World Politics

[blutto]

Re: Re:

The méthode scientifique overlooks the fact that human society isn't rational. Now applied economic analysis, the authoritative alchemy of financial magi reminds us that the flock is still led by a dominant priesthood. And this clergy continues to rule with impunity.[/qu

No matter how it's stated it's pretty much the same thing.... learn from your mistakes, history repeats itself, ect.
Germany getting props for almost anything needs to be balanced with it's history. Slamming Turkey for acting foolishly as it runs away from secularism is partly Germany's fault. Germany was always the loudest voice in the room never agreeing on Turkey's inclusion in the European Union.
Turkey tested over and over with bizzare proposals to support Bush and Britton in the invasion of Iraq. I will admit that there were not a lot of options. Turkey now doing the West a service beyond payment by absorbing a disproportionate number of those fleeing the mess even while it's Donald Trump says dumber and dumber things.
As the world waits for the next banking crisis, UK bankers and business folks warning of the huge risk and losses if the UK pulls away from the union. Australia overexposed even more than the US was before it's housing bubble burst and the good old USA back to business as usual with big bloated banks that walk all over laws and lawmakers to make staggering profits despite a flat economy, zero percent interest to them and fines paid for violations in practice. We may be learning but not too fast.
First things first. Don't let Turkey be so,so isolated. When it's government stomps on media and journalists let it be held to a Western standard. When it's leadership stands up and makes religious mandates not to use birth control, let him also say it to Western peers. When the leader of Turkey says women are less than men let him feel female heat from a big union of angry vagina bearers not the intimidated female population of just one country.
If the US's bastard stepchild is Saudi Arabia I hope that the EU will take Turkey and include it instead of have all these Frenemy type of relationships that can blow up in an instant.

....good points about trying to constructively deal with Turkey the nation and bring them into the fold of, for want of a better word, the modern world....the issue is the current government should somehow pay a price for its actions ( which btw include actions which produced the flood of refugees that are such a problem ) yet such a move must try to avoid hurting the nation and its people.....tough call that...

.....one option is to treat the Erdogan issue the way the West would like to deal with the Assad issue in Syria ( you know declare a no fly zone over Turkey and bomb the crap out of the country until Erdogan is gone....you know, the famous and effective destroy the country to save it gambit ) and the freedom loving West is real good at that type of stuff...

...ok ok above facetiousness put way aside....this is a real tough call, very tough....would depend on whether there is a possibility of someone or some group being able to lead /capable of leading Turkey away from its current situation...is that possible ?...can a new Turkey arise from this in a reasonable way ?....

Cheers

 

[blutto]

...file under the fun to be had in Afghanistan....

But then there’s the real ace in the hole: the New Opium War.

The usual suspects in the Beltway insist that the Taliban profit handsomely from overseeing the opium trade out of Afghanistan –and now operate as a multi-billion-dollar drug cartel. That’s nonsense.

Bets can be made that Mansour’s kill will not reduce Afghanistan's opium production – which has been steadily on the rise for years now. Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, Mansour's former number two, has been designated as the new leader.

The fact is, poppy production in Afghanistan remains at the highest levels in provinces that are – in thesis – controlled by Kabul. More opium was produced last year – also in thesis the last year of NATO’s Enduring Freedom operation – than in any other year since the UN started tracking it way back in 2002. In 2016 Afghanistan will produce more opium – thus heroin – than the entire global consumption.

An inkling of what’s really going on in the New Opium War is provided by a recent book (in Italian) by Enrico Piovesana. He tells of shady military operations conducted by NATO in which massive quantities of opium have been sequestered by helicopter – never to be seen again.

So we’re back to the same old CIA opium rat line, which translates into control of the Afghan opium market in collusion with local police, military high brass in Kabul and the Karzai family, of former President a.k.a. «mayor of Kabul» Hamid Karzai. Doing business with narco traffickers has also handily provided liquidity – as in dirty money – to Western big banks. None of this has anything to do with the Taliban, which actually brought down opium production to near zero in 2001, before 9/11 and the American bombing/occupation of Afghanistan.

....the article then gets to more shadowy and convoluted stuff and maps out some typically short-sighted stupid US moves that seem like just more of the standard operating procedure handbook...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44780.htm

Cheers

 

[python]

a capitalist nightmare and/or a marxist dream is about to get tested in a few hours by one of the world most vibrant democracies.

the swiss will vote on the guaranteed base income law. if passed it will provide ANY citizen, ANY with about us$ 30,000 a year. no-string attached what so ever.

to almost any american ear it sounds bizarre, but the swiss vote regularly in national referendums on such 'bizarre' things.

argubably, the most 'bizzare' was when they rejected their own paid vacation to go from 4 to 6 weeks as is the case almost everywhere in europe, including the tyrannical russia...

stupid or wise, the swiss don't seem too concerned with populist ideas winning the world. this bill looks like a no go too.

 

[frenchfry]

Re:

a capitalist nightmare and/or a marxist dream is about to get tested in a few hours by one of the world most vibrant democracies.

the swiss will vote on the guaranteed base income law. if passed it will provide ANY citizen, ANY with about us$ 30,000 a year. no-string attached what so ever.

to almost any american ear it sounds bizarre, but the swiss vote regularly in national referendums on such 'bizarre' things.

argubably, the most 'bizzare' was when they rejected their own paid vacation to go from 4 to 6 weeks as is the case almost everywhere in europe, including the tyrannical russia...

stupid or wise, the swiss don't seem too concerned with populist ideas winning the world. this bill looks like a no go too.

Why is this bizarre? Switzerland is one of the few countries where referendums can work.

They understood that increasing "paid" vacation would have consequences, the most important being that the workers would be the ones who pay in the end. There is no free lunch, and the extra vacation would have to be paid by someone. They are relatively rich, have very low unemployment (less than 4% I think, which is very close to full employment) and enjoy comfortable social benefits. Why vote to become more like Greece?

France went to the 35 hour work week in the late 90's. The result was salary freezes for many years (and still continuing), loss of competitivity, unemployment of +10% etc. etc. Social "advances" are paid for by deficit budgets, France currently spends about 18% more than revenus which are already at approx. 57% of the GDP. And yet if you have the French vote on an additional week of vacation it would probably be unanimously in favor - except for me of course!

 

[python]

Re: Re:

a capitalist nightmare and/or a marxist dream is about to get tested in a few hours by one of the world most vibrant democracies.

the swiss will vote on the guaranteed base income law. if passed it will provide ANY citizen, ANY with about us$ 30,000 a year. no-string attached what so ever.

to almost any american ear it sounds bizarre, but the swiss vote regularly in national referendums on such 'bizarre' things.

argubably, the most 'bizzare' was when they rejected their own paid vacation to go from 4 to 6 weeks as is the case almost everywhere in europe, including the tyrannical russia...

stupid or wise, the swiss don't seem too concerned with populist ideas winning the world. this bill looks like a no go too.

Why is this bizarre? Switzerland is one of the few countries where referendums can work.

did you see those things: ' ' around bizarre ?
take my word that i know some about the swiss. i brought the example exactly b/c it sounds 'bizarre' but in reality was an example of a remarkable social responsibility by an entire nation.

as for the french, no offense, i believe you guys have the world's most bloated and inefficient public sector with the so called civil servants being the dream job for most ...perhaps bizarre would be too strong a word for that but in my world view it's not very far.

 

[roundabout]

Re:

argubably, the most 'bizzare' was when they rejected their own paid vacation to go from 4 to 6 weeks as is the case almost everywhere in europe, including the tyrannical russia...

Do you have a source for 6 weeks of paid vacation almost everywhere in Europe when 4 is generally the norm?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_by_country#/media/File:Map_of_Vacation_Days_Around_the_World.png

And do you have a source for 6 weeks of paid vacation in Russia? See section on paid leave in the link below

http://www.ilo.org/ifpdial/information-resources/national-labour-law-profiles/WCMS_158917/lang--en/index.htm

 

[python]

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46697636/ns/business-world_business/t/swiss-voters-reject-weeks-paid-vacation/

minimum annual vacation from four weeks to the standard six used in Germany, Italy, Russia and other European nations.

as for other sources, wiki would be the very last resource i'd rely on given how many intentionally manipulative articles it had been known for. and the 2nd link was useless, b/c a quick 'find=paid vacation' reveals nothing about the duration.

 

[frenchfry]

Re: Re:

a capitalist nightmare and/or a marxist dream is about to get tested in a few hours by one of the world most vibrant democracies.

the swiss will vote on the guaranteed base income law. if passed it will provide ANY citizen, ANY with about us$ 30,000 a year. no-string attached what so ever.

to almost any american ear it sounds bizarre, but the swiss vote regularly in national referendums on such 'bizarre' things.

argubably, the most 'bizzare' was when they rejected their own paid vacation to go from 4 to 6 weeks as is the case almost everywhere in europe, including the tyrannical russia...

stupid or wise, the swiss don't seem too concerned with populist ideas winning the world. this bill looks like a no go too.

Why is this bizarre? Switzerland is one of the few countries where referendums can work.

did you see those things: ' ' around bizarre ?
take my word that i know some about the swiss. i brought the example exactly b/c it sounds 'bizarre' but in reality was an example of a remarkable social responsibility by an entire nation.

as for the french, no offense, i believe you guys have the world's most bloated and inefficient public sector with the so called civil servants being the dream job for most ...perhaps bizarre would be too strong a word for that but in my world view it's not very far.

Be careful, you are insulting all my in-laws, my deceased wife, my girlfriend, and almost everyone else I know

 

[frenchfry]

Re:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46697636/ns/business-world_business/t/swiss-voters-reject-weeks-paid-vacation/

minimum annual vacation from four weeks to the standard six used in Germany, Italy, Russia and other European nations.

as for other sources, wiki would be the very last resource i'd rely on given how many intentionally manipulative articles it had been known for. and the 2nd link was useless, b/c a quick 'find=paid vacation' reveals nothing about the duration.

In France it is 5 weeks legal minimum.

 

[roundabout]

Re:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46697636/ns/business-world_business/t/swiss-voters-reject-weeks-paid-vacation/

minimum annual vacation from four weeks to the standard six used in Germany, Italy, Russia and other European nations.

as for other sources, wiki would be the very last resource i'd rely on given how many intentionally manipulative articles it had been known for. and the 2nd link was useless, b/c a quick 'find=paid vacation' reveals nothing about the duration.

The second link was 'useless' because you decided to use your own search term.

And an AP article without any references is hardly a better source than wiki.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

a capitalist nightmare and/or a marxist dream is about to get tested in a few hours by one of the world most vibrant democracies.

the swiss will vote on the guaranteed base income law. if passed it will provide ANY citizen, ANY with about us$ 30,000 a year. no-string attached what so ever.

to almost any american ear it sounds bizarre, but the swiss vote regularly in national referendums on such 'bizarre' things.

argubably, the most 'bizzare' was when they rejected their own paid vacation to go from 4 to 6 weeks as is the case almost everywhere in europe, including the tyrannical russia...

stupid or wise, the swiss don't seem too concerned with populist ideas winning the world. this bill looks like a no go too.

Why is this bizarre? Switzerland is one of the few countries where referendums can work.

did you see those things: ' ' around bizarre ?
take my word that i know some about the swiss. i brought the example exactly b/c it sounds 'bizarre' but in reality was an example of a remarkable social responsibility by an entire nation.

as for the french, no offense, i believe you guys have the world's most bloated and inefficient public sector with the so called civil servants being the dream job for most ...perhaps bizarre would be too strong a word for that but in my world view it's not very far.

Dude, one of my friends in Italy has a job as a civil servant at the Region of Lombardy. He does perhaps 15 minutes of work a day, then spams everyone's emails with videos and articles from La Repubblica, La Gazza and countless other sites. I don't think he's found buzzfeed yet. I'm trying to keep it that way.

 

[python]

Re: Re:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46697636/ns/business-world_business/t/swiss-voters-reject-weeks-paid-vacation/

minimum annual vacation from four weeks to the standard six used in Germany, Italy, Russia and other European nations.

as for other sources, wiki would be the very last resource i'd rely on given how many intentionally manipulative articles it had been known for. and the 2nd link was useless, b/c a quick 'find=paid vacation' reveals nothing about the duration.

The second link was 'useless' because you decided to use your own search term.

And an AP article without any references is hardly a better source than wiki.

you asked for a source and i provided it, both a direct quote and a link. this was a lot more than your reference that you appear to have failed to fully read or even understand. if i was to be freed of using my own search term, it would have been nice if you provided a direct quote re. the info you questioned (as i did) or advised on the what search term i was supposed to use given the long legal document. in the absence of either, you'll just have to swallow that people use 'paid vacation' when the concern was paid vacation...

regarding the section you referenced, as i said, you appear not to understand it, nor its context. it was referring to the additional paid annual leave granted to workers performing work with hazardous or dangerous conditions

and even if it was what you wrongly imagined it said, again unlike you i will directly quote the document:

Article 115 of the LC provides for 28 work days annual paid leave

28 work days is almost 6 calendar weeks

in one word, you failed to read your own reference, and whatever you read you failed to understand.

as to comparing free-for-all wiki which has a well documented history of being a vehicle for all sorts of agenda to one of the most solid news agency that, well, is another indication of how biased your view is. i wont waste any more time on you.

 

[roundabout]

I wonder if it any point did you pause to consider that I may not need a translator to read what the Russian labor code says?

Or that it is possible for me verify the wiki information for countries that I speak the official language of?

But thanks for the laughs. Your arrogance is always funny.

 

[python]

I wonder if it any point did you pause to consider that I may not need a translator to read what the Russian labor code says?

Or that it is possible for me verify the wiki information for countries that I speak the official language of?

But thanks for the laughs. Your arrogance is always funny.

you are posting a deliberately deceptive stuff. again.

neither i nor anyone have to wonder what you posted. everyone can read it and if they care enough they can follow the details. no one cares if you need or dont need an interpreter. but everyone here can read the english links you posted. dont try to sound too important about speaking many languages, b/c many here do, including myself....

you asked for a link. i provided it. moreover, i quoted the info you doubted directly. you posted an english language link that you did not understand. obviously the content of it you did not understand. you confused the paid leave with paid vacation. you misread the 28 calendar days with 28 working days. you failed to read the politely provided info b/c you have some kind of per-conception contradicting your ideas. you arrogantly dismissed one of the most respected news hubs, the AP as no better than wiki.

in one word, you provided an ample evidence, that candidly responding to your request (as i tried) to attempt to discuss something was a waste of time.

 

[frenchfry]

I can't believe you guys are fighting like this about a subject as trivial as how much vacation Russians have. No wonder there are so many conflicts in the world!

 

[python]

several diverse sources that often report one and the same event from almost diametrically opposing angles seem to agree on one latest development - there is a coordinated, concurrent, multi-front assault on the islamic state...the us, iran, iraq, russia, the official damascus, even jordan and israel are reportedly all involved.

the iraqi army and the shiite militias are pushing isil in fallujah. the kurds, supported by the us airforce, started their push into raqqa from north east, while the syrian army is pushing raqqah from south west.

it is imo very unlikely that so many concurrent military operations separated by hundreds of kilometers are NOT coordinated. the loud public declarations by the americans that they wont coordinate with vlad and the russian complaining yankee rejecting their offer are likely a smoke screen to silence their domestic critics.

by doing so, perhaps obama and vlad are also throwing some dust into the saudi and turkish faces, who no doubt hate the idea of the americans cooperating with iran, assad and vlad.

i hope my reading is right and we are seeing a long awaited beginning of the isis end.

 

[fatandfast]

I guess your reading of the news ,even by many diverse sources is in the end still subjective. I believe in global warming, not the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus..... or The Islamic state. Witnessing religious extremes ,I think the desire to wipe societies clean of extremists while desirable is impossible. I am not suggesting rolling over,but instead paying less attention to the day to day extermination of these *** roaches. We need to embrace a way of life were being mindful that this type of mindset is everpresent and is implausible to eradicate completely.
Western society needs to earmark money and human loss as a normal cost of maintaining a free world. It sucks that people need to feel uneasy but I think feeling secure that "the" threat has been neutralized is far,far worse.
Trump has said over and over that if he were in charge, that he would get rid of isis- isil it sounded stupid the first time I heard it and it still does.

 

[Jagartrott]

The response of the Russian government to the hooliganism at the EC is illustrative: "it's not us, it's them".
I'm getting sick and tired of hearing that same thing over and over again. Do the Russians themselves believe what their government claims?

 

[python]

Re:

The response of the Russian government to the hooliganism at the EC is illustrative: "it's not us, it's them".
I'm getting sick and tired of hearing that same thing over and over again. Do the Russians themselves believe what their government claims?

Russia and England could be expelled from Euro 2016 if violence persists
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-euro-security-idUSKCN0YY0D9?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29

this is stupid... either the british hooligans had met their match or the reuters had gone to vladmir's dark side. why else would the prostituting news agency mention the pious english fans that all wore tweed jackets with ties, never ever where seen drunk in their entire history plus all had cute babies when they were ruthlessly attacked by the evil forces.

the france24 images of the wild and drunk english fans were definitely the work of the snicks of kgb that managed once again to take advantage of a naive, western news outlet...

 

[Brullnux]

Drunk nationalist hooligans + drunk fascist ultras + French police insisting on using tear gas and pepper spray = predictable disaster.

 

[Jagartrott]

Re: Re:

The response of the Russian government to the hooliganism at the EC is illustrative: "it's not us, it's them".
I'm getting sick and tired of hearing that same thing over and over again. Do the Russians themselves believe what their government claims?

Russia and England could be expelled from Euro 2016 if violence persists
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-euro-security-idUSKCN0YY0D9?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29

this is stupid... either the british hooligans had met their match or the reuters had gone to vladmir's dark side. why else would the prostituting news agency mention the pious english fans that all wore tweed jackets with ties, never ever where seen drunk in their entire history plus all had cute babies when they were ruthlessly attacked by the evil forces.

the france24 images of the wild and drunk english fans were definitely the work of the snicks of kgb that managed once again to take advantage of a naive, western news outlet...

Oh, sorry, have I said anything about England 'fans' not being in the mix?
The Russian government just did its best Comical Ali impression. *That's* what I'm compaining about. At least have the guts to say that your citizens were also actively involved instead of this tiring charade we're seeing over and over and over again.

 

[python]

Re: Re:

The response of the Russian government to the hooliganism at the EC is illustrative: "it's not us, it's them".
I'm getting sick and tired of hearing that same thing over and over again. Do the Russians themselves believe what their government claims?

Russia and England could be expelled from Euro 2016 if violence persists
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-euro-security-idUSKCN0YY0D9?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29

this is stupid... either the british hooligans had met their match or the reuters had gone to vladmir's dark side. why else would the prostituting news agency mention the pious english fans that all wore tweed jackets with ties, never ever where seen drunk in their entire history plus all had cute babies when they were ruthlessly attacked by the evil forces.

the france24 images of the wild and drunk english fans were definitely the work of the snicks of kgb that managed once again to take advantage of a naive, western news outlet...

Oh, sorry, have I said anything about England 'fans' not being in the mix?
The Russian government just did its best Comical Ali impression. *That's* what I'm compaining about. At least have the guts to say that your citizens were also actively involved instead of this tiring charade we're seeing over and over and over again.

frankly, i don't understand your concern with their govt reaction (which seems borne out of the prevailing bias) rather than with your own govt AND the fringe hooligans on either sides making the matter so disgusting...

it is quite clear to me that those drunk hooligans are the minority of the football fans be they the turks, english, polish, rus etc...yet they are used by the politicians and the ever hungry for the overtones media to scold easy targets.

imo, you had taken the hook. had it been not the case you'd wait or seek out the balancing info, like for ex. their minister of sport greeting the uefa investigation into their hooligans.

 

[Brullnux]

Honestly, the media report here has been as even as you could hope. The report, at least in the newspapers I read, has been fair, blaming both sides but with a huge feeling of embarrassment. There has even been condemnation from politicians. To the English fans, of course.

 

[Bustedknuckle]

Re:

Drunk nationalist hooligans + drunk fascist ultras + French police insisting on using tear gas and pepper spray = predictable disaster.

Add US police and you have a trump rally...

 

[python]

clearly, i lack their personal 'read list' to doubt a uk-based poster who engaged the word 'honestly' or who seems unhappy with another country's govt reaction to the drunk fans.

all i can do is to expose my own sources for my reactions and , logically, my posts on the issue at hand. here goes:

1. b/c i dont speak the language of 'their' gov't, i use other languages, including english, to seek out a balanced info. the english language guardian is one of the balanced sources (note, no quotations) i use.

2. to illustrate my point below are 2 the guardian articles that (depending on where you stand) expose the simplistic 'they against us attitudes' or 'honestly speaking...'

3 .Britain's Euro 2016 police chief lambasts 'tooled up' Russian fans
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/12/britains-euro-2016-police-chief-lambasts-tooled-up-russian-fans

clearly, that's a 'balanced british reaction' brullnux missed b/c his honest reading list did not reach that far.

4. then the guardian to its credit had this:
Russian minister says violent fans brought shame on country
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/12/russian-minister-admits-violent-fans-brought-shame-on-country

i guess the trotter would dismiss the info b/c 'they' are the dark side.