General Politics Discussion [ARCHIVED] • Page 349

I don't know where to put this so I'll just put it here. There's this Indonesian Street Fair this Saturday in New York and according to my friend who was in the committee meetings there was a lengthy conversation about pork being sold and it didn't actually go how you'd expect. Christians were fine with not selling pork to not offend the Muslims, and Muslims were fine with the Christians selling pork as it represents the full diversity of Indonesia.

 

Not Canadian but since nobody has responded, I spent the past year doing my Masters there and gained a fairly solid understanding of political climate. Amongst my peers on the left, he's certainly a a marked improvement over Harper, but is pretty unimpressive when it comes to, as you say, knowing how to govern. Harper wasn't batshit crazy on Trump's level, but was more like Bush. Took Canada out of the Kyoto Protocol (although that is fraught with controversy and was wholly ineffective), villainized academics researching anything out of favor with the conservative state, sunk way too much money into oil which has led to their current recession, cut healthcare expenditures, etc. The Liberal Party, Trudeau's, is probably a bit left of the Democrats based, but make no mistake, it's also veering towards the right as the party of neoliberal politics as well.

 

Say he wins and actually decides to basically reenact "Operation WB," (our country and history is gross) and has some force going around trying to find out who is or isn't a real citizen and begins harassing citizens and people around the country ... what is the response from reasonable people?

Do I go to jail if I hide people in my home?

Like I'm trying to play this scenario out in my head and there is no part of me that sees how this isn't flat out horrific.

(Also the idea that Mexico will pay for a wall remains the dumbest quote of the year, and I can't believe this is a real candidate. My god.)

 

Wish I could go to a school with nu-metal fonts being actively used on official school documents.

 

Here in Connecticut a delivery woman was murdered and her co-worker was injured, to which he called 911. The police dispatcher however only became frustrated during the frantic call.

Police Investigate 911 Call Made When Delivery Woman Killed

 

Holy shit, it's 2016 and this exists. I shouldn't be surprised but damn man...

 

Why Did the Saudi Regime and Other Gulf Tyrannies Donate Millions to the Clinton Foundation?

 

Because they are some of the biggest donors in the world to NGOs.

Global Humanitarian Assistance Report in 2016.

The largest percentage increase in international humanitarian assistance in recent years comes from governments in the Middle East and North of Sahara region [3]. Their contributions reached almost US$2.4 billion in 2015 – an almost 500% increase since 2011. This accounted for around 11% of the overall amount provided by government donors in 2015, compared with just 3% in 2011. Most of this region’s international funding came from four Gulf states: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.

With an overlap in interests:

In many recent natural disasters, the country’s contributions far exceeded those of any traditional donors. In 2007, in response to Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh, which killed more than 3,000 people and left millions homeless, Saudi Arabia gave Bangladesh $158 million for humanitarian purposes, compared to $20 million from the United States and less from the United Kingdom (Smith 2010). Following the Haiti earthquake in 2010, the Saudi Kingdom made $50 million available to the Emergency Response Fund, a pooled funding mechanism set up by the United Nations. Saudi pledges for the ongoing response to the floods that ravaged huge swathes of Pakistan in 2010 amount to $220 million - surpassing the pledges of all European donors taken together ($209 million) (Saudi Ministry of Interior 2010 and Smith 2010). In 2008, Saudi Arabia provided $500 million in cash to the World Food Program, the largest contribution in the Program’s history.

 

"Silent majority"

The most avid Trump supporter on my fb feed is a busboy at friendlys. He's also 30.

 

This is addressed in the article (which is far more scathing than the singular question you're trying to answer here), and one point that's referenced:
Arab nations’ donations to Clinton Foundation: Curing world’s ills or currying favor?

"Four oil-rich Arab nations, all with histories of philanthropy to United Nations and Middle Eastern causes, have donated vastly more money to the Clinton Foundation than they have to most other large private charities involved in the kinds of global work championed by the Clinton family."
Acknowledging:

"...wealthy Arab nations have given billions of dollars to United Nations and World Health Organization programs to aid victims of poverty, wars and calamities from earthquakes to deadly epidemics. According to the United Nations’ Financial Tracking Service, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have donated more than $5 billion to humanitarian causes, including tens of millions of dollars to Middle East chapters of the Red Crescent Society, since 2001."

There's a difference between big donations for disaster relief and regular donations to Foundations. Its really not a stretch to think foreign nations are donating to gain access to the Clintons in some form in this situation. Once the knee jerk defenses of the Foundation have died down and this election has been officially won I think even democrats will have to admit the poor ethics of her role in all of this.

 

Nope. If it comes out that she did something she wouldn't have done otherwise because of a donation, then I'll reevaluate. That is what matters. Otherwise, no, I do not think one of the best foundations on the planet is poor ethics. I literally think it's the opposite. I will change my mind if something arises that shows differently, but until then I choose to not be cynical about charities that make the world a better place.

(Also, many other foundations don't give out the names of the donors, but given the amount that is given to the Gates Foundation (which is over $30 million and absent from your linked article), it does not surprise me that Saudi Arabia contributes to the Clinton Foundation as well as the Carter Foundation (Carter Center).)

Fact-checking donations to the Clinton Foundation

Working backward from the numbers we have in hand, it seems fairly certain that Saudi Arabia gave about $10 million in the early 2000s, well before Clinton became secretary. That number would grow in 2014, but it didn’t double. That would be a 100 percent increase, and the foundation said the 2014 amount was a small fraction of the total.

So we are left with the Saudis giving less than $25 million.

Now we can ask, did Clinton get that money for the foundation, as Trump said?

Josh Schwerin, spokesman for the Clinton campaign told us, "Hillary Clinton did not solicit these funds."

As a legal matter, Clinton was not a member of the foundation’s board until 2013, after she left the administration. She was a board member in 2014 when the Saudis gave again, but that amount would be much less than $10 million.

There were no Saudi donations while she was secretary.

(They gave more to Bill and Melinda Gates' foundation than they ever gave to Clinton's, maybe for some free Windows 98 discs?)

 

Fox News: Mike Patton > Anthony Kiedis

 

Gosh, that is satisfying.

Biggest decision of your generation, though? Didn't you guys just leave the EU? Is electing a progressive to the progressive alternative non-ruling party bigger than that?

They just really hate AIDS, sue 'em.

 

I'd start being cynical about charities if I were you. I've worked for a couple, and a lot of them are rackets. I mean, the most admired charity in America is Wounded Warrior-- and I'd say WW is pretty par for the course when it comes to shittiness.

 

it's honestly hard to be like "i joking about how i totally get the joke i'm making!" while simultaneously not really getting the joke you're making but this guy does it

 

Rated way, way, way worse than the CF. This information is public.

 

This Lawsuit-Financing Startup Uses Algorithms to Find Cases That Could Earn Big Bucks

 

"Hero"

 

http://gizmodo.com/hackers-could-make-a-killing-after-finding-vulnerabilit-1785761993

After finding serious security vulnerabilities in St. Jude Medical’s pacemakers and defibrillators, cybersecurity and research company MedSec decided to take that information to a short-seller (Carson Block of the investment firm Muddy Waters) which then bet against the company in the stock market. This was instead of disclosing the vulnerability, in theory something that could endanger lives, to the manufacturer St. Jude.