Understanding the US - Again

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Dipanker
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Dipanker »

>>Scan them for any hidden weapon just like airports before letting them in through the gate. Employ security guards at the entrance,

metal detectors in high schools are available but not pervasive

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=334
Other half of equation is secure fence/wall which most schools lack.
UlanBatori
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by UlanBatori »

Look, if my evil 6th coujin from Lahore were to get in his jacked-up Hummer and drive up to a school, casually walk out carrying a large guitar-shaped bag, and as he gets to the metal detector station, opens up with a silenced automatic to kill the security guards there, then walks inside and pulls the fire alarm, and stands at the foot of the stairwell and opens up with the bump-stocked AR-15, what NRA or T-Party "solution" is going to work in time to prevent 15 or 30 casualties? That is basically what happened here. I don't know how the guy was caught, but I haven't read where anyone overpowered him to make him drop the weapon. Either the gun jammed or he just got tired and considered his mission accomplished. Had the security guard/Sheriff's Deputy with the pistol rushed into the school, he would have been shot dead, in which case these pompous gasbags would be shedding crocodile tears about his Herrowism. Remember the Indian-American who raced forward to try and disarm the paki terrorists who skyjacked a PanAm flight in Karachi? They just gunned him down in cold blood. That's exactly what would have happened here too.

The only solution here is for the courts to allow MASSIVE judgements against the manufacturer and the retailer if a gun they made and sold was used in the commission of a crime. IOW, don't manufacture these things until you can have total control over who gets them. Require biometric ID to operate them, and have total traceability before and after sale. OF COURSE the oiseules won't allow that, and then all one can wish for is that their own near and loved ones meet a similar fate and they themselves get to live to be a 130 so that they have a long time to regret their oiseuleness.
Singha
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Singha »

Most mass shooters have legal guns with all paperwork
Some went loco much after they got guns

Just all these biometric id , checks etc will not work hence

Once a gun is a persons hands nothing prevents a person from changing over time and using that gun

With 300 mil guns in public hands, that genie left the farm long long ago

Its too late now

Issue the javelin atgm and lmgs to the kids and hope they innovate tactics as kids often do with fresh pov
abhik
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by abhik »

Dipanker wrote:
>>Scan them for any hidden weapon just like airports before letting them in through the gate. Employ security guards at the entrance,

metal detectors in high schools are available but not pervasive

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=334
Other half of equation is secure fence/wall which most schools lack.
Build the Wall!!! :rotfl:
Dipanker
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Dipanker »

Why would the security guard(s) open the gate before first asking this casually walking person to open the guitar case (or whatever as seen on CCTV) and show that he is not hiding a gun in it?

The entrance gate/door is opened only after the person has passed through metal detector and the security guard(s) is/are convinced that this person does not pose a threat.


That said, this metal-detector + secure-fence/wall solution is not 100% secure. What if someone drives a tank through the wall/fence? What if someone uses a jetpack and flies in over the wall? What if the security guards themselves are psychopaths, and so on...

Also having such a system in place does not preclude other measures such as gun control, bankrupting the gun manufacturers through lawsuits etc.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Mort Walker »

Gun rights are fundamental to US democracy - along with daily violence. It has been accepted that the casualty rate with the blood of children is the price of freedom. The gun right activist use this quote from MKG:
Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.
Singha
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Singha »

i was watching many bully fail compilations made by US schoolkids on youtube.

some kids are so oversized, it would be tough to control them if they go physically loco whether due to some rage mode or steroid/ritalin issues..forget guns just calming them down would be terrifying.

its a american cultural meme and is called roid rage if a guy ODs/underdoses and gets sentimental..jasbaati... :D


Image
UlanBatori
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by UlanBatori »

And the Teachers are ahead of the curve as usual
Teacher arrested after barricaded inside school; at least 1 shot fired.
Around 11:30 a.m., during the school's third-period class, some students were trying to get into the teacher's classroom, and the teacher would not let them inside, Dalton Police Department Spokesperson Bruce Frazier said in a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
When the principal arrived at the classroom, the teacher forced the door closed and wouldn't let him in, Frazier said. The principal then used his key to enter the classroom and heard a gunshot go off once he was inside.
The principal then placed the school on lockdown, Frazier said. Police arrived on the scene shortly after the lockdown and convinced the teacher to surrender and let them in about 30 to 45 minutes later, Frazier said. He was then taken into custody without incident.
It is unclear what caused the incident, but the teacher had been instructing a class right before it started, Frazier said.
Singha
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Singha »

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/penns ... 80228.html

Indeed, the Wallenpaupack Area School District relocated students from a nearby elementary school to other locations for the day.

Inside the church, nearly everyone wore a crown. One was made of bullets. Several dozen people carried AR-15s, with their magazines and ammunition removed; others held small pistols. One man, who declined to give his name, placed a carnation in his rifle’s muzzle.
Mukesh.Kumar
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Mukesh.Kumar »

Update on Srinivas Kuchibhotla murder: Kansas man admits murder of Indian tech worker in sports bar
Purinton, who is white, waived his right to a jury trial in state court on Tuesday.

He admitted one count of premeditated first-degree murder in Mr Kuchibhotla's death.

Appearing in Johnson County District Court, he also pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted premeditated first-degree murder in the shootings of Mr Madasani and Mr Grillot.

His sentencing is scheduled for 4 May.

Purinton still faces a federal case over the attack - including hate crime charges - that could carry a possible death sentence.
ramana
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by ramana »

US has a two front war now : European globalists and China Russia combine.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Shameek »

Tariffs raised on Steel and Aluminium.
WASHINGTON — President Trump defied opposition from his own party and protests from overseas on Thursday as he signed orders imposing stiff and sweeping new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. But he sought to soften the impact on America’s closest allies with a more flexible plan than originally envisioned.

After a week of furious lobbying and a burst of last-minute internal debates and confusion, Mr. Trump agreed to exempt, for now, Canada and Mexico and held out the possibility of later excluding allies such as Australia. But foreign leaders warned of a trade war that could escalate to other industries and be aimed at American goods.
Link
ramana
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by ramana »

Tariff retaliation sounds good but US is the biggest market and most of these countries have geared up their mfg plants for that market. Its not like suddenly they can create new domestic consumption or find new buyers. Who is going to buy that Gruyere or Gorgonzola?

EU's Draghi said it best that we can also be stupid with respect to retaliatory tariffs.
Lalmohan
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

EU steel sales to the US tends to be of the specialist variety, i.e. the stuff the US manufacturers can't get domestically (or from Mexico/China)
two impacts:
1. US high end products using the specialist steel get more expensive
2. surplus high end steel in global markets, depressing prices further - in a market that has too much capacity (thanks to China)
saip
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by saip »

Except for Germany (3%) none of the other European countries figure in the top ten exporters of steel. Almost 50% comes from Canada, Mexico (both exempt) Brazil and S Korea (probably will be exempted). Turkey does export (7%). India already has an anti-dumping duty AND countervailing duty (16% together). China already has 25%. This 25% tariff will probably kill India's steel exports.

Link
Rudradev
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Rudradev »



Amy Chua (author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) speaks about her recent book, "Political Tribes".

Listen especially from 21:55 onwards for about an 8-min summary of her thesis. It's NOT the typical Left-Lib democrat critique of Trumpism.

She says: the US today is starting to display destructive political dynamics much more typically associated with "developing" countries.
-Ethno-nationalist movements
-Erosion of trust in institutions and electoral outcomes
-Transformation of democracy into an engine of zero-sum political tribalism.

Results in part from a massive demographic transformation whereby whites, in danger of turning into a minority, themselves feel threatened by the same "siege" mentality that racial/ethnic minorities traditionally adopt.

She also says there has been a split (on class, educational, cultural lines) within the white majority itself. This has led to the emergence of a "popularly resented, market-dominant minority" i.e. the mainly coastal, college-educated white elite of Wall St, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Washington DC establishment etc.

She remarks (earlier in the talk) that the US has been blind to these sorts of dynamics in other countries where it intervened. Market-dominant minorities are a characteristic feature of many developing countries, e.g. Chinese in Indonesia or Malaysia, Indians in Uganda or Kenya. Now the white left-lib and mainly urban elite has inherited that role in the US. The middle America whites, who are generally not as well off or well-educated or accustomed to social proximity with non-whites, have turned on this elite, fueled in part by the habitual condescension of the elite whites towards them.

The backlash against the market-dominant minority invariably takes the form of populism, authoritarianism, ethno-nationalism.

The problem did not exist before because in the US the whites were not split... they were a single majority who were ALSO the market-dominant group. This creates conditions for nearly perpetual oppression of ethnic minorities, but is also more stable as a democratic model.

Another model she sees in countries such as Marcos' Philippines or Suharto's Indonesia (probably also true of Jacob Zuma's South Africa) is when the market-dominant minority enters into a cosy, crony-capitalist relationship with a strongman, authoritarian, populist leader of the ethnically dominant majority group. This is also stable and can even be financially rewarding for a certain class of the citizenry, though it is not representative and by definition oppresses the economically disadvantaged majority. Chua noted that this was the system the US (especially Wall St elites) liked to promote in developing countries, because it was nominally "democratic" while still good for business.

Lessons for India? IF we accept her thesis, then we are actually headed in the opposite direction as the US.

Under Congress, India had a market-dominant minority (the Nehruvian secularists and their crony businessmen) who brought the ethnic/religious minorities (Muslims, Christians, scheduled-castes) onto their side with sops and pandering. We had an ethnic/religious majority (Hindus) who were shamed into shunning their overall Hindu identity by various mechanisms of cultural condescension and discrimination. Most invidiously of all, as a strategy to divide Hindus, "bogeyman" categories of elite identities were invented and presented to channel populist hatred among the masses: "Brahmins", "Banias", "Hindi-speakers/Aryans" (specific to the Southern Dravidian movements). This served to keep Hindus disunited, while at the same time shielding the TRUE market-dominant minority (Nehruvian elites and their cronies) from populist anger.

As many on the forum have previously noted, this "market-dominant minority" inherited their position of economic, cultural, and political privilege from the erstwhile British colonial masters. They, and other market-dominant minorities before them, have been the bane of Bharatiya history, ever-ready to collaborate with foreigners in the subjugation of the Hindu masses as long as they themselves were able to corner some advantages.

Under Modi things are different. We are heading towards a system whereby the group who are ethnically/religiously dominant in numbers... Hindus... will become also the market-dominant majority group. In effect we are heading from something resembling the post-Clinton>>>Trump era US model to the Franklin Roosevelt >>>Johnson era US model, far more conducive to stability and prosperity.

This is a huge advantage that India has and very few other developing countries have. All this time we could not exploit it because of an artificial system imposed on us by a market-dominant minority, the Nehruvian secularists. This is another reason why Modi represents a tectonic shift of opportunity to turn things around.
Rudradev
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Rudradev »

Tillerson fired, Mike Pompeo (former head of CIA) to be named US Secretary of State.

Gina Haspel, former deputy director, will now lead the Culinary Institute.

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/ ... a-diplomat
disha
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by disha »

^ Major implications for China. In effect, China is being cut out by America on NoKo. Same thing might happen with Bakistan, that is, Bakistan is already hanging on a rope, the rope may be lengthened further.

Of course Rakshaks might complain and do a little bit of rona-dhona. However I have to point out here that China is cutting its funding this year on OBOR, since it is leading to massive capital outflows which they want to now curb!
UlanBatori
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by UlanBatori »

Shame. I thought Tillerson was doing a fine job of gutting the Conversionists-Pakis in Foggy Bottom, and had a good rapport with Putinstan. Now Orangehead has brought in a plain flunky as SoS. Hilarious (no pun intended) to read of him describing the "privilege of working with" his Foggy-Bottomed "colleagues". Where was the disagreement I wonder: After all, DT decided on talks with NoKo, which should have been a win for Tillerson's line. Unless...... the "talks" offer is a feint and the attack order has been given already. :eek:
Rudradev
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Rudradev »

disha wrote:^ Major implications for China. In effect, China is being cut out by America on NoKo.
China has orchestrated the NoKo nautanki down to the last detail. From proliferating missile and nuke tech to NoKo in the first place, to making sure that US sanctions never threatened the Pyongyang regime, to bringing Moon-Jae In of SoKo over to their side as an opponent of any war-making ideas Trump might entertain. Washington has only been able to look on helplessly (and expensively, with its USN carrier battle groups sitting in place and hemorrhaging money for nearly a year).

Trump has merely signed himself up to be one more kathputhli in the nautanki. Ironically his meeting with KJU will only make Trump that much more obligated to China, as the stage manager of that particular photo-op.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by A_Gupta »

Remarkable, the US Secretary of State, fired by a tweet.
Rex Tillerson, who was abruptly fired by Donald Trump just 12 hours after he spoke out against Russian involvement in the poisoning of an ex-spy in the United Kingdom, was almost as abruptly scheduled to make an on-camera statement at 2 PM ET. Tillerson looked and sounded like a man who has just been publicly fired without warning, looking down at his notes and at times breathing heavily. And what he didn’t say was perhaps more significant than what he did: though he didn’t criticize or directly contradict Trump, he also didn’t load things up with kind words about Trump even a little bit.

He opened by saying that he had received a call from Trump at noon today—which is to say, hours after he was publicly fired—and that he would be turning over his duties to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan at the end of the day today, though his official last day will be on March 31.

....
This statement, which didn’t address the circumstances of his firing, came amid conflicting reports. The White House initially claimed Tillerson had been fired on Friday, only to have a Tillerson aide tell reporters that he had learned of his own firing the same way the public did: through Trump’s tweet. At that point, the White House fired the Tillerson aide but also walked its story back a little, claiming that Tillerson had been warned by White House chief of staff John Kelly that he should return from a trip to Africa earlier than planned because “you may get a tweet.” Tillerson’s silence on this point, just speaking of a call with Trump after his public firing, seems to stand as an indictment of the White House’s changing stories.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3 ... t-on-Trump

It is remarkable to see that America no longer backs its poodle, backing Russia over the UK.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3 ... ccountable
Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday that British investigators have concluded it was “highly likely” that Russia was responsible for the poison attack that left a former Russian double agent and his daughter comatose on a park bench last week.....The Russian ambassador has been summoned to explain how this happened, May added, and has been asked to give a formal response by Tuesday.

...
Trump's White House is so weak it couldn't even stand behind May's assertion that Russia was culpable for the attack. Just think about that—Trump is so scared of Putin that his White House couldn't simply say that they support the U.K.'s conclusion that Russia is responsible. In fact, the White House spokesperson couldn’t even say the word: “Russia.”
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by A_Gupta »

^^^
Yes, China.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/tr ... a-will-be/
The main reason that Iran came to the negotiating table in 2013 is that the world had unified behind a far-reaching international sanctions campaign targeting Tehran over its nuclear work. Led by the U.S. but brokered through the United Nations, there was near-universal agreement that it was essential that Iran be kept from getting the bomb, even at the price of hurting domestic economies. The result was sanctions that caused Iran real pain.

In addition, five world powers (the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the U.K., France, Russia and China — and Germany) had come together with the U.S. to conduct the negotiations, meaning that Iran couldn’t play countries off one another and any agreement signed had much greater heft.

Though North Korea is under tight international sanctions and has a decimated economy, the biggest economy in the world — and the one country that is a lifeline for Pyongyang — hasn’t ever signed onto the U.S. strategy: China. Trump said during the campaign that his game plan for taking on the North Korean regime would be to enlist Beijing, but while he has made some progress in that direction, there is far from a unified vision between the two powers about how to treat North Korea.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Rudradev »

A_Gupta ji,

Also note that Trump's policy towards Russia (refusing to implement new sanctions as mandated by US Congress earlier this year)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKBN1FI2V7

does not square with Pentagon's National Defense Strategy document, authored under Sec. Defense James Mattis, which explicitly names Russia and China as the principal adversaries of the US.

https://www.politico.eu/article/us-fore ... sia-china/

It was rumored that Tillerson, Mattis, and Steve Mnuchin (Sec. Treasury) had entered a "suicide pact" whereby if one of them was fired, the others would quit. Let's see if the good jernail and the Goldman-Sachs alumnus fall on their swords now :mrgreen:
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by A_Gupta »

Full text of Rex Tillerson's statement in response to his firing: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ng/555506/
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Singha »

neontaster
@neontaster
·
13h
2016: Hiring Tillerson proves Putin is in charge
2018: Firing Tillerson proves Putin is in charge
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by A_Gupta »

^^^ Well, the rumor is that Trump was seriously considering Mitt Romney for Secy of State in 2016, till Putin objected. And there is a similar timing coincidence in 2018.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by A_Gupta »

Politicians' press release: Call for US-Russia strategic dialog:
https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/pre ... ith-russia
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

Rexy is gone to protect Kushner
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by A_Gupta »

Lalmohan wrote:Rexy is gone to protect Kushner
Story here:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3 ... ed-Kushner
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Mort Walker »

I don’t think Daily Kos is a reliable news source with verifiable claims.

The difference with TRex was on going. DT wants sycophants who can be removed on a whim like “Celebrity Apprentice”, but in this case Cabinet Apprentice. TRex and Sessions have been a thorn in his side.

It was suggested earlier on this forum that Nikki Haley would get SoS after TRex, but it appears she’s exiled in NYC. Pompeo is a pro war hawk along the lines of the neocons. His tenure in the House was 6 years and he’s ambivalent about India, but most likely leans towards the EJ view.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

i dont think that nikinder has made it into Donnie's circle of trust yet

and she has said that rumours of sleeping with him on air force one were "revolting"
Donnie aint gonna like that... especially when in the primaries she also called him rude names

kushi-bhai appears to have orchestrated a blockade on Qatar and almost started a war just because they wouldn't give him a loan to bail out his tower block in manhattan... and undercut the SD's positions entirely on mid east policy management

now some folks may like that sort of thing, but many won't...
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Mort Walker »

It appears John Bolton will replace McMaster as NSA.
Pompeo as SoS. Both neocons who will seek conflict with Iran.

Niether of these players are good for India-US strategic relations.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by devesh »

Tillerson getting fired is a solid sign of the old Cold-War complex re-taking its hold on US foreign policy. Pompeo is a compromise candidate of sorts. Not completely in the Clinton-Albright-Brzezinski school of thought, but sufficiently "mainstream" and subservient to Trump to please the Great Orange and also keep the old hands happy. Tillerson was a wild card who made significant inroads in "purging" the old hands at SD. That purge might have eventually made itself felt in the wider "establishment" (think tanks, university/college foreign policy chairs, funding priorities for foreign policy studies/surveys, etc.).
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by A_Gupta »

Mort Walker wrote:I don’t think Daily Kos is a reliable news source with verifiable claims.

The difference with TRex was on going. DT wants sycophants who can be removed on a whim like “Celebrity Apprentice”, but in this case Cabinet Apprentice. TRex and Sessions have been a thorn in his side.

It was suggested earlier on this forum that Nikki Haley would get SoS after TRex, but it appears she’s exiled in NYC. Pompeo is a pro war hawk along the lines of the neocons. His tenure in the House was 6 years and he’s ambivalent about India, but most likely leans towards the EJ view.
The daily kos link was simply a summary of this article:


https://forward.com/opinion/396570/trum ... d-kushner/
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

Bolton was touted in the early days, but he really is a bit of a loony
and McMaster hasn't been fired yet, apparently not the right episode of 'apprentice cabinet'... yet
pompeo's main selling point is that he is a trump loyalist, and some say that he may yet come under some scrutiny from Mueller
he was very vocal in the early days, but then he calmed down again...
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by A_Gupta »

Understanding USA needs understanding Fox “News”.
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/ ... 0311490561
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Singha »

yesterday was the anniversary of the my lai massacre
https://twitter.com/PressTV/status/974623216755990528

1-2 million vietnamese died so that US could 'safeguard freedom and democracy'
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by UlanBatori »

North Korea had 10.6 million population, post WW2, pre-KW1. I think maybe 6-8M post KW1. But fact remains that NoKo did a massive invasion of SoKo, though the claim is that SoKo **announced** their successful invasion of Haejo, NoKo before the north came sweeping down to Seoul.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by UlanBatori »

Looks like I had my eye on the wrong incoming mijjile: forget Korea, the nuclear war is in DupleeCity. For once it seems worthwhile to quote CNN direct because they are now beginning to sound like 1970s pomposity, morphed from 2017 shrillness. Visions of Poolitcher prize no doubt.
(CNN)Watergate had the Saturday Night Massacre. Now, this generation's White House scandal has its own iconic moment — the Saturday Morning Meltdown.
The firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in the pitch dark of a Washington night :roll: {ever been to DupleeCity? They waste electricity like it's free, since they all go around wearing dark glasses even at midnight} unleashed a sudden chain of barely believable consequences and revelations in a frenzied few hours on Saturday.
The capital reverberated {actually the reverberation was from the far*s by CNN talking heads reverberating inside Anderson Cooper's thick skull} with claims by McCabe that President Donald Trump orchestrated his ouster to cover up his own obstruction of justice. Trump himself presented the episode as purging the stench of corruption at the tip of the Washington establishment, consistent with his mission to "drain the swamp." "There was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State," Trump tweeted, consciously escalating his war with what supporters see as a "deep state" dedicated to his destruction.

{This is the amazing departure by CNN: They ACTUALLY stated Trump's position pretty accurately and succinctly. Someone is going to be fired at CNN for this article!}
McCabe's firing by Attorney General Jeff Sessions also blew the lid off a boiling feud between retired or fired intelligence agency giants :roll: like ex-CIA chief John Brennan and fired FBI Director James Comey and the President of the United States. Their fury unfolded in an astounding blast of threats and insults made possible by the cathartic properties of Twitter -- a medium unavailable to the protagonists of previous Washington melodramas.
Beginning to sound like Woodward&Berstein and Cronkite, rather than Barbara Walters and Anderson Cooper. BTW, I think firing McCabe was well within POTUS' power, but firing him 2 days before he could retire, and taking away his pension after 22 years of service, most of which was non-political combat against drugs & organized non-DC crime, seems pretty vindictive.
Singha
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Joined: 13 Aug 2004 19:42
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Singha »

I have given and lost track of who the fsctions are and who is targeting who or why

Seems like meelee combat
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