Understanding the US - Again

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srin
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by srin »

Gus wrote:h1bs who stayed here for close to two decades, but not having GC done, and possibly being forced to leave, and so what to do about US born citizen kid

is the same as asylum seekers being separated from smaller kid (toddlers and infants included) and being detained and no certainty of what happens.

Yep. same situation. many people are saying this, i've heard..did you know this? Country needs a strong leader. beautiful. we gotta do this. MS13. Fake news. Sad!
It's called DALCA - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri ... 591678.cms
By some accounts, there are nearly 200,000 Indian-American children who were brought to the US legally by their parents on H-1B or other work visas. Their prevailing sentiment, says Vikram Aditya Kumar, one of Wednesday's rally organisers, is "I wish I were an illegally arrived child instead of a legal one."
Gus
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Gus »

"I wish I were an illegally arrived child instead of a legal one"

I get the point...but crapping on kids being detained and making it into a 'what about us' just comes across as crass.

these dalca ones have options of F1 when they enroll into kaalij and their own H1 when they get a job. the h1b - gc backlog is ridiculous and a form of slavery, but as ridiculous as their situation is - it is not the same as kids being detained and separated from family and being lost track of and unsure of reunion.

indian americans should try for bipartisan solution, than try to get a ride on trump. there's no telling where he'll throw you off.
Falijee
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Falijee »

Ex-Nato chief denied entry to US for visiting Iran
TEHRAN – The United States has denied entry to the former secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and former Spanish foreign minister, Javier Solana, for his trip to Iran, a country put by President Donald Trump on his blacklist.
Solana, who was scheduled to give a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, was refused US visa by an electronic authorization system because of visiting the rival state, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported. According to the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP), citizens of 38 countries can travel to the United States for tourism, business, or while in transit for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa.
However, if citizens of the VWP countries travel to one of the seven countries covered by new eligibility requirements (Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen), they will have to apply for a new Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) permission before travelling to the US.The seven countries are included in the blacklist of US President Donald Trump for the alleged financing of international terrorism.
El Pais quoted sources at the US embassy in Madrid as saying that ESTA automatically rejects the requests of people who have visited any of the seven countries affected by Trump’s travel ban order.In conversation with the newspaper, Solana denied the incident and confirmed that he is in the process of obtaining a visa
Pakistan should be on that list !
n a highly-anticipated address, Trump said he would not renew the 120-day waiver on US sanctions on Iran as required by the 2015 deal, thereby allowing all US sanctions to snap back.
shyam
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by shyam »



Q - The Plan To Save The World
Non Youtube site:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/knsKuXaYwN9I/

https://qanon.pub/
Lalmohan
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

Singha wrote:much of these gun owners are range tigers only and show offs.

Image
that little hand sign right there is the white power symbol... it crops up again and again in pictures of all kinds of people... even the great orange one does it frequently at rallies

most other countries in the world with high gun ownership manage to somehow engender a sense of responsibility with ownership, somehow in the US it seems to not be so...
ricky_v
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by ricky_v »

Ha ha, seriously? I thought it was a localized group thingy, with their peoples "illakka" mentality like they are all wont to do ,with flags proclaiming where "free love"is accepted and symbols where the discussion on international cabals are held, they might as well piss over their territories ...the great orange one himself you say, hmmn the other group should adopt the three finger salute of a teen movie, mockingbird, after all they are also fighting for revolucion and the age group seems appropriate for their level of maturity(all yanks included). A perfect world for the yanks where two opposing parties gather at a spot with placards and matching attire and signal their allegiance with their own 3 finger salute; they can express their feelings with gentle shoves and much shouting, only resolving the matter when the overlords wind their keys.
Gus
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Gus »

there are a couple of known signs with the three finger.. but both involves two hands.

a 2 and a 3 - is for 23 = W

or a W and a P on the other hand = WP.

not sure what this one handed sign is for..could be a local thing.
Lalmohan
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

the one handed 3 finger is also WP
ramana
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by ramana »

Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
Note: The following text is a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling and punctuation reflects the original.
________________________________________
In Congress, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
vera_k
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by vera_k »

Behind paywall. Search for it on Google and click through.
The progressives who don't have Trump
Even Bernie Sanders has said not-unkind things about the president
g.sarkar
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by g.sarkar »

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/busi ... pe=Article
Trump’s Trade War Against China Is Officially Underway
By Ana Swanson July 5, 2018
WASHINGTON — A trade war between the world’s two largest economies officially began on Friday morning as the Trump administration followed through with its threat to impose tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese products, a significant escalation of a fight that could hurt companies and consumers in both the United States and China. The penalties, which went into effect at 12:01 a.m., will undoubtedly prompt quick retaliation by Beijing. Chinese officials immediately said they would be forced to retaliate, but their statement did not provide specifics. Previously, the Chinese government has said it will tax an equal amount of American exports, including pork, soybeans and automobiles.
The escalation of the trade war from threat to reality is expected to ripple through global supply chains, raise costs for businesses and consumers and roil global stock markets, which have been volatile in anticipation of a prolonged trade fight between the United States and almost everyone else.
On Thursday, President Trump showed no signs of backing down from his fight, saying aboard Air Force One that the first wave of tariffs on $34 billion in goods would quickly be followed by levies on another $16 billion of Chinese products. And Mr. Trump continued to threaten Beijing with escalating tariffs on as much as $450 billion worth of Chinese goods.
For now, it is unclear how — or whether — the trade war might conclude. Mr. Trump’s threats have been met with vows from China to retaliate, a stalemate that will require one side to blink first in order to avoid a protracted fight. With no official talks scheduled between the two countries, and disagreements within the Trump administration about how best to proceed, a quick resolution seems increasingly unlikely.
“At the moment, I don’t see how this ends,” said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “This is very much in the president’s hands because he’s got advisers that seem divided, some substantively, some tactically. I just don’t think we’ve had any clear signs of the resolution he wants.”The Trump administration is waging trade wars on multiple fronts as it imposes tariffs on foreign steel, aluminum, solar panels and washing machines from countries like Canada, Mexico, the European Union and Japan. Yet the tariffs on China, the world’s largest manufacturing hub, affect a much larger share of products and a greater percentage of companies that rely on global supply chains, potentially hurting American companies even more than the Chinese firms the Trump administration is targeting.
.....
Gautam
Lalmohan
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

i reckon trumpie is basically trying to increase market volatility so that all his buddies in the banks can make big transaction fees handling the increased risk management trading...

mean-e-while, anyone got a good deal on a Harley?
Gus
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Gus »

HD is not fully sourcing from local Indian suppliers. It is still attracting high duty, especially on the high range models.

I think they should just bite it and move fully into India. There's a growing market for hi end cruise bikes.

the british enfield did that and now survives only in India!
Gus
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Gus »

scott pruitt is gone?

he was a weird one..even more than others. who buys used mattresses from hotels :-?
g.sarkar
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by g.sarkar »

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/opin ... n=Trending
Opinion
Pruitt’s Resignation Is Just the Beginning
There has never been a cabinet official who has survived as many scandals as Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency — until his resignation Thursday. Mr. Pruitt faced up to 19 separate investigations into his conduct reflecting a stunning degree of disregard for federal ethics, special-interest and procurement rules. The sheer volume of investigations would be comic but for the harm Mr. Pruitt wrought. Although the mess he leaves behind will linger, Mr. Pruitt’s departure offers good news for the nation — but ominous portents for President Trump.
The full extent of Mr. Pruitt’s ethics lapses were incredible even to those normally supportive of the president — the $43,000 soundproof room, the multimillion-dollar security details. He used special hiring authority to bring on ex-lobbyists and give raises to key aides; worst of all, he reportedly retaliated against agency employees who raised concerns about his spending or management. Mr. Pruitt’s near-complete disregard for taxpayers’ trust made for a great deal of work not only for the many government investigators probing his behavior, but also for journalists and government watchdogs. Our group alone filed 20 legal matters, including litigation focusing on Mr. Pruitt’s and the E.P.A.’s failure to produce documents about his actions — or even to create them. There are too many reported instances in which agency employees were instructed not to document meetings or often avoided the creation of certain documents — a brazen dodge of the laws requiring both preservation and production of such materials so the people know what our government is doing, and why.
Mr. Pruitt’s departure may be reason for celebration, but the mess that he created is substantial. He has turned the agency into an ethics and regulatory Superfund site that will take years to clean up. Thanks largely to him, the ethics system at the E.P.A. is broken and in need of repair. Why did no one with authority in the agency step in to stop him, or support whistle-blowers who tried to speak the truth? The involvement of political appointees in this process, and the apparent fear of retaliation instilled in officials across the agency, suggest to us that the current system is unable to ensure that federal ethics standards are upheld. Nor are all the investigations into Mr. Pruitt likely to vanish just because he has resigned; if his use of public office for private gain has caught the eye of federal prosecutors, there may be more coming.
And all that is before one gets to the alleged violations of law represented by the environmental policies Mr. Pruitt pushed through, also mired in the courts. That litigation is ongoing, and may be for years. The trust of the E.P.A.’s 14,000 dedicated, ethical federal career workers will also need to be repaired. Regaining the confidence of these employees, and that of the public in them, will be a tall order.
The man at the E.P.A. charged with doing that hardly offers cause for comfort. Mr. Pruitt’s near-term replacement, Andrew Wheeler, has his own set of potential conflicts. Mr. Wheeler was one of 30 federal employees who allegedly violated Mr. Trump’s executive order barring former lobbyists from working in positions requiring them to manage issues they lobbied in the preceding two years. He previously worked as an energy industry lobbyist, first for Murray Energy, itself frequently a source of alleged campaign finance violations and improper influence, in 2009.
Mr. Wheeler’s most recent clients before entering the administration included Energy Fuels Resources Inc., Xcel Energy and Bear Head LNG Corporation — all of which have interests before the E.P.A. According to his executive branch financial disclosure form, Mr. Wheeler also worked as a strategic adviser for Growth Energy, General Mills, Archer Daniels Midland and International Paper. Even if he proves to be a more ethical administrator, his ties to industries with a stake in the E.P.A.’s decisions run just as deep as Mr. Pruitt’s did — and so do his conflicts of interest.
......
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/us/p ... v=top-news
Trump Starts a Trade War, but the Path to Success Remains Unclear
By Ana Swanson and Neil Irwin, July 6, 2018
WASHINGTON — The United States and China hit each other with punishing tariffs on Friday as the two nations tipped into a long-feared trade war that is only expected to escalate.
President Trump has said that trade wars are “easy to win.” Now, as he opens a global skirmish with allies and adversaries alike, the question is whether he has a plan to achieve the results he wants or whether he is heading into a costly and futile clash without resolution.
The president appears to be betting that threatening trading partners like China, the European Union, Mexico and Canada with tariffs will eventually force them to bend to the United States.
His strategy is being buoyed by a strong economy that is giving Mr. Trump more latitude to impose tariffs that might otherwise pose too much risk. Job growth was strong in June, according to a new government report, as employers added 213,000 net new jobs and the unemployment rate rose as more people entered the labor market and began looking for work. Manufacturing job growth was particularly robust.
Those numbers are backward-looking, but there is little reason to think that the initial batch of tariffs will knock the entire economy off course. The $34 billion worth of Chinese goods subject to tariffs, and an equivalent retaliation by China, is tiny compared to the $20 trillion United States economy. Global stock markets largely shrugged off the trade war on Friday.
But the tariffs are still inflicting pain on some industries in particular, including farmers and small manufacturers who have long supported Mr. Trump. And with little sign of a negotiated resolution between the United States and China — or any other trading partner — the conflict threatens to escalate, eventually affecting hundreds of billions of dollars of additional products.
“Trump’s soundest argument in his election campaign was that he would not waste American lives and treasure in pointless wars of choice,” Adam Posen, the president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote in March in an op-ed article. “His launching a trade war would prove, however, to be his economic Afghanistan — costly, open-ended, and fruitless.”
On Friday, the Trump administration took its most aggressive step yet as it imposed tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods, including medical devices and airplane parts, and threatened billions of dollars more in the coming months. The Chinese immediately responded with tariffs on an equal volume of American soybeans, pork, automobiles and other products. Mexico, Canada and the European Union have similarly retaliated against Mr. Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs and have threatened to push back if the president moves ahead with his threat to place a 20 percent tariff on imported cars and car parts.
.....
Gautam
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by A_Gupta »

Trump is tariffing capital and intermediate goods, thus hurting America's downstream producers; while China, Canada are tariffing final goods, thus not disrupting their own production supply chains.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/07/opin ... e-war.html
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Mort Walker »

A_Gupta wrote:Trump is tariffing capital and intermediate goods, thus hurting America's downstream producers; while China, Canada are tariffing final goods, thus not disrupting their own production supply chains.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/07/opin ... e-war.html
This is partly true. China is a developing country relative to the US. If they put tariffs on intermediate goods, it would invariably harm them. Any tariffs the US places on finished goods would harm the large corporates in the US and their share holders are major political donors. Tariffs on other finished goods such as toys, clothing, and consumer electronics would raise prices for the American public who would scream. There is no easy way for the US to get off of the addiction of cheap Chinese consumer goods. Personally, I was hoping for a 100% duty on iPhones from China, but that didn’t happen.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Gus »

not honoring contracts, threatening law suits and "I'll take the ball and go home" blustering may have worked in NY real estate.

not sure if that's how you can shakedown china.

in an election year, trump has more to lose politically than a "leader for life" xi.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by sudeepj »

Gus wrote:not honoring contracts, threatening law suits and "I'll take the ball and go home" blustering may have worked in NY real estate.

not sure if that's how you can shakedown china.
Its much harder to find new markets for your products than to find new suppliers for your market. China has the weaker hand and it knows it.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

on one hand china has the weaker hand, on the other hand it owns an awful lot of US govt. debt
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Gus »

chinese may have weaker hand, but we all know who has tiny hands :P
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

update on trump's uk visit plans next week:
1. bbc airing documentary on trump as a *exual predator with a line up of former models spilling beans
2. mass protests in London planned, including "bare your rump for trump"
3. trump plans to avoid visiting any public places with crowds - mostly private dinners and lunches
4. Scottish folks upset that trump has banned ironbru from his Scottish golf clubs

meanwhile Assange looks like he's about to be ejacuated from the Ecuadorian embassy and Russian embassy twitter-spilling beans on number of meetings Boris J has had with mysterious Russians in t-shoppe

not to mention the stray novichok capsules everywhere...
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by A_Gupta »

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-des ... with-putin
Israeli, Saudi, and Emirati Officials Privately Pushed for Trump to Strike a “Grand Bargain” with Putin
Officials from the three countries have repeatedly encouraged their American counterparts to consider ending the Ukraine-related sanctions in return for Putin’s help in removing Iranian forces from Syria.
Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi = M.B.Z.
During the Obama Administration, M.B.Z. sought to establish closer ties between the U.A.E. and Putin, in the hope of encouraging Moscow to scale back its partnership with Iran, particularly in Syria.
As an inducement for Putin to partner with Gulf states rather than Iran, the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia started making billions of dollars in investments in Russia and convening high-level meetings in Moscow, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, and the Seychelles.
If Hillary Clinton had won the election, the idea of accepting Russian aggression in Ukraine would have been a nonstarter, current and former U.S. officials told me. But Trump promised a different approach.
Like M.B.Z., Netanyahu made courting Putin a priority, particularly after Russia’s military intervention in Syria in 2015. The Israeli leader wanted to insure that Israeli forces could continue to access Syrian airspace, which the Russians partially controlled, to prevent the deployment of advanced weapons systems by Iran and its proxies that could threaten the Jewish state.
After Trump took office, the idea was raised again, by Adel al-Jubeir, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, and Abdullah bin Zayed, the foreign minister of the U.A.E., during a private March, 2017, dinner that included several other guests. “Their message was ‘Why don’t we lift the Ukrainian sanctions on Russia in exchange for getting the Russians to push Iran out of Syria,’ ” an attendee recalled the foreign ministers saying.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by ramana »

So we know who has the cards in this game.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by A_Gupta »

Among other things, the U.S. is asking China to roll back its “Made-in-China 2025” program, a signature Xi initiative to dominate several strategic industries, such as semiconductors to aerospace development.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -no-return
"Trump’s Tariff Barrage Pushes China Fight to Point of No Return"
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

china has offered to be the peace broker in the mid-east as well...

at the current rate the US will cede control over the mid east to Russia -am just wondering what interest they have in removing iran from the mix? surely iran gives the Russians more leverage against Saudi and uae?
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Gus »

Why are people assuming Trump knows what is right solution to a problem? and knows what to do, to get the solution?

all these "oh he is doing this seemingly crazy thing, is because he knows that will work, and only he can make it work, and I know it will work" etc ..just seems a willful suspension of common sense and 'doubling down'/'throwing more good money after bad'...etc.

bail out people..no need to get caught up with american culture wars and signing up for their tribe memberships.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by g.sarkar »

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44767847
Can Nato survive US President Donald Trump?
Jonathan Marcus
Diplomatic correspondent
11 July 2018
This is a Nato summit like no other. The difference is in large part due to one man - Donald Trump. Under his watch, periodic tensions between the US and many of its allies have turned into fault-lines that could, if allowed to widen, place a question mark over the future of the alliance itself.
What is Nato for? From its inception, Nato was a defensive military alliance intended to deter any attack by the then Soviet Union.
Once the Cold War was over, Nato set about what it saw as its new tasks: an attempt to spread stability across Europe by welcoming in new members, by establishing a wide range of partnerships with other countries but also by using force on occasion - notably in the Balkans - to prevent aggression and genocide. But the alliance has always been more than just a military organisation.It is one of the central institutions of "the West", part of a whole range of international bodies through which the US and its allies sought to regulate the world that emerged from the defeat of Nazism in 1945. But fundamentally, Nato is an alliance of shared values and transatlantic unity. And this is why Mr Trump's arrival in the White House is proving so disruptive. Is the transatlantic bond unravelling? Superficially, at least, the growing tensions between the US president and many of his Nato allies is about money. Burden-sharing, as it is called, has long been a headline issue at Nato summits. Mr Trump is not the first president to stress this issue.
But in terms of both style and substance he represents something new. The debate focuses around the target agreed by all Nato members that defence spending should reach 2% of GDP (gross domestic product, the total value of goods produced and services provided) by 2024.
Spending is certainly up in many countries. Mr Trump can take some credit for that. But many allies may still struggle to reach the benchmark target.
For President Trump, Germany, one of the richest of Washington's partners, is the greatest offender. Earlier this month, in remarks directed at the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, he said: "I don't know how much protection we get from protecting you."
Noting that Germany negotiated gas deals with Russia, he added: "They pay billions of dollars to Russia and we're the schmucks paying for the whole thing." Questioning the value of Nato to the US itself is something new and deeply worrying to many of Washington's partners.
How serious is the Russian threat?
The strategic challenges facing Nato are changing. They are, at one and the same time, more complex but less easily defined. They range from a resurgent Russia to information- and cyber-war, from terrorism to mass migration. Even the Russian threat has changed. This is not the Soviet Union of old. The threat is less huge Russian tank armies surging westwards but a whole range of strategies from hacking to cyber-attacks to information operations, all intended to throw Western democracies off-balance.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/worl ... ummit.html
Trump Presses NATO on Military Spending, but Signs Its Criticism of Russia
By Julie Hirschfeld Davis, July 11, 2018
BRUSSELS — President Trump escalated his campaign of criticism against European allies on Wednesday, accusing Germany of being “captive to Russia” and demanding that all NATO members double their military spending targets.
On the first of two days of meetings with NATO leaders, Mr. Trump stopped short of any substantive breaks with the alliance, reaching agreement on a plan to improve military readiness and signing on to a joint statement that emphasized burden-sharing and harshly criticized Russia.
But coming just days before he is to meet President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Mr. Trump’s critical stance toward the allies focused additional attention on longstanding concerns by the United States about the willingness of Europe to shoulder its share of the financial burden for NATO. Mr. Trump again demanded that the allies all meet their commitment to raise their military budgets to 2 percent of their economic output by 2024, but then further stepped up the pressure by saying they should make it 4 percent.
More broadly, his performance, leavened at times by a more reassuring tone, left his fellow leaders struggling anew to judge whether he was posturing in an effort to win a better deal for the United States, moving to weaken institutions at the heart of the post-World War II order or both.
Mr. Trump was primed for confrontation before the gathering was even called to order in a large glass-and-steel NATO headquarters building that he has complained looks overly lavish. At a breakfast with Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general, Mr. Trump suggested that he had come to Brussels as a virtual pariah among allies, and was perfectly happy to be seen that way.
“I think the secretary general likes Trump,” he said, alluding to allies’ stepping up their military spending in response to his pressure tactics. “He may be the only one, but that’s O.K. with me.” Indeed, Mr. Trump spent the next several few hours practically ensuring it. He laid into Germany for not spending more on its military while becoming increasingly dependent on Russia for its energy needs. His criticism was based on Germany’s deal to import natural gas from Russia via a new pipeline. He dismissed as paltry — “a very small step,” the president said — the increases that NATO member countries have made in their military budgets in part because of his repeated lectures on the issue, eschewing a victory lap his advisers had encouraged him to take in favor of a sharp slap at allies.
“Frankly, many countries owe us a tremendous amount of money for many years back, where they’re delinquent, as far as I’m concerned, because the United States has had to pay for them,” Mr. Trump said, mischaracterizing how the commitments for NATO military spending work. “This has gone on for many presidents, but no other president brought it up like I bring it up.”
“Something has to be done,” he added.
His comments came at a time when Mr. Trump’s own ties to Russia are under scrutiny and as he is also waging a spreading trade war that has ensnared allies — including NATO members like Canada and Germany — as well as foes and competitors like China. His approach has fueled concern among his critics at home and abroad that he is intent on deconstructing the postwar order and replacing it with an “America First” breed of transactional diplomacy. At the same time, Mr. Trump’s aggressive pressure tactics have already yielded more military spending by NATO allies and a sharper focus on the issue of unbalanced burden-sharing within NATO that vexed Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush before him. Behind closed doors, Mr. Trump suggested that NATO allies increase their military budgets not to the 2 percent of their economies that they have pledged to work toward within the next six years, but to 4 percent — a steep increase that is inconceivable for many member countries. Later, he took to Twitter to demand that member countries get to 2 percent “IMMEDIATELY, not by 2025.” “What good is NATO if Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars for gas and energy?” the president wrote. “Why are there only 5 out of 29 countries that have met their commitment? The U.S. is paying for Europe’s protection, then loses billions on Trade.”
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Gautam
Lalmohan
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

pompeo has already walked back the comments made by trump about nato's role and usefulness
interestingly, the only country to ever invoke the nato article on common defence is.... wait for it... yes... it is infact... the USA! (after 9/11)

on spending, its a complicated issue since many of the underspenders provide assistance/support in other ways, but it is clear that particularly Germany needs to spend more on military muscle. that said, until now, no one wanted Germany to build a stronger military force! anyway, there is a declaration now that everyone will spend more (but this is probably more driven from a sense of fear of uncle vlad than a fear of el trumpito
Pratyush
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Pratyush »

Lalmohan wrote:on one hand china has the weaker hand, on the other hand it owns an awful lot of US govt. debt

I don't understand this point. As the value of debt is only when one is able to recover it.

How would the PRC recover the debt. If they choose to dump it. Who would pick it up for the PRC to collect fair value of the holdings.

So it is just a lot of junk that they're holding.
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by g.sarkar »

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-44815558
Trump: Brexit plan 'will probably kill' US trade deal
Donald Trump has said the UK will "probably not" get a trade deal with the US, if the prime minister's Brexit plan goes ahead. He told The Sun the PM's plan would "probably kill the deal" as it would mean the US "would be dealing with the European Union" instead of with the UK. Theresa May has been making the case for a US free trade deal with Mr Trump, on his first UK visit as president. She said Brexit was an "opportunity" to create growth in the UK and US. Mr Trump also said he hoped the former foreign secretary Boris Johnson would rejoin the government, saying he was a "great representative for the UK". He and his wife were given a red carpet reception at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire on Thursday evening.
They were at a black-tie dinner with Mrs May as news broke of his interview with the newspaper.
The president told The Sun newspaper that the UK's blueprint for its post-Brexit relations with the EU was "a much different deal than the people voted on".
On the subject of a future trade deal, he said the Chequers deal would mean it would be "most likely ... we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal". He said he had told Mrs May how to do a Brexit deal, but: "She didn't agree, she didn't listen to me." "I told her how to do it. That will be up to her to say. But I told her how to do it. She wanted to go a different route," he said.
The US president also said he was "cracking down" on the EU because "they have not treated the United States fairly on trading".
....
From the moment of his election, Donald Trump was an awkward friend for Theresa May. He runs towards a fight. She does everything in public to avoid one. Well, just before they were due to appear alongside each other on UK soil he publicly, and at length, gave a "both barrels" verdict on her most important policy.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/worl ... pe=article
Trump Visit Tests Britain’s ‘Special Relationship’ With U.S.
By Stephen Castle and Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, July 11, 2018
LONDON — For decades British leaders have relied on meetings with American presidents to show off their influence over a global superpower and illustrate the durability of the “special relationship” they prize so much.
But for Prime Minister Theresa May, who has endured months of political turbulence, including the recent resignation of Boris Johnson, her foreign secretary, President Trump’s impending trip to Britain looks like it could be an ordeal more than anything else. Even before his arrival, Mr. Trump stirred the pot, suggesting that he would like to catch up with his “friend” Mr. Johnson while in Britain, a country that the president described as “in somewhat turmoil.”
When asked whether Mrs. May should stay in her job, Mr. Trump adopted the pose of a disinterested observer, pronouncing this a question for “the people.” He then suggested that speaking with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, which he is scheduled to do next week, might be easier than conversing with Mrs. May, who will host a dinner and a lunch with the president during his stay.
Yet the prime minister has little choice but to swallow her pride and get on with it, as she herself likes to say, because she wants Mr. Trump’s help for a trade deal with the United States after Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, known as Brexit. And, anyway, compared with wrestling with her government, which this week suffered three ministerial resignations, spending a couple of awkward days with Mr. Trump might actually be a relief.
Beyond the psychodramas and the expected protests at every stop on Mr. Trump’s itinerary, the visit also raises more profound questions about the durability of the special ties between London and Washington at a time when Mr. Trump is attacking the basic institutions of the postwar international order and with Britain on the verge of leaving the European Union. No one argues that the relationship between Mr. Trump and Mrs. May is anything like that between such venerated predecessors as Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, or akin to the political romance of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. But is it a sign of bad personal chemistry or of something deeper, a widening divide that might never be sewn back up? Optimists in Britain say the deep economic, military, intelligence-sharing and cultural ties across the Atlantic are strong enough to survive the occasional Trump Twitter storm.
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Others are not so confident. Nigel Sheinwald, a former British ambassador to the United States, said that there was a clear contrast with his time in Washington and when he worked as a foreign policy adviser to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, with whom President George W. Bush would talk of “co-strategizing.” In fact, Mr. Sheinwald said, the trans-Atlantic relationship has been of declining importance to the United States for most of its 70-year life, though this was sometimes masked by the warmth of personal ties between individual presidents and prime ministers.
The difference now is that the “special relationship” is “part of the post-World War II political and economic system, and that order is under threat,” he said. “The combination of President Trump’s administration, his election, his policies and Brexit, all combined, represent quite a challenge for the U.S.-U.K relationship.”
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Gautam
JE Menon
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by JE Menon »

The US will only talk about this vaunted "special relationship" if the British plead with them to do so. That is the precise nature of the special relationship.
Lalmohan
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

trump's interview with the Sun is astonishing...
1. may is an idiot
2. boris is a great guy
3. khan is a terrorist

this all but guarantees a uk general election this year and several years of turmoil ahead
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

and in interview to media just now, trumpito denounces the Sun for publishing fake news!
earlier the sun reported that when Huckabee Red hen Sanders dropped by to sound the 10 min warning, trump shoo'ed her away and spent 28 mins on the interview. the sun reporter claimed it was like being with a medieval emperor!
now the sun is indeed known for fake news, its one of Murdoch's biggest peddlars of fake news... but even this level of circularity is unusual for the sun
Lalmohan
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

meanwhile sudden increase in cartoons circulating depicting khan as an inflatable pig... I know the Nazis are quick... but that quick??!?!
Philip
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Philip »

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 445291.htm
Stop appeasing Donald Trump, Angela Merkel’s former foreign minister warns
Theresa May is rolling out the red carpet for the US president in Britain (the height of ars*likan!)
Spitfires in new documentary clip
Europe must stop appeasing Donald Trump and stand up to him and his policies, Angela Merkel’s former foreign minister has warned – as Theresa May hosts the US president in Britain.

Sigmar Gabriel, who served in the top post until earlier this year, told German media that the US president “only knows strength” and accused him of wanting “regime change” in Berlin.

Mr Trump is currently on a seven-day tour of Europe, leaving political discord in his wake. On Friday he attacked Theresa May’s Brexit strategy, questioned whether he would do a trade deal with the UK, and backed the PM’s rival Boris Johnson as future prime minister – despite her efforts to form an alliance.

READ MORE
Trump says May’s Brexit plan would ‘kill’ chances of UK-US trade deal
“Every step to accommodate him, every attempt to please, only leads to him to take a further step. This needs to end,” Mr Gabriel, a former coalition partner of Ms Merkel, told Der Spiegel magazine.

“America under Trump cannot be relied upon. Trump is giving the North Korean dictator a survival guarantee and wants regime change in Germany at the same time.”


There was outrage in Germany last month after Mr Trump’s newly appointed ambassador to Ms Merkel’s government said he saw it as his job to “strengthen” right-wing movements across the continent.

MPs called for Richard Grenell to be expelled from the country for political activity, a major breach of diplomatic protocol. The German foreign ministry said it had asked the US to clarify its position.

America under Trump cannot be relied upon
Sigmar Gabriel, former German foreign minister

Mr Trump’s intervention against his aspirant ally Ms May on Friday is the latest in a string of attacks on European politicians. The US president has repeatedly accused Europe of trading with the US on unfair terms and has said EU member states need to spend more on defence.

German former foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel (Getty Images)
Mr Gabriel called for a “clear, firm, and above all, unified European responses to Trump”, adding: ”We can’t stand for this. We can no longer have any illusions. Donald Trump only knows strength. So we have to show him that we are strong too.”

His comments echo concerns of senior EU officials in Brussels who believe Mr Trump works under “a new American doctrine in which there are no friends and no enemies”.

Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, warned EU leaders to prepare for “worst-case scenarios” with the US president. This week, ahead of a Brussels Nato summit, he warned the US president to “appreciate your allies: after all you don’t have that many”.

Ms May has made significant and repeated diplomatic overtures to gain the friendship of the US president, inviting him for a state visit despite his unpopularity in Britain, and twice being pictured holding his hand in public.

She has also turned a blind eye to Mr Trump’s admission that he uses his fame to grope women, his stated policy of wanting to ban Muslims from entering the US, and other controversial policies such as separating migrant children from their mothers in detention.
PPS:
Excellent advice from the German FM which India must follow.The advisers to the PM should take note and resist Trump's attempt to blackmail India,but instead we're inviting him to be the cheap guest...sorry,thief guest ...sorry,chief guest at next year's R-Day parade!
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by chanakyaa »

Lalmohan wrote:...
this all but guarantees a uk general election this year and several years of turmoil ahead
Knowing this well, he appears in YooK for a state visit to plant the seeds of regime change. Very consistent behavior. In the meantime, I lost a bet with a friend on how many times word “special” was used in the news conf :D. At one point, it was “special” squared. Comments on Nordstream 2 pretty much summarized the middle yeast waar politics.
Lalmohan
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Lalmohan »

it is noteworthy how the same people crop up again and again mutually reinforcing each other... in this context nigel farrage

nexus of forces at work across the 'west':
1. right wing rich people
2. Nazis and other yahoos
3. conservative Christians
4. immigrant fearing poor whites

all looking for a white knight Christian herrow to lead them to victory against the brown muslim hordes... well just brown and black hordes in general

and uncle vlad is just taking advantage of all the multiplier effects!
Philip
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Re: Understanding the US- Again

Post by Philip »

Imagine what the world would be like if Vlad- the- Bad and
Donald-the-Befuddled , aka " the Beast",exhanged places!
The World Cup woild've ended in utter chaos with fighting on the field, fixed refs, and the spark setting off WW3!
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