Xi Jinping is not satisfied with winning the trade war
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101
What exactly is a "facist"?
Of which there are many creeds. Muslim Brotherhood islamism, which is the sort Al Qaeda and Hamas picked up, was inspired by, guess what, Nazism. The Quran forms the basis of the law, but like the Bible, that can be interpreted in many ways. Hence Islamic Scholars, So you have two branches of Islam; Sunni and Shia, with the same book, but different views of the law. The Muslim Brotherhood rejects this, and instead, the interpretation of the Quran comes from the street, the "ordinary people", layered with a dose of nationalism, filled in, like the Nazis, with a bunch of historic fantasies (the Nazis had Teutonic Knights and the Volk, Arab Nationalists frequently make up nonsense, but impressive sounding nonsense, about Saladin and imaging sleights. Hence Al Qaeda issued religious edicts based on then thoughts of a college drop out and a wierdo professor. Later on, a convicted drug dealer in Iraq was listened to earnestly by the crowd. I think at one point, Daesh was down to a car mechanic issuing instructions. In early Arab nationalism, it was mostly junior army officers, as coup plotters, who were suddenly experts in the Quran. In Libya, Gaddafi, who promoted himself to Colonel (but never General) came up with his own version, In Gaza, the leaders of Hamas seem to be an rotating list of street thugs, none of whom really have any religious knowledge, but who's authority largely derived from a book in one hand and a gun in the other. Iran is interesting. It is actually a democracy. It holds elections, there are competing political parties, and incumbants do lose elections. There is a President and a Parliament, which on one level function like a western democracy. Indeed the Iranian constitution is modeled on the French constitution which is modeled on the US one. But the Supreme Leader "supervises" the President and Parliament, and he is guided by an appointed by a Guardian Council, made up of Islamic jurists. Like the Supreme Court reviewing every decision made by Parliament, Congress, to check if that decision conforms with the Shia understanding of the Quran. Now, you might end up with a wise and old Supreme Leader who looks dispassionately at these decisions, who will accept or reject decisions, until a better decision is taken, like the function of the House of Lords, except the Commons can abolish the Lords anytime. Or you might have someone with their own agenda "of this Earth". Hezbollah is a political party in Lebanon, that wields constitutional power through the Labanese Parliament, which has been surprising resiliant after all these years (proving how wrong dictators and wannabe dictators are). Hezbollah will never run Lebanon because of then history of that country and its demographic makeup. They boost their support thanks to financial support from Iran that allows them to run a healthcare and social care system on top of whatever the Lebanese government can provide. Notionally, Afghanistan has a similar system of government to Iran, except is Sunni Islam as the basis of law. And its an Emirate. Emir is kind of like King, but more like "Commander in Chief". The Taliban haven't been around long enough to establish hereditary Emirs, so the assumption is when they start popping their clogs due to old age, there will be a tussle for control. But like the Muslim Brotherhood, their power depends on the half arsed understanding of the Quran, but without the political sophistication of European fascism. Over in Iran, the Supreme leader really is an expert in religious law, spending all his life studying it, so is more like a Pope (who actually was a constitutional successor to the Emperor of Rome) and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Syria is the interesting case. The current leader is apparently a temporary leader until they can get the inevitable score settling out of the way. They are still following the secular Syrian constitution. The leader seems to be an ordinary bloke. He is an Islamist, but what that means is hard to discern right now. He's clearly media savvy, knowing when during war, to look like the military commander and all tough, but in peace, getting a haircut, some nice shirts and trousers. He comes over as urbane, and is educated. He seems genuinely focused on his own country, which has suffered a lot, but we will see how long that lasts. We would do well to keep our noses out, and help if asked. I doubt that will happen; too many vested interests in the region. he could probably take some tips from King Abdullah in Jordan, about how to negotiate a tricky path that doesn't involve violent revolt, but also fend off the Turks, the Saudis, the UAE etc. Then we have Syria -
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Virginia Guiffre Just Topped Herself
you'll never know for sure. another conspiracy in the making. -
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Aspiring Thai flight attendants, too old, short, brown or fat? Come to America instead!
I know these people very well actually and pass through their villages often. Nothing has changed in the 20 years I've been observing them. They're in another world from the rest of us. Nothing any of us can do can change these people and I don't think we should be interfering with them. They're slowly going to fade out as their women marry out of the culture and their kids move to the cities. Just how it is. -
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Old people with zero English skills while the younger staff just watch and can speak English
i guess you're living in thailand? how about a bit of respect, not to mention common sense, and take the time to learn thai instead of criticising and thai bashing? -
204
Trump ostracized at pope’s funeral
I simply refuse to get into a discussion about the shade of Donald Trump's suite , whether it was Royal blue or Pale blue or whatever . That's girly talk , Men dont talk about things like that- 1
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204
Trump ostracized at pope’s funeral
Reposted 4 times... was that heart attack or testosterone hit or Alzheimers? Still kicking ... just, you already said you're 80yrs old so guess its a fitting name
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