Understanding US thread-III

[UlanBatori]

Need to post this b4 US bye-election results are announced. 9 hours ago, CNN posted this grand item about the bye-election caused in the 6th COTUS district. formerly the den of Newt Gingrich and lately of Tom Price, now apptd. HHS Secretary. 15 candidates running, 13 elephants and 2 donkeys. CNN hyperventilated about how John Ossoff, donkey, was expected to win over 50% of the vote due to the elephants being so scattered, and how that would be a Major Blow to the *(Unmentionable) H&D". How that would bode grim for DT in the 2018 mid-term elections, etc etc.

It occurred to me then that if CNN was gushing so loudly about poor J. Ossoff, he was doomed just as surely as Mohterma HiC.

OK, 6 hours later, it seems to have dawned on them that the chance of Ossoff winning 50% in the 6th district. is about the same as that of a Pakistani astronaut walking on Mars this year.So they bring out some Professor of this or that, in an Opinion Piece, giving a Dire Warning **NOT** to assign any importance to the result of a bye-electionand how that is completely uncorrelated to what has historically happened in the midterm election. Stay tuned...

Oh and this, from about 1.5 hours ago: Back to hope, like a watered marjuana plant!

I have no idea which outcome will come out, and care less, but CNN's hollowness stands out.

[Yagnasri]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvbdHzZwglM

Be careful with you board airlines next time.

[UlanBatori]

Best one: United Airlines: We Put the "Hospital" in "Hospitality"

[Cosmo_R]

I am predicting that the 'Zee will launch carrier-borne attacks on NoKo. Say shoot down a couple of MiG-17s and smash a coastal radar. If possible, throw a spanner into the Nuke Test Site. Wonder if a MOAB can be delivered to the nuke site. Apparently it is shoved out the back of a C-130, so that's pretty difficult to survive flying across NoKo.

Gonna be tough to do from the Indian Ocean

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/worl ... v=top-news

Where are the carriers? No clue apparently

[UlanBatori]

In 2017, only the media cannot detect a carrier group, hain? Maybe NoKo unless the Pakistani GEO sat tells them.

[komal]

Boeing to layoff hundreds of engineers. Good thing the Wall in Mexico (paid for by taxpayers) will open busboy jobs and let's not forget the coal mining jobs that will become available once EPA is gutted.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-17/boeing-to-lay-off-hundreds-of-engineers-in-cost-cutting-push

[komal]

In 2017, only the media cannot detect a carrier group, hain? Maybe NoKo unless the Pakistani GEO sat tells them.

Actually, it is only DT and his intelligence team that couldn't locate the aircraft carrier group.

But then his economics team believes a tariff on Mexican imports will be paid by Mexicans.

[Singha]

a man screaming allahuakbar has shot dead 3 people in fresno in central valley CA. thats a known area for PIO indian farmers.

[Yagnasri]

Tragic things happening due to the stupidity of Khanland. It continues to make stupid decisions.

How much NoKo was will cost to Khan if it ever takes place we do not know. Old stocks are getting cleared and new stocks purchased with lot of $$$s and with all bell and whistles may come in when they next target GoK some kind of juamanji nation.

[Zynda]

Boeing to layoff hundreds of engineers.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-17/boeing-to-lay-off-hundreds-of-engineers-in-cost-cutting-push

Not good news. If the top dog OEM is laying off employees due to slow down, the effect cascades down to their suppliers/vendors as well.

[Singha]

If u look at WARN act online notices for california..boeing is doing frequent small reductions

[UlanBatori]

Wonder what happened to the hype yesterdin about Major Blow To T***** in the special elections. All I see about the Georgia Victory is this from a week ago: Georgia Republican makes unsubstantiated claim that rival is putting up yard signs without asking

O I c!!

It can be tempting to try and draw far-reaching conclusions about the 2018 midterm elections from the special election results in Georgia's 6th congressional district, where Democrat Jon Ossoff came close to winning the 50% of the vote he needed to capture the longtime conservative seat. {Like Australia came close to winning the Test series against India}
But those midterms are more than 19 months away and a whole lot can change between now and then. President Trump is likely to encounter additional national security challenges;

From NYT: "

Mr. Ossoff received 48.1 percent of the vote... As Mr. Ossoff faces Ms. Handel in a head-to-head race on June 20, it is unclear whether he will be able to sustain the success he enjoyed on Tuesday, in an 18-person field. Ms. Handel, who received just under 20 percent of the vote, is a former Georgia secretary of state and is viewed as an establishment-friendly Republican. While she has struggled in her two previous campaigns, losing primaries for governor and senator, she will receive the full support of a party that dominates Georgia politics, as well as nearly unlimited resources from Washington Republicans, in the runoff...
In an illustration of how nationalized the race became, 95 percent of Mr. Ossoff’s fund-raising haul was from out of state, and nearly as much was from outside the district, where the candidate himself does not reside (though he grew up there).

Ossoff can still win... if elephants stay home and donkeys don't. At least he seems far more popular than previous token opposition to Tom Price/ Newt Gingrich.

And the Russians are up 2 their usual thing:

A rare malfunction could be the culprit behind a lengthy delay in counting Fulton County ballots, a development that’s so far prevented Georgia election officials from calling the special election in the 6th congressional district.
Workers must now manually screen hundreds of ballots to ferret out the problem, according to our sister station WSB-TV:

Lesson for US politics: a very very small number of voters can actually swing a major election result. IMAGINE the hype today on CNN if this guy had got just a few more votes!! 1000 votes is about 5 busloads in Indian terms.

A note on the election result:
Ossoff failed by almost exactly 3000 votes.
If the other 3 donkeys had not pulled away votes, he would have got 1521 of those .. enough to force a recount under the 0.5 point rule.
If Dr. Mohammed Bhuiyan the Paki-American candidate WHO STOOD AS A REPUBLICAN!!!!!! had instead asked the momeen to go vote for Ossoff (who is probably Jewish) he might have got another 441 votes, leaving him within 1000, but maybe finding enough to pull him over. So he can thank the donkeyness of his own Party, plus the Momeen, for his loss.

[UlanBatori]

Next lesson on US elections is the timing: Runoff in mid-June will heavily favor Ossoff actually, because the northern elephant-infested Yankee 'burbs will be half-empty as the herd goes on vacation to Alaska, New Zealand, Cancun etc.

[komal]

Boeing to layoff hundreds of engineers.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-17/boeing-to-lay-off-hundreds-of-engineers-in-cost-cutting-push

Not good news. If the top dog OEM is laying off employees due to slow down, the effect cascades down to their suppliers/vendors as well.

And the yield curve is starting to flatten -- a death knell for bank lending.

[Gus]

first so-called 'dreamer' deported. story is a bit murky because DHS not disclosing circumstances of first deportation and only commenting that there is a previous conviction for theft.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mor ... e691e1282e

[Singha]

How do these unaccompanied minors or teens make it across the border and live is usa without parents? Are there extended family who adopt them?

[komal]

Opens up a job as a fruit picker. More than offsets the job losses at Boeing.

[UlanBatori]

Au Pair ?

[Gus]

How do these unaccompanied minors or teens make it across the border and live is usa without parents? Are there extended family who adopt them?

typically they came in with their family when they were minors.

these are different from the lots of minors sent across mexico from central america..this was a big story a few years ago..they are the ones who cross without families.

[Rudradev]

Trump will win re-election in 2020.

You know why? Because this toxic, putrid sarcocele is already setting herself up to hijack the DNC machinery and run AGAIN.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017 ... story.html

[Singha]

things must be pretty bad in central america for families to be sending out minors across mexico wild territories and then across the border to seek a new life. i have seen there is a slow goods train on which many hitch a ride and wait for smugglers to guide them out. many get robbed or abused.

china atleast is doing something for economic upliftment of its client states and neighbours america seems only interested in propping up regimes in central and south america, fighting unfriendly regimes and fighting war on drugs

[UlanBatori]

In all fairness, what exactly is Mexico's problem with cleaning itself up? Large country, plenty of resources, rich and ancient tradition of robbing and raping their neighbors... Even staged the Olympic Games, hain? Why do they have to be a Pakistan, whining about large neighbor?

[komal]

In all fairness, what exactly is Mexico's problem with cleaning itself up? Large country, plenty of resources, rich and ancient tradition of robbing and raping their neighbors... Even staged the Olympic Games, hain? Why do they have to be a Pakistan, whining about large neighbor?

All I hear is the GOP constantly whining about them Mexicans takin' away good payin' jobs from white folk. And how builidng a wall will make America Grate.

[Singha]

the state seems to have lost control there to the gangs...the same spanish origin people have a peaceful existence in uruguey, chile and argentina...in tfta cities like montevideo and buenos aires which is madrid/paree of the south.

maybe the land is not so fertile.

[Gus]

south american countries have their issues, especially columbia and Venezuela etc..but central american countries are brutal..honduras is murder capital of world. except costa rico, which seems to have stability

[UlanBatori]

People talk about how lots of state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities are located in Mehico. Lots of posh tourist resorts. But it seems to be Mob Capitalism, like what is likely to overtake India without tough and thoughtful intervention. Strangely, this is an intensely mono-religious nation if I understand correctly, with a presumably powerful Church. Sad that the nation has gone steadily downhill rather than uphill.

[Dipanker]

I think supremacist (racist) views of the Americans is the main reason for American capitalism not expanding south of the border and to Central and South America. Instead Americans prefered the Japanese, Koreans, and lately (last ~30 years) the Chinese for expansion.

[Rudradev]

See this image:

http://assets.realclear.com/images/41/410687.jpg

A US neta in a green military jacket stands on an aircraft carrier deck and makes bold pronouncements.

Reminiscent of what happened a few weeks after the Iraq invasion of 2003. George W Bush was the neta at that time, declaring "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq.

There are key differences in the present setting.

1) The war has not yet happened, but the imagery is evocative of the same ideas: a commander-in-chief type figure addressing the troops on a floating bastion securing the furthest reaches of western civilization against the barbarians.

2) The leader this time is NOT the president. It is the VICE president, Mike Pence. He is making biblical-sounding threats, true to his EJ roots: "the sword stands ready", etc. This is perhaps the most important difference. In the case of Iraq, it was the President himself on the flight deck, posturing as Champion of the West, although the Vice President (Cheney) was widely recognized at having been the chief strategist and protagonist behind the Iraq invasion.

In this case, even though Trump is not the kind of guy to miss a photo opportunity, and is in fact the kind of guy who gets jealous when his underlings get too much of the limelight... it is Pence who is cutting the dashing, heroic, commander-in-chief figure on the frontlines.

What is going on here? Does this tell us anything that might advance our present understanding of the US?

Is Pence expecting that Trump won't finish his term... and therefore preparing himself to finish the term as President, and get re-elected in 2020?

[nachiket]

I think supremacist (racist) views of the Americans is the main reason for American capitalism not expanding south of the border and to Central and South America. Instead Americans prefered the Japanese, Koreans, and lately (last ~30 years) the Chinese for expansion.

That is BS. How come the "racist" views don't come into picture in China. Korea and the other places. Industries will move to areas where there is infrastructure, manpower, government support available with decent law and order. Plenty of manufacturing units have moved to Mexico for example. Trumpanzee was howling about it. The central american countries are lawless hellholes on the other hand. Why would anyone industry move there?

[Dipanker]

I think supremacist (racist) views of the Americans is the main reason for American capitalism not expanding south of the border and to Central and South America. Instead Americans prefered the Japanese, Koreans, and lately (last ~30 years) the Chinese for expansion.

That is BS. How come the "racist" views don't come into picture in China. Korea and the other places. Industries will move to areas where there is infrastructure, manpower, government support available with decent law and order. Plenty of manufacturing units have moved to Mexico for example. Trumpanzee was howling about it. The central american countries are lawless hellholes on the other hand. Why would anyone industry move there?

Answer is simple, in the white racist hierarchical system where whites are at the top of the totem pole, the Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese figure higher than the Mexicans, Mestizos, and the rest of Latin Americans. Infrastructure, blah blah etc., is not hard to develop.


(Edited to accommodate Yayavar objection)

[Yayavar]

^^Can we drop this nonsense of tarnishing desis with correlating racism and caste and unnecessarily bringing in caste - Brahmin or any other - for any non-related comparison? The social inequities of caste are present but this is not the right comparison.

[Rudradev]

Mexico's Revenge

Until recently, a Mexican–Chinese rapprochement would have been unthinkable. Mexico has long steered clear of China, greeting even limited Chinese interest in the country with wariness. It rightly considered China its primary competition for American consumers. Immediately after nafta went into effect in 1994, the Mexican economy enjoyed a boom in trade and investment. (A flourishing U.S. economy and an inevitable turn in Mexico’s business cycle helped account for these years of growth too.) Then, in 2001, the World Trade Organization admitted China, propelling the country further into the global economy. Many Mexican factories could no longer compete; jobs disappeared practically overnight.

Mexico’s hesitance to do business with the Chinese was also a tribute to the country’s relationship with the “Yanquis.” A former Mexican government official told me that Barack Obama’s administration urged his country to steer clear of Chinese investment in energy and infrastructure projects. These conversations were a prologue to the government’s decision to scuttle a $3.7 billion contract with a Chinese-led consortium to build a bullet train linking Mexico City with Querétaro, a booming industrial center. The cancellation was a fairly selfless gesture, considering the sorry state of Mexican infrastructure, and it certainly displeased the Chinese.

But China has played the long game, and its patience has proved farsighted. The reason so many Chinese are ascending to the middle class is that wages have tripled over the past decade. The average hourly wage in Chinese manufacturing is now $3.60. Over that same period of time, hourly manufacturing wages in Mexico have fallen to $2.10. Even taking into account the extraordinary productivity of Chinese factories—not to mention the expense that comes with Mexico’s far greater fidelity to the rules of international trade—Mexico increasingly looks like a sensible place for Chinese firms to set up shop, particularly given its proximity to China’s biggest export market.

Mexico began quietly welcoming a greater Chinese presence even before the American presidential election. In October, China’s state-run media promised that the two countries “would elevate military ties to [a] new high” and described the possibility of joint operations, training, and logistical support. A month and a half later, Mexico sold a Chinese oil company access to two massive patches of deepwater oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. And in February, the billionaire Carlos Slim, a near-perfect barometer of the Mexican business elite’s mood, partnered with Anhui Jianghuai Automobile to produce SUVs in Hidalgo, a deal that will ultimately result in the production of 40,000 vehicles a year. These were not desultory developments. As Beijing’s ambassador to Mexico City put it in December, with the American election clearly on the brain: “We are sure that cooperation is going to be much strengthened.”

Let’s pause to consider the illogic. Trump says that China is a grave threat, both militarily and economically. He has accused China of “rap[ing] our country.” That’s not the way most analysts would put it, but a fairly broad bipartisan consensus holds that China’s expansionism should be contained and its mercantilism checked. Barack Obama’s vaunted “pivot” to Asia tried to keep China’s neighbors from succumbing to its gravitational pull. Thanks to Donald Trump, China is now better positioned to execute the most difficult maneuver in its own, North American pivot—pushing the U.S. and Mexico further apart.

[Zynda]

Finally, Faux News have dropped (fired) Mr. Up Standing Righteous Cardinal Conservative of America, Bill O'Reilly. He will not be returning to air on Faux News after his "vacation". The move was prompted mainly by staggering decline in ad. revenues on his program. Also, another former (?) female employee of Faux News has alleged being sexual harassment by O'Reilly.

[hanumadu]

Is Pence expecting that Trump won't finish his term... and therefore preparing himself to finish the term as President, and get re-elected in 2020?

A History professor was on MSNBC saying Trump may be impeached and its a Republican dream to see Mike Pence and Paul Ryan as President-VP.

Actually there has been quite a lot of talk of impeachment talk right from when Trump took over. Now it looks like they are setting Trump up. They will turn the public opinion against him and finally the axe will fall.

[UlanBatori]

From Rt.com: WikiLeaks Manhunt

The FBI and CIA are investigating hundreds of possible suspects in one of the biggest security breaches in CIA history, CBS News reports. The WikiLeaks “Vault 7” release, which contained thousands of top-secret documents, revealed the agency’s hacking tools.

A joint investigation and manhunt by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency into the source of WikiLeaks’ “Vault 7” dump last month has begun, CBS News justice and homeland security correspondent Jeff Pegues reported Wednesday evening.

From Snowden:

Still working through the publication, but what @Wikileaks has here is genuinely a big deal. Looks authentic. What makes this look real?
Program & office names, such as the JQJ (IOC) crypt series, are real. Only a cleared insider could know them.

[UlanBatori]

A History professor was on MSNBC

Enuf said. Another one temporarily taking a rest after giving Expert Predictions of the 2016 Election.

[hanumadu]

A History professor was on MSNBC

Enuf said. Another one temporarily taking a rest after giving Expert Predictions of the 2016 Election.

This guy predicted Trump win and apparently all other elections before.

[UlanBatori]

If he claims to have predicted Trump win he **HAS** 2 b a fraud onlee.

[vina]

Autistic and a 10 year old ? You will be Handcuffed and Arrested

12 Year old and in 6th grade ? You will be body slammed to land on your face and be arrested

Welcome to America!

[Lalmohan]

side note on latin america... more than in the US the central and southern american countries have a more bitter legacy of colonialism. and the native populations and cultures have survived much better than they have in the north. the issues of european vs native etc., continue to this day in strength and also most economic development has been of the agrarian or extractive industry kind - which leads to the same socio-economic problems as many parts of africa or asia. spain took away all the wealth of the americas without building anything (much) and left catholicism and the language - there is HUGE resentment against that still. in many respects the gringos are perceived to be the new colonialists - hence the angst