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Politics and Statesmenship: A Forum Special Report


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8 minutes ago, smjjames said:

Context? No idea what that's supposed to be of or who those are.

The last photo of President Salvador Allende alive at the La Moneda presidential palace, Sept. 11, 1973.

Ah man, came across a gem of a quote from Bolton in searching on this, on why he avoided going to Vietnam

“by the time I was about to graduate in 1970, it was clear to me that opponents of the Vietnam War had made it certain we could not prevail, and that I had no great interest in going there to have Teddy Kennedy give it back to the people I might die to take it away from.”

 

 

 

Edited by Malcador

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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16 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Lots of other resources other than oil.  Does certainly follow a trend though, although I'd say the US' constant interference in Latin America over several decades is at play here more than oil. 

We really need to invade somebody that's loaded with rare earth elements.

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1 minute ago, 213374U said:

I'm sure that's bound to happen any day now.

Meanwhile, in the real world...

Yeah, but that's a downward trend imo. Regardless of Federal inactivity, States are enacting laws to be "carbon neutral" by the year 20something. California, New York and more to follow.

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1 minute ago, Gfted1 said:

We really need to invade somebody that's loaded with rare earth elements.

Not quite sure the US can take Brazil, but they have a bunch, it seems.

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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1 minute ago, Gfted1 said:

Mmmmm, Copacabana beach...good times good times.

Hot women in Brazil and I imagine great ****tails and awesome sunsets ( I have never been but I have always wanted to )

"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

John Milton 

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -  George Bernard Shaw

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela

 

 

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6 minutes ago, smjjames said:

All Brazil would need to do is to flee into the jungles and fight from there. ;)

(Vietnam reference btw)

Probably trying to fight in the crowded cities with the gangs they have would be worse.

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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29 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

Yeah, but that's a downward trend imo. Regardless of Federal inactivity, States are enacting laws to be "carbon neutral" by the year 20something. California, New York and more to follow.

That's mostly buying credits, offsets and lies of statistic.

Sadly oil will stay vital for a long time to come. 

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30 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

States are enacting laws to be "carbon neutral" by the year 20something. California, New York and more to follow.

Are those laws perchance like the EU's own "carbon neutral" plans that simply assign a value of zero to emissions from burning biomass, or is the plan to build a few hundred thousand more nuclear reactors?

Because I refuse to believe that it's just a legislative pantomime that will accomplish nothing. Well, I never!

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- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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1 hour ago, pmp10 said:

That's mostly buying credits, offsets and lies of statistic.

Sadly oil will stay vital for a long time to come. 

Well yeah, oil is never going to completely go away since there are still plenty of applications that need oil and oil powered vehicles aren't going to disappear overnight.

Also, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is starting his campaign in two weeks. We're already at or past the limit for people in the two debates, so, the DNC is going to have some tough choices to make. IMO it should be expanded to a third day, but even two days in a row would be stretching it. We're going to have to figure out some fair (or fairer) way to do things if huge fields like this become the norm.

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9 minutes ago, smjjames said:

Would be nice to see the tweet she’s replying to though. 

Possibly this: 

Though it's anyone's guess, really. I like to keep my daily brain damage low so I didn't dig too deep.

- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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6 minutes ago, smjjames said:

Could just be bad word+picture pairing. There’s also been incredibly few injuries or deaths for ‘mowing down people in the streets’.

If these "troopers" are actually mowing down people in the street it's no wonder this coup is going as badly as it seems to. They look like they learned fighting from Steven Segal action movies.

The one on the right there is probably shooting down a chopper.

 

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No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering.

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5 hours ago, Malcador said:

Pompeo now saying that Russia told Maduro to stay.  Can't say I find the source all that credible, heh. 

'Leader is about to flee!!!' is used every time there's a revolution. Sometimes it actually does happen like with Yanukovich but apart from Gadaffi and Libya they said the same thing about Assad and Saddam with neither actually fleeing. With Assad iirc they made the slightly ridiculous claim that his family had fled to the UK as well which would be near the last place they'd go.

4 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

We really need to invade somebody that's loaded with rare earth elements.

US has plenty of rare earths, it was just cheaper to get China to mine theirs. Which was, retrospectively, immensely stupid given how important they are in all sorts of technologies and how it's allowed China to have artificial export shortages whenever anyone threatens to compete with them.

2 hours ago, Sarex said:

CNN loves a good intervention, even when it comes from Trump.

Edited by Zoraptor
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https://nationalpost.com/news/world/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-has-a-solution-for-venezuela-send-in-5000-of-his-mercenaries

Over the last several months, the sources said, Prince has sought investment and political support for such an operation from influential Trump supporters and wealthy Venezuelan exiles. In private meetings in the United States and Europe, Prince sketched out a plan to field up to 5,000 soldiers-for-hire on behalf of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, according to two sources with direct knowledge of Prince’s pitch.

Probably true.

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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7 hours ago, Malcador said:

This offer is true but it was rejected by the legitimate government of Guaido

Nowadays, despite having some real strategic military  value,  " ,mercenary armies " are seen as overreaching and considered unacceptable  forms of regime change 

Edited by BruceVC

"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

John Milton 

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -  George Bernard Shaw

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela

 

 

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1 minute ago, BruceVC said:

This offer is true but it was rejected by the legitimate government of Guido

Nowadays, despite having some real strategic military  value,  " ,mercenary armies " are seen as overreaching and considered unacceptable  forms of regime change 

There’s really not much difference in regime change at gunpoint whether you use mercs or not. The main problem with using mercenary armies is that they’re only loyal as long as you pay them and even then, the loyalty can’t be stretched as far as true loyalty would be.

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8 hours ago, smjjames said:

There’s really not much difference in regime change at gunpoint whether you use mercs or not. The main problem with using mercenary armies is that they’re only loyal as long as you pay them and even then, the loyalty can’t be stretched as far as true loyalty would be.

True but remember companies like Blackwater sign contracts and they bound by that . If they are seen as breaking that outside for example a  certain time period, lets say 2 years, they will suffer reputational   damage and there credibility will be destroyed 

So there is a sense of contractual commitment to complete the work or no one would hire them in the future.

Edited by BruceVC

"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

John Milton 

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -  George Bernard Shaw

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela

 

 

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