World Politics

[Bustedknuckle]

Re:

Iran asks for help from the world to stop American sanctions....NAFTA gets an update that does almost nothing...except leave Canada out..Trump tells the world that three problems on his to do list can be negotiated in " a day or so"..Leaders globally wish McCain a fond farewell..Trump decides to go w the crowd and say a nice thing or two...

Don't forget the info from US Pravda/stateTV/trumpTV/Faux news

-Google being unfair to me(boo-hoo)
-China hacked Clinton's server(another lie)
-China is behind the US opioid crisis..kelly-anne will fix it(who?)

It really was great to see trump the dummy grovel before McCain..trump is a petty, ego driven, self centered butt nugget..he has to go.

 

[Unchained]

is it better to call Iran or anybody else an enemy? and Trump action against aid to Arabs today...what does a dog do when you beat it..when you try and force it to heal..? I hope Trump knows that there some other scenarios from his constant jabbing..I have been told more than once in my life to fear the man who has nothing to lose...Trump is dead set on increasing the numbers of men that feel this way...

 

[Robert5091]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-company-mysteriously-falls-death-Moscow.html

A Belgian senior executive at one of the world's largest steel companies fell to his death close to the Kremlin in Moscow today.

The body of Bruno Charles De Cooman, Vice President of Research and Development at Novolipetsk Steel, also known as NLMK, was found below a block of flats in downtown Moscow this afternoon.

It has been reported that Dr De Cooman 'fell out of a window', however it is not yet known how he fell or if his death was an accident.

De Cooman, believed to have been 59, this afternoon arrived at the house on the embankment with a friend and planned to go up to his apartment and then return, a friend said, but his body was found minutes later on the ground below.
...
Dr De Cooman, originally from Belgium, had only been named VP of Research and Development at NLMK last year. Shocked colleagues said there were no signs that he was 'suicidal'.

The company is one of the four largest steel companies in Russia, and produces a fifth of the country's crude steel.

The academic and businessman worked for oligarch Vladimir Lisin's NLMK steel empire.
...
Dr De Cooman, a noted academic who had published more than 500 academic papers, began his studies at Ghent University in Belgium and went on to obtain a doctorate at the prestigious Ivy League Cornell University in the United States.

According to NLMK, he had an international career in materials research and development management at various industrial laboratories and academic institutions.

He had previously worked for technology giant Phillips and had worked in South Korea, also working at the country's Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea.

Will the Belgium Government do anything? People seem to fall regularly out of windows in Moscow.

 

[Bustedknuckle]

The 'culture' trump and his dopey ilk are trying to 'preserve'..racist pigs all.

https://nypost.com/2018/09/01/hitler-saluting-skinheads-stage-another-protest-in-germany/

 

[oldcrank]

The 'culture' trump and his dopey ilk are trying to 'preserve'..racist pigs all.

https://nypost.com/2018/09/01/hitler-saluting-skinheads-stage-another-protest-in-germany/

Actually Obama had eight years to get rid of a Nazi but apparently
had no problem with Nazis in America. It took Trump to get it done.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/world/europe/nazi-guard-deported.html

 

[Bustedknuckle]

The 'culture' trump and his dopey ilk are trying to 'preserve'..racist pigs all.

https://nypost.com/2018/09/01/hitler-saluting-skinheads-stage-another-protest-in-germany/

Actually Obama had eight years to get rid of a Nazi but apparently
had no problem with Nazis in America. It took Trump to get it done.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/world/europe/nazi-guard-deported.html

Apples and Zucchini..trump has nazis working for him..steve miller as an example. I guess you missed the stoopid things trump said after Charlottesville..it was in all the papers and trump's best buddy, david duke, former clan big boy, loved his comments. If you think trump is anything but a white nationalist, supporter of all things neo nazi, you aren't paying attention. He yells dog whistles about 'preserving our(white) culture' constantly. BUT maybe you like trump's racist BS, I donno...

 

[Unchained]

Old crank ..just for the record there are rapes and murders occurring all over Europe..most are marginalized or completely ignored as a normal component of life..good and bad everywhere..to make more of a violent crime because of the person's race,immigration status of religion makes those using the criteria look silly...
When a man in the US murders his pregnant wife..and slaughtered his two young daughters..Trump has zero to tweet or blab about at one of his pep rallies..he shows over and over and over that he doesn't think all lives are equal and just as significant his words and actions have reinforced it..

The people of Germany,France and Italy all have an enormous burden partly caused by the US..we destabilize and they absorb the fallout..I personally witnessed Easterners say outright...guest workers go home..thanks..goodbye..
East Germans blamed immigrants for what they saw as slow progress of bringing Commieland. up to WGerman standards...when groups..tiny clumps of drunk doooshes. would guzzle beer and march in front of an immigrant shelter..most dismissed them as kooks
.being a racist and an idiot is not normal and it shouldn't be normalized..we got dikhead Donald but the near miss w LePen.and others emerging from the far right have the mostly white West set for a war of sorts..I hope that Norway,Sweden,Greece and the rest don't go to war over immigration and immigrants..but it looks like it's coming

 

[rhubroma]

Re: Re:

in connection with the latest american pressure on turkey, erdogan today had said some crucial things that may or may not be reflective of his real intentions...frankly, i dont trust this dude yet he NEVER resorted to the verbal statements of this significance to the us built, dominated and, yes, manipulated military alliance...

'we may consider new friends and allies if the us treats us the way it does'...

who are the potential new fiends and allies ? the immediate logic suggests china and russia but may include ANY of the states currently under the american economic and trade warfare.

translated into plain english, he hinted at quitting the nato. it would be a big biggy. what's then ? we'll have to see, but i hope erdogan knows how to plan a couple of moves ahead.i am sure, the russian chess players are hard at work as i type.

to be frank, i'd find it refreshing if turkey banned the us from its country, the black sea and thus a huge chunk of the middle east.
----
i've been to a local music event and back and the post is still on the top...decided to add my latest thought.

very few in the us if ANYONE remember or know that the cuban missile crisis started with turkey. that is, because turkey succumbed to the us bullying of locating the american nukes aimed at russia on its territory. nikita decided to reciprocate in cuba and drove america nuts. this is a fact of history NOT taught in the freest of the freest public schools nor entertained in the freest of the freest media

such an option may NEVER upset russia anymore if the us behaves it does

The whole Cuba/Turkey "non-connection connection" described at https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//nsa/cuba_mis_cri/moment.htm

The first paragraphs of the report say the Russians didn't act in Cuba, because the US acted in Turkey first. So why did Kennedy's agreement to pull the nukes out of Turkey, according to the essay, come with a no quid pro quo clause foil to the mass media? The usual dissimulation tactic to be sure.

Apart from this, per Python's other analysis, we have a series of hooligans passing themselves off for statesmen playing a game of chess, in which every move demonstrates the appalling lack of decency and humanity that backs the interests that govern this world.

 

[python]

cornered even further by the nyt op ed and bob woodward, the trump admin needs a major distraction in a hurry to try to channel the national emotions - and it proved easy before - to the usual international villains...a little more war is in the pipe that is.

i sense a major escalation in syria deliberately provoked by the us. it keeps losing not just the grip on the events there as russia, turkey and iran have basically displaced the 'us coalition', but even the relevance.

a false - and usually indignant proclamation of defending the human rights - is easy to un-dust again.
--
an afterthought. trump the defender of human rights sounds a bit funny, but amazingly, it gets lapped up by the remarkable number of his compatriots.

 

[Robert5091]

https://www.independent.co.uk/voice...ing-patrick-cockburn-government-a8527521.html

The current protests in Iraq are the most serious seen in the country for years, and are taking place at the heart of some of the world’s largest oilfields. The Iraqi government headquarters in Basra was set ablaze, as were the offices of those parties and militias blamed by local people for their wretched living conditions. Protesters have blockaded and closed down Iraq’s main sea port at Umm Qasr, through which it imports most of its grain and other supplies. Mortar shells have been fired into the Green Zone in Baghdad for the first time in years. At least 10 people have been shot dead by security forces over the last four days in a failed effort to quell the unrest.
...
Protests erupted earlier this year because of the lack of electricity, water, jobs and every other government service. The injustice was all the more flagrant because the oil companies around Basra are exporting more crude than ever before. In August this totalled four million barrels a day, earning the government in Baghdad some $7.7bn over the course of the month.

Few things epitomise the failure of the Iraqi state so starkly as the fact that, despite its vast oil wealth, Basra is now threatened by a cholera outbreak, according to local health officials. Basra hospitals have already treated 17,500 people for chronic diarrhoea and stomach ailments over the past two weeks, after they became ill from drinking polluted water. Salt water is mixing with fresh water, making it brackish and reducing the effectiveness of the chlorine that would otherwise kill the bacteria. There is plenty of bacteria around because the water system has not been updated for 30 years and sewage from broken pipes is mixing with drinking water.

 

[Robert5091]

First Cape Town, now Sydney -
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/...-when-every-drop-matters-20180913-p503np.html

It's little wonder the Berejiklian government is eager to switch on the Sydney Desalination Plant and end the "water security mode" it has languished in since 2012.

At full bore, the Kurnell plant is designed to deliver about 91 billion litres of drinking water a year, meeting almost a sixth of Sydney's annual needs.

Every drop could come in handy. The worst drought to desiccate the state since at least 1965 has the government projecting just 83 billion litres of water will flow into Sydney's catchment dams this year. That's much less than the previous record-low inflows of 136 billion litres in 1944, and a fraction of the 475 billion litres last year.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

First Cape Town, now Sydney -
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/...-when-every-drop-matters-20180913-p503np.html

It's little wonder the Berejiklian government is eager to switch on the Sydney Desalination Plant and end the "water security mode" it has languished in since 2012.

At full bore, the Kurnell plant is designed to deliver about 91 billion litres of drinking water a year, meeting almost a sixth of Sydney's annual needs.

Every drop could come in handy. The worst drought to desiccate the state since at least 1965 has the government projecting just 83 billion litres of water will flow into Sydney's catchment dams this year. That's much less than the previous record-low inflows of 136 billion litres in 1944, and a fraction of the 475 billion litres last year.

It's nowhere near the Capetown situation but the government could be doing much more. In a country like Australia with Sydney and Melbourne growing at the rate they are it's criminal that a few new dams have not been built in the last ten years and so much of the tropical rainfall from northern Australia is wasted. It's also crazy that Australia with huge distances between capital cities and larger regional cities does not have a much better rail service.

 

[Unchained]

Gotta ask...is there political will in Australia or South Africa for enormous,expensive public works projects like building dams ?in California we have needed more water storage for decades but politically impossible..

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Gotta ask...is there political will in Australia or South Africa for enormous,expensive public works projects like building dams ?in California we have needed more water storage for decades but politically impossible..

Probably not. Have a Canadian owned desalination plant in Sydney that never operates and you don't want to know the cost involved whether it's operating or not. A dam was set to be built but it was not given the go ahead because of environmental reasons and endangered frogs. I am guessing that water restrictions will be on the way soon in the metro areas and some regional areas already have them in place.

 

[python]

..2 significant international events just occurred and the reactions are NOT what i expected.

1. Trump followed up on his threat to raise tariffs on $200 bil chinese exports. unlike the last time, when china raised tariffs on the american good within 60 seconds (!!) of the trump's, this time the response is ...muted words. lots of them. no counter actions, nor a promise of such. at least, that's what i am getting out of the cgtn news and commentary. has trump finally scared the dragon ?

2. a russiam military plane was just shutdown over syria. many deaths. their deference ministry in an unusually harsh manner blamed israel while stating it was a syrian missile. they hinted at a retaliation. if they follow up, it will change the entire balance in the middle east b/c right now they are sort of mediating btwn the iranians and israelis. russia playing the iranian card closer equals more zionist stress from hezbollah, more modern weapons for syria's air defense etc

we'll have to wait.

 

[Archibald]

Re:

..2 significant international events just occurred and the reactions are NOT what i expected.

1. Trump followed up on his threat to raise tariffs on $200 bil chinese exports. unlike the last time, when china raised tariffs on the american good within 60 seconds (!!) of the trump's, this time the response is ...muted words. lots of them. no counter actions, nor a promise of such. at least, that's what i am getting out of the cgtn news and commentary. has trump finally scared the dragon ?

2. a russiam military plane was just shutdown over syria. many deaths. their deference ministry in an unusually harsh manner blamed israel while stating it was a syrian missile. they hinted at a retaliation. if they follow up, it will change the entire balance in the middle east b/c right now they are sort of mediating btwn the iranians and israelis. russia playing the iranian card closer equals more zionist stress from hezbollah, more modern weapons for syria's air defense etc

we'll have to wait.

didn't have to wait long on #1...
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45555749

 

[python]

Re: Re:

..2 significant international events just occurred and the reactions are NOT what i expected.

1. Trump followed up on his threat to raise tariffs on $200 bil chinese exports. unlike the last time, when china raised tariffs on the american good within 60 seconds (!!) of the trump's, this time the response is ...muted words. lots of them. no counter actions, nor a promise of such. at least, that's what i am getting out of the cgtn news and commentary. has trump finally scared the dragon ?

2. a russiam military plane was just shutdown over syria. many deaths. their deference ministry in an unusually harsh manner blamed israel while stating it was a syrian missile. they hinted at a retaliation. if they follow up, it will change the entire balance in the middle east b/c right now they are sort of mediating btwn the iranians and israelis. russia playing the iranian card closer equals more zionist stress from hezbollah, more modern weapons for syria's air defense etc

we'll have to wait.

didn't have to wait long on #1...
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45555749

it is true. unlike the 60 seconds last time, china took 20 something hours to formulate its response in the form of counter sanctions.

what i find curious in terms of further developments is that, as some us official said, the chinese are running out of bullets with the latest round of tariffs seemingly supporting the notion ($60B vs. $200B).

does it mean that trump's arrogant tactic is winning ? i personally, would want to think they are not. but the china supremo, unlike trump, did not communicate publicly what he'll do if trump goes ahead with his final threat of taxing the remainder of the chinese exports ($260B).

the more rational pundits i still listen to suggest that the chinese tactic is 2-fold. while holding out in the tit-for-tat exchanges (even if the blow exchanges are unequal), they count on the us domestic political and economic drivers to bring the self-destructive behavior under the eventual control. things like the business complaints to congress and the passage of the november elections 'chest beating' should lead to some serious negotiations...

will they ? i'd hope so, but the entranced showman in the white house fighting off impeachment does not hint at a rational conclusion. at least that's the view from my seat.

 

[python]

Just in. russia has introduced a harsh anti israel response to the shooting down of their military plane several days ago..

specifically - to remind - their intelligence craft IL-20 was shut down by a syrian missile...when they were responding to a zionist attack on the syrian facilities. according to the official russian investigation, the f-16s were hiding behind a bigger craft to avoid being shut down. then the commander of the israeli air force was hurriedly dispatched to vlad to to blame iran and syria. apparently, vlad rejected out of hand their story and the chief zionist flyer went home empty-handed...what has russia just announced ?

the competent mid east sources basically said that the syrian air defenses will be supplied by an advanced system s-300 (which per the israeli request they withdrew in 2013 despite being paid for). they will also integrate the syrian airforce into the russian system of friend/foe recognition and russian controlled surveillance and fire. the last one is the big deal b/c it essentially puts russian officers in charge of the syrian airforce and airdefence. and lastly, the russians said they will jam certain air spaces to render useless ANYONE's navigation devices.

this means denying israel its arrogant freedom of action over syria they apparently enjoyed PRIOR to violating the de-conflicting agreement with vlad.

iran and hizbollah are rejoicing.

 

[Robert5091]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/team-trump-swears-its-not-trying-to-overthrow-irans-mullahs?ref=home

The Trump administration’s Iran hardliners want to underscore something as the United Nations’ annual diplomatic confab gets under way: they’re not trying to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

“Regime change is not the administration’s policy,” John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, said in response to a question from The Daily Beast. “What we expect from Iran is massive changes in their behavior.”

Bolton’s official disavowal of regime change is almost bound to hit a wall of skepticism

Because - John Bolton in 2015 writing a NY Times Op-ed
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/opinion/to-stop-irans-bomb-bomb-iran.html

The inescapable conclusion is that Iran will not negotiate away its nuclear program. Nor will sanctions block its building a broad and deep weapons infrastructure. The inconvenient truth is that only military action like Israel’s 1981 attack on Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor in Iraq or its 2007 destruction of a Syrian reactor, designed and built by North Korea, can accomplish what is required. Time is terribly short, but a strike can still succeed.

Rendering inoperable the Natanz and Fordow uranium-enrichment installations and the Arak heavy-water production facility and reactor would be priorities. So, too, would be the little-noticed but critical uranium-conversion facility at Isfahan. An attack need not destroy all of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, but by breaking key links in the nuclear-fuel cycle, it could set back its program by three to five years. The United States could do a thorough job of destruction, but Israel alone can do what’s necessary. Such action should be combined with vigorous American support for Iran’s opposition, aimed at regime change in Tehran.

 

[Robert5091]

https://www.dw.com/en/eu-and-iran-a...aintain-trade-despite-us-sanctions/a-45623867

The remaining signatories of the Iran nuclear deal announced on Monday that they would establish a channel to facilitate payments for Iran's exports, including oil, as well as its imports. The decision was reached after high level, closed-door talks at the UN in New York.

"Mindful of the urgency and the need for tangible results, the participants welcomed practical proposals to maintain and develop payment channels notably the initiative to establish a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to facilitate payments related to Iran's exports, including oil," Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the EU said in a joint statement.

The group said they were determined "to protect the freedom of their economic operators to pursue legitimate business with Iran."

Will not make Trump & Bibi happy.

 

[Bustedknuckle]

Re:

https://www.dw.com/en/eu-and-iran-a...aintain-trade-despite-us-sanctions/a-45623867

The remaining signatories of the Iran nuclear deal announced on Monday that they would establish a channel to facilitate payments for Iran's exports, including oil, as well as its imports. The decision was reached after high level, closed-door talks at the UN in New York.

"Mindful of the urgency and the need for tangible results, the participants welcomed practical proposals to maintain and develop payment channels notably the initiative to establish a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to facilitate payments related to Iran's exports, including oil," Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the EU said in a joint statement.

The group said they were determined "to protect the freedom of their economic operators to pursue legitimate business with Iran."

Will not make Trump & Bibi happy.

Make America Alone Again..maybe the US can sell all it's crap to Israel..

 

[Robert5091]

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018...t-system-skirt-sanctions-180925050920569.html

Rodger Shanahan, a research fellow at the Lowry Institute for International Policy, called the EU agreement "a poke in the eye for the US".

:lol:

The U.S. of who?

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/09/25/575151/Iran-Hassan-Rouhani-UN

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has called on the global community to stand up to Washington’s violations of international agreements and regulations, saying it is especially in the interest of independent nations to unite against US bullying and interventionist policies.
...
In a meeting with Christine Lagarde, managing director and chairwoman of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Rouhani stressed that the organization's main responsibility is to protect its members against banking and monetary sanctions.
Lagarde, for her part, gave assurances that the IMF would continue its cooperation with Iran.
...
Rouhani also stressed the necessity of fighting terrorism in separate meetings with Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah as well as Cuban and Turkish presidents, Miguel Diaz-Canel and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He referred to the recent deadly terrorist attack in the Iranian city of Ahvaz, saying the incident underlined the need for unity in the fight against terrorism.

“Many terrorist groups in the region have either been created by or have the support of America,” he said.

 

[python]

since i am obsessed by anything 'international politics', i spent as much time as i could spare to follow the un gen assembly...nothing new i discovered nor learned - the same circus except this time the chief clown was from america.

if anything was to be taken out of it, besides screwing my daily commute thru the area, that was how increasingly isolated the united states is becoming. this isolation, as expected of a cornered animal, results in more and more aggressive screaming, threats and - what i am afraid most - the seemingly vanishing ability to reflect on how the roaring american animal comes across to the rest of the world

the pot shots from venezuella, iran, russia, china are usual. but when a french ruling midget dares to call spade a spade or a fragile lady in charge of the eu foreign affairs works openly to undermine sanctions - americans need to take a notice. and quickly...

my pessimistic view is that the un will either die soon - b/c the us will cut out its funding being alienated - or it will move from new york to another capital b/c most nations are getting fed up by the us role the political talking heads call 'unilateralism' but in reality is a naked aggression by a fast declining empire against the rules based world...

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

since i am obsessed by anything 'international politics', i spent as much time as i could spare to follow the un gen assembly...nothing new i discovered nor learned - the same circus except this time the chief clown was from america.

if anything was to be taken out of it, besides screwing my daily commute thru the area, that was how increasingly isolated the united states is becoming. this isolation, as expected of a cornered animal, results in more and more aggressive screaming, threats and - what i am afraid most - the seemingly vanishing ability to reflect on how the roaring american animal comes across to the rest of the world

the pot shots from venezuella, iran, russia, china are usual. but when a french ruling midget dares to call spade a spade or a fragile lady in charge of the eu foreign affairs works openly to undermine sanctions - americans need to take a notice. and quickly...

my pessimistic view is that the un will either die soon - b/c the us will cut out its funding being alienated - or it will move from new york to another capital b/c most nations are getting fed up by the us role the political talking heads call 'unilateralism' but in reality is a naked aggression by a fast declining empire against the rules based world...

First time I saw Trump blush........the UNHCR might be worried re funding but the effectiveness of the UN has been questionable for years. The UN is basically in the same boat as NATO. Does Trump go ahead with his cuts or is just his usual bluster ? And then you have the EU and the Brexit mess. In comparison China and Russia seem fairly stable.

 

[Jagartrott]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/30/huge-protests-in-brazil-as-far-right-presidential-hopeful-jair-bolsonaro-returns-home

So this guy basically threatens with a military coup if he's not elected. Crazy times we live in.