Politics

kbd512 · 2022-05-29 20:47:48

SpaceNut,

I don't care about Colonel Black's political preferences, because they have no bearing on his wartime activities. I care about the fact that after lamenting how cruel our government has been to civilians in other countries, he flat-out stated that if he was a tank commander in Viet Nam, that he would drive his tank over unarmed civilians without a second thought given to the matter.

Colonel Black also stated that President Obama's administration flat-out ordered American servicemen in Syria to do the same things, or worse, to civilians in Syria, and they willingly complied. Therefore, it doesn't matter the politics of our President, because the base "state of existence" for those in top positions within our government is doing evil things to utterly helpless people, in the face of our overwhelming military power.

Now... Do you understand what I mean when I say that these people do not give a crap about you or I?

When, if ever, will that point finally "sink-in"?

SpaceNut · 2022-05-30 08:18:12

both acts are war crimes on civilians and he has admitted to doing them via orders. so where are the war time courts with this?
The Ukraines have already done so with a Russian solder that had done such crimes against its people....

kbd512 · 2022-05-30 09:50:56

SpaceNut,

Good question. Who would we like to prosecute? Colonel Black for carrying out his orders? President Obama or Bush for giving the orders?

SpaceNut · 2022-05-30 11:00:11

the prosecutor is the nation that has had the crime committed against its people...

should we hold our nations orders accountable yes, but they will hide from charges.

Calliban · 2022-06-02 02:54:51

New York governor wants to ban body armour. WTF? Does this guy actually want people to get killed?
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new … body-armor

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-06-02 06:12:35

Interpol Warns Of Flood Of Illicit Arms After Ukraine War
https://www.barrons.com/news/interpol-w … 1654098008

Gunman Who Shot Ronald Reagan Will Be a Free Man
https://freebeacon.com/courts/the-craze … -free-man/

Pelosi Says House to Consider Assault Weapons Ban Soon
....her husband is also currently involved in a DUI, still goes crazy on the whiskey and booze, you would think the family would learn after he killed his own brother.
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/gun-ri … d/1072542/

Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy Pelosi, arrested on suspicion of DUI after crashing Porsche in Bay Area, police say
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/ … 206800.php

After Banning Nancy Pelosi From Holy Communion, San Francisco Archbishop Gets Bad News From the corrupted pedophile ridden Vatican
https://republicbrief.com/after-banning … -bad-news/

“The proposal to exclude pro-choice Catholic political leaders from the Eucharist is the wrong step,” the new cardinal said in Jesuit magazine America. “It will bring tremendously destructive consequences—not because of what it says about abortion, but because of what it says about the Eucharist.”
He said that “[t]he Eucharist is being weaponized and deployed as a tool in political warfare. This must not happen.”
But Archbishop Cordileone disagrees, as he explained his decision in a letter to Speaker Pelosi

and now California wants to go full Wakanda with its taxes? California releases report calling for 'comprehensive reparations' to compensate African Americans for the 'racial terror' they've endured by offering free college, payouts and a higher minimum wage for predominantly black industries https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl … eport.html

Identity Politics on Steroids?

I'm not sure of US History but I thought California did not support the Confederates, it gave the Union cash, it did not involve itself much in the Civil War, the Civil war was mostly fought along the Eastern Coat and Gulf States, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, District of Columbia etc if I remember correct. A War between the Union and Confederacy, California supported the Union/Washington with money so why are they pushing propaganda about tax payers with no family links to the war, newly arrived honest immigrants who have no connection to the Civil War, now expected to start giving more payments?

Elon Musk Says Twitter ‘Has A Strong Left Wing Bias’
https://dailycaller.com/2022/05/09/elon … ias-tweet/

the Prepper Farmer thing and people going Off-Grid
https://slate.com/transcripts/OTRvYlR0b … NxRXkzUT0=
The Cost of Going Off-Grid

S1: When you think of someone going off grid, living in a house that’s entirely self-sufficient with no connection to the utility companies, most of us count on to power all our stuff. You may be picture of some sort of doomsday prepper and a Unabomber spread out there in the wilderness. But Ivan Pan says that’s not the reality.
S2: Sure, there are those who are, you know, living in the tiny homes, rustic cabins. But what really surprised me was there are people in just really modern middle class homes and in some cases very large estates, some with hot tubs, swimming pools. And they were operating entirely without any connection to the electric grid.

Ricky Gervais explains why he laughs about ‘terrifying bad things’ including ‘evergreen’ topics like ‘famine, AIDS, cancer, Hitler’
https://metro.co.uk/2022/05/18/ricky-ge … ertainment

Surviving a Day of Doom at a Florida Prepper Convention
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states … convention

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-06-02 12:55:40)

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-06-03 07:34:25

Will the next school shooters have rocket launchers?

more on the Benghazi style arms trade in East Europe.

US Weapons to Ukraine: Entering the Black Market?
https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-weapon … et/5780918

Germany Weighs Possible Consequences of Heavy Weaponry Supplies to Ukraine
In this sense, American investigative journalist Daniel Lazare believes that such a deviation will certainly happen, also emphasizing the issue of Ukrainian corruption, which is recognized as one of the biggest in Europe:
“Vast amounts of western armaments are entering the country but are then being lost in the fog of war (…) Much of the aid will presumably find its way to battlefield forces. But since Kiev is far and away the most corrupt government in Europe, it’s a sad bet that some portion will end up in the hands of third parties involved in the illicit international arms trade. Once the fighting stops we can expect much of what’s left over to find its way to the black market”.
The corruption factor is really important to be analyzed. Ukraine is home to one of the largest black arms markets on the European continent. In short, trafficking networks operate freely in the country, without any state interest in capturing and prosecuting such criminals, which is certainly a consequence of the widespread corruption of Ukrainian public agents. Police officers, politicians, judges and other agents who should uphold the law not only fail to fight arms trafficking, but they also certainly benefit financially from the operation of organized crime due to their corrupt schemes.

Terrorist groups could be getting hands on NATO weapons as Ukraine black market thrives
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/16 … market-spt

Experts warn arms for Ukraine could end up in wrong hands
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/experts-warn- … 53726.html

Ukraine in particular has a history as a hub of the arms trade during the 1990s, setting off alarm bells for those who study illicit flows.

Javelin missiles Ukraine now being sold on the dark web to terrorist organizations for $30,000.
https://theatlasnews.co/2022/06/02/amer … rketplace/

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-06-05 08:16:33

Limiting sexual partners can help to avoid monkey pox infection. People should reduce their number of sexual partners to help fight the spread of monkeypox, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged.

https://www.news24.com/citypress/news/l … n-20220605

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-06-06 18:38:09

Taiwan Restricts Russia, Belarus to CPUs Under 25 MHz Frequency

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/taiwa … -to-russia

They can play video games from the 1980s?

SpaceNut · 2022-06-06 19:57:43

That is good enough to go to the moon and back for processor power.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-06-08 08:04:53

Iran turns off 2 of UN nuclear watchdog's cameras
https://apnews.com/article/united-natio … ad7dc210bf
Iran turned off two surveillance cameras of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog that monitored one of its atomic sites, state television reported

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-06-11 11:00:32

This could go in one of those Climate Change threads but there have been so many discussion which eventually go off topic
Almost all of Portugal in severe drought after hot, dry May
https://apnews.com/article/climate-scie … aeb2da6ce5

Also US Wildfires expected, more flood, more drought

Heatwave in India, Pakistan

Russia-Ukraine war latest: fierce fighting in Sievierodonetsk; Britons captured fighting with Ukraine sentenced to death
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ … pdate-text

'British mercenaries in Ukraine face death penalty'
https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/272 … th-penalty

Who are Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, the Britons sentenced to death in Russian-occupied Ukraine?
https://news.yahoo.com/aiden-aslin-shau … 53733.html

Two British soldiers captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine have been sentenced to death by pro-Moscow rebels, provoking condemnation from ministers and the Ukrainian government.
Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, were convicted of taking action towards “violent seizure of power” at a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
Both men were captured in Mariupol in April after their unit surrendered after holding off Vladimir Putin’s forces for 48 days.
A third man, Moroccan national Saaudun Brahim, was also convicted of the same offence. All were accused of being “mercenaries” by the DPR – who provided no evidence for the claim.

'Boris Johnson has ordered ministers to do “everything in their power” to secure their release.
A No 10 spokesman said: “The Prime Minister was appalled at the sentencing of these men.
“He has been following the case closely and has asked ministers to do everything in their power to try and reunite them with their families as soon as we can.
“We completely condemn the sham sentencing of these men to death. There’s no justification at all for this breach of the protection they’re entitled to.”
Meanwhile, Ms Truss said she had discussed “efforts to secure the release of prisoners of war held by Russian proxies” during her call with Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“The judgment against them is an egregious breach of the Geneva Convention,” she added.

What has Russia said?
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov defended the convictions as being “guided by the laws of the Donetsk People’s Republic”, the breakaway state controlled by pro-Moscow separatists.
“Because these crimes were committed on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic, all the rest is speculation,” he told a press conference.
'

Seems like Turkmen-Ottomano-nauts might not become a thing?

Finland denies Turkish demands to extradite alleged terrorists.
https://yle.fi/news/3-12488881

Erdogan Renews Warning to Greece, Claims US Bases Target Turkey
https://greekreporter.com/2022/06/09/er … et-turkey/

Turkey, Venezuela vow enhanced bilateral ties as Maduro visits
https://english.news.cn/europe/20220609 … 433/c.html

Turkey says allowing Sweden and Finland to join Nato carries ‘security risks’
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/turkey-says-a … 58682.html

Turkey's Erdogan warns Greece to demilitarize Aegean islands
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wi … s-85280080

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-06-11 11:10:48)

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-06-12 10:11:14

Ortega authorizes Russian army to enter Nicaraguan territory

https://ticotimes.net/2022/06/11/ortega … -territory

Nicaragua opens the door for Russian troops to land in Central America
https://en.mercopress.com/2022/06/10/ni … al-america

112 cases of monkeypox in Canada, all of them among men
https://torontosun.com/news/national/11 … ng-men-tam

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-06-12 15:18:07)

Calliban · 2022-06-15 21:50:24

It looks like Biden and the Dems could be facing wipeout come the midterms.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/reces … gins-panic

If the November elections go badly, he will be under pressure from his comrades to step down. But woukd Kamala even want the job?

Last edited by Calliban (2022-06-15 21:51:22)

Calliban · 2022-06-19 22:59:44

Record numbers of US expats are renouncing citizenship.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/1-4 … itizenship

The US has weird tax laws. I had heard about that from Americans that I have worked with. A lot of people are giving up citizenship to get away from these oppressive laws.

kbd512 · 2022-06-20 07:28:06

Calliban,

Every country has weird tax laws, it's just that the people who grew up with the laws have never been exposed to anything else, so that's all they know. As far as people renouncing their citizenship over taxation, all I can say is that laws don't make much sense unless you know who is actually benefiting from them. Most of the time, it's not the people being taxed.

RobertDyck · 2022-06-20 14:12:47

I worked in Miami Florida from the beginning of June 1999 through the middle of March 2000. I had paid for my apartment to the end of March, so stayed and relaxed on South Beach. I used the internet and telephone to find a job back home in Canada. My original contract was for 12 months, my employer terminated me after 9½ months. The real reason is I was hired for a year 2000 fix for computer software to collect one particular tax; that job was done. The manager who's budget paid my salary, the manager of that tax, loved my work and wanted to keep me on. He wanted a chart that showed collection effort for those in arrears; the director of the IT department claimed no one knows how to do that, so I just did it. I wrote a stored query in the database on the mid-range computer, and wrote an application on a PC in Microsoft Access that used linked tables to access the enterprise database, then Access used graph software from Excel to produced a colour stacked area graph showing number of dollars 0-30 days in arrears, 30-60, 60-90, 90-over for the last 10 years. One page graph, easy to read and exactly what the manager wanted. It clearly showed his collection efforts. He said he hoped is collection efforts were more effective, but the graph clearly showed it did have effect and exactly how effective they were. Exactly what he needed to do his job. And I wrote this so a clerk could simply use a mouse to click a button and print the chart off again, updated to the time it's printed. He put liens on the houses of individuals who didn't pay their taxes. This did not take their house away, but they couldn't sell it or transfer ownership by a will after death until the lien was settled. A lien could only be applied a certain number of months in arrears, and less than another number. I wrote another stored query in the enterprise database to retrieve those accounts, the same Microsoft Access application triggered that query with a linked table, then uses Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) to use Microsoft Word to print a form letter. Name, address, etc, were filled into the form letter using fields, the letter was reformatted to the words flowed smoothly over the page, and the documents were printed out in a neat stack ready to be taken to the lien office. So just use a mouse to click one button to prepare the documents. This made the clerk's job very easy. The manager and clerks loved my work.

But one co-worker overheard me when I called the bank to transfer funds from my American account to my Canadian account. It had to be on the phone, and when I was in front of a computer so I could see account details. This was before smartphones. That co-worker got jealous, created trouble. I found out other contractors got paid 10% more than me; I'm not saying I was underpaid, but am saying I wasn't overpaid. Anyway, US department of Immigration and Naturalization Services made my work visa expire the same day as my contract, so end of May 2000. At the end of that I was required by law to return to Canada. I could not renew the work visa within the US, to renew I had to return to Canada and apply for a renewal at a port of entry, either land border or airport. US immigration had a small office in the Winnipeg airport. That was in case they didn't want to renew, they wouldn't let me back into the US.

The point is taxes in the US. I was solely responsible for the computer system for one tax. It was a county tax for Miami-Dade County. Miami uses well water as the source for city water. As land is covered with something impermeable, such as streets or parking lot or houses, rain water cannot soak into the ground. That limits water replenishing the aquifer. So they created a tax for impermeable land. It's supposed to be based on land area that isn't permeable, but the department found calculating area that a house covers to be too much work, so they simply charged a flat fee for all houses. Of course this defeats the purpose of the tax, but that's how it goes. It wasn't my job it critique their tax system, just to keep the computers running. But you mentioned weird tax laws; here's one.

The US requires citizens who are not residents of the US to pay income tax to the US. So a US citizen who has lived and worked in Canada for years is required to pay income tax to both Canada and the US. There is a Canada-US income tax treaty. If an American works in Canada, they pay full income tax to Canada, then deducts what they paid to Canada from income taxes owing to the US. And a Canadian living in the US pays full income tax to the IRS, but then deducts that from income taxes owning to the Canada Revenue Agency. That's what the treaty says, but in practice there's a complicated formula on the tax forms that result in you paying a little more. You always pay more. If a Canadian lives/works in the US for less than 6 months, then he pays income tax to only Canada. If an American lives/works in Canada for less than 6 months, they pay only the IRS. I worked in Miami for 9½ months, so had to pay both. Florida does not have state income tax, but the Canadian province of Manitoba does. So effectively I paid full provincial income tax, even though I lived in Miami Florida.

Canadian rules are different. Canada doesn't allow you to renounce citizenship. If you were born in Canada, you're a Canadian citizen for life, period. US citizenship requires you to renounce citizenship in any other country, but Canadian laws ignore that. If someone born in Canada and becomes a full US citizen, Canada just ignores the claim by US Immigration that the individual is no longer Canadian. So the individual holds dual citizenship. If a Canadian moves to the US, becomes a permanent resident (not even a full citizen), then he must cut all ties to Canada to be free of Canadian tax law. That meant I would have to sell my house in Canada, close all Canadian bank accounts, cancel any corporation registration, close all business I have or any ties I have with Canada what-so-ever. That's according to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Calliban · 2022-06-20 16:12:36

About ten years back, I considered making a long term move to Canada. My old boss from BAE Systems had left the company and had moved to Halifax to take the job of programme manager for construction of a new class of arctic patrol ship. He wanted me to come over and head up the ship safety case team. Probably would have been a small team of a dozen or so technical authors for a 12-month contract with extensions. Likely, a semi-permanent position moving on to other projects.

I never got very far with the process, because my wife refused to consider leaving the UK. Our children were settled in school in England, we both had parents in UK and she didn't feel that moving overseas was the right decision. I understand why she felt that way and it was probably the right decision. So I had to turn my old boss down, much to my regret. When I looked at what I could afford out there, I would have taken the job had it been my choice alone and never looked back. Within driving distance of Halifax, there were lakefront properties with a hundred acres of woodland and paddocks. No way could I afford that in the UK.

I sometimes wonder how things may have turned out if we had made the decision to cross the pond. I have relatives already in Canada. But they live in Winnipeg, which is along way from Halifax. A friend of my wife had lived out in Newfoundland until her 20s, but returned to the UK after that. She said that the place was beautiful, but anything resembling civilisation was a long drive away. Getting groceries was a challenge. She said the cold was hard to get used to. There was a short summer during which every insect in the world came to life and wanted a piece of you. I could have gotten used to the cold, the distances and the bugs. But I don't think my wife would have tolerated it. Women need comforts that men are more happy to do without. My ambition is to build a self sufficient homestead. She seems to like that idea as well, provided it is in easy reach of everything that civilisation has to offer. Which rather defeats the point in my opinion. But we have to keep our ladies happy. That is what life is all about in the final calculation.

Last edited by Calliban (2022-06-20 16:19:49)

RobertDyck · 2022-06-20 17:20:47

Winnipeg is a big city. Not a metropolis like New York or London, but 750,000 people in the city proper, 835,000 for the greater metropolitan area. Southern Manitoba has a bunch of small towns, but there are places you could build a farm just an hour drive from Winnipeg.

SpaceNut · 2022-06-20 17:24:32

Here is a view of how small NH is
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state … -hampshire

10 Largest Cities in New Hampshire
Manchester (113,216)
Nashua (90,807)
Concord (44,215)
Dover (33,598)
Rochester (32,057)
Keene (22,972)
Portsmouth (22,191)
Derry (21,817)
Laconia (16,578)
Lebanon (13,852)

crime rates follow city size....

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-06-24 13:14:00

Car-Centric Los Angeles Could Ban New Gas Stations | If this happens, L.A. would become the largest city in the U.S. to enact such a ban.

https://gizmodo.com/car-centric-los-ang … 1849099190

All the European countries returning to ‘dirty’ coal as Russia threatens to turn off the gas tap

https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/06/ … ff-the-gas

tahanson43206 · 2022-06-24 13:28:56

For Mars_B4_Moon ... thanks for this update #2071, with "news" Europe might be returning to coal.

The news is not surprising, but it ** does ** provide a business opportunity for kbd512 and his concepts around making fuel from CO2 and hydrogen from water.

While kbd512 never did seem (to me at least) interested in the idea of recycling power plant waste, ** THIS ** is a good time for ** someone ** to execute a business plan when Europe is willing to pay extra for (a) Not using Russian gas and (b) NOT polluting the atmosphere even more than it was already doing.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2022-06-24 13:50:32

Nuclear waste is still regulated and not free for the taking. I do thing that changing coal into propane, methane and other is still plenty energy costly unless we do use solar, wind, ocean tidal power and nuclear to produce the goods.

kbd512 · 2022-06-24 21:03:39

tahanson43206,

The issue with recycling fossil fuel power plant effluent is the need to burn even more fuel. In the same way that scaling-up works against electronic everything, increasing fuel costs works against thermal power plants. There are no free lunches to be had here. The net effect will be to make electricity production more expensive. My idea is for a largely self-contained fuel synthesis plant that makes fuel using mostly thermal power and functionally limitless resources, in order to keep costs modestly sane.

tahanson43206 · 2022-06-25 06:47:50

For kbd512 re #2074

As often happens, we are talking past each other, and about different things....

Everything you've said about making hydrocarbon fuels using sunlight looks right to me, and deserves support.

I believe that what I said about capturing CO2 (and other pollutants) from burning coal using the mechanism you described is also correct, and it too deserves support.

The two are NOT in conflict. Both are valid, and both deserve support.

The issue at hand is the burning of coal.

That is definitely a step backward for the human population of Earth, if the coal burning output is not captured and converted to methane.

The fact is, the ideas you have proposed are NOT going to be implemented, because the only place they are published is this little Internet forum.

It will take a massive investment by groups of people on the order of entire nations to build the kind of facility you have described.

The only way ** that ** will happen is if inspired leadership comes on the scene, ** and ** if inspired followership develops to carry the idea all the way to reality.

Both of these require willingness to take massive risk.

However, willingness to take risks is not enough.

A project on the scale of one of your solar powered methane factories requires Apollo scale project management skills, and a comparable work force of competent people, willing to work for years with a very low tolerance for error.

(th)

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#2051 2022-05-29 20:47:48

Re: Politics

#2052 2022-05-30 08:18:12

Re: Politics

#2053 2022-05-30 09:50:56

Re: Politics

#2054 2022-05-30 11:00:11

Re: Politics

#2055 2022-06-02 02:54:51

Re: Politics

#2056 2022-06-02 06:12:35

Re: Politics

#2057 2022-06-03 07:34:25

Re: Politics

#2058 2022-06-05 08:16:33

Re: Politics

#2059 2022-06-06 18:38:09

Re: Politics

#2060 2022-06-06 19:57:43

Re: Politics

#2061 2022-06-08 08:04:53

Re: Politics

#2062 2022-06-11 11:00:32

Re: Politics

#2063 2022-06-12 10:11:14

Re: Politics

#2064 2022-06-15 21:50:24

Re: Politics

#2065 2022-06-19 22:59:44

Re: Politics

#2066 2022-06-20 07:28:06

Re: Politics

#2067 2022-06-20 14:12:47

Re: Politics

#2068 2022-06-20 16:12:36

Re: Politics

#2069 2022-06-20 17:20:47

Re: Politics

#2070 2022-06-20 17:24:32

Re: Politics

#2071 2022-06-24 13:14:00

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#2072 2022-06-24 13:28:56

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Re: Politics

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