Understanding the US - Again

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 27 Mar 2018 05:47

THAAD is free?

kiranA · Post by **kiranA** » 27 Mar 2018 06:30

UlanBatori wrote:THAAD is free?

yup

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 27 Mar 2018 06:46

Apparently so, despite Orange-utan's claims that he would make SoKo pay. But I think there is more to it. All US bases and "military aid" is export, extremely lucrative. Europe paid through their noses. So I am sure, do SoKo and Japan and KSA. Except that baksheesh to Pakistan is without any return, but that is a scam between the Paki Jarnails and the US Jarnails. And the Israelis probably make the US pay for the weapons aid twice over.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 27 Mar 2018 07:37

Israel and egypt get weapons under annual pkgs paid for by gotus to oem.

disha · Post by **disha** » 27 Mar 2018 11:18

kiranA wrote:
UlanBatori wrote:THAAD is free?
yup

Yup, THAAD is free for SoKo and other US Munnas'., think of it as a kickback to the Munna's from US tax payer to keep US defense export alive. And also the US defense industry.

Further, the "cost" borne by US Tax payer is actually worth it, since the spin offs from hi-tec defense gadgets work back into in US economy in spades via spinoffs.

disha · Post by **disha** » 27 Mar 2018 11:21

jaysimha wrote:Markets tumble after US-China trade war fears
U.S. stocks continued to plummet on Friday, ending the week with biggest loss in more than two years, as investors were agitated by the scale of U.S. tariffs and possible impact on global trade

baap re baap,,, there is no better way to portray the situation than uniform shaving of heads..
may be it is the shape of things to come under stump...

Looks like nukular stormy struck and drove up the stock market today!

The shape of things to come under stump are stormy. Pun unintended.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 27 Mar 2018 16:51

The massive expulsions of Russian diplomats-the largest ever in history,all over an event still inconclusive as to how the Skripals were poisoned,and by whom,expulsions based upon sheer bias,prejudice and which would be thrown out by any British or American court for total lack of evidence has resulted in a global diplomatic earthquake.We are truly are heading for very bad times with this US admin that is hurtling crazily like a train that's about to off the rails,with its chief ally,the UK behaving like a drunken guard waving the green light as it approaches a tottering bridge.At stake are peace deals with Iran,NoKo and now Russia,with whom the West has signed on sev. N-arms limitation agreements,and which has brought about a sense of stability in Syria and the Middle East, is now being pilloried for just that..bringing "Peace" ,when the US is "Trump-eting" for war!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ty-adviser

John Bolton has made it into the White House. Does this mean war?
David Shariatmadari
Trump has replaced his thoughtful national security adviser with a belligerent TV pundit. This is government by Fox News

Fri 23 Mar 2018
Former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, 24 February 2017. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters
It’s happened.

In the febrile days after Donald Trump’s election, one of the more terrifying prospects was the appointment of John Bolton to a senior position in the incoming administration. Bolton is the hawk’s hawk, the neocon’s neocon (though he rejects that label, preferring “Goldwater conservative” after the presidential candidate deemed too extreme by the American people in 1964). His published work includes “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran”, “The Legal Case for Striking North Korea First” and “How to Defund the UN”. As George W Bush’s under secretary of state for arms control he was a rabidly enthusiastic supporter of the invasion of Iraq, and seems never to have fallen out of love with the doctrine of intervention, despite the catastrophe he helped engineer.

As Trump re-ran the Apprentice but for the job of America’s top diplomat, dangling the prize of secretary of state in front of Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, Bolton’s name was increasingly mentioned. But there was a sticking point: facial hair. “Donald was not going to like that moustache,” an associate of the president-elect told the Washington Post. “I can’t think of anyone that’s really close to Donald that has a beard that he likes.”

Bolton wasn’t picked for his penchant for pre-emptive strikes, but because he regularly pops up on Trump’s TV
Bolton had fallen foul of the “right out of central casting” test. He didn’t look the part, unlike the don’t-mess-with-me-faced defence secretary James Mattis, or the bullet-headed national security adviser HR McMaster. That and the fact that the Republican Rand Paul vowed to block his appointment, which would have required Senate confirmation (“He should get nowhere close to the State Department.”) As a result, he remained outside the inner circle, having to content himself with opining on Fox News. Until Thursday.

Bolton is now national security adviser-designate, after McMaster was fired (the position doesn’t require congressional approval). And, once again, Trump’s top team looks like a bunch of rats in a sack, with no internal coherence or logic. The president ran as an anti-interventionist, repeatedly complaining about all the money America spent fighting wars, particularly Iraq. His soft line on Russia couldn’t be further from Bolton’s antagonistic approach.

So what does moustache-man’s promotion signal? Is there now going to be a decisive shift in favour of military intervention in Iran, North Korea and elsewhere, as Bolton would no doubt prefer?

The world is right to be nervous. But there is good reason to think that Bolton’s tenure may not mark an ideological sea-change. There are many causes of the Trump administration’s dysfunction. Prime among them is the idiosyncratic criteria the president applies to senior appointments. Candidates are not selected for their ability to all pull in one direction, with a grand strategy in mind. Nor for their intelligence or experience. Mattis didn’t become defence secretary because of his erudition, but at least in part because Trump heard he was nicknamed “Mad Dog”. McMaster wasn’t chosen because of his book about the importance of military men challenging political leaders, but because Trump goes weak at the knees when he sees a three-star general. Bolton wasn’t picked for his penchant for pre-emption, but because he regularly pops up on Trump’s TV, which is almost always tuned to the same channel.

As he attempts to make his presence felt in the West Wing, Bolton is likely to meet resistance from Mattis and the president’s chief of staff John Kelly, who are said to be “sceptical” of him. And he appears to have struck some kind of bargain to moderate his bellicose instincts. One source told CNN’s White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins that “Bolton promised Trump ‘he wouldn’t start any wars’ if he selected him as the new national security adviser”.

But even if he sticks to that somewhat pat promise, we can still expect him to exert influence over the president’s thinking, particularly on Iran, where the two are more or less of the same mind. Both Rex Tillerson – recently sacked as secretary of state – and McMaster were proponents of maintaining the Obama-era deal designed to put the brakes on Tehran’s nuclear programme. Trump has made no secret of his disdain for it, and now he will be backed up to the hilt by his own national security adviser. So we can expect this enormous diplomatic achievement to be , despite European efforts to the contrary. But “bomb Iran”? So long as there are at least some adults left in the room that’s unlikely. Help us Mad Dog Mattis, you’re our only hope.

David Shariatmadari is a Guardian editor and writer

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 27 Mar 2018 19:34

Sharia t Madari is also Eyeranian. First name is probably same as that of Dawood Geelani's. Not that I agree or disagree with his points. One point is nonsense. Trump's team does NOT resemble rats in a sack, with no cohesion. They resemble much more the Followers of the Great Mahdi aka Pied Piper of Ham(e)lin.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 27 Mar 2018 19:34

phillip - the west and the Russians are playing a much longer game than your interpretation above
this is just the latest round
there will be counter and counter and counter... and so on
the game goes on

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 01 Apr 2018 09:36

https://twitter.com/ShiaBladeRunner/sta ... 7743030272

april 3 has been declared 'punish a muslim day' by some white racist/fundies....someone decided to take a early whack at it and sucker punched a 19 yr old hijabi lady in a hospital in dearborn michigan

video in link. fortunately the woman seems unhurt though badly shaken by the sheer spite in the attacker

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 01 Apr 2018 09:41

Hop this is the right thread ...

http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch ... ssion=true
New York lawmakers pass bill banning police from having sex with people in custody

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 01 Apr 2018 10:50

how thoughtful of them.

kancha · Post by **kancha** » 01 Apr 2018 11:25

Another day .. Another 'Routine' Traffic Stop .. Another Black Man Dead

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 01 Apr 2018 15:11

the bail bond system , being used to break the backs of the poor

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/31/us/b ... v=top-news

kit · Post by **kit** » 02 Apr 2018 21:53

Lalmohan wrote:phillip - the west and the Russians are playing a much longer game than your interpretation above
this is just the latest round
there will be counter and counter and counter... and so on
the game goes on

Lavrov is saying that the UK purposefully mediated Skripals death .. if so there seems to forces quite keen to stroke a return of the cold war .. judging by the actions of the UK and the western nations, it does seem like an overblown premeditated response to a former spys killing. Take most of the printed western media with a big dose of salt., one is reminded how Blair " justified" the UK response in Iraq and elsewhere

kit · Post by **kit** » 02 Apr 2018 21:54

Singha wrote:how thoughtful of them.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 02 Apr 2018 21:59

civil asset seizure and seizing cash etc on car searches etc..

the indian immigration community is not exposed to this side of the "law enforcement" except a few tickets in a high income area where police are well behaved.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 02 Apr 2018 23:08

entrepreneurial capitalism in law enforcement - bounty hunters, bail bondsmen, privately run jails, town paid police always under pressure to raise funds by finding outsiders , warrior police ....

surveillance capitalism in the internet - everyone gathering up GBs of data on every user, everything logged and analyzed and indexed to deep tree depths

merchant capitalism in weapons sales - keep everything burning at low ebb to drive sales . pump up iranian / soko threat to sell billions to defend such threats

robber capitalism in M&A and offshoring of manufacturing

the dystopia we all dreaded is already here.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 05 Apr 2018 19:30

The old joke was that the American told the Russian: I have the right to stand on the steps of the Capitol and say that the President of the United States is an idiot. To which the Russian replied: I have the right to stand in Red Square and say that the President of the United States is an idiot too.

But reality is a bit different, hain?

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 10 Apr 2018 02:53

Looks like America carried Quantitative Easing a bit too far. Unemployment is below 4% and many businesses are facing severe worker shortage. Agriculture is the worst hit and this is even before Trump. Farmers having to let the produce rot in the fields for lack of workers to pick them up. But then US produces too much anyway. At least this way they wont be fighting against poorer countries like India and African countries to import American produce. US has a seasonal work visa called H2A where Mexican and South American workers import farm labour but farmers lamenting the numbers are not enough.
Dairy, poultry too affected and they cannot hire H2A workers as the work is not considered seasonal. Of course Americans won't work these jobs because its too hard. Heck even older illegal Mexican workers don't want to work these jobs as they have moved on to better jobs.

Construction is another area that is badly hit. Lot of construction workers moved on to other fields during the Great Recession and not many new ones taking them up. Lot of 'industry experts' lamenting how college education is a waste, its not for everyone, students end up with debt etc and people should be encouraged to take up trade school after high school and how people should be taught those trade skills right from school itself.

If you think the hard jobs are the ones affected, then you are wrong. Restaurants are understaffed and cutting down the hours they are open. The 'white-only' Americans say that is because the owners do no want to pay well though in many cases owners are offering good pay with benefits. Mexico itself seems to be doing well enough for them not to risk entering the US illegally in the current situation and many self deporting themselves.

If things continue like this, US will be soon begging for Syrian refugees

PS. The current labour shortage is being blamed on Obama for aggressively deporting millions of illegal immigrants

. The number of mexicans living in the US declined by more than a million in the last 10 years.

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 10 Apr 2018 03:24

^^I think this labour shortage is good for the US in the long run. There will be a recession at some point of time and things will reset. People will be willing to re skill themselves again and go where the jobs are. But with declining population sans immigration, there won't be any significant growth in the US.

Rudradev · Post by **Rudradev** » 10 Apr 2018 12:38

Wage-push inflation is on the way.

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 11 Apr 2018 22:04

Wage inflation will result in some adjustments in labour force but it will create shortages elsewhere.

ricky_v · Post by **ricky_v** » 12 Apr 2018 18:03

http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/10/ame ... d-anymore/
Most or all of what is stated below is in the public domain

To be sure, this is how one expects great powers to behave, especially when important matters are at stake. The Athenians famously told the Melians that “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must,” and that logic did not escape U.S. leaders throughout the country’s history. Think about all the treaties U.S. officials signed with various Native American tribes and subsequently broke, modified, or reneged upon as the nation expanded steadily across North America. Or consider the Nixon shocks of 1971, when the United States unilaterally ended convertibility of the dollar into gold, in effect dismantling the Bretton Woods economic order it had helped create. President Richard Nixon also slapped a 10 percent surcharge on imports to make sure the U.S. economy didn’t suffer as the dollar rose in value.

Or consider some more recent events. As more and more documents come to light, it has become clear that U.S. officials convinced their Soviet counterparts to permit German reunification by promising that NATO would not expand further. Secretary of State James Baker told Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not go “1 inch eastward” and Gorbachev received similar assurances from a host of other Western officials as well. President Bill Clinton’s administration blithely ignored these assurances, however, in its overzealous rush to create what it thought would be a “zone of peace” well to the east. As a number of observers warned at the time, this decision poisoned relations with Moscow and was the first step leading back to the level of confrontation we are dealing with today. That blunder was compounded by the George W. Bush administration’s decision to abandon the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002. While technically not a breach of trust (i.e., the treaty permitted either party to leave if it wished, provided it gave adequate notice), it was still a clear signal that the United States didn’t care about preserving good relations with Moscow and was not going to take Russian sensitivities into account.

And then there’s the checkered history of U.S. policy toward Libya. Building on a successful multilateral sanctions program, the Bush administration successfully convinced Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi to let American inspectors enter the country, dismantle his entire weapons of mass destruction program, and cart it away. To get the agreement, however, Bush promised Qaddafi that the United States would not attempt to overthrow his regime. It was a clear quid pro quo: Qaddafi gave up his weapons programs, and the United States promised not to do to him what it did to Saddam Hussein. But then a few years later, President Barack Obama’s administration ignored that earlier pledge and collaborated in Qaddafi’s overthrow.

But wait, there’s more! The multinational operation against Qaddafi was authorized by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973, and Russia agreed to abstain on the resolution because its stated purpose was preventing Qaddafi from attacking civilians in Benghazi, not toppling the regime. However, as Stephen R. Weissman has shown in an important article, regime change was on U.S. officials’ minds from the get-go, and they soon blew right past the terms of the resolution. As former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates later recalled, “The Russians felt they had been played for suckers on Libya. They felt there had been a bait and switch.” And they were right. So, if you’re ever wondering why Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly blocked Security Council action over the disaster in Syria, there’s at least part of your answer.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Apr 2018 12:52

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way ... -men-in-ph

Admin Note: Please post something more than a URL in this forum! It would be nice gesture towards rest of us, if you can summarize any interesting things in this URL

ricky_v · Post by **ricky_v** » 18 Apr 2018 08:58

https://providencemag.com/2018/04/part- ... divisions/

Doran bracingly declares that American divisions over foreign policy are “primarily religious in nature—or perhaps ‘theological’ is the better word, for what matters in foreign policy, as in so many other aspects of American politics, are the religious divisions among Protestants.”
The primary division is between Protestant modernists and fundamentalists whose schism emerged over 100 years ago, Doran says. The latter emerged as a religio-political movement from populist Jacksonian democracy that was distrustful of Eastern cosmopolitan WASP elites and was rooted in the Scots-Irish dominated hinterland.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 18 Apr 2018 20:03

it would seem that the US, like many other western democracies is at a watershed. the established political parties have in most cases run out of steam and a new restructuring is due. In france it has already happened, Germany is struggling, the US - well, the republican party seems to be in the first throes of implosion. the democrats are not far behind. a new order from the ashes...
interesting times have begun...

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 18 Apr 2018 20:10

china has bit back with 179% tariff on 1b worth of sorghum import...small compared to size of ZTEs hit

CNN

China made clear again Tuesday that it was willing to stand its ground in the increasingly tense standoff between the world's two biggest economies.

"If the US continues to act recklessly ... we stand ready to show our sword, and fight to win this battle to defend multilateralism and free trade," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in response to a punitive US move against Chinese smartphone maker ZTE.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 18 Apr 2018 20:11

massa needs to ban any US/EU cos from dealing with chinese aviation sector projects like the C919 and follow ons...that will get them all riled up.
can be done on national security grounds.

and they cannot stop importing more from boeing and airbus as there is no other game in town.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 18 Apr 2018 20:14

massa can easily do it, they strong armed bombardier (Canada) on flimsy grounds during ombaba admin to not sell to EU

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 18 Apr 2018 21:04

the new duopoly that will emerge from the ruins of the Old Order will be more to the left and more to the right with little in the center.

like iron fillings around the N-S poles a magnetic rod, people will flock to one pole

the yankee voting 'liberal middle class' will be left high and dry. their cozy hold on the 'system' and educational high ground needs a shaking up.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 19 Apr 2018 20:16

Paradox of US economy.

The Trump Administration want a lower dollar to curb imports and help exports as a jobs measure.

At same time the tax cuts, the tax reforms and rising interest rates to curb inflation all create a flood of foreign money.

So its like a using stirrer from Trump Administration when a hose pipe is flooding the US economy.

Right now the $1T deficit is about 5% of the GDP. i.e. $20T GDP.

Very chaotic.

Add political risk now.
The US congress might not look the same by November 2018 and who knows about the administration before 2020 or after!

So best option for India is to hunker down and resist any calls to do this or that.

Yashca Mounk says illiberal democracy is the threat.

I think democracy is itself under threat from both extremes in US.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 19 Apr 2018 20:52

Singha wrote:the new duopoly that will emerge from the ruins of the Old Order will be more to the left and more to the right with little in the center.

like iron fillings around the N-S poles a magnetic rod, people will flock to one pole

the yankee voting 'liberal middle class' will be left high and dry. their cozy hold on the 'system' and educational high ground needs a shaking up.

this is right here, right now - the apocalypse is around us

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 19 Apr 2018 23:33

Hanumadu, A state govt employee told me that there are very few US origin contractors who can execute multibillion $ civil construction projects. Most have retired or moved on.
If an infrastructure bill passes expect European and Chinese contractors to win the bid.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 19 Apr 2018 23:34

Singha there us growing realization if this paradox.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 20 Apr 2018 06:28

When the gravy starts drying up and fight for pie escalates, positions too become extreme. We see it in india in fight for reservations and desire by fragmented formations to weasel in under the backward bar

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 20 Apr 2018 18:05

this is a worldwide lurch to the right
need to bring things back to the centre

kit · Post by **kit** » 21 Apr 2018 00:56

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... sp-447859/

A senior US diplomat has threatened to use the Lockheed Martin F-35 programme as a retaliatory tool against Turkey for acquiring a sophisticated air defence system from Russia.

ArjunPandit · Post by **ArjunPandit** » 21 Apr 2018 02:43

^^turkey 100 F35s? how will they afford it?

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 21 Apr 2018 06:45

kit wrote:https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... sp-447859/

A senior US diplomat has threatened to use the Lockheed Martin F-35 programme as a retaliatory tool against Turkey for acquiring a sophisticated air defence system from Russia.

And folks want India to join US bandwagon for these expensive turkeys.

Turkey is a NATO ally with largest military in that alliance.
They invested early on in F35.
They make parts for the plane.
They are second source for center fuselage.
They already paid for first 10 planes.
And they get threatened by 2 bit govt official!!!

India is none of this. What chance they won't get cutoff if even a retired officer writes an op ed to take back PoK.
100 percent cutoff.