Global Events & Politics Überthread
- Thread starter Hawk
- Start date
Julio3000
<B>A Chip Off the Old Rock</B>
No one tell thethe about Saudi Arabia.
Different person running the country. Don't tell julio
Julio3000
<B>A Chip Off the Old Rock</B>
Amazing what a good PR campaign and sucking up to Trump will accomplish.
And jailing over half of the ruling elite while opening up your country to Christianity and giving rights to women for the first tme ever.
When you get Obama's dick out of your mouth maybe you'll see that
Julio3000
<B>A Chip Off the Old Rock</B>
It's curious that you put forth "jailing half the ruling elite" as a positive thing. Was there due process? Because if there wasn't, you're making my point for me. MBS is a different face on the same old KSA. We'll see if any of his "reforms" are more than superficial.
Not exactly off to a great start there, considering they've been arresting and jailing incommunicado women's'- and human- rights activists at an accelerated clip recently.
And, you know, still beheading non-violent criminals with no due process, and still oppressively exploiting slave labor from South/Central Asian immigrants.
Your absurdly inconsistent take on Iran and Saudi Arabia is neatly encapsulated in that 9/11 post. Do you think that there's comparable culpability there?
I'm hopeful for change. I've never propped up MBS as a historical change figure at this time. You are however discountING everything that has happened in the last 10 year years which includes Iran destabilizing the region with their proxy wars and now MBS showing the first signs of modernization in decades. Continue on this path and you'll look bad in a few years.
Julio3000
<B>A Chip Off the Old Rock</B>
Hmm. It's not a matter of choosing one or other. They can both be crappy and authoritarian.
But there is far more reason to be optimistic about Saudi Arabias future and understand their connection to the kingdom from the last 50 years might mean nothing to its future.
57Brave
Well-known member
When Vladimir Putin ordered his hackers to surreptitiously help Donald Trump in the presidential race, he could hardly have anticipated that once in office, Mr. Trump would so outrageously, destructively and thoroughly alienate America’s closest neighbors and allies as he did at the Group of 7 meeting in Canada. The lame explanation from Mr. Trump’s courtiers, that he needed to look tough for his meeting with Kim Jong-un, made matters worse by implying that he felt he needed to publicly kick friends aside to impress a murderous dictator.
NYT
NYT
57Brave
Well-known member
As it stands, 6/12/18 this meet was a colossal blunder. On so many levels
We gave up military exercises and N Korea promised to behave.
Trump refused to discuss human rights at his meeting, but in case anyone needs a refresher on the regime he just legitimized, here it is:
Mr. Kim rules with extreme brutality, making his nation among the worst human rights violators in the world.
In North Korea, these crimes “entail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation,” concluded a 2014 United Nations report that examined North Korea.
CNN Breaking News
✔
@cnnbrk
Trump says he trusts Kim Jong Un. And if he's wrong? "I may be wrong,
I mean I may stand before you in six months and say,
'Hey I was wrong,'" said Trump, before adding, "I don't know
that I'll ever admit that, but I'll find some kind of an excuse."
https://cnn.it/2sQKXOB
who voted to give this man this much power ?
We gave up military exercises and N Korea promised to behave.
Trump refused to discuss human rights at his meeting, but in case anyone needs a refresher on the regime he just legitimized, here it is:
Mr. Kim rules with extreme brutality, making his nation among the worst human rights violators in the world.
In North Korea, these crimes “entail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation,” concluded a 2014 United Nations report that examined North Korea.
CNN Breaking News
✔
@cnnbrk
Trump says he trusts Kim Jong Un. And if he's wrong? "I may be wrong,
I mean I may stand before you in six months and say,
'Hey I was wrong,'" said Trump, before adding, "I don't know
that I'll ever admit that, but I'll find some kind of an excuse."
https://cnn.it/2sQKXOB
who voted to give this man this much power ?
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57Brave
Well-known member
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
just spitballing here. Marijuana is legal in North Korea. How about we import weed from them. win win deal.for everyone but Jeff Sessions.
The leftist echo-chamber continues to jettison beyond the outer reaches of the rational universe. Thanks for keeping us updated.
Jaw
It's OVER 5,000!
Bloomberg is in the middle of a multiple article look at the China threat. The articles I have read so far have been thoughtful and well researched.
1. China’s Master Plan: A Global Military Threat - https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-06-10/china-s-master-plan-a-global-military-threat
From an American perspective, this trend is troubling for what it says about China’s long-range ambitions. It shows that, at a time when U.S.-China relations are becoming increasingly antagonistic, Beijing is already looking ahead to a period when it will compete with America not just regionally but globally as well.
And if China is aspiring to a more global presence now, at a time when the areas just off its coast are still heavily contested, how ambitious might it become if and when it succeeds in establishing itself as the dominant power in the Western Pacific?
2. China’s Master Plan: Exporting an Ideology - https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-06-11/china-s-master-plan-exporting-an-ideology
Many observers have been slow to recognize that challenge, because any discussion of ideology is often dismissed as “Cold War thinking,” and because for so many years the free-market democratic model appeared incontestably dominant. Yet China is contesting that dominance, through a two-pronged offensive that involves promoting authoritarian governance while also undermining democratic practices in countries near and far.
China’s ideological assertiveness has been building for years. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, pundits began arguing that the “Beijing Consensus” -- the mix of state-directed capitalism and authoritarian political control -- was displacing a Washington Consensus that had been badly tarnished by the near-meltdown of the global economy. A decade later, some projections have China on a path to dominating global GDP within half a century.
3. China’s Master Plan: A Worldwide Web of Institutions - https://www.bloomberg.com/view/arti...ions-in-china-s-global-master-plan-hal-brands
It seems likely, for instance, that Beijing will use its regional economic pact and infrastructure bank as tools for drawing neighboring countries deeper into its economic orbit, slowly but surely rendering them less capable of remaining geopolitically independent of China.
Leading experts also believe that China will use Belt and Road projects to reinforce corrupt, authoritarian regimes and win diplomatic and economic influence at the expense of the U.S. and other geopolitical competitors.
Chinese loans and development aid, for example, have already turned into debt traps that have been sprung on relatively poor countries such as Sri Lanka, forcing them to turn over control of key infrastructure, such as ports, to Beijing.
1. China’s Master Plan: A Global Military Threat - https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-06-10/china-s-master-plan-a-global-military-threat
From an American perspective, this trend is troubling for what it says about China’s long-range ambitions. It shows that, at a time when U.S.-China relations are becoming increasingly antagonistic, Beijing is already looking ahead to a period when it will compete with America not just regionally but globally as well.
And if China is aspiring to a more global presence now, at a time when the areas just off its coast are still heavily contested, how ambitious might it become if and when it succeeds in establishing itself as the dominant power in the Western Pacific?
2. China’s Master Plan: Exporting an Ideology - https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-06-11/china-s-master-plan-exporting-an-ideology
Many observers have been slow to recognize that challenge, because any discussion of ideology is often dismissed as “Cold War thinking,” and because for so many years the free-market democratic model appeared incontestably dominant. Yet China is contesting that dominance, through a two-pronged offensive that involves promoting authoritarian governance while also undermining democratic practices in countries near and far.
China’s ideological assertiveness has been building for years. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, pundits began arguing that the “Beijing Consensus” -- the mix of state-directed capitalism and authoritarian political control -- was displacing a Washington Consensus that had been badly tarnished by the near-meltdown of the global economy. A decade later, some projections have China on a path to dominating global GDP within half a century.
3. China’s Master Plan: A Worldwide Web of Institutions - https://www.bloomberg.com/view/arti...ions-in-china-s-global-master-plan-hal-brands
It seems likely, for instance, that Beijing will use its regional economic pact and infrastructure bank as tools for drawing neighboring countries deeper into its economic orbit, slowly but surely rendering them less capable of remaining geopolitically independent of China.
Leading experts also believe that China will use Belt and Road projects to reinforce corrupt, authoritarian regimes and win diplomatic and economic influence at the expense of the U.S. and other geopolitical competitors.
Chinese loans and development aid, for example, have already turned into debt traps that have been sprung on relatively poor countries such as Sri Lanka, forcing them to turn over control of key infrastructure, such as ports, to Beijing.
57Brave
Well-known member
Canada Might Sanction Trump By Going After His Administration Rather Than the American People
"I fear President Trump has put us in that position.”
Ruby Samuels
15 Jun 2018
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday that she is open to using a law normally reserved for leaders responsible for human rights violations to impose retaliatory sanctions on the Trump Administration. Those sanctions would target the administration itself rather than the American people.
The Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, also known as the Magnitsky law, would allow Ottowa (to impose travel bans and asset freezes on foreign leaders. Regina-Lewvan MP Erin Weir proposed the measure during a Question Period with Freeland earlier this week. Weir noted that the law might be particularly useful because Trump has "made himself vulnerable" by maintaining personal business interests.
"To apply further pressure," Weir said, "has the government considered retaliatory sanctions targeting the Trump organization rather than the American people?”
The Question Period came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Trump's rationale for new sanctions on Canadian steel and aluminum was "insulting."
According to the Canadian Magazine Macleans, Freeland did not reject the idea of specific sanctions of Trump's business interests, which reach 144 companies in 25 countries.
The Magnitsky Act, passed last year, has been used against 52 foreign nationals in Russia, Venezuela and South Sudan and can be ordered when a "foreign national has materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material or technological support for, or goods or services in support of" corrupt actions.
"I fear President Trump has put us in that position.”
Ruby Samuels
15 Jun 2018
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday that she is open to using a law normally reserved for leaders responsible for human rights violations to impose retaliatory sanctions on the Trump Administration. Those sanctions would target the administration itself rather than the American people.
The Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, also known as the Magnitsky law, would allow Ottowa (to impose travel bans and asset freezes on foreign leaders. Regina-Lewvan MP Erin Weir proposed the measure during a Question Period with Freeland earlier this week. Weir noted that the law might be particularly useful because Trump has "made himself vulnerable" by maintaining personal business interests.
"To apply further pressure," Weir said, "has the government considered retaliatory sanctions targeting the Trump organization rather than the American people?”
The Question Period came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Trump's rationale for new sanctions on Canadian steel and aluminum was "insulting."
According to the Canadian Magazine Macleans, Freeland did not reject the idea of specific sanctions of Trump's business interests, which reach 144 companies in 25 countries.
The Magnitsky Act, passed last year, has been used against 52 foreign nationals in Russia, Venezuela and South Sudan and can be ordered when a "foreign national has materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material or technological support for, or goods or services in support of" corrupt actions.
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
I would ****ing love that. Trudeau doesn't have the balls.
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
https://www.newsy.com/stories/un-venezuelan-security-forces-killed-hundreds/
UN released human rights report on Venezuela. Security forces have killed 505 people in less than 2 years in extrajudicial executions often covered up by the police and in poor neighborhoods. One tactic they described was breaking into random homes until they found someone matching the description of their suspect. They then murder them and cover it up by simulating gunfire to say they acted in self defense.
some more tidbits.
- Venezuela is in its 5th straight year of recession having lost 40% of GDP. projected to lose 9% more this year.
- 87% of the population lives in poverty and 61% in extreme poverty.
- Inflation this year is expected to be 14,000%.....
- 70% of the state budget are social programs
- the state offers the US dollar to some people at far below exchange rate value which surprisingly has led those people to get very rich through corruprion.
- there were 9,787 protests in 2017
- police refuse to collect evidence in police shootings and ignore warrants issued for cops.
- they believe there to be 5,846 extrajudicial killing a by security forces from 2012 through 2016 of which 134 were women.
- 39 out of 100 prisoners killed at Amazonas prison. This is actually interesting. It was a self governed prison that was pretty much made into a club and the prisoners didn't want to leave. You can see documentaries made about it on YouTube. Government wanted to retake control. Prisoners feared they would be killed so they resisted. When the government won they executed all the injured then supposedly had a kill list an executed the people on the list. I don't know if the list was before the resistance or specifically targeting certain people for leading the resistance. 10 women that were costing at the prison reported being beaten and insulted....
- there's an 87% shortage on medical supplies and 70% shortage on medicine. 50% of doctors have left the country. If you want surgery youbliterally have to buy the medical gloves and syringe and **** because the hospital don't have any.
- police routinely beat and torture people for protesting. One lawyer for a protestor was detained on his way home from a court hearing. He was blindfolded and brought somewhere where he was beat with a pipe. He was then raped by the cops. They released him a day later where he goes to the hospital. They refuse to document his complaint out of fear for their safety. That lawyer then left the country.
- 9ne woman detaineed recalled hearing other prisoners screaming in agony. One guy begging the guards to shoot him.
- if you are detained your family has to bring you food and anything else basic you need. And women get strip searched and cavity searched each time they come to the prison.
- few people file complaints out of fear of retaliation. somewhere the Venezuelan Jeff Sessions is saying "what police abuse, I don't have hardly any formal complaints against them"
- A recently passed "law against hatred" is expected to be used to crack down on political dissenters. It's wording is intentionally left vague and the sentence of 10-20 years is extreme.
- food shortages are linked to the 2013 nationalization of the largest private agricultural company in Venezuela. The government now controlling 95% of agricultural production mismanaged it to hell. White Corn production used in arepas(which is generally eaten with very meal in Venezuela) dropped by 85%.
- Venezuela enacted the right to food and with little domestic supply imported 65% of their food.
- When oil prices tanked the government enacted price controls and quotas forcing private companies to operate at a loss. Most went out of business and the food supply further dwindled.
- Venezuela domestic agriculture production now stands at 30% of what it was prior to nationalization. The government mandated half of all food produced be sold to the government at a fixed price. It's now up to 70%. Take a wild guess how that worked out.
- so far I don't see anything about that time Maduro started a pilot program to give people rabbits to breed for meat to eat but people started to raise them as let's instead.
-
UN released human rights report on Venezuela. Security forces have killed 505 people in less than 2 years in extrajudicial executions often covered up by the police and in poor neighborhoods. One tactic they described was breaking into random homes until they found someone matching the description of their suspect. They then murder them and cover it up by simulating gunfire to say they acted in self defense.
some more tidbits.
- Venezuela is in its 5th straight year of recession having lost 40% of GDP. projected to lose 9% more this year.
- 87% of the population lives in poverty and 61% in extreme poverty.
- Inflation this year is expected to be 14,000%.....
- 70% of the state budget are social programs
- the state offers the US dollar to some people at far below exchange rate value which surprisingly has led those people to get very rich through corruprion.
- there were 9,787 protests in 2017
- police refuse to collect evidence in police shootings and ignore warrants issued for cops.
- they believe there to be 5,846 extrajudicial killing a by security forces from 2012 through 2016 of which 134 were women.
- 39 out of 100 prisoners killed at Amazonas prison. This is actually interesting. It was a self governed prison that was pretty much made into a club and the prisoners didn't want to leave. You can see documentaries made about it on YouTube. Government wanted to retake control. Prisoners feared they would be killed so they resisted. When the government won they executed all the injured then supposedly had a kill list an executed the people on the list. I don't know if the list was before the resistance or specifically targeting certain people for leading the resistance. 10 women that were costing at the prison reported being beaten and insulted....
- there's an 87% shortage on medical supplies and 70% shortage on medicine. 50% of doctors have left the country. If you want surgery youbliterally have to buy the medical gloves and syringe and **** because the hospital don't have any.
- police routinely beat and torture people for protesting. One lawyer for a protestor was detained on his way home from a court hearing. He was blindfolded and brought somewhere where he was beat with a pipe. He was then raped by the cops. They released him a day later where he goes to the hospital. They refuse to document his complaint out of fear for their safety. That lawyer then left the country.
- 9ne woman detaineed recalled hearing other prisoners screaming in agony. One guy begging the guards to shoot him.
- if you are detained your family has to bring you food and anything else basic you need. And women get strip searched and cavity searched each time they come to the prison.
- few people file complaints out of fear of retaliation. somewhere the Venezuelan Jeff Sessions is saying "what police abuse, I don't have hardly any formal complaints against them"
- A recently passed "law against hatred" is expected to be used to crack down on political dissenters. It's wording is intentionally left vague and the sentence of 10-20 years is extreme.
- food shortages are linked to the 2013 nationalization of the largest private agricultural company in Venezuela. The government now controlling 95% of agricultural production mismanaged it to hell. White Corn production used in arepas(which is generally eaten with very meal in Venezuela) dropped by 85%.
- Venezuela enacted the right to food and with little domestic supply imported 65% of their food.
- When oil prices tanked the government enacted price controls and quotas forcing private companies to operate at a loss. Most went out of business and the food supply further dwindled.
- Venezuela domestic agriculture production now stands at 30% of what it was prior to nationalization. The government mandated half of all food produced be sold to the government at a fixed price. It's now up to 70%. Take a wild guess how that worked out.
- so far I don't see anything about that time Maduro started a pilot program to give people rabbits to breed for meat to eat but people started to raise them as let's instead.
-
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57Brave
Well-known member
Fred Hampton
Managuarantano's Volunteers
<B><I>The Artist Formally Known as <P>Ventura's St
Cajunrevenge, thanks for posting about Venezuela. It is super messed up. Nicaragua is like a little better version of that right now - the other day a household of six was burned down, killing a baby and a child and having the rest in critical care, all because the father refused to have a sniper perch on top of his house.
This tells about the incident but I heard the details from my friends there. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-latin-america-44510106
Also 1 baby was shot in the head a few days ago. It’s pretty terrible stuff, I wish there was an easy fix for these struggling Central American countries, like decriminalized drugs or something.
This tells about the incident but I heard the details from my friends there. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-latin-america-44510106
Also 1 baby was shot in the head a few days ago. It’s pretty terrible stuff, I wish there was an easy fix for these struggling Central American countries, like decriminalized drugs or something.