of the Weakest link ... constantly spitting on HRC who - by the way- won the popular vote - still does not prove by defect that D. Trump is qualified to be : POTUS + Commander in Chief + Leader of the Free World.
Let's see if denying to skip problems makes America great.
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11 minutes ago, beechguy said:
If the wars are over, why is Obama sending troops back to Iraq? If the wars are over, why are there still troops in Afghanistan? If Obama was so great with the budget and economy, why has the debt grown to almost 20 trillion?
Can Trump do better? Apparently the Stock Market thinks so, and that getting Obama out of the way is a good thing. You're correct, some people just won't let the facts change their beliefs.
Some experts analyse numbers :
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/15/grading-the-obama-economy-by-the-numbers.html
Jobs created during US presidential terms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobs_created_during_U.S._presidential_terms
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1 minute ago, RuamRudy said:
I used to work on an offshore platform in Russia. We were installing a new process module and needed to bring on board a tank of methanol for the commissioning of it.
The Russian law, however, required that the tank be fenced off with barbed wire and have an armed guard stationed by it 24hrs a day. Needless to say, we didn't get our methanol.This is a true disaster for Russians... married wives become widows too often , too early , not mentioning when young parents mix drugs and alcohol
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Foto: Tjeerd Royaards/Cartoonmovement
cartoons :
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Monday's Attacks Reveal About Trump and Obama
Two sets of statements tell radically different stories about who was being attacked, and why.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/12/ankara-berlin-trump-obama/511202/
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"Russia is quite literally drinking itself to death" Russians live some of the shortest lives in any large economy. Life expectancy for a Russian man was roughly 65 years in 2012, compared to 76 years for the US and 74 for China.
http://qz.com/403307/russia-is-quite-literally-drinking-itself-to-death/
How Alcohol Conquered Russia
A history of the country’s struggle with alcoholism, and why the government has done so little about it.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/how-alcohol-conquered-russia/279965/
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Donald Trump's sons behind nonprofit selling access to president-elect
A new Texas nonprofit led by Donald Trump’s grown sons is offering access to the freshly-minted president during inauguration weekend — all in exchange for million-dollar donations to unnamed “conservation” charities, according to interviews and documents reviewed by the Center for Public Integrity.
The family canceled an auction for coffee with Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump last week after ethics experts said it was ethically questionable, according to the New York Times. The proceeds of the auction would have gone to the Eric Trump Foundation, an existing nonprofit whose mission is to support a children’s hospital.
Trump adopting same behavior he criticized Clinton for
in World News
Posted
"In politics, you have to give what you do not have, and promise what you can not give."
(Louis XI )