Led by Trump, most the GOP candidates are rushing to blame their problems on a minority. As they have in the past.
Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.
Category: government
B.S. = “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”
Most “good guys with a gun” are a danger to themselves, their friends and family. And YOU. 😦
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
That said, I respect the rights of those who own guns where legal. And hope they store and handle them safely.
I agree with Trump … on one thing
With his random, jumbled blurting … it was going to happen sooner or later.
… “We’ve spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that, frankly, if they were there and if we could have spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges, and all of the other problems — our airports and all the other problems we have — we would have been a lot better off, I can tell you that right now.
We have done a tremendous disservice not only to the Middle East — we’ve done a tremendous disservice to humanity. The people that have been killed, the people that have been wiped away — and for what? It’s not like we had victory. It’s a mess. The Middle East is totally destabilized, a total and complete mess. I wish we had the 4 trillion dollars or 5 trillion dollars. I wish it were spent right here in the United States …
Still. This idiot has to quit the race soon. He’s bad for America. Bad for the world.
expats working in the Gulf
Palm trees, Vegas-style clubs, tax-free salaries, perfectly manicured promenades. Something about Dubai, the most famous of the seven kingdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates, makes living in the desert seem exotic and luxurious. …
About 80% of Dubai’s 2 million or so residents are foreigners …
Even though salaries are comparable with their European and North American counterparts, you won’t pay income taxes, which means you’ll be earning about 40% more. …
The expats I know in Riyadh and Doha are happy with conditions, overall. Our Gymnasium caretaker in Riyadh is now home in India for a 2 month holiday, for example. He has no plans to leave Saudi.
Here’s the other side of the story. 😦 The horror stories are mostly low paid construction workers.
Qatar’s failure to enact meaningful reforms for its kafala (sponsorship) system leaves hundreds of thousands of low-paid migrant workers at serious risk of forced labor and other abuses. Reforms announced on October 27, 2015, still require low-paid migrant workers to get their employer’s permission to change jobs or to leave the country, a system that that prevents workers from leaving abusive employers.
The new sponsorship law, law no. 21 of 2015, refers to “recruiters” instead of “sponsors” but it leaves the fundamentally exploitative characteristics of the kafala system in place. …
related:
Trump is a psychopath
I’m quite sure the majority of psychologists would agree.
Dr. Robert Hare, professor emeritus at UBC and the FBI’s top consulting psychologist on psychopaths, devised the Psychopathy Checklist, used by psychologists around the world …
1. Glibness, superficial charm
2. Grandiose sense of self-worth
3. Need for stimulation, proneness to boredom
4. Pathological lying
5. Conning, manipulative
6. Lack of remorse or guilt
7. Shallow affect
8. Callous, lack of empathy
9. Parasitic lifestyle
10. Poor behavioral control
11. Promiscuous sexual behavior
12. Early behavior problems
13. Lack of realistic long-term goals
14. Impulsivity
15. Irresponsibility
16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
17. Many short-term marital relationships
18. Juvenile delinquency
19. Revocation of conditional release
20. Criminal versatility
That said, I’m guessing the majority of politicians would score high on that test. Especially right wing politicians.
Bernie Sanders would score low, however. Justin Trudeau would score low.
… Experts believe between one and two per cent of the general adult male population are psychopaths …
“Psychopaths are every bit as rational as any human being, if not more so, because they don’t have the noise of human emotion,’’ says Dr. Stephen Porter, Professor of Forensic Psychology at the University of British Columbia. …
Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us is the book to read. You definitely know psychopaths. Stay away. They are con artists. Egomaniacs.
related – The Trump Effect: Falling for Successful Psychopaths
Carson, Trump, Cruz lie the most
Statements since 2007 by presidential candidates (and some current and former officeholders) ranked from most dishonest over all to least dishonest, as fact-checked by PolitiFact. “Pants on Fire” refers to the most egregious falsehoods. …
If Mr. Trump and his fans saw video of thousands of people cheering in New Jersey, why has no one brought it forward yet? Because it doesn’t exist. …
Inside Assad’s Syria | FRONTLINE
Like most people who have visited Syria, I loved the place. The people are extremely welcoming to visitors.
I’ve been following the terrible, terrible disaster. With sadness.
I thought I knew something about the civil war. The best information I’ve seen is a new 55min documentary by PBS correspondent Martin Smith.
On-the-ground reporting and firsthand accounts from Syrians caught in the crisis.
Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.
Insanely, it highlights a new tourist resort in Homs only 10 miles from rebel fighting. 😦
After watching it, I blame the U.N. Security Council much more. Russia is propping up al-Assad.
Bashar Hafez al-Assad is the President of Syria, commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces, General Secretary of the ruling Ba’ath Party and Regional Secretary of the party’s branch in Syria. In 2000 he succeeded Hafez al-Assad, his father, who had led Syria for 30 years until his death. …
In 1994, after his elder brother Bassel was killed in a car crash, Bashar was recalled (from Medical School in England) to Syria to take over Bassel’s role as heir apparent. He entered the military academy, taking charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1998. In December 2000, Assad married Asma Assad …
Once seen by the domestic and international community as a potential reformer, Assad disappointed those expectations definitively when he ordered mass crackdowns and military sieges on Arab Spring protesters, leading to the Syrian Civil War. …
… the United States, Canada, the European Union and the majority of the Arab League have called for al-Assad’s resignation from the presidency. …
… an inquiry by the United Nations human rights chief found evidence to implicate Assad in war crimes and crimes against humanity. …
Hafez al-Assad has to go. He’s not as bad as we’ve heard, but he’s bad. When al-Assad does flee, more innocents will die in the resulting fight for power. I can’t see any road map to peace in the near future. Many Syrians are willing to die in that struggle. 😦
Asma al-Assad was born to Syrian-born parents, raised and educated in the United Kingdom, and graduated from King’s College London in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and French literature. …
She was described by analysts and in media as an important part of the public relations effort of the Syrian government early in her tenure as first lady and she was credited with taking progressive positions on women’s rights and education. …
Laura once had lunch with the first lady. She and the war criminal have 3 children: Hafez, Zein, and Karim. 😦
deaths from extremist attacks USA since 9/11
I don’t see how authorities could have stopped most of these extremist attacks. 😦
… both tolls are tiny compared with the tally of conventional murders, more than 200,000 over the same period. But the disproportionate focus they draw in the news media and their effect on public fear demand the attention of any administration. …
Bill Gates – Cheap, Clean Energy
I’m in Paris today with several world leaders for a big announcement on energy and climate change. It is deeply moving to be in this city just two weeks after the horrific attacks here, and I am inspired by the way the French people have persevered in such a difficult time.
Two related initiatives are being announced at today’s event. One is Mission Innovation, a commitment by more than ten countries to invest more in research on clean energy. The other is theBreakthrough Energy Coalition, a global group of private investors who will support companies that are taking innovative clean-energy ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace. Our primary goal with the Coalition is as much to accelerate progress on clean energy as it is to make a profit.
Here’s the thinking behind these two efforts. …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
former ISIS hostage says “Strikes on Isis Are a Trap”
I strongly believe the best strategy to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks in Canada is for western nations to withdraw from the Middle East.
Nicolas Henin would not agree with me, I think.
Nicolas Henin is a French Journalist who was held hostage by Isis for 10 months. One of his jailers was Mohammed Emwazi, known as “Jihadi John”.
Listen to what Nicolas has to say about Isis, our treatment of refugees and most importantly: what it’ll take to defeat them. …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rick McCharles 