The Trump Presidency :::

Just on the Christopher Steele 'bit', he was allegedly 'head of the Russian desk at MI6', IOW head of the Russian dept. at our foreign intelligence service.

 

No, it is not about Hillary and it has nothing to do with the unwillingness to accept that she lost. As soon as you can get over the fact that people are over the fact she lost - we can move on and have an intelligent discussion.

No one believes Russia sent in people to vote for Trump. No one believes Russia hacked the voting machines. That is not what "influencing" an election means. Do you actually think the United States sent people to vote in Nicaragua in 1990?

I am unable to believe you. As stated earlier, if roles were reversed, I believe you'd be here shouting, "Lock her up, Lock her up, Lock her up, Lock her up, Lock her up," This is purely based on your responses and comments on this thread. I think you are "party before country" type of person.

Wait - so it is OK for outside influences to hack into the election process in the US because of shitty security? Don't look now, but Trump's administration and Trump himself is making accusations of leaks. That's the United States government for you - not the GOP, not the DNC, not the RNC. But you don't care - it's their fault. Shitty security system and all, right?

 

Yeah, my wording was bad.

There's no evidence of collusion in the public domain.

 

They didn't have to... they could rely on the GOP for that bit...



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/us/politics/waiting-times-to-vote-at-polls-draw-scrutiny.html

As a comparison, this is an article from the grauniad about the EU referendum voting where the turnout was high, (roughly 72% overall)...

Queues like I've never seen out the polling station in hackney pic.twitter.com/oDUBM7wBVj

— Tom Clark (@prospect_clark) June 23, 2016

Well... quite!

Here's another...



Which the daily hate-mail described as...

Record numbers: Voters queue to enter a polling station in Reading at 7am as 46.5m have the chance to vote today - the highest number in history.​

Oh, the horror

 

I don't know if there is a NATO thread and frankly, I am over-loaded with threads so i will post this here. Apologies in advance.

How does Germany contribute to NATO?
http://www.dw.com/en/how-does-germany-contribute-to-nato/a-38033967



Support: More than money

"But Berlin has offered more than monetary resources to the alliance. "Germany is contributing some 4,700 personnel for ongoing operations for whom the security architecture of NATO, the EU, the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) form the frame," according to NATO headquarters.

In February, 450 Bundeswehr soldiers and 30 tanks arrived in Lithuania as part of NATO's "enhanced forward presence" in the Baltic region.

Last year, Germany provided the main support ship for NATO's deployment to the Aegean Sea to "conduct reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance of illegal crossings" in Greek and Turkish territorial waters at the height of the migration crisis.

Berlin has approximately 980 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan for NATO's Resolute Support mission, which aims to "train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces and institutions" after the end of the decade-long International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission.

Germany also represents the second-largest contributor to NATO's Kosovo force (KFOR) with 550 troops deployed to maintain a "safe and secure environment in Kosovo."​

 

In short Trump voters.
I think this is the point of Brummies post.

 

After the Town hall type meeting in Kentucky with Bernie Sanders. I was feeling sorry for the FOOLS who were duped by their con man.

Then they had that "Campaign Rally" there yesterday. One question that didn't come up was "Who will head the death squad?"

 

Jim Himes to Comey:

“There is intense public interest in the fact that our new president will attack anyone and everyone,” Himes said. “He will attackthe cast of ‘Hamilton.’ He will attack Chuck Schumer. He will attack our allies, Mexicoand Germany. He will attack the intelligence community, which you lead, associating you with McCarthyism and Nazism.

“But there’s one person and one country which is immune, which is inoculated from any form of presidential attack,” Himes continued. “No matter what the behavior, no matter if there’s a violation of the INF nuclear treaty, no matter if Vladimir Putin kills political opponents ― the new president defends, obfuscates, does not attack.”

I'm liking Himes more and more.

 

There's some useful info here...

http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing-nato-members.asp

You have to click on the various countries to see to see their comparisons in terms of personnel, tanks, planes, ships, subs, etc. It's easier if you have them in different tabs so you can click back and forth between them.

It's actually quite interesting, reading it because it shows some of the lunacy of the American military industrial complex.

For instance, the US has 2 land borders, one with Canada and the other with Mexico. I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest neither are planning to invade any time soon so, in a sense, America is effectively an island... at least in terms of likely aggressors by land.

But that doesn't stop them having almost 9,000 tanks

Germany, in comparison, has got 408 tanks We're about the same although, to be fair, we are DEFINITELY an Island, so...

 

He's playing the part of "Dem with a Spine" that so many passed on...

 

You have to say, what part of 'first past the post' is it these people don't understand?

 

Germany has taken in 1 million refugees within a year. In the case of the US that would be 4 million. In the case of the UK 800k. You think it doesnt cost a thing to clean up the mess you guys created in the ME? Laughable

 

Sorry about that - thanks for cleaning up our mess.

 

Don't apologize to him. The entire reason NATO exists is to clean up Germany's last mess.

 

Not following ... What does Klinsmann have to do with any of this?

 

That's the really strange thing for those of us who are, shall we say, 'of a certain age', (i.e. old farts)... to see an American president acting more or less as a Russian stooge.

I know it's always said that 'it took Nixon to go to China' but, when he got there, he didn't actually go around extolling the virtues of the communist system.

 

Klansman, Nazis. Same diff.

 

What? Huge difference: Say what you will about their ideology, the Nazis were at least motivated.

 

No need for many of us to start anywhere but here.

Those of us old enough that we grew up in such a country...

 

"It really is a great wall!"